The terrible weather aside, this has been a much better week. Which is to say many more people contacted me to say they’d be happy to contribute to a crowd-funding campaign, some for small amounts which are all they can afford, others for several hundred dollars or even a thousand. Contributions of all sizes will be welcomed.
Our thinking right now is to try and raise money in phases, so that we don’t ask for one large, impossible sum from the start. The first phase would be for design and development, or rather for development, as the design is pretty much already done; The development, which must restart from scratch, will be the most expensive amount we’ll be asking for. We’ve had long talks with our developer, who is putting together a full budget and timeline as I write.
Having raised enough money for development, we’ll set to work trying to raise enough to make a few videos. In the old days, we used to budget $12,000 for a 2-3 person video; and while video quality has improved, I can’t imagine that the process itself is any less expensive these days. Bound & Gagged has to offer more than simple home movies—not that it won’t offer those, too: equipment still has be be bought or rented, locations have to be found and rented (we used to have our own studio and hopefully will again, but that’s in the future); actors, videographers, editors, directors, lighting and sound people, not to mention gofers/assistants, still have to be paid.
Ideally, we could make two or three videos for the price of one, using the same actors for a feature-length movie and then for one or more shorter scenes repurposed from stories in our archives, but until we’ve done that at least once, I’ll stick to $12,000 per. On the other hand, I can say that if any of you out there would be willing to volunteer your equipment and/or skills at such things as videotaping, editing, tying up, and anything else you can think of, not to mention sexiness for performing often helplessly in front of the camera, please contact me. The less we have to pay, the more we can do.
Once we raise enough money, get the development going, and the site in a viewable condition—I’ll let you know how long that will take next week—we’ll invite all those of you who have contributed to come to the site, play with it and inundate us with your comments, reactions, thoughts, advice, etc., so that on completion Bound & Gagged really will be able to call itself the site of the male bondage community, a production of the male bondage community.
A third phase, once the site was nearing completion and we began making videos, would be to raise enough money to keep it going and constantly providing new material (in other words for a full-time employee or two) until it can run on its own. I think it would be able to run on its own pretty quickly, but I'd feel more comfortable with a cushion, which I think could be filled by another $25K.
I’ll update again next Friday—or sooner, if something important happens. In the meantime, please write me your thoughts on what I’ve said. Put them in the comments section, or email me at [email protected].
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