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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Topic started by: lifeschool on February 28, 2015, 01:28:28 PM

Title: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on February 28, 2015, 01:28:28 PM
Hi, My name is Dan and I'm just an Amiga fan like you. I thought you guys might like to know that a new documentary is in production about the Amiga, and so I'd like to share the info this group shared on their kickstarter page. If this post is in the wrong place, of course feel free to move it. I dont work for these guys so I'm not spamming, honest.
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on February 28, 2015, 11:28:20 PM
This is what they wrote on their kickstarter page:

Introduction


Welcome to our Kickstarter  campaign to produce From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years! A 90  minute feature documentary that will explore the influence of the  Commodore Amiga and how it took video game development, music and  publishing to a whole new level and changed the video games industry  forever!

We used Kickstarter to fund our previous film called  From Bedrooms to Billions that told the story of the UK video games  industry from 1979 to the present day and we are turning to it again now  in the 30th anniversary year of the release of the Commodore Amiga in  the hope that you will support us once again to produce a film that not  only celebrates this fantastic machine, but importantly what it did for  the video games industry and development in general due to the many  ground breaking games that appeared on it. It  is the Commodore Amiga and the era it represents which will be the key  focus and the reason we have titled the film The Amiga Years!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu_wD_0xzvA[/youtube]

The Story

We  will start with the origins, design and release of the Commodore Amiga  and the impact it had when first released. From then we will look at  where the worldwide games industry was just prior to the Amiga’s release  in 1985 and then how, once released, the challenges developers faced  creating for a 16-bit machine while still in many ways dealing with a  thriving market for 8-bit machines. We will look at elements such as  what happened as 8-bit was surpassed? How did the development teams grow  and why? Who were the key developers and what were the key game  releases? How did the business itself change for developers and  publishers and did the issue of piracy truly harm this era?

The  Commodore Amiga reset the previous boundaries, the very exploration of  what was possible in itself led to an incredibly important and  pioneering era where skilled developers were able to strive for new  innovations, set free by this incredible technology. We intend to  explore what these innovations were and the people behind them.

By  the late 1980’s and early 1990’s many countries around the world saw a  new wave of developers entering the video games industry, joining many  of those original pioneers to work to push video game creation even  further. Games from across the world were now readily available  everywhere and the UK was suddenly becoming a real global player  emerging truly out of its original cottage industry roots of the 8 bit  era.

The demo scene was bigger and more influential than ever,  having honed their skills in the limited 8-bit days, new machines such  as the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST combined with a rapidly expanding  and emerging ‘internet’ saw ‘sceners’ thanks to demos among other things  playing a major, crucial part in helping to grow the overall interest  of programming and video games.

Musicians really began to  flourish, significantly boosted by the flexibility and power of machines  such as the Commodore Amiga and we will hear how some of the most  iconic soundtracks were produced still in the days before CD music was  truly available in home video games.

The Magazine Industry for  the video games industry saw a whole new breed of Journalist come  through, though technically still in its infancy the video games  industry did now have a few years under its belt with established genres  of game now recognised and understood. These Journalists were fully  fledged fans and consumers themselves who had grown up through those  early years, seeing firsthand as those early game styles became  established. This understanding made them hungrier than anyone to see  and report about innovation as they saw it and The Amiga Years! era saw  some truly incredible innovations.

Making the original ‘From  Bedrooms to Billions’ allowed us to establish links right through the  video games industry both past and present. We always treated our  interviewees with respect to ensure we covered as much of their career  as possible and The Amiga Years! will allow us to go out and add so many  new names to our interview list in our quest to create films that are  as thorough, entertaining, nostalgic, but importantly as balanced as  they can possibly be!

(http://lifeschool.mikendezign.com/pix/am2.jpg)

Look and Feel

Our  previous film From Bedrooms to Billions used an ensemble approach to  tell the story, there was no voice-over, just the interviewees  themselves guiding the viewer through combined with a large number of  accompanying visuals such as archive footage, photos, magazines and  music. We want to continue this style but in addition branch off a  little with some new ‘hands on’ sequences where there are demonstrations  of set-ups and techniques to really help add to the overall story but  also enjoyment for the viewer.

From a filming perspective we  shot in full 1080p and aimed for a very high standard of visual  production on From Bedrooms to Billions, as we were conscious of the  amount of archive and of course video game footage we would need to use  so we aimed for an organic ‘in the lens’ feel for all the filmed  interviews, adding no green screen or visual effects other than simple  name plates and grading to the shots so that when we did cut to game  footage or archive it gave it more impact. For The Amiga Years! we will  insist on the same, everything to look as crisp and slick as possible.

