It's 11am, EST, and that means we're kicking off our day long Digg*athon! I'll keep this post short and to the point. Let's start with the shortened URL for easy sharing:

digg.com/d318Fjp
And if any of you are reading this post via your phone, you can Digg our submission here on mobile Digg:

tr.im/D6tn
Here's a quick snippet from the description if any of you would like to pass the above links along to friends:

A film project six years in the making - with only 31 days left on an all-or-nothing Kickstarter campaign, it's time to see just how far we can push this ambitious documentary during post production!

Just have 15 seconds? Digg this story. Have a $1 you can pledge? Each backer goes a long way. Help spread the word, and be a part of our indie film!

Keep an eye on our KSR campaign and our twitter account for updates on how things are going. Here's to an exciting day!

Labels: Diggathon, Kickstarter, Outreach, Post-Production

Several days ago, I posted a quick question about setting a date to Digg our current For Thousands of Miles (FToM) Kickstarter campaign - all the feedback we received was positive.

So with only 34 days remaining, we're going ahead with what we're calling a: Digg*athon. Here's everything you need to know to be involved.

We'll be Digging the film's campaign at 11 am EST on Monday, October 26th. The first 2 hours following will be the most critical in pushing Pedal towards the front page of Digg, but the Digg*athon will last the entire day, as all diggs will be very helpful.

Once the story is submitted, I'll post an update with a current shortened URL here on the production blog, as well as all of our social sites: Facebook, Twitter, IndieGoGo, Virb, Tumblr, etc.

It's important to clarify "why are we doing this?". Digg can be a very powerful site, and it can help reach out to hundreds-of-thousands of new people in a matter of hours.

The last time we submitted something Kickstarter-related to Digg, we spent only about an hour pushing the story on Twitter and Facebook, and had just shy of 40 people help Digg it. What was most amazing though; was at the start of that morning, our campaign was lagging at around the 20% mark for total funds raised, by the end of the night, we had jumped to over 60% - raising more than $4,200 in pledges.

But Kickstarter is an all or nothing campaign - if FToM is even $1 short of it's goal (of $8,300), the film will received none of the pledges these people have made during the last 60 days.

We know that Digg was just one part of the equation that afternoon, but we're excited to see what kind of effect the site could have if FToM's campaign received, say, 100+ diggs, or even 300+ diggs? How many new people would that put the film in front of? How many of those new people would find the film worth pushing forward?

We are hoping that by taking the weekend to help spread the word about Monday morning's Digg*athon - we will be able to pull in at least 70 diggs within the 1st hour.

A few things to keep in mind: if you'll be away from your computer during the first 2 hours - you can very easily help Digg with almost any cell phone (ie: iPhone, Blackberry, or any cellphone with internet access) via mobile Digg.

If you don't have an account already, make one early so you'll be able to simply click the URL, and then the "digg it" button and be done with it. You can even connect Digg to your Facebook account to make signing up much faster.

Also, comments are factored into the algorithm for Digg's site -if you are able to, leaving something as simple as a one sentence comment could help launch the submission ahead of several other stories with the exact same number of Diggs. If you have a question regarding the film, it would be a great place to post it, it could help spark a conversation.

The hashtag we'll be using for all related tweets, post, or status updates will be "#diggathon", if you'd like to help spread the word, using this hashtag will help us track that progress.

We're only $1,900 short of meeting our goal! Let's see how much closer to that goal we can get by the end of Monday night. Mark your calendars or add yourself to our event page, and thank you all so much to everyone in advance for your involvement and support.

Labels: Diggathon, Kickstarter, Outreach, Post-Production

FToM + Kickstarter = Love from mike ambs on Vimeo.

33 days ago, Amanda and I launched a brand new Kickstarter campaign to help fund the last stages of post-production.

Since then we've been backed by over 40 people, with pledges ranging from $1 to over $500! We have raised $1,638 towards our goal of $8,300!

This is an all or nothing campaign. Meaning if we don't hit $8.3k, then no one's pledges go through.

Help support For Thousands of Miles, plus get awesome stuff like Pedal buttons, posters, autographed scripts, a 64 Days DVD with audio commentary and even my personal typewriter.

If you're new to this project, take a quick moment to check out our "hi, hello" intro page, it's a very informal, brief recap of the last 6 years.

Please consider backing our film with a $1 donation, or help spread the word by liking this video, sharing our KSR project with your followers on Twitter or your friends on Facebook. We are really excited about the next stages in post - and we are very, very grateful for all of your support!

Labels: Fund, Kickstarter, Outreach, Post-Production, Vimeo

I put a lot of work and thought into our recent Kickstarter campaign - and the honest truth is, I know full well it's a big goal. A goal that percentage-wise, isn't in our favor of reaching.

We could have gone for a smaller amount, and we might be forced to do so 3 months from now; dividing the first round of funding towards securing equipment, and then a follow-up for travel expenses, and another for additional storage to actual edit the footage we took, etc.

That would be a safer way to approach the next steps in post, but in the spirit of biting off more than we can chew, we went with the whole needed budget. I would love nothing more than to sit back and let the magic of the interwebs reach out into the world and find new people who might fall head-over-heals for our project. But... they say better safe than sorry, and in this case, I feel it's very, very important to reach to this goal. And I feel that to do so, we're going to need to pull some major strings, and think of some new and very effective ways of reaching new people.

I am open to suggestions. Actually, the entire point of this post is a call for new ideas. Don't hold back, I am interested in any and all possible forms of outreach. Raising the last $8k of our goal is going to take some serious hard work, and some serious love.

Labels: Ideas, Kickstarter, Outreach, Post-Production