Greetings to you! Founder and CEO here with another monthly report.
The heat is beyond officially here at Broken Hammer. Not only summer but our own crunch time preparing things for the crowd funding campaign. Months back I often wondered why it took so long for other devs to get their campaigns going. Many recommended to set aside 6 months to a year. For us, we just seemed to get things together rather quickly.
Our plan months ago was looking good. We had perk items picked out and a general idea of our goals. Then I had a meeting with Ryan my VP, who has been here since the founding, and we really picked it apart. Which made us realize, we needed to rethink a few things. It wasn't so much that our perk choices were bad but that some of them just weren't very optimal for not only ordering but shipping to backers.
Then it came down to matters of logos or art pieces and what was once a solid plan looked even less solid.
Rushing is never a good thing and so we elected to hold it back. During that time, Georgy got to work on a special piece for the campaign and the company management kicked it up a notch.
The month of June was really the culmination of a lot of those prior months. It was a humbling experience and we understood why other studios recommended taking so long on campaign formation.
Aside from solidifying our plan to a point we're all satisfied with it and are ready to go the next step, June was spent doing a lot of behind the scenes work. While we want to reuse some of our promo vid from back in January, we recognized the need for a new pitch vid to go with the campaign.
What was posted to our Facebook feed was a teaser of that.
You can pick up quite a few tricks hanging around a TV show or commercial set. Both Ryan and I have done some background work in the last year on sets. He's a major coordinator for Revolutionary War Re-Enactors out here in California. Which got him connections into Hollywood. Sometimes they like to fill backgrounds with re-enactors for a period piece and I needed to raise some money for the company. So it worked out.
While working in 100+F heat wasn't fun, nor fun being in freezing temperatures at night during a night shoot, it did show us a few things.
Granted our tools aren't pro grade and neither are our lights, but after getting some equipment that would help and ordering a green screen, it was just a matter of trial and error.
It really isn't easy getting the lighting to do what you want. Especially when shadows cause issues with the green screen and the recording software. Big props to people who do this for a living in Hollywood.
Aside from our effort getting it all set up, filming went good and you'll be seeing the video on our campaign page when it launches. You'll also get to see someone other than myself in a company vid as Ryan will be making an appearance. Honestly we would do more of them but our team members are spread out across the world so it's a little hard to do shoots.
Moving along from there, the art department has been focusing mostly the aforementioned campaign piece. Which has been shaping up nicely. Really can't speak highly enough of our artists. This was a task out of left field that they've risen to the occasion for and it is really looking good.
After that we have the music department which saw a bit more progress this month. Cody and Finbarr both churned out some great stuff and now it's just a matter of grafting it into the story.
Overall, this summer is shaping up to be very busy for us and we can't wait to see what it has in store. Production of course always moves forward. To make this dream a reality, we can't afford to stop moving.
I say that because, should all things continue following this course, look for our campaign to start in July. Likely not the beginning of the month due to the holiday here in the states. But before we launch we will be posting when so keep an eye on that Broken Hammer feed!
Till then, happy 4th of July to those here in the states!