In  addition as a huge amount of our work goes on the researching and  sourcing of archive video, film and TV footage, photos, magazines and of  course games, so we will keep to the same standards we insisted on for  From Bedrooms to Billions, we want to produce something memorable and  this is 100% our intention with The Amiga Years!

Release

Our  plan is to turn the film around and release it for January 2016. From  Bedrooms to Billions took more time due to the huge amount of research,  contacting and sourcing of archive and interviewees. However for The  Amiga Years! we have a huge head start on that due to how much work has  already been done so we aim to film all our new interviews by September  2015 with an intensive post-production of 16 weeks to follow.

We  will keep our backers regularly updated on progress right throughout  production of The Amiga Years! providing screen shots, clips and early  sequences along the way in our 'Backer Zone' just as we did before. This  was actually a highlight for us during our previous campaign because we  thoroughly enjoyed discussing and sharing sequences in the 'Backer  Zone' from the film with our backers.

The Target

We  want to turn the film around in less than 12 months and we have no  intention of running further campaigns so therefore the £50k is to make  all of the film, to the highest quality and then deliver it to all of  you.

The money is needed to pay for all the new filming, the  editing, sound mixing and design, plus all the post-production elements  that give the film that extra edge of quality. In addition during the  creation of From Bedrooms to Billions we extensively researched film and  video footage archives across the world and discovered a great deal of  rare footage, we would like to pay to license in more of this footage to  help complement and tell this story as well as also licensing in some  commercial music to help us give a flavor of the times the film is  largely set in.

Our sole purpose is to shoot, edit and produce a  new, standalone film with its own identity and character, any previously  shot footage will strictly be unseen and new plus any archive footage  and photos we research and use will be the best we can find, and the  trailer we have cut is meant to just give a flavor of our intentions.  The era of the Amiga is incredibly important so The Amiga Years! will be  fresh and new, with an individual style befitting such a remarkable  period!

As with our last film Blu-ray and DVD authoring is  professionally designed and included, surround audio, DTS, in addition  professionally mastered, replicated, high quality printing and  packaging, all the elements you would expect from a high quality  physical product.


(http://lifeschool.mikendezign.com/pix/am1.jpg)

Risks and challenges

We  have been producing professionally produced documentaries for nearly 15  years. Our last two motion pictures 'Burlesque Undressed' and 'From  Bedrooms to Billions' were released all over the world. Though complex  projects involving a great deal of filming in different countries we got  them completed and on budget. We are aware of many of the pitfalls,  especially when dealing with budgets and schedules and we like to think  we don't compromise on quality.

Our previous film raised a lot  more on Kickstarter than we asked for so we put that extra budget right  back into the film and delivered an extra hour of content for 'all' our  backers. In addition we believe in running an open handed campaign, when  people write to us there is no corporation or person in-between, the  response comes back from us as our backers were (and still are)  incredibly special to us both.

See  Kickstarter Page Here (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1195082866/from-bedrooms-to-billions-the-amiga-years)
Pledge  on Kickstarter Here (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1195082866/from-bedrooms-to-billions-the-amiga-years/pledge)
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 04, 2015, 03:13:14 PM
Just a quick update on this:

819 backers
£32,613 pledged of £50,000 goal
65% funded - £17,387 to go
24 days to go

This has been a terrific first week.

PLEASE DO drop a note in the comments of the kickstarter page to give a big shout out to Amiga.org and the community. They are read!

Thanks a lot gang!
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: klx300r on March 04, 2015, 07:28:48 PM
hope it meets its goal. thanks for the update!
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: spaceman88 on March 04, 2015, 07:44:35 PM
Sounds interesting, would like to see it.
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: Venkman on March 04, 2015, 09:49:04 PM
If it's as good as their previous documentary, it should be very interesting.
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: Vlabguy1 on March 04, 2015, 10:17:24 PM
Quote from: lifeschool;785814
Just a quick update on this:

819 backers
£32,613 pledged of £50,000 goal
65% funded - £17,387 to go
24 days to go

This has been a terrific first week.

PLEASE DO drop a note in the comments of the kickstarter page to give a big shout out to Amiga.org and the community. They are read!

Thanks a lot gang!


