http://tinyurl.com/cohortskickstarter
If you can spread the word or even help contribute, I would be so grateful. There is also very cool things for those who give such as t-shirts, posters and an advance copy of the series. Thanks everyone!
About this project:
My name is Ele Nichols and I am an artist and a writer. A year ago, I created a character named Bailey Barker who is also known by his more popular alias, The Bowler. He's a British gentleman, with a hint of a Mr. Rogers type attitude towards life. He was born into wealth, but he isn't smug or arrogant. He is very much down to Earth, except for one very important feature; He always wears a mask across his face.
No one knows what he looks like underneath that dark shroud. At first appearance, you can't help but feel dread over what threat he might pose. Shortly after though, you realize this man doesn't have the ability to hurt a fly. Even sooner, you begin to forget this well dressed man is even wearing a mask at all. It becomes crystal clear; the mask is his face and you see whatever you want to see.
If you think that's all that is interesting about him, then you thought wrong. Bowler is a genius in many respects, but his ability to solve complex crimes are unmatched by any living or dead. While his methods are unknown, Bowler can unravel a crime before it happens. Many have labelled him a psychic, a fraud or even guilty of committing the crimes himself. The truth is though, he is none of these. He is a forecaster looking at the world and he sees the storms are coming.
Bailey has made a lot of enemies in his short time of putting away the worlds most evil and vile creatures to ever crawl out of a hole. To protect him is a young woman named Eliza "Dimes" Dixon. Hired by The Agency, to whom they both work for, her job is to protect Barker and to take care of any dirty work that may arise. Eliza has a complicated history and emerged from the criminal fraternity. She had a very successful criminal career until her world came shattering down and she lost everything.
For a short time, she's been trying to make terms with the past and find a way to move on with her life. She reluctantly accepted the position as Bowler's bodyguard. She thought it would possibly help make up for the mistakes of her youth. While she has no idea where the future is going, she knows for the mean time that she is staying exactly where she is. She's new to this world though and has no idea what she's in for. Her fighting skills and her deadly precession with sharp objects will be useful.
Their first assignment together is one for the record books. They have to save a woman from a serial killer at a certain address on an exact date. The problem is they don't know which woman their looking for, there is no proof that this serial killer is even real, the address they have doesn't exist and they don't know what time of day the crime is supposed to be committed. To make matters worse, they only have 3 days to get to the bottom of this or the blood of this victim could be on their hands.
To overcome these challenges, they will have to work together and push themselves beyond their limitations. It's a fight against time, doubt and disbelief. Not to mention that death and danger are always on the menu.
This epic story will presented as a Radio Theatre 2.0 Podcast. Why Radio Theatre? I believe radio theatre is the perfect medium for this story. I want to take an old idea and revolutionize it for a modern audience. Sound engineering has come a long way since the golden age or radio theatre. We have the ability to create a rich and fully textured world through an audio environment. This will allow the listener to imagine a world that they are apart of, putting them in the middle of the action.
While I will continue creating my artwork that will accompany every show, those images will help the audience picture these characters in greater depth than I could ever possibly present in a movie form. Also, there is a great love that still exists for radio theatre, but there are no serious productions being produced today. I want to change that. It's an ambitious effort, but one I and my team are full committed to seeing through.
Why a podcast? Many listeners are not tuning into radios anymore. Podcasting is modern broadcasting. Currently in the U.S., there are over 21 million active podcast listeners and that number is continually growing in massive quantities. The goal is to introduce a produced, high quality theatrical production for free to the podcast community.
In time when the audience grows, we will be able to offset any additional costs through sponsorship and donations. This will allow us to freely distribute this show to anyone who wants to listen. The immediate need though for this project is to gather funding so we can create the best production possible. That's where we need your help.
The story and the preparation is finished, what we need now is to build proper studio space to record our voice actors and to hire a professional music composer to score the show. We have already found the appropriate equipment and individuals for the job, now we need to pay for them.
We're looking for a minimum of $5000 which will let us begin to get the production in motion. We've already been selling t-shirts and artwork to help us with the cost of the show, but now we are asking you if you will help us with our vision. If were are able to raise this money, we can begin production by late November for an early 2012 release. If we receive more, we will expand the project and continue to produce more stories.
So far my friends and myself have invested everything we can to this project. We really want to make this happen and we will produce this show no matter what. To make it what we want it to be though, we just need your support to help us reach our budget.
Thank you for taking the time to read about this project. If you make any donation, you have our eternal gratitude for helping us make our dream into a reality.
Thank you all so much!
Ele Nichols & The ELUDED team.
