Vortex42 Indiegogo campaign - let's support modern stopmotion creature effects (and Paul!)

Echo campaign on Indiegogo

Ok, I know the last post I made here was another Indiegogo campaign for another stopmotion film project (which unfortunately didn't make it's funding) - and no, I don't plan to do this all the time. I Normally don't get really excited about these campaigns now that everybody and their nephew are making them, but this one is something really special.

I consider Paul McConnochie a friend, though we've only ever communicated online. He's a Scottsman (with a really cool accent!) now living in Denmark where he's just bought a small farm and converted it into a sweet fully functional stopmotion studio called Vortex42. Along with Ron Cole (who he collaborates with) Paul is another force contributing to getting modern high-tech stopmotion effects to be seen as a viable alternative to CGI in creature films. In the clip above you can see a too-brief example of it - a handheld shot with a stopmotion character inserted into it in much the same way Ray Harryhausen used to insert his stopmo creatures into live action films - though of course Paul is working with digital video rather than on film. The alien character in the clip though is quite different from the creature he plans to sculpt (with clay bought thanks to funds already collected on this campaign - you can see him starting the sculpt in another of his excellent videos).

I'm no expert on these crowd-funding campaigns - but this is far and away the best one I've seen. Paul is a great guy and really knowns how to put his point across (as soft-spoken as he is) and get across his professionalism and enthusiasm for what he's doing. This isn't the usual type of crowd funded campaign either - usually people pledge to give money only if a certain goal is reached, and if that goal isn't reached than the campaign is cancelled and nobody ends up paying anything. That's the way the last campaign I posted about was done, and they failed to reach their goal. But Paul has opted to not set a firm goal - so when you contribute he immediately gets the money and can put it to work right away toward his project.

Well, I guess I've said enough - just watch the video and let Paul speak for himself - he does a better job of it than I can. I've already sent a contribution (and I never contribute to these things!) - hopefully a few more people contribute as well after discovering Paul and his amazing project through my blog.