Coolness..
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 06, 2015, 08:56:22 PM
Stretch Goals Announced!
(https://d15chbti7ht62o.cloudfront.net/assets/003/394/356/c264580ae5ef0a97ff0e7f1b13cc6835_large.jpg?1425656025)


Newsletter 6 March

Quote
Dear all,

Due to your incredible support our funding goal is insight after only 7 days! It is wonderful to know that so many people also share our vision in producing this film.

Thank you to all of you who have so generously supported us so far. We have therefore decided to announce some stretch goals so that you can all see our plan for where (should we exceed our initial target) we would use extra funds. The key for us is the production of more content, not just within the film itself but also in the creation of bonus content such as game makings of, extended interviews, and other individual features that add extra insight into the creation of the Amiga itself, specific games, soundtracks and further expansion into subjects such as the Demo scene, journalism and many more.

The extra content we produced for our previous film ‘From Bedrooms to Billions’ has proved very popular so the more funding we receive will only go into creating more content including licensing more archive footage and really expand on the material to make it the very best we can!

We have decided to keep things simple that any stretch goals we hit all backers benefit from, apart from a couple exclusive to the physical formats (DVD/Blu-ray) specific items like commentaries, photo galleries and the 12-page inlay booklet, but in all other cases everyone gets the same. Our core desire is we would rather make you as much content as you want to see, there it is only going to be one version of this project, so if you want us to ultimately make 5 hours’ worth of high quality, professionally produced content then please help us use these last remaining days to make that happen as our aim is to make a memorable and lasting feature film on the Amiga.

We've thought long and hard about the other items in the stretch goals and decided to think like collectors, what would we want? Therefore we decided to again keep it simple, unique but also high quality. The bouncing ball badge won’t be cheap plastic, but high quality, high shine metal, with a proper metal pin. The 4 x postcards will be high quality glossy A6 containing the original Amiga Years! concept art by Oliver Frey as well as the finished piece of art.

And finally what can we say about the Floppy Disc Beer Mat? Rare and double sided (of course). Well we call it a beer mat but it’s perfect for any types of liquid based drinking products as well of course water. We could employ an 1980’s style model to produce a photo of how to put a drink down on it but we have a feeling you get the point! The truth is it is something we want on our desk, same as the thinking behind the metal bouncing ball badge and post cards.

However ultimately, if funded we want to get on and make as much content as we can to the same quality as our previous backers would expect.

Please help us tell as many people about The Amiga Years! campaign and help us to make the most memorable, in-depth and lasting production we possibly can!

The key point to get across are elements such as the specially designed Oliver Frey cover will never be available again, as well as all the other backer only items we have available.

Please share the campaign's link whenever you can;

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1195082866/from-bedrooms-to-billions-the-amiga-years

Please help us raise as much as possible during this one single campaign and allow us to move forward from the start with the best budget possible to produce the very best film we can.

Thank you so much again for all your support and please take a look below at the stretch goals we have devised. Also on the main Campaign site you can see examples of the Oliver Frey DVD and Blu-ray cases and also the fantastic unique slip case!

Best wishes!

Ant & Nic
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 06, 2015, 09:09:11 PM
Yes, if this is half as good as their original documentary, it will be great.

There is so much to cover with the Amiga, just take the PD sector for example; from Alien Fish Finger to 9 Fingers; from Icon Paint to AmiDoom.  Just this one subject could take up a movie, but thats not to say Paula will be ignored, or live music and video, or games and business software, paint and simulators, and the whole subject of Amigas in the workplace - including running the U.S Cable TV networks, and operating the space shuttle.*  Whether any of this makes it into the doco is anyones guess.

* - They said it was because an Amiga could cycle a reboot in seconds while a PC would be still rebooting as the craft plummeted to earth. The Amiga was also small and compact inside the shuttle, and could output display to any TV or readout device.  Ok, I'm not saying Amigas ran the whole of the Space Shuttle!, just some of the important bits. ;) They also used Amigas in the Tracking centres and in Launch Control:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAPD9HA8Unw
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on March 06, 2015, 09:44:12 PM
There were no Amiga's actually used *on* the space shuttles, but yeah.  Still a cool video.  :)

:hammer:
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: Vlabguy1 on March 07, 2015, 01:00:20 AM
Quote from: lifeschool;785903
Stretch Goals Announced!
(http://lifeschool.mikendezign.com/pix/stretch.jpg)


Newsletter 6 March




DM sent.

