Cthulhu Mardi Gras beads, doubloons, masks, t-shirts, and more, to support the 22nd Annual H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival® Oct 6-8 2017.
To join us LIVE on the air, come to https://live.kickstarter.com/h-p--lovecraft-film-fest-and-cthulhucon/live/cthulhu-mardi-gras-22nd-annual-h--p--lovecraft-film-fest
We'll be there to answer questions and make some fun announcements!
Cheers!
Brian and Gwen
We're in the home stretch! So we thought we would summarize all the add-ons and let you know which of the limited reward levels are still left. You can up your pledge to add-on any of these items, and you'll be able to choose them (or add-on more!) when you fill out your backer survey on BackerKit. (It looks like we will be sending surveys on Monday, and we'll do a separate update for that.)
You can add these items to any level. Shipping will be calculated when you complete your survey in BackerKit. Check your reward level to see if any of these are included, and of course you can always add more if you'd like!
Supporter T-shirt: Add-on for $25 - this Kickstarter exclusive won't be making a repeat appearance. The Mask of Cthulhu shirt incorporates traditional New Orleans wrought iron designs with subtle voodoo and occult elements. We're printing on 100% pre-shrunk black cotton tees with dark purple, metallic gold, and glow in the dark green inks! Unisex tees S-5XL, Women's rib knit tees S-2XL.
Supporter Work Shirt or Hoody: Add-on for $50 - The Mask of Cthulhu design is printed on the back of your choice of a Red Kap short sleeved work shirt (65/35 poly/cotton) or a zip up fleece hoody (50/50 poly/cotton). Sizes S-5XL.
Mardi Gras Go Cup: Add-on for $5 - a 17oz purple Mardi Gras cup with a shiny gold imprint of our Mask of Cthulhu design on one side, and the Cthulhu Bead design on the other. This is included in the Mardi Gras Pack, but you can add more cups to any level and make it a party!
Custom Cthulhu Mardi Gras Beads: Add-on for $10 - custom-made bead medallion featuring the Great Cthulhu! Comes with extra strands of purple, green, and gold mardi gras beads.
Cthulhu Doubloons: Add-on for $10 - get a velvety bag with 6 of our multi-colored Carnaval de Cthulhu Doubloons in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of green, gold, and purple! These Mardi Gras throws also make great gaming props or markers.
Mask of Cthulhu Absinthe Glass Set: Add-on for $45 - a gorgeous KS-exclusive absinthe glass, hand etched by Drink With the Living Dead! PLUS an absinthe spoon, special absinthe sugar cubes, and a vintage style, post office legal (you can mail it!), Cthulhu Absinthe "Mardi Gras Edition" postcard. (does not include absinthe.)
Mask of Cthulhu Pint Glass: Add-on for $30 - this premium pint glass is hand etched with the Mask of Cthulhu design by Drink with the Living Dead!
Mask of Cthuihu embroidered patch: Add-on for $8 - a 3" high quality, sew on patch with the Mask of Cthulhu design in purple, green, and gold!
Official Poster with Art by Nick Gucker: Add-on for $10 - heavyweight 11x17 official festival poster printed in full color, with stunning art created for the festival by Nick Gucker!
Challenge From Beyond 2017/Lovecraftian Micro Fiction double book: Add-on for $10 - The round robin story by Nathan Carson, Cody Goodfellow, Dominique Lamssies, Orrin Grey, and Chad Michael Ward is a limited edition of only 200. Mimicking the Ace Doubles, this is two books in one, back to back! Flip it over and you've got the winning stories of the Lovecraftian Micro Fiction contest. Stunning cover arts by Chad Michael Ward and Jim Pavelec!
Plain 3-Day Festival Pass: Add-on for $60 - Need another festival pass without all the stuff? This is just a plain old festival pass. Does not include any other perks.
There are still plenty of $98 Attend 3-Day Deluxe, $193 Attend for Two, $195 VIP - Bal Masque, and $385 VIP for Two levels available; All of the "Attend" and VIP Levels come with a 3-day festival pass, exclusive lapel pin, supporter t-shirt, and souvenir badge.
A few of the limited higher VIP levels are still up for grabs!
$325 VIP EXPERIENCE - FOUNDER'S CALL OF CTHULHU GAME (3 spots left)
We think this is one of the best seats in the house! For the fullest weekend experience, here's what you get:
$500 ALL ACCESS - COURTIER OF CTHULHU (2 spots left) This is for hard-core festival fans! Includes everything in the VIP 3-day level, PLUS you get to be part of the Ritual during the VIP Party! Includes Green Room access, the Challenge From Beyond 2017 book, Vote for "Best Short Film," PLUS all GOLD SHOGGOTH rewards at each stretch goal. AUTO UPGRADE to a Work Shirt or Hoody.
