Many of us love watching films. That part's obvious, and I know there are even some of us that MAKES film.
I'm one of them. I have written about animation, most notably for Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research. Even on print I did some freelance for Hogan's Alley magazine. I'm also a cartoonist, having done illustration work, editorial cartoons, and independent comic books. I also did some animation, having been involved in Bill Plympton's "Guard Dog Global Jam", some obscure student projects, and even doing a short film called "Fishing", which had its only public screening in Boston at a pop culture convention.
One of my comics involves a character I've been developing for a while called "Koko the Blue". The main character is a teenage sorceress (originally a witch) who has to deal with her full-time job. I wrote a script early this year, which went through development, getting input from professional animation people, and then further refined from my writing partner David Winn Jr. I ultimately used the script as a comic book, which came out in June 2013. It got positive reviews, and I later did several more stories with the character.
I decided to pull everything together and make a short film based on the story. I teamed up with few friends, including animators Aaron Long (Fester Fish) and Zoe Piel, voice actor Kyle Carrozza (also a cartoonist, creator of Moobeard and Frog Raccoon Strawberry), and composer Kevin Bluhm (Pawn Stars, various documentaries). I set the goal to raise $13,000 to cover the costs, which isn't too bad considering how much Hollywood studios spend.
I'm working to have the cartoon painted on cels and photographed in Super 16mm. I have done animation on standard 16mm before, so I decided to go for the wider format, which suits well since everything is in 16:9 aspect ratio now.
I have more details on the IndieGoGo page. Please check it out and spread the word.