Thanks
Rich
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: alphadec on March 07, 2015, 11:48:13 AM
What happens if you don't reach £50.000 ?
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 07, 2015, 04:43:17 PM
Latest update, and this is perhaps close to the end of the first week.

980 backers
£37,896  pledged of £50,000 goal
£12,104 to go to first goal.
  21 days to go

I dont think there is any doubt this will be funded.

Viva Amiga got $29,656 for their movie, this movie has already gone way beyond this.

The  movie WILL be made even if the current kickstarter doesnt hit the  minimum mark (somehow), as they can launch a kickstarter every 30 days  until they get the minimum cash they need, so thats no issue. :)

If they keep getting funded at the current rate, e.g. 38k per week, thats 152,000k in four weeks, and they are only asking £115k for a 5 hour movie!
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: motrucker on March 08, 2015, 05:05:48 AM
You know I am behind you, and this project. Good to see you over here too.
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 09, 2015, 05:56:18 PM
Good to see you mo. I put a new more movies into the lemon all-time classic movies database. I never thought my hobby thread would be so fun.

Speaking of which, we passed the first Sunday last night, and went over the 1000 backers!

Well done everyone. :D

Where will be three more Sundays, the last being the final day.

1,097 backers
£41,458 pledged of £50,000 goal
8.5k to first goal
19 days to go
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: motrucker on March 10, 2015, 06:03:45 AM
Quote from: lifeschool;786070
Good to see you mo. I put a new more movies into the lemon all-time classic movies database. I never thought my hobby thread would be so fun.

Speaking of which, we passed the first Sunday last night, and went over the 1000 backers!

Well done everyone. :D

Where will be three more Sundays, the last being the final day.

1,097 backers
£41,458 pledged of £50,000 goal
8.5k to first goal
19 days to go

I am really glad to hear that everything is going well. I'll have to see if I can scrape together some money to try to help the bottom line. I am finally starting to change my mind about kickstarter.
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 11, 2015, 02:23:02 PM
GREAT NEWS! :D

Newsletter 11th March 2015
Quote
   
Hi everyone,

We're staggered that we're almost funded before reaching the halfway point of the campaign. Thank you to every backer for showing such support. As we explained in the last update we announced the stretch goals because making more content would be fantastic, as it is better to fill the disc(s) with as much content as possible especially as we'll be capturing so much extra material while we film.

Being nearly funded before reaching the halfway point means we have a realistic chance of getting enough funding to make so much more content.

You have also taken the time to make some great suggestions to us for further perks, so we are pleased to announce 3 of them!


MAGNETIC FIELDS SIGNED BUNDLE!!

(http://lifeschool.mikendezign.com/pix/sc2.jpg)

First off is the Magnetic Fields signed Amiga 500 bundle, a boxed fully working Amiga, games and posters all signed by Magnetic Fields founders Shaun Southern and Andrew Morris. Only 5 available of what is a highly rare and exclusive collection featuring one of the key Amiga developers so click the kickstarter link below to read more!


MEET AMIGA HEROES!

In addition several of you have written to suggest that after our highly successful premiere of From Bedrooms to Billions in London last year to do something similar for the Amiga Years! Therefore we have tickets for you and a partner available for the London Premiere of the film  (which includes the VIP bar prior and after the screening), but also a limited number of tickets available for the Premiere Dinner where we intend for at least 3 members of the film's cast to be present and sitting at the same table. Please so click the kickstarter link below to read more!

Your feedback has been excellent and we are trying our best to make this a fun and open campaign so please feel to suggest more ideas either here or just email us at b2b@graciousfilms.com

We hope you like these 3 new perks and thank you all for getting us so near the target in such a short time, the closer we get the more we are starting to believe this film is going to happen; and we intend to do the most thorough, complete and importantly enjoyable campaign we possibly can!

We really need you to share this campaign and spread the word wherever you can as it really does make that difference. We only have 18 days to go so please share this link and tell anyone who may be an Amiga fan that this film needs their support;

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1195082866/from-bedrooms-to-billions-the-amiga-years

Best wishes,

Ant & Nic


1,180 backers
£45,121 pledged of £50,000 goal
17.5 days to go.
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 12, 2015, 05:03:31 PM
Newsletter 12 March

Quote
Hi everyone,

A big thank you is in order for all of you tonight because we smashed through the £50k mark in less than 13 days and have reached our initial funding target. Thanks to your belief and support we have a realistic chance of hitting the stretch goals!