We're glued to the campaign, so if you have last minute questions, message us directly through the campaign and we'll answer as quickly as possible!
If you're still awake at 11:59 pm PDT, Join us on Kickstarter LIVE for a wrap up and celebratory tentacle wave!
Gwen & Brian
We're in the Final Day of the campaign, and as usual we've cooked up a last minute addition to our reward offerings: Behold the glorious Cthulhu absinthe glass! We also wanted to show you the Final poster art by Nick Gucker and the finalized Supporter T-shirt design!
THE CTHULHU ABSINTHE GLASS SET comes with a Kickstarter-exclusive absinthe glass etched by the glass artisan at Drink With The Living Dead, an absinthe sugar spoon, special absinthe sugar cubes, and a vintage style Cthulhu Absinthe "Mardi Gras Edition" postcard for a true transcendental experience! Add-on the Limited Edition Cthulhu Absinthe Set for $45. We're also making the same design available on a premium Pint Glass, add-on for $30.
The Official Festival Poster with original art by Nick "The Hat" Gucker will be printed on heavyweight 11x17 glossy paper suitable for framing. Add-on for $10
The Kickstarter-exclusive Supporter T-shirt will be printed in dark purple, metallic gold, and green. The green "eyes" will also glow in the dark! Add-on for $25 (Upgrade to a work shirt or hoody for an additional $25)
These can all be added-on by increasing your pledge without changing your level (details can be found in the FAQ), or you can add them when you fill out the BackerKit survey.
We created a level for macabre attendees, who would like to attend the festival, but also want to be immortalized in a 100 word Weird Obituary, written by our Bizarro-in-residence, Jeff Burk! A deal at $155, this level contains all the perks of the 3-Day Deluxe package: full festival pass, souvenir badge, lapel pin, supporter shirt, And the Obituary, PLUS you get the Cthulhu Mardi Gras Beads!
We'll be back in the morning with a round-up of all the add-ons and limited reward levels. Until then, drift sweetly through the Dreamlands!
Gwen & Brian
Hello everyone!
Woohoo! With your help, we've reached Stretch Goal #2. This is a HUGE upgrade. The traditional Mardi Gras parade "throws" (the things that are thrown from parade floats to spectators) are Beads (check!), shiny and colored doubloons (check!), and parade go cups (FINALLY, CHECK!). This is now a FREE upgrade to over 100 of you... basically, anyone pledged at the $40 Mardi Gras Pack level, $65 combo level, all VIP levels, Traveler from Beyond The Stars levels, and the All Access levels. So, now the Mardi Gras pack has grown to look like this:
It's quite a package of stuff! You can also now ADD-ON a CUP for $5 to any level that doesn't get one for free, or if you just want an extra cup to savor, store in the collectible vault, or for... like, another person to drink out of. (Note: adding-on a cup might incur some minor additional shipping charges in the Backerkit survey, but they are fairly light.)
The next Stretch Goal also upgrades a significant number of levels... it's less of a mere upgrade and more of a rocket-blast to Yuggoth (with your brain in tow).
At $36,000, we'll beam a virtual stream of content, available during the fest weekend, to backers at the Shadows Out of Time levels, Traveler From Beyond the Stars, and all other Silver and Gold Shoggoth levels (that includes ALL VIP backers). That stream will have more than a DVD's worth of shorts (about 3 hours), plus selected panel and live event coverage. This is a fantastic option for those that can't make it to the festival, and some who can. It won't replace the DVD as a permanent asset in your library, but is a great way to devour a bunch of films from afar.
This year, we are again doubling up the Challenge From Beyond! It will include not only the round-robin story penned by Nathan Carson, Cody Goodfellow, Dominique Lamssies, Orrin Grey, and Chad Michael Ward, it is also doubling in size and will now include the Lovecraftian Micro Fiction Vol. 4. This means another cool back-to-back cover, this time by the infamous and awesome Chad Michael Ward (for the Challenge From Beyond) and the lushly unparalleled occult art of festival guest Jim Pavelec (for Lovecraftian Micro Fiction) - come see Jim at the fest next month. BEHOLD!
If your level does not include the Challenge From Beyond, you can ADD-ON this double book, by increasing your pledge $10 (or add it in Backerkit at the end of the campaign).
