Early Badge Pickup, Breakout Sessions, Schedule!
over 8 years ago – Tue, Oct 03, 2017 at 10:05:23 PM

Hello! The Festival is nearly here!

We've got some good info coming at you over the next two days, but we'll try to keep updates brief and to the point.

EARLY BADGE PICKUP! 

For the past few years we have been letting 3-day pass holders pick up their badges and wristbands before Friday night. This helps get everyone in to the theater much more quicklyl

If you pledged for a 3-day pass through our Kickstarter here, or you purchased a 3-day pass through the theater, you can come pick up your wristband or badge early to avoid traffic jams at the door on Friday! (Feel free to share with any friends who bought 3-day tickets through the Hollywood Theatre!)

Pickup during these times - bring photo ID: 

• WEDS: 6-8 PM at Sam's Hollywood Billiards
• THURS: 6-8 PM at Sam's Hollywood Billiards 
• FRIDAY: 4-6 pm during the Meet & Greet at Sam's

SCHEDULE!

The final film and panel schedule has been posted to the website in a grid format. We are still working on posting all the panels and descriptions, but they're listed on the grid schedule here: CLICK FOR SCHEDULE GRID

BREAKOUT SESSIONS!

As promised we have a breakout session scheduled with F. Paul Wilson, Adam Scott Glancy, and Phil Gelatt. Only 10 people per session, so we're doing a lottery to determine who gets a seat! If you are attending the festival AND want to be in one of the breakout sessions, please let us know by filling out the SURVEY HERE. 

Deadline for submitting is Thursday at noon. We'll let you know on Friday (hopefully before 4 pm) if you got a seat!

Thanks, y'all!

Gwen

Please double check your survey TODAY if you're coming to the festival! PLUS Doubloons and cups have arrived.
over 8 years ago – Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 10:13:33 PM

Hello everyone!

If you are coming to the Festival next week...

Just a quick reminder that today is the LAST DAY to complete your survey, if you'd like to pick up your rewards at the festival in person. Tomorrow we get the shirts to print in house, and start printing pick up sheets, labels, etc., and getting organized for the reward pick up, next week at the festival. 

After today, shipping will be charged for all rewards, and they'll be shipped after the festival. Completing your survey TODAY is the only way we can have rewards ready in time for you to pick up in person next week - there's a lot of work on our end to prepare and organize the rewards for you. Please, help us by taking a few minutes to do it today.

If you're coming to the festival, take a moment to double check your survey. You might have started it, but never completed it.

About 22 of you have started the survey, but not finished all the steps to complete it. This may not be completely intuitive, but if you see this update, please find your Backerkit e-mail with the survey link and click on the link (if you can't find it, let us know, and we'll resend it). 

If you're done, you'll see "Status: Survey is Answered" in the upper right hand of the Backerkit page. Just like the image below... if you don't see that, you haven't completed the survey, and we can't lock it down and fulfill your rewards.

If you see any other page, Backerkit is showing you the steps you need to complete. 

For most of you, this means confirming a shipping address (even if we're not shipping anything to you). In order to offer shippable rewards to everyone, the system asks everyone for an address, even if you don't need anything shipped, and won't mark your survey completed without it. That's just the way Backerkit built it. It's not us.

If you have no add-ons, and won't need any shipping at all, you can put in a bogus address (for example, the theater address is: 4122 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR, 97212), but choose ANTARCTICA as your country, to pick up your items at the festival. Backerkit won't verify the address, but after seeing an error, you can just click Submit again.

If you're having trouble completing the survey, or never got it, please message us today (or comment here, without personal details, and we'll message you). 

If you aren't coming to the festival, you don't need to worry about this at all. There is still time for you to complete your survey.

Doubloons and Cups are in the house!

The doubloons and cups have arrived. The doubloons, especially, are more amazing than we anticipated. Our mockups showed a very flat 2d stamp, but there is a ton of depth in each little coin. Cthulhu's head is nicely 3D and rounded, and the whole appearance and feel of these coins is super-cool. 

These would make excellent game markers for board gaming, or as faux Lovecraftian loot (especially if you're running a campaign using the Golden Goblin Tales of the Crescent City sourcebook). If they're not included in your level, you can ADD ON the doubloons in your Backerkit survey (they come 6 in a little purple velour pouch - the photo shows a red bag leftover from another project, but the final will be purple).

Exciting!

This is always an exciting time at HPLFF headquarters... rewards are starting to arrive in house, we're getting ready to print all the shirts, the schedule is getting finalized, and the festival starts in only 9 days.

