Once we got the “Thwackers” pilot cut together we had a show, but it wasn’t really what we'd hoped for. We rushed things too much and there were certain elements we thought could be better. So rather than release it to the world we decided to use it as a selling tool. After all, web series were getting big and we had something to show! (PS - this is the last bit on the pilot, then I'll talk about the "Thwackers" you'll be watching right here!)
So off we went, cold-emailing people and trying to get the word out. I’d like to blame the “current economic crisis” but we learned that people just aren’t shelling out money for web-series yet. At all. There is still no guaranteed way to make money and unfortunately that’s what drives everything. We still had a lot of passion for the show but unfortunately it was just too costly to continue funding it ourselves (and when I “we” I mean Geoff). Sure, we could have put it out there and tried “The Guild” method of asking for fan donations to keep the show going but as I said, this wasn’t the show we wanted to release, and that’s the most important reason we decided not to. We rushed to make it and in the process the quality suffered. We knew we could do better.
Still, we had a lot of great people who put a lot of work into it. We held a screening for the cast and crew and a bunch of friends. There’s really nothing quite like seeing your work in front of an audience. There were a lot of laughs – we were very quickly able to see what worked and what didn’t. I think everyone appreciated being able to see it on the big screen – the screening was at Vancouver Film School – and it was good to get everyone together.
Now I should clarify that this pilot was definitely not a waste of time - we learned a lot. This was the first production we’d done together. We’ve all worked in the film industry for years and we all knew what needed to be done, but actually doing it yourself on the tightest budget you can imagine is a daunting task. But now we’d got our feet wet and we knew where we could do better. We learned where we could cut corners and where we need to spend more time. People say the best way to learn is to just do it and that’s entirely true.
Nearly a year had passed since Geoff and I first met to discuss making a web series and although we said we were starting over, it never felt like we were back at the beginning. We were now a tight group who’d learned a lot and gotten to know each other really well. And after a year, Geoff had more money to invest in the show. Now it might seem crazy to invest personal money in a project with no guaranteed return, but Geoff’s always been very passionate about this show. And since we now knew what we had to do differently, we knew we could do it cheaper but still make it better.
So after everything we’d done we realized that if we want to get “Thwackers” out there we’re going to have to do it ourselves - no sponsors, no funding - and this time we’re going to have to do it right.
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