crowdfunding cartoons: HP Lovecraft’s Mountains of Madness!!!

The latest Kickstarter campaign I wanted to stick in front of your charming little faces is a feature adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness”. It’s being spearheaded by Algonquin College alum Stephen Robert Sloan, and looks both ambitious and exciting.

I’m not a Lovecraft guy, but the impact the writer has had on today’s pop culture is undeniable. Just the dent he put in Mike Mignola’s brain is enough to earn him a special spot in creative-influencer-heaven for all eternity. Now it’s Steve Sloan’s turn to show some tentacled demonic love. Sloan’s team seems pretty solid, and his love for the work is undeniable. As is pretty standard these days, they’re not asking funders to pay for the whole production, as they seem to have a plan that also includes a Telefilm application and some broadcast components, but there’s always a gap in the funding structure that, in the past, has stopped many a project from getting off the ground. Kickstarter and Indiegogo can sometimes fill that gap, which is what these guys are hoping for.

Here’s the plan in their own words:

Our Kickstarter is not intended to provide the entire budget for our film. Yes, we are colossal fans of the story and all of Lovecraft’s stories, but we are also professionals in motion picture production. As such, we are approaching this film from a professional business perspective.

The final budget for “Mountains of Madness” will clock in around 2.5 Million. Kickstarter will allow us to complete our pre-production on the film without having to bring in initial outside investors. We have four main objectives we intend to meet with our Kickstarter funds.

• Complete the Script.
• Hire and record well known voice actors for  the main characters.
• Create the initial storyboards
• Combine the recorded audio and storyboards to create an “Animatic” of the entire film

Check out the campaign over here.

They’re aiming for 175 large, and there’s 21 days to go.

I like this model, using the existing funding structures, but supplementing via crowdfunding. I don’t know if it works yet, for projects that don’t have a big star attached, or some kind of built in following, but I’m hopeful. Mountains of Madness has an audience, there are Lovecraft fans out there, so in that regard, it’s a pretty decent candidate. Whether it reaches those fans, and if they’re willing to put up money, remains to be seen.

Fingers crossed.