FSU Spark Overview from FSU Film School Class of 2014 on Vimeo.
Our facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/ThesisFundraiser2014
Our Tumblr page - filled with behind the scenes photos, updates, & director profiles - to give you sense of who we are! http://supportfsufilm2014.tumblr.com/
A wise man once said, “It is difficult to begin without borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow men to have an interest in your enterprise.” That, in essence, is what the 2014 BFA Thesis Crowd Funding Campaign is all about. It is about the simultaneous writing of our final scripts and life-chapters as students of Florida State University. After three years of working, learning, and collaborating together in the exhausting/frustrating/exciting/invigorating process that is filmmaking, 53 filmmakers band together for one final summer to bring a close to their FSU Film School career. With your support, you are helping us to make our visions a reality.
On the surface level, it is all very numerical. 53 student-filmmakers have 12 weeks to make 31 thesis films. While making our own films, we are simultaneously working on each other’s. 13+ hour days are spent hauling equipment, finding logistics, and creating worlds. After a 2-day turnaround we embark on the next show, the cycle renewing itself. Most think we are insane. We like to call it passion.
You may be asking yourself, “Where do I fit into all of this?” Well, filmmaking is expensive. To bring our blurry daydreams into existence, we are going to need your help! The BFA Class of 2014 is attempting to raise $25,000 to help cover the expense of making our films. All donations will be split evenly among thesis directors, paying for the abundant number of production costs: craft services, meals for crew, paying actors, equipment rentals, production design, costume, makeup, special effects, etc.
Your donation doesn’t simply mean you are helping to fund our thesis projects. No, it means something much more. Through your donation, you are giving us the chance to tell our stories. You are serving as the spark that will ignite our voices, the spark that feeds the passion that burns within us. You are the spark that illuminates possibilities that would not be available without your financial support.
So why this fundraiser? It seems like everywhere you look someone is raising money for something. As a donor you want to know that your donation is going toward something special. Most crowd funding campaigns are for a single project coordinated by a small group of people (often times one person). This campaign is different. A donation to our campaign is going to 53 different students creating 31 unique films. A donation to our campaign is going directly to student filmmakers who are being educated at one of the top film schools in the nation that is not all; a donation to our campaign is going to two different FSU Film School degree programs: Production and the brand new Digital Arts and Animation. As a donor, you can rest assured that your gift is going to a group of well educated, talented, passionate, and driven filmmakers who have one goal: tell stories.
To us, filmmaking isn’t a right but a privilege, a privilege to make fantasy into reality for all. We will spend this summer building realities from nothing, and we ask you to be a part of our journey. Any amount helps, be it $1 or $500. Many small donations amount to larger sums; our class is an example of that. While we are all individuals with our own voices, together we make something extraordinary. Together we are working towards something that you can be a part of. Thank you for helping us tell our stories!