We'll be in touch soon about early pick up times, and a lot more really great news (but we can't talk about it yet)!

See you soon,

Brian and Gwen

Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast Tickets, Festival Pickup Cutoff Date for surveys is Tuesday
over 8 years ago – Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 10:02:44 PM

In this update:

• Festival Pickup Cutoff Date for surveys
• Addresses
• Need Help?
• VIP Tickets
• Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast Tickets

Festival Pickup Cutoff Date

Hey everyone! Thanks for being on top of completing your surveys! We only have a few stragglers left. It is vital that you complete your survey if you are planning to pick up your rewards at the Festival. Remember, the Cutoff date for Festival Pickup is this Tuesday, September 26th. If you miss filling out your survey before this date, you'll still be able to pickup your 3-day pass, but we will need to collect shipping fees to ship your other rewards after the festival. The survey should only take you a few minutes to complete, do it now!

Address Required

Even if you're not having anything shipped, you must provide a shipping address for your survey to be "complete". It's just the way BackerKit works. We'll know you're picking up your rewards at the festival when you choose ANTARCTICA as your country but to close out your survey, you need to enter the rest of your full address (and ignore the warning that the address can't be verified, and just hit "submit" again). We will not do anything with your address unless we are shipping you something later (like the DVD, which will ship in 2018).

Any Questions?

If you are having any trouble getting into your survey, completing your survey, or you never received a survey link, please contact us through Kickstarter (we monitor KS messages closely). You can send us a direct message if you go to the main page of this campaign and click on the blue "View pledge" button. It pops up a window and you can view your pledge or send us a message from there.

VIP Party Tickets

Don't miss this event! There are still a few VIP levels available (you can switch your pledge level to the VIP Package!), and we have made a few tickets that you can simply add-on in BackerKit, just for the party itself. The VIP Party & Bal Masque is going to be a true cultist hootenanny! Come and mingle with Featured Guests, like F. Paul Wilson, Tim Uren, Philip Gelatt, and more!

Tapalaya is catering delicious authentic Cajun and Creole food, we're bringing in Abita Beer (plus wine and soft drinks), Reggie Houston will transport us with his jazz duo, and we'll open the gates to the Beyond with poetry readings, chanting, and more fun! Tickets includes ALL of your food, beverages, and entertainment for the evening! 

VIP Party takes place Thursday, Oct 5th, 6-9 pm at the Laurelhurst Club. Tickets are available in the Add-Ons section of your BackerKit survey. 

Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast Tickets

The traditional Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast will take place Sunday, October 8th from 10am-12pm at Sam's Hollywood Billiards. Presided over by EOD Hierophant Cody Goodfellow, you'll enjoy a full buffet breakfast, sermon, and storytelling from Guests and HPLFF Lurkers (new and old!), Tickets are on sale now: https://arkhambazaar.com/h-p-lovecraft-film-festival/cthulhu-prayer-breakfast-2017/

 

Have a Weird Weekend, y'all!

Gwen & Brian

Look for your BackerKit Survey in your Email!
over 8 years ago – Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 07:56:15 PM

Surveys are being sent... right... now

In a moment, you will receive an email from us with a special link to your BackerKit survey. It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to fulfill your rewards. ESPECIALLY IF YOU PLAN TO PICKUP YOUR REWARDS AT THE FESTIVAL!

If you don't see an email in the next few minutes to an hour, check your spam and junk folders. If you still don't see it, send us a message through Kickstarter.

In order for us to have your rewards ready for pickup at the festival, you must complete your survey by the Festival Pickup Cutoff date of Tuesday, Sept 26th!

The same deadline applies for anyone at the Messages From Beyond level, or a level that contains the Classifieds message.

How do I choose to pickup my rewards at the festival?

BackerKit does not support a native, local pickup option, so if you are picking up your rewards and add-ons at the festival (Oct 6-8), on the first page of your survey, choose ANTARCTICA as your country. This will indicate to us that you are picking up your rewards at the festival and you will not be charged shipping (except for the DVD which ships later). The system will complain when you enter your shipping address because it won't be able to verify the address. Don't let it change the country - it needs to stay as Antarctica. You will see an error message - ignore it and click the SUBMIT button to continue. 

I've never used BackerKit, how do I get started?

You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, purchase add-on items if you like, and calculate and pay shipping costs.

After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts. We'll give you a 24-hour warning before we close surveys and process payments.

