Angels in Key West & Kickstarter:
Hurry! Only Six Days Left to Fund ‘Swingers’!
It’s getting to be that time of year: no sooner are the Thanksgiving leftovers finished (and many times before), than here come the holiday decorations, heavy on reindeer, Santas and angels. But actually, there are angels in Key West all year long.
Okay—you’re creative, energetic, motivated, have a great screenplay and you want to make a movie. What you are not is wealthy.
What to do? Find some angels and raise money, of course. If we are about to have a hit play titled “Cock”—and almost surely we are, after Key West Fringe opens the show tomorrow—why not a film titled “Swingers Anonymous”?
Two Key Westers, a young Conch and an—um–older transplant, a retired lawyer turned novelist, most recently from Texas, dealt with that question with a measure of success a week or so ago. Conventional angels are individuals who love film or theater or whatever and are willing to invest many thousands, perhaps millions of dollars in the project.
The Key West duo, noir crime novelist Jonathan Woods, who was celebrating his birthday, and native Quincy Perkins—affectionately dubbed Twisted Mister Murder and the Boy Wonder—are taking a different path. They pitched a film project to a couple of dozen folks, but they weren’t seeking just big bucks. They were urging wanna-be angels to go to Kickstarter.com, an innovative on-line race against time to fund a wide variety of endeavours. “Each and every Kickstarter project is the independent creation of someone like you,” the site announces. 851 projects in the film/video category were seeking funds. The film come-on asks, “What would you do if you ended up at a swingers party with two dead bodies and $20,000 in drug money?”
For the answer, Woods and Perkins ask interested Keys folk to go to the site (it’s the first project up if Key West is entered in the Cities space) and make a pledge. Near midnight Dec. 2, “Swingers Anonymous” was 42 percent funded, with $5110 pledged and only six days to go.
The project, not incidentally, is a 20-25 minute film based on Woods’s short story, titled – yep–“Swingers Anonymous.” Promo screenings have been warmly received, although technical difficulties quashed the presentation at the gathering hosted by artist/designer Debra Yates in her White Street home/studio. No matter. The guests appreciated Perkins’ two-minute film promo for “A Death in Mexico,” Woods’s latest pulp novel. Pressed, the author confessed that he’s never been to a swingers event; however, “I have a vivid imagination,” he explained.
As for Perkins, better known for turns on local stages as the boy ingénue and filming inspiring tales set in exotic places, his interests have expanded. “I love film noir,” he said.
To support a hometown project, visit kickstarter.com now. The Coconut Telegraph hinted at a big fundraising party tonight, but we lack details. For info phone Dahlia Woods at (214) 563-7523
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