We are going to use these last 17 days to go for those stretch goals to create more content and let's be honest we all want to get one of those beer mat floppies!

We know there's more than 1,000 Amiga fans out there we just have to find them and tell them about what we're all trying to achieve here. So please share the Kickstarter link to at least one other person, tell anyone you think maybe a fan of the Amiga because there is so much we can do if we can open up for more content. If each backer brought just one new backer in each (doubling our backer numbers) then Nic and I will be filling two discs for you (or 5 hours if you're a digital backer)  

Link as always to share is; http://t.co/kMrIEiiMU2



Bitmap Bonanza!

(http://lifeschool.mikendezign.com/pix/bitmaps.jpg)

Also we have the pleasure in announcing a Bitmap Brothers Signed Amiga Bundle! This is Bitmap Co-founder Mike Montgomery and legendary artist Dan Malone signing a boxed and working Amiga 500 plus copies of Speedball II, Chaos Engine and glossy A2 Posters. Very highly sought after collectible items there and our thanks to those guys for offering to help. Having spoken to them both only recently they are really pleased this film is now going to get made.

Thank you all for believing and backing, we are going to try and come up with more items and bits and pieces along the way. We like running open and fun campaigns (otherwise what's the point) so keep the suggestions and comments coming. However for tonight please give yourselves a firm pat on the back for getting this film funded. For Nicola and I we now know for certain it's 'Game On!'

Best wishes,

Ant & Nic

Moderators note, since this newsletter was launched this morning, all the Bitmaps Bundles have now GONE!  So this post is a bit redundant. But its great they are moving towards the first stretch goal. :)

1,214 backers
£52,197 pledged of £65,000 first large stretch goal
16 days to go
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 14, 2015, 07:30:03 PM
Well, they put in some more Amiga Bundles and there are just a couple left.
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: Duce on March 15, 2015, 01:27:11 AM
Nice to see they have made their goal!
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 15, 2015, 03:35:21 PM
Yes, but worryingly, now the project is over the initial fund level, contribs have fallen off.  
 
1,332 backers
£56,120 pledged of £65,000 stretch goal
13 days to go
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: Iggy on March 15, 2015, 05:15:12 PM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;785910
There were no Amiga's actually used *on* the space shuttles, but yeah.  Still a cool video.  :)

:hammer:

Actually, the space shuttle's design was so old that some components used 8 bit processors.
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 16, 2015, 03:37:47 PM
Quote
Hi all,

This weekend we hit our first stretch goal, a postcard of the cover art for all backers, and at time of writing we're very close to the second stretch goal of you all receiving the full set of 4 x post cards.

Thank you for supporting us and taking the time to write so many messages. If any of you have further perk ideas please let us know as we're gearing up now for a final push to hit those stretch goals where we produce more content for all of you!

It makes such a difference when you share and spread the word, there are only a few days left now so please take a moment to tell as many people as you can and share this link; http://t.co/kMrIEiiMU2

If you all can find just one person before the end of the campaign it would double our current backers which means we'll be making a lot of content for you all!

In addition have a look back over the perks we currently have, we have ultra rare Magnetic Fields and Bitmaps Bros signed games, posters and hardware, there's Oliver Frey signed material as well. Plus you will see we have put up the picture of the Oliver Frey limited cardboard sleeve for the DVD and Blu-ray copies containing the pre-order only covers, never to be created by us again as we will only do one production run!

Please see updated stretch goal chart below and we'll update the one on the front of the campaign.

Thank you all so much for your continued support!

Best wishes,

Ant & Nic


1,360 backers
£56,288 pledged
12 days to go
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 18, 2015, 01:56:08 PM
update

Quote
hi all,

we had to update quickly with this because we are very excited to announce 4 new perks today, plus thanks to many suggestions from you a new amiga legends signed postcard set.


new amiga bundles!
we have some very limited signed amiga 500 bundles, games, a2 posters and postcards!

bundles:
Team 17 (alien breed & super frog) [1 left]
martin edmondson (shadow of the beast trilogy) [2 available]
charles cecil & dave gibbons (beneath a steel sky) [2 available]
dino dini (kick off & goal). [2 available]
+
bitmap brothers (chaos engine/ speedball 2) [1 left]
magnetic fields signed amiga bundle [sold out!]

please check out the campaign here to learn more; http://t.co/kmrieiimu2


[SIZE=14]signed 4 x a6 postcard packs![/SIZE]
we are delighted to announce new packs of 4 x a6 high quality glossy signed postcard sets available only for backers. Whatever pledge you are currently on if you want these (see below) simply increase your pledge by £40 for signed (pack of 4) or £10 for unsigned (pack of 4) then send us a message stating which game/developer pack you want at b2b@graciousfilms.com (b2b@graciousfilms.com)

this is a rare opportunity to grab some iconic gaming history from your amiga heroes while helping us in our push towards our stretch goals to create more content!

