My friends have awesome ideas all the time. But less than 10% of those ideas ever see the light of day. Mostly because there is never enough time or money to put in the work required for these ideas to become realities. Everyone's too busy working their "day jobs".
It’s hard to convince people that creative work is ...work. People don’t usually expect you to mow their lawn for free, or fix their car, or replace their windows. But some people do expect songs for free. And movies. And poems. And plays.
But all of these things cost money to produce. And time. And time is money.
Today, Lena Gabrielle and I were chatting and she sent me a rough demo of a new musical she’s working on. That’s right, Lena wrote an entire freakin’ musical! Her score is 760 pages long, and she (along with a cast of 50 people and a 15-piece orchestra) will be performing that musical in just 46 days.
Lena will not be charging for tickets, nor will she be charging for the music, she is giving it all away for free. Non-profit. However, she has a budget that requires $3,000 for her to put on this performance. To date, they’ve been able to raise $1,500 (and that was after a live concert fundraising event).
After hearing this, I donated $1,000.
The musical is called “The Final Battle” (epic much?) and it covers the last 200 pages of Deathly Hallows. That’s right, it’s a Harry Potter musical. I don’t even care about Harry Potter. Haven’t ever read the books.
But what I do care about is independent media, and music, and YouTubers - and in specific - independent music projects created by YouTubers.
I don’t make six-figures a year (yet) and yeah, I had other plans for that money, but you know what, those plans can wait, this couldn’t (46 freakin days! (I just keep typing the number of days left to freak out Lena as she reads this)).
I’m posting this in hopes that you guys, collectively, can make up the last $500 they’re short. They have tiers where you can put shout-outs or links to your youtube pages in the program (depending on how much you donate), and they have a raffle for all donators for one on-stage cameo, if you’re going to be attending Infinitus 2010. I know how many views my new blog posts get on average, so even if each of you only donated $2, they would soar way above their goal, allowing them to stop focusing on the budget, and instead focus on producing a kick ass stage show.
If you want, you can donate by clicking here. And if you want more information on how they built their budget (and to hear a song from the show), you can click here.
PS. I didn’t blog yesterday, missed a day already, gah! But I will post two entries today to make up for it. =)
Sunday, May 30, 2010
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Of course I'll donate!
ReplyDeleteLena is awesome, and everyone who knows her knows how much effort went into The Final Battle. No way is this thing gonna collapse because of something as silly as money. Not if nerdfighteria has anything to do with it!
Just donated =)
ReplyDeleteI think it's awesome what Lena is doing, and wonderful for you to donate so much in support of her project. <3
Alan,
ReplyDeleteSo we've never met, and my Youtube presence (besides a collab channel) exists almost solely in the lurking and commenting sector, so you don't actually know me.
However, I'm the director/producer/cowriter for The Final Battle. I sent you an email response but I wanted to post a public thank you.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DONATING!!! This takes an incredible amount of stress off Lena and I. Also thank you for blogging about it. Donations started coming in the moment this was posted and continues now (I'm watching the unread emails number on the gmail increase as I type). Even if they're only $2 we are incredibly grateful for every cent and can't wait to provide a wonderful musical for you all to watch on livestream or YouTube.
Thanks again, all of you.
Mallory Vance
OMG. THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!! Seriously! This is so generous of you and it helps in a lot more ways than dollar signs.
ReplyDeleteAlan,
ReplyDeleteLike Mallory above you have no idea who I am because I don't do the YouTube thing. But I am also in the Final Battle, as the costume designer and the Grey Lady, and I cannot even begin to express how amazing your donation and PR is. I know you've taken a lot of stress off Lena and Mallory (and me! I was reimbursed for some of my fabric/etc expenses today, so thanks!)
A lot of times it's easy to focus on all the horrible realities of our world, but every so often it's nice to remember that the majority of people on this planet are kind, thoughtful human beings. Reaching out and helping people you don't know- be it donating to a charity, working at a local shelter, or something like this- all serve to reinforce the truth that human beings are fundamentally good and beautiful.
Okay, now that I'm going to start crying I'll wrap up this (entirely too loquacious) comment.
Thank you. More than we can say. God bless.
Maggie Melchior
O.O You are an amazing man Alan!!! Thank you so much for donating. I may only be apart of the orchestra, but It really does mean a lot to us all!!! This just made my day!
ReplyDeleteAlan,
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU SO MUCH FOR DONATING! I am in the orchestra for TFB, and I've heard the music and I know how amazing this show can be and you just helped us out SO much. I've always appreciated the work you do in the nerdfighter and youtube communities and this is just...amazing. Thank you! :D
- Rebeca
Alan,
ReplyDeleteI already knew that you were insanely awesome, but this goes beyond awesome. I don't even know how that is possible, but trust me, you've acheived it =]
This blog post is intense. I was absolutely floored reading it. When Lena said you donated, I didn't realize how much.
This is a great example of how giving and absolutely brilliant the youtube community is.
Thank you so much <3
Lyssa
No.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because doing it for free is stupid. At least donate any proceeds to charity, forchristssake.
Otherwise the whole thing is a waste of time.
@Jon, they have to do it for free because of trademark issues with the Harry Potter francise. They cannot legally sell tickets or sell the music.
ReplyDeleteAlan,
ReplyDeleteAs yet another member of the cast of TFB and one of Lena and Mallory's friends, thank you SO MUCH for your donation to the musical!! It puts a lot of worry out of our minds, being so close to the budget goal. We'll be able to have a lot more fun and make the show even more awesome without having to worry as much about the money.
@Jon, we're going by the book. Do you think that the StarKid guys made any money off of AVPM? They aren't legally allowed to sell their CD or charge for tickets, so why would we be any different?
oh my god! my friend Alicia is part of the orchestra. i knew they needed money, but i didn't realize how much and how i could help until i read this!
ReplyDeletei have to go donate now!
thanks for writing this, Alan!
<3
You're awesome, Alan! Now i have to donate too :)
ReplyDeleteAlan,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Cole and like so many have said before me, we have never met. I will be playing Harry Potter in The Final Battle and even though I am not explicitly involved in budgeting the show I have to say that money has been one of my large concerns.
I just want to say thank you along with all of the rest of the amazingly tallented Final Battle cast, pit, and crew for supporting us in this way. It warms my heart (and wets my eyes) that someone could show as much love and support as you have to us. I think that we all can now relax just a little bit more because you have done this for us (but not too much! There are still lines to memorize and music to learn). Again, I say thank you to you and anyone who has donated or supported our show in some way. Thank you for making our dreams for this show possible. Thank you letting us put on the best show we possibly can.
Thank you,
Cole
Hey Alan, thank you so much for donating! It really means a lot to the whole cast, as you can probably tell by the number of comments from people in the cast ;)
ReplyDeleteI am super excited for the musical (although 46 isn't THAT much time to learn all of the music and everything else, but we will do it!!) and I am glad that you contributed so much to help us!