Ready, Set, Fund: Crunch Time

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'The Sauce' Movie Still

Ready, Set, Fund is a column about crowdfunding and fundraising endeavors related to Austin and Texas independent film projects.

A number of local movie projects are nearing the end of their fundraising campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The countdown begins with The Sauce, a feature about a ruthless, egomaniacal stock trader who decides to start his own firm. The only thing stopping him (besides those pesky executives) may be himself. This indie comedy will be set and shot in Austin and has reached its goal, but generous backers can give additional funds through its Kickstarter campaign until May 29.

Other Austin and Texas movie-related projects seeking funds:

  • On June 1, the clock stops on the Kickstarter campaign for The Lizzie Project. This documentary, directed and produced by Austinite Sara Bordo, follows Texas State University alumna Lizzie Velasquez on her journey to help inspire a more positive online world. Lizzie, who is one of three people in the world diagnosed with an unnamed syndrome that prevents her from gaining weight, experienced cyber bullying as a teenager. She has since gone on to be a motivational speaker and author.
  • Two Austin Film Society alumnae (Beca Rodriguez and Lauren Ramon-Saldana) are working on the romantic drama Her Story, about a young couple's experiences with a terminal illness. Austinite Brian Folsom stars. As part of the project, the team will be providing a platform for those who are coping with similar struggles. These videos, called "Survivor Stories," will be uploaded to the movie's Kickstarter campaign page. Close to reaching its fundraising goal, the campaign for Her Story ends June 4.
  • Austin-based American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) is raising funds to complete 2,000 transfers of endangered exploitation and horror titles, and they also hope to create digital duplicates until full restorations can be made. A hefty task, but one that AGFA hopes can be achieved through its Indiegogo campaign. Funds raised will also allow the nonprofit to restore and create new prints of films in danger of being lost forever. Backers have until June 5 to help celebrate and keep the fun of movies alive. (Watch the project overview video below.)
  • Your Input Needed is touted as a wiki-documentary that focuses on personal stories of individuals at the heart of the Maker Movement -- people sharing ideas and working together to create new things. This open-source project will cover topics like personal manufacturing, rapid prototyping, 3D printing and crowdsourcing, among other ideas. The work created for this movie will be free to share and remix with a Creative Commons license. Viewers will be able to see every change as it happens and contribute changes to shape the direction of the project. Indiegogo fundraising for Your Input Needed continues until June 7. (Watch the project overview video below.)

  • Austinite Anthony Pedone's An American in Texas may be the American Grafitti of 1990. The true-to-life movie, set in late 1990 against the backdrop of the first Gulf War, tells the story of a group of lifelong friends on the cusp of adulthood who must make tough decisions that will change their lives forever. Pedone, maybe best known as the founder of the annual RxSM: The Self-Medicated Film Festival, reunites with filmmaker Stephen Floyd, who co-directed Pedone's experimental debut The Why. Potential funders have until June 10 to donate. (Watch the movie's trailer below.)

  • Good luck to former Dating Game contestant Jack Kennedy and his team on the Indiegogo campaign for You Are Here, set to shoot in Shamrock, Texas. The comedy is loosely based on Kennedy's real-life experiences being stranded in Small Town USA, living in a semi-functional 1968 Winnebago that sat behind a mechanic's garage. The fundraising campaign for You Are Here, which will be created and produced by military veterans, continues until June 18.

Have a project that you would like to be considered for an upcoming Ready, Set, Fund feature about crowdfunding and related fundraising endeavors for Austin and Texas independent film projects? Contact us with the subject line "Ready, Set, Fund."