Autographs include: Bitmap brothers and dan malone, team 17 and alistair brimble, charles cecil and dave gibbons, martin edmondson, legend of football dino dini, and lets not forget magnetic fields!

see postcards here! (https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/003/454/788/002741a39b44d84c4e2a815998af0751_original.jpg?v=1426602782&w=700&h=&fit=max&auto=format&q=92&)

please note for physical customers these postcards will be included with your copy of the film, however for digital customers please add an additional £2.00 for postage and packing!

we are getting some wonderful people coming to us daily with great ideas for perks who like you very much want this film to be the very best it can be. There is little over a week left so please help us go for those stretch goals, please share the campaign wherever possible or give into temptation and grab those perks or signed postcards as it all makes a difference.

see stretch goals! (https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/003/448/222/e3dc7a3295d9fce1e7b7c7797cb5e282_original.jpg?v=1426518143&w=700&h=&fit=max&auto=format&q=92&)

thanks as ever for your wonderful support!

Please check out the campaign here to learn more; http://t.co/kmrieiimu2

best wishes!

Ant & Nic
  1,405 backers

   £60,006 pledged of £50,000 goal  

    10 days to go

NOTE: when I inserted the blerb above, this forum decided to make all the characters lower-case. Do PARTICIPATE! :)
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: cobale on March 19, 2015, 12:47:10 AM
hi i just pledged for this project !
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: anachronicus on March 19, 2015, 02:05:59 AM
I'm in as well. :)
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: pixie on March 19, 2015, 09:38:38 PM
I wonder if such projects wouldn't be the best way to fund open source projects such as from power2people (http://www.power2people.org/projects/overview/).
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 24, 2015, 02:58:40 PM
Quote
New Interviews Announced + DICE (Pinball) Perk


Hi all,  

We drafted this last night as we wanted to let you know about some great production elements that have occurred in recent days and then woke up to see we had gone over 1,700 backers and are very close to our fifth stretch goal, so thank you so much for that and a big welcome to all the new backers!

Production update

As some of you may already be aware we have decided to now include English subtitles and English Hard of Hearing subs for both digital and physical versions of the film regardless of where we end up. This is testament to how useful the Kickstarter comments and messaging system is. Very good reasoning and suggestions from you and we went off and found a way. The other languages will have to remain where they are in the stretch goals, but if we reach them then the entire disc (including download) will have all those languages throughout.

New Interviewees!  

As many of you know we already have locked down a lot of people, but this week we are very pleased to announce many new interviews to be filmed which include RJ Mical, Chris Huelsbeck, Tim Wright and 'Flashback' creator Paul Cuisset, expect more news soon!

Also slightly different from our original film we seem to be almost accidentally causing developer reunions, entire teams are coming back together to be interviewed or share the experience. This will see Team 17, Magnetic Fields, Sensible Software, Bitmap Bros all come back together.

Also only today in fact the four founders from Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment, or DICE as they’re also known as, Fredrik Liljegren, Andreas Axelsson, Markus Nyström and Olof Gustafsson came on-board to be interviewed.


NEW PERK!

PINBALL TRILOGY (signed) The four DICE founders have also very generously donated 3 signed Pinball trilogy game bundles (Amiga versions) to help with our campaign, those games are; Pinball Dreams, Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions, along with 4 specially designed DICE postcards and a high quality glossy Pinball Dreams A2 poster, all items signed by Fredrik, Andreas, Markus and Olof. Please grab one as there are only 3 available!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1195082866/from-bedrooms-to-billions-the-amiga-years

POSTCARDS PICTURE HERE! (https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/003/476/729/7d8dee9bbb6e16260892fdc9666e2e95_original.jpg?v=1426948286&w=700&h=&fit=max&auto=format&q=92&)

Now that also means we can add the DICE postcards to the collection (top row of image below), you can either increase your pledge by £10 (unsigned) or £40 (signed) to receive the DICE Postcards, or of course any of the other developer postcards also shown below, and you can have as many sets as you wish while they're still available!

