Laughter of the World

Wow! When I set up the target for my first attempt at crowd funding, I worked out what the bare minimum would be to finish 'Laughter of the World'. That number was £500, in my head a very plausible amount to raise in thirty days. We did it in five...
Words cannot express my gratitude towards those who have not only shown incredible generosity by donating to the project but also to everyone who RT'd by fund raising campaign on Twitter and shared the link to this page on Facebook. Not to mention the message of support I've received. I didn't know what to expect from crowd funding and I've been completely blown away this past week.

BUT it is not over yet. We still have twenty-three days of crowd funding to go. If we manage to raise more than the target amount I will be able to do so much more with the film. For example, here are some of the things I didn't budget for and what I could do with more money that we raise:

• New Camera Battery

The camera I use is over fifteen years old and has one battery that barely manages to power the camera for an hour, which makes shooting on location somewhat precarious, meaning we have to hit our marks and get everything right first time. Purchasing a new battery means we're allowed to make the odd mistake or two, and shoot for longer if necessary.

• Mini DV Tapes

I mentioned by camera is old, right? Yes, it uses mini DV tapes, which was the norm before everything went digital and camera's started to use SD cards. When I shot the first part of 'Laughter of the World', I recorded over some footage I had on an old mini DV tape. I'd like to buy some fresh ones to shoot the rest of the film.

• Editing Facilities

If you thought my camera was ancient, it'll seem shiny and new compared to my editing facilities. I use Adobe 6.5, which at a case must be close to being twenty years old. The PC I use to edit my films runs an early edition of Windows XP and sounds like a jumbo jet when it boots up. While I wouldn't be able to buy a brand, spanking new PC for editing (unless we raise an insane amount), I would be able to take the film to a post production house and edit the film on decent equipment. If you've watched the promo video and seen the clip of the film, you'll notice that it doesn't look exactly like a film from the 1920's, as I intend it to be. That is because I cannot do that using Adobe 6.5. Better editing facilities mean I can make the film look how I want it to look.

• Film Festivals

I believe this film is not only good enough to be shown around the country in many short film festivals, I have faith that it can do extremely well and maybe even win a few awards. Of course, to enter into film festivals costs money. It wasn't something I budgeted for initially as I intended to send the finished film off to one or two fesitvals and pay for it out of my own pocket. Any extra funding we raise will go to sending 'Laughter of the World' out to as many festivals as possible. Getting your work out there is one of the most important things as a filmmaker and getting films screened as often as possible at festivals is the best way of doing that. And it might play at a festival near you, meaning you can come and see what your generous funding has achieved on the big screen!

I will be taking my foot off the crowd funding pedal now we've reached our target but I want to emphasise that the more money we raise, the better film we can make. I thank you all for your support again and I hope you will continue to support the project.
There's also a new perk package for those who might be able to afford to contribute much but still want to support the film.

Thank you everyone.

Chip Thompson