The official, lavish reimagining of the ElfQuest comic saga by Wendy and Richard Pini, brought to life in the theater of your mind. Missed the campaign and want to add a full pledge level? Email [email protected] for assistance.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hi everyone!
We're thrilled to announce that campaign surveys are ready to go out.
The first batch will be a random group of backers (called a "smoke test"). These early surveys will help us sort through any possible issues with the surveys. Once those are complete (in a day or two), we'll send surveys to everyone!
Please whitelist @backerkit.com in your email client to ensure that you receive your survey invitation.
If you want to change your pledge to a higher level, you can email [email protected]. They will manually upgrade your pledge.
Have more questions? Please start with our official FAQ. If your question isn't answered there, send us a message and we'll get to it as quickly as possible.
Thanks!
In this update:
Hey everyone! Outwardly it may appear to have been a quiet month since the Kickstarter campaign wrapped, but lots of hard work has been happening in the background in the production of the audio movie.
We wrapped principal production - the most intense period of dialogue recording - at the end of June and continued recording with smaller pickup sessions in July, finishing the last batch of those last week. Concurrently we have a team of two audio editors who have been cleaning up and extracting the best audio from the more than 20-odd recording sessions.
Now with the building blocks in place, we’re entering the much more exciting phase of dialogue assembly and editing, where we start to find the shape of the story, and then start to add sound effects and music!
Here is a snapshot of what it looks like in the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW):
When we get a dialogue edit we’re happy with locked, this goes to the composer, the amazing Frank Schulmeyer, who composes ‘to picture’ - music for every moment of the audio movie, beat-by-beat.
Concurrently, our sound designer Jason DeWald will start building up the sonic environment, before director/producer Fred Greenhalgh steps back in to bring together all the elements and polish them into the final audio movie spectacle.
Stay tuned as we’ll release some tasty teaser audio as soon as we possibly can. Meanwhile - we’re avoiding the summer sun and hiding behind our computers to craft the audio movie for you...
Our first round of resin miniatures proofs has come in from the manufacturer. We're happy with the results, but are also considering switching to plastic injection molding, since we're producing a high enough volume to cover the costs of the steel molds!
We're thrilled to announce the resolution of the EU and UK shipping situation. This means that we're almost ready to launch campaign surveys!
Next steps are a detailed internal review, followed by submission to BackerKit for their approval.
INTERNATIONAL BACKERS
After much research and discussion with shipping partners around the globe, this is the current plan. Shipping and taxes charged in BackerKit will work as follows:
SHIPPING FEES
These numbers may change slightly, but this represents the best-available pricing (including tracking) that we currently have available. If we're able to reduce any of these prices prior to charging cards we'll make those adjustments in BackerKit. We're especially sensitive to current pricing for Australia and New Zealand and will continue to research options to reduce those costs for you. Prices are in USD.
For a $50 pledge –
For a $100 pledge –
$250 and up – pricing varies based on the rewards in your package.
These rates are for base packages. We're using weight-based shipping tables, so if you also purchase add-ons, your numbers may go up.
WHEN DOES BACKERKIT LAUNCH?
This answer depends on third-party approval from BackerKit, so the best that we can offer is "as soon as possible!" Thank you for your patience while we slowed down for a bit to resolve import plans for our international backers.
First, the good news! BackerKit is essentially ready to go. We have accounted for all upgrade options, costs, add-ons, questions, and almost all costs.
Now, the less good news. We've run into some roadblocks in shipping and VAT arrangements for our 931 international backers. The import rules in the EU just changed on July 1st of this year—and the UK rules are a mess as they navigate life post-Brexit—so it's taken much of this month to negotiate and build new solutions.
In short, it would be very easy to fulfill everything worldwide from our warehouse in the USA, but that would leave international backers at the mercy of local post offices, import fees, and handling fees, which can be applied not only inconsistently, but with an unreasonably high price tag in some cases. We strongly prefer handling VAT and duties in advance, charging a fair and consistent rate in BackerKit, and importing in bulk so that rewards can ship domestically.
Therefore, we've made the decision to delay the launch of the pledge manager for a bit longer so that we can complete arrangements with importers and fulfillment services under the terms of the new regulations. If it turns out to be logistically impossible we can fall back to fulfilling everything from the USA, but we're not ready to give up yet.
Thank you for your patience while we do our best to make the international ElfQuest fulfillment experience as fair and easy for backers as the domestic one will be.
MINIATURES
The miniatures are the biggest project among the rewards and are coming along very well!
The photo is above is from the manufacturer, who has been fine-tuning the production process individually for each miniature to make sure that what is coming off the assembly line looks perfect, doesn't have any structural weaknesses, and will ship well.
Proofs of the first ten minis are currently en route to us for review in person, since nothing beats holding and inspecting merchandise in the hand. These proofs will be reviewed by our team at The Fantasy Network, then forwarded to Richard and Wendy for their review. Once everyone has signed off we'll proceed to manufacturing.
We'll be ordering over 19,000 individual miniatures! Each will be shipped in a blister pack to help ensure safety in transit. We've also made arrangements with our warehouse to provide extra protection for those blister packs in reward shipments, as well as received a commitment from the manufacturer to replace any minis that arrive damaged.
OTHER MERCH
Just about everything else is designed, submitted to manufacturers, and just waiting on final numbers from BackerKit. Most of our products are being manufactured in the USA and will have a short journey from the factory to our warehouse.
THE FINE ART PRINTS
The fine art proofs are complete and in Wendy and Richard's hands. As you can see, they exceeded expectations. We can't wait to get the signed and numbered editions to everyone who ordered them. (And yes, they WILL be available as add-ons in BackerKit.)
Wendy says: Seriously, these are the finest reproductions of my watercolor paintings I’ve ever seen. Every brush stroke, every stroke of the Prismacolor pencils, is clearly delineated. The colors fairly glow. And I especially love the matte finish and weight of the paper. We both know the fans are going to be blown away by these. Thank goodness we get our own copies!
With principal recording complete, we now enter the long, introverted stage of post-production, where Fred and his team go heads-down building every second of what will be more than four hours of completed story. We're not likely to hear many details for a while, but that's a good sign—editing takes incredible focus and this campaign helped give the post team the gift of singular attention to making the audio movie the very best it can be.
When they emerge from the first edit we'll ask for a comprehensive update!