Thank you for your continued support for our film, especially now we’re pushing for those stretch goals, we want to make that extra content for you along with all the other elements we have listed. And as a side note it would be wonderful during shooting the film this summer to be putting a nice cold lager down on that floppy beermat! We only came up with it because we want one…what does that tell you about the two of us! However if we do end up putting a lager down on it then it means we’re making a lot of content for you which would be wonderful.

And Finally…

We would also love for you to share with us a picture of you and your Amiga setup. We will need pictures for the main film which ideally (if you have any) are taken from back in the day (80’s and 90’s) but also we are just as interested to see any pictures of your current Amiga setup.

We did this with our original film ‘From Bedrooms to Billions’ and some ended up in the main film and in addition we love hearing any anecdotes and stories that may be linked to the setup shown in your photo. Martin Edmondson told us once that during making Shadow of the Beast he slowed the disc speed down by gluing a piece of a cornflakes packet to the disc giving them extra write ability to the disc which helped the game development. We love stories like this, we are in that kind of ‘knowledge soaking’ period right now so nothing will be wasted and we’ll read it all…plus we have the feeling we’re going to hear some pretty amazing things.

Please post the images, stories or both to either our Facebook page ‘From Bedrooms to Billions’, or our twitter @frombedrooms, the Kickstarter comments or messages or just email us at b2b@graciousfilms.com (b2b@graciousfilms.com). Any that we end up using for the film we will need to credit you so please made sure we get that info (even if you email it privately separately) so we can keep track.

We like to support others where we can so please cast your eyes towards the very fine Amiga musician Dave Lowe (composer, Elite II: Frontier, Starglider and many others) who is running a great Kickstarter project to rework some of his fantastic music. Kickstarter is perfect for talent like Dave and allow him to find his audience so please take a moment to check it out here; https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/278860000/uncle-art-elite-ii-orchestral-and-retrogaming-musi

Thank you all again, we have only 5 days! left to go so please continue to share our project wherever you can by using this link; http://t.co/kMrIEiiMU2

Best wishes and thank you for believing in us!

Ant & Nic


-----------
PHWAA!!, we're getting close now!
 
4.5 days to go (including today) and we are just a little over 9K short.  
 
WOW!  Lets keep this going. (http://www.lemonamiga.com/forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif)
 
1,723 backers
£70,778 pledged of £80,000 stretch goal
4 days to go
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 24, 2015, 05:09:55 PM
4th Stretch Goal Reached - Photo Gallery!

Quote
Hi all,

We are very pleased to announce that we have reached the 4th Stretch goal!!, allowing us to add a photo gallery to the DVD and Blu-ray version of 'The Amiga Years!'

We plan to document the film production itself so intend to take lots of photos during the filming so the very best of these will form a photo gallery to go onto the DVD and Blu-ray so thank you every one of you for your support in getting the project to yet another goal.

Developer Postcards

If you are not aware of these please look at the front of the campaign here Many of you are raising your pledges to take advantage of the developer postcards, thank you for that, a very common questions is can you have more than one? The short answer is of course yes! To get one set or more just raise your pledge £10 (unsigned) or £40 (signed) per set, we won't be doing them again so you have a few days left if you still would like to help us in our bid to reach those stretch goals.

Extra Content...

We have noticed a couple of messages on the boards wondering why we are putting 'items' such as badges or Oliver Frey postcards before extra footage. The short answer to this is we didn't. We actually budgeted out the extra content first as that is our priority.

As filmmakers we want to make as much content for you as possible, especially while we're actually working on the film itself. Once we knew how much it would cost to produce those extra minutes we then added items such as badges and postcards simply to go in-between to help us reach those extra content goals. To produce an extra 30-mins of properly made content, let alone an hour is a lot of work to do it properly. You can't just run interviews on for an extra 30 or 60 mins it has to be woven into the main narrative, structured and mixed in with everything else, sound mixing, grading, overlays, extra archive footage to be licensed in if needed to help reinforce those new narratives, all the elements you would expect in a properly made documentary film.

The fun perks are in-between those extra content goals simply because there were 'gaps' in-between and we wanted to make the steps more gradual. Those items such as badges, postcards, even the floppy beermats are items we thought about, items we would want, and they are there simply to help us raise funds to reach our main goals, which is always first and foremost the production of as much material as we can.  However we decided that if we were making items such as the badge it would be unique and well made, not plastic but metal, something that would last and be remembered as part of this campaign!

And yes...even the floppy beermat!