We're busily in the process of creating a surprise Add-on. New Orleans and Absinthe go together like, er... Green and Cthulhu ("squeezed Its gelatinous green immensity through the black doorway"). We'll be offering a sweet KICKSTARTER EXCLUSIVE etched Absinthe Glass and Spoon set (no actual Absinthe included... you'll need to provide that, we're just making the glass), exclusive to this Kickstarter. It's been in the works for a little while, but we had to do some wrangling to make sure we could offer it before the festival. The design is coming reeeeeeal soon (tonight or tomorrow)... so stay tuned!
At $40,000 we'll be able to produce the Best of 2017 DVD. This is a really important project for us. Each yearly DVD is a record for the world of some of the year's best short Lovecraftian cinema (especially for the countless people we meet, who don't realize there is anything more than Re-Animator), and it also helps the independent filmmakers on the disc, who get a quarterly royalty payment (and a pretty good one for such a small production) that helps them to submit to more fests (where they might get noticed by producers or distributors), as well as helping to cover some modest filmmaking expenses, which helps them to continue making Lovecraftian fare for us to enjoy.
So, are you saying there won't be a Best of 2017 DVD this year, if you don't reach $40,000? Kind of, yeah. As a truly tiny mom and pop business, we're not sure where we would get the initial lump funds to make a DVD on our own. We could maybe run another campaign in the Winter, but that'd create much more work and serious delays in contracting with filmmakers, so we probably wouldn't be able to have the disc until next October. It's not ideal.
Bottom line: If you've enjoyed some of the films on the DVDs we've made this far, we hope you'll help us spread the word for the last 2 days of this campaign LIKE UTTERLY BANANAS CRAZY. We have a long way to go... it's not impossible (you showed us it's possible by collectively pledging $20,000 in 1 day!), but word of mouth spreading to new Lovecraft fans who will back the campaign is the only way it'll work, and our reach is surprisingly limited without your help.
Cheers!
Brian and Gwen
Hello everyone!
Just a reminder, if you didn't see our last update on Friday night, we unlocked the Mask of Cthulhu embroidered patch, and added it to all Gold Shoggoth reward levels.
However, we're also giving it away to everyone pledged at the $25 Supporter T-shirt level and above for free, in exchange for sharing the campaign. This is a short campaign this year, and we really need your help getting the word out before it's over, so to that end, this year's 3" round, embroidered Cthulhu Patch is FREE for you, if you follow these instructions before 9pm Pacific (Midnight Eastern) tonight:
1. Be pledged (now and when the campaign ends) at any level starting at, or higher, than the $25 Supporter T-shirt level.
2. SHARE this campaign with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, or Instagram (if you've already shared it, please share again) by 9pm Pacific Tonight, which is Sunday, Sep 10th) and TAG @hplfilmfestival on Facebook (facebook.com/hplfilmfestival), or @HPLFF on Twitter. Our short link is http://kck.st/2xBErfh
3. COMMENT on this Update (the one you're reading now on Kickstarter - or on the previous update that also detailed these instructions), before 9pm Pacific tonight (Sun, Sep 10), that you've just shared the campaign.
Follow those steps, and we'll put a free patch in your Rewards. Don't give us money for one, just help us spread the word. One free patch per backer account, please. If you already did this and commented on Update #5, you don't need to do it again. After Sunday, we'll make the patch a paid add-on, but for now, please just share.
Also, sharing this campaign helps all of us. If we reach the $30,000 Stretch Goal with your help, everyone at a level that includes the Mardi Gras pack will get a traditional purple Mardi Gras cup printed with Cthulhu in shiny gold ink (see mockup above).
The traditional New Orleans Mardi Gras parade throws are beads, doubloons, and cups... so that will complete the throw triumvirate for everyone at those levels. And that's a lot of you: right now by my count currently 92 of you will get these cups added to your rewards when we reach that goal! Basically, anyone at the $40 or $65 Mardi Gras levels, any VIP level, any Traveler From Beyond The Stars, and All Access levels.
Besides running this campaign, we're also working long days ramping up to the festival itself. We've selected and added several new films to the program, including the Weird-as-hell Ayla starring Dee Wallace and Tristan Risk, and you can check out all the new films on our Films page for this year. There are still plenty more to come, so stay tuned!
Also, keep in mind, if we reach the $36,000 Stretch Goal, we'll be making quite a few of the short films available (at least 3 hours worth) for home streaming the weekend of the festival, for those pledged at the Shadow Out of Time and Traveler From Beyond The Stars levels (as well as all other Silver and Gold Shoggoth Levels). For more info on all the Stretch Goals, including our annual DVD and a potential new Blu-ray release, read our Thursday update.
Cheers!
Brian and Gwen