If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://cthulhumardigras.backerkit.com

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please message us on Kickstarter with your preferred email address.

Problems? Concerns?

Sometimes mistakes are made, errors happen; don't worry! We've got you. Contact us if you're having any trouble or see anything that doesn't look right with your pledge, we will get it sorted out!

Gwen & Brian

It's all over! What's next?
over 8 years ago – Sat, Sep 16, 2017 at 05:59:03 PM

Hello, everyone! 

We all did it! The campaign was a success!

Some of you probably saw the Livestream last night where we talked about some of this (after which we promptly fell asleep on the couch, without making an update), but now that the dust has settled, we figured we should give you some info on what to expect over the next few days.

Stretch Goals

The great news is that not only did we fund, we also topped our Virtual Stream and DVD Stretch Goals last night, largely thanks to one very kind longtime backer, who made a significant contribution in the last 10 minutes of the campaign, pushing us over $40,000.

So, this means that all Shadows Out of Time and Traveler From Beyond The Stars levels, as well as other Gold and Silver Shoggoth levels will have access to a festival-weekend-only virtual stream of films (our plan is to offer about 3 hours worth of short films), as well as selected panels and live events. 

We also have the funds necessary to produce the Best of 2017 DVD, which is a great boon. When you see some of the films we're playing this year, you're definitely going to want to keep some of them in your library.

Surveys

We had initially planned to send out Backerkit surveys today, but we were unable to get in touch with our liaison at Backerkit yesterday to get the last stage rolling, so we anticipate sending surveys on Monday. That's okay, because it gives us a little more time to do some math and make sure that we can offer level upgrades and add-ons smartly based on remaining inventory. 

There are a few spots left at some VIP and Experience levels, which will be available as upgrades. Also, all the Add-ons we listed in our Add-on round-up yesterday will be available to add in the Backerkit, including cups, doubloons, the Challenge From Beyond book, official poster, Absinthe Glass set, Pint Glass, and more.

NEW Best of 2017 DVD Add-on: Because we reached the $40,000 DVD Stretch Goal (YAY!), you'll also be able to add-on the Best of 2017 DVD in Backerkit for a discounted price (we expect the price to be similar to last year's). This will be as simple as adding it to a shopping cart and paying the difference between your pledge and the total at the end of the process.

I already increased my pledge for Add-Ons. How does that work?

When you enter Backerkit, you will answer a few initial survey questions, after which you'll land in an experience similar to a Shopping Cart, where you'll be presented with a number of Add-ons and Upgrades.

If you raised your pledge during the campaign, you'll see that you have a "credit" listed, which you can use on any of the upgrades/add-ons. You don't have to choose the add-ons you initially wanted... at this stage you can choose whatever you want to use your credit on. It's up to you.

If you choose add-ons that exceed the credit you have available, you can pay any balance during checkout using a credit card, just like checking out of any on-line store, like Amazon. 

How does shipping work?

If you're picking items up at the festival and you complete your survey before the Festival Pickup Cutoff Date (more on that below), there will be no additional shipping charges (except for the DVD add-on, which should ship Spring/Summer of 2018). After the Festival Pickup Cutoff Date, Backerkit will charge shipping for all levels.

If you need shipping, it will be calculated based on the weight of your initial level plus any add-ons you have added, for your destination country. The shipping charges will be added to the balance you can pay with a credit card during checkout (and if you don't have any add-ons, that will be your only balance to pay).

Easy-peezy. Those are the basics. We'll be back with another update when the Backerkit goes live with some more specific instructions.

IMPORTANT: If you are picking your rewards up at the festival

If you're picking up at the festival, you will have about ONE WEEK to complete your survey, once it is sent to you (planned for this Monday), so please make sure you stay in touch with our updates and e-mails so that you can get the survey completed in time! 

Surveys completed after that Festival Pickup Cutoff Date, won't be able to be fulfilled at the fest and will be charged shipping fees, so that we can mail your rewards, when it's all over. This isn't because we're a-holes; it's all in the name of being organized, to help cut down on the amount of confusion, to make the fulfillment line go quicker, and to make sure we don't run out of items for the backers who completed their survey in time. (These are all problems we have run into in the past, so we're doing our best to make the process smoother for everyone.)

Thus far, if you've been seeing our updates several days after we post them, you'll want to make sure that you check your Kickstarter e-mail more frequently over the course of the next few days, then set aside a little time this week to fill out your survey (for most people it will take less than 10 minutes to fill out).

Gwen & Brian