Wherever we end up, we're going to do the best work we can for you all!

Please use these last few days to spread the word, 1,700 Amiga fans out there have pledged which is fantastic, hopefully there's still a few more Amiga fans out there.

Help us find them, spread the word and share the link; http://t.co/kMrIEiiMU2

Best wishes,

Ant & Nic
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 24, 2015, 05:13:59 PM
(https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/003/480/421/a07476685674e1c56cc3b93c125080d3_original.jpg?v=1427024654&w=700&h=&fit=max&auto=format&q=92&)
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 25, 2015, 04:56:35 PM
**COME TO 1ST PREVIEW SCREENING!**

Quote
Hi all,

A few backers have written to us with a very good idea which should be both a lot of fun and a very useful way to help reach our stretch goals.

For our last film we showed a very early ‘rough cut’ of the film at a cinema and many backers came along joined by several cast members from the film. Then afterwards we had a Q&A session on stage where the audience could discuss the film.

Creatively we found this not only highly enjoyable but also very useful to the film itself as some very useful points were made, some of which helped us in our final editing sessions before the film was finished. There was also a bar and afterwards many stayed behind to have a drink (or two) with ourselves and cast members, still talking about the film.

Therefore after several of you have written suggesting this again we have decided to this time offer the opportunity to all of you now. We will hold an early preview screening of ‘The Amiga Years! At a cinema in London. It will be a fantastic opportunity for you to see an early cut of the film before it’s completion in the company of the Directors and some of the film cast and then take part in a Q&A session and join us for a drink afterwards at the bar. Anyone present will also receive an exclusive 'one off' VIP press pack commemorating the event!

If you would like to be part of the film making process itself simply increase your pledge by £95. We have decided to not limit this for the time being as we want to see what the interest is like as obviously we can hire a bigger cinema if needed. You may buy more than one ticket, obviously slide your pledge up per number of tickets you may want.

At time of writing we are just £7.5k away from hitting £80k. Hitting it means we would be giving you 2.5 hours of content, so out of 1,800 backers if just 75 of you decided to come along to this wonderful ‘Amiga' event in London, get a unique press pack and be the first to see an early cut of the film along with cast members and ourselves we would hit that goal!

We hope to see you there!  

Best wishes,  

Ant & Nic

This is nail biting stuff, and with only 3 days to go, I am starting to feel worried its not going to make the 2.5 hour cut.

1,770 backers
£72,693 pledged of £80,000 stretch goal
3 days to go
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 26, 2015, 01:32:32 PM
SIXTY NINE DUDE!!
 
69 Hours to go!
 
1,830 backers
£74,127 pledged of the £80,000 2.5 hour stretch goal
69 hours to go! (http://www.lemonamiga.com/forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif)
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 27, 2015, 05:50:33 PM
I've been watching the total climb today and its like a life-bed vigil. :D

1,977 backers
£79,282 pledged of £80,000 stretch goal
41 hours to go
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: paul1981 on March 28, 2015, 05:53:54 PM
Backed!

 :pint:
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 28, 2015, 06:34:23 PM
I just heard the devs have secured more items; such as Factor 5 huge wall mount collages and signed Signed Turrican Anthology CDs from Chris Hulsbeck.

The backers post is too long to re-post here, and has lots of pictures too, so here's a link.

Latest Backers Newsletter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1195082866/from-bedrooms-to-billions-the-amiga-years/posts/1181073
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: hishamk on March 28, 2015, 06:54:06 PM
Backed!
Title: Re: From Bedrooms to Billions: The Amiga Years!
Post by: lifeschool on March 29, 2015, 04:20:41 PM
Quote
hi all,

Well we did it, you have believed in us and this film and we will put all our efforts in to make the best possible film for you all, of that we assure you!

(http://lifeschool.mikendezign.com/pix/speed.jpg)

We are a little shattered this morning, as i'm sure some of you are...especially those who tracked the progress of the floppy beer-mat which we are very happy to say we also secured.

Please see below the final stretch goal progress chart, it has been an incredible last 72 hours and ticked off quite a few that will really make this project special. So please let's all rest up, and pat ourselves on the back because we've got work to do...well we have...you just get to watch!

final progress chart here (https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/003/521/743/776119a19b4e7d1f067e6e24c3e9e0d2_original.jpg?v=1427621919&w=700&h=&fit=max&auto=format&q=92&)

thank you!

best wishes,

ant & nic
:D :D :roflmao: