Big Patreon Facelift, and a tough reality

Hello, supporters. New and old -- thank you all so much for contributing to my work. I may have expressed an unprecedented employment appeal in my latest project, but the reality is -- every day I have a dream job made possible by all of you.

We got our latest price quote, and it made me choke a little bit. Just as expensive as the Shuttle film. I am pretty surprised, and I unfortunately think this really forces me to make a decision I was hoping to delay until at least the project after this next one.

We have, for lack of a better phrase, picked all of the 'low hanging fruit' of the space program. All those areas where heavy interest already exists, and much digitization has already been done -- are over. It's going to get harder to make the kinds of films I'd like to make as we branch out to wider subjects. I'm talking about Skylab, I'm talking about early Shuttle, and I'm talking about Mir. Surveyor to Pioneer to Mariner, to even Soviet footage.

We've gobbled up the easy stuff, and we've hit a bit of a brick wall in terms of funding. I hate to say it, but $3,500 might be the 'new normal'. Of course, I am doing everything in my power to limit this, and I am seriously considering cutting some of these reel requests and leaning more on CGI, but I know how a lot of you feel about overreliance on CGI and trust me, I feel the same way.

So, I've launched a PayPal and given the Patreon a facelift, adding new, higher tiers to 'boost' funding. There is ONE fundamental change: Raw footage is being recategorized into a higher funding tier. I don't imagine this is a very popular choice. However, to soften the blow -- I am doing two things that I hope you will find very reasonable.

#1: For this next video, which is Project Mariner, you will all be given special one-off consideration that will include the ENTIRETY of your contributions to this channel during the full history of your support. This means lots of you who, after many months of $5 contributions, will be grouped in the $100+ category and will be named in the "Special Thanks" if you wish. (Of course, I will respect anyone who wishes to remain anonymous). This is being done as a grandfather clause as we transition to the new model.

#2: Going forward, once Mariner is published -- Your reward tier will be determined by the total sum of your contributions between publishing dates. For example, if it takes me 3 months to complete the next video, and you are in the $10 reward tier for 3 months, you will qualify for the $30 tier rewards by the time that video is out. This incentivizes me to work efficiently, although I do reserve the right to pause contributions if, for any reason, 'life' kicks in and I need to take a month off. As always, I will not charge you on months I am not able to make the next film.

I am willing to give this enterprise a try at 'full-time output'. I would absolutely love the chance to produce a video like the one we just had as often as 3x per calendar year. Our humble channel would become a genuine digitization machine.

Think about it: All these decades of film reels collecting dust, and our little operation blows the doors wide open, and brings our space program history back into the limelight in a way nobody else is doing anywhere in the world. That's a pretty cool thought. I love seeing this footage for the first time in HD, and there's nothing more H.D. than Homemade Documentaries.

I will be posting MONTHLY fundraising progress so you can all see exactly how much we've raised for the next film through both Patreon and PayPal.

We will see what happens. I am eternally grateful to all of you.

For those of you who would prefer to use PayPal, here is the link:

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/HomemadeDocs

I'll see you next time with a script.

Jackson