Why are we making a Kickstarter? And what does it mean for Patrons? (Patreon)

Hey Patrons!

You've probably seen the announcement already, we're doing a Kickstarter for 1 For All Season 4! Now some of you may be thinking, “Hey man, we’ve already been funding you here on Patreon, why are you making a Kickstarter too?” 

The reason why we've decided to go with this route, and not just continue funding through Patreon, is that making a show like ours is an expensive thing to do. We want to make it to the level and quality that you’ve come to expect from Season 3, but unfortunately that just isn’t feasible with our current funding situation.

Back in Season 1 we had no idea how the show was going to perform. We all had enough faith in the finished product that our actors and crew were happy to donate all our time and energy and passion to making it. We only had a few people on Patreon at the time, and while their generous help ensured we weren’t out of pocket for fabric materials and petrol money, no one was getting paid.

Once things started to really take off, things began to change. With support from our growing Patreon and YouTube revenue, we were able to start paying our cast and crew a small fee (less than you’d get from a shift at a normal day job) to continue to create. Unfortunately for us, the way the show was growing meant it required more work than any of us really had the time or money to prioritise over our day jobs. We’re talking pulling 17 hour work days here!

The Screen Australia funding was a game changer for us when it came to creating Season 3. With their help we were finally able to take on more people, and grow the team to make the workload more manageable. Thanks to them we were able to film in a single block and release the season over 12 consecutive weeks. 

Each episode of 1 For All is expensive. Between equipment, costumes, locations, props, make-up, and cast and crew wages, on average each episode costs around $20k-$30k to make, when people are paid for their work. At the moment our Patreon is only small, especially compared to some of the other fantasy filmmakers on YouTube, so it’s impossible to continue going at this rate without either taking on more sponsors (which we are trying to do) or significantly dropping the quality of each episode (which we really don’t want to do!)

Having a ‘lump sum’ of funding, like the Screen Australia funding, allows us to plan and create content in a way that ensures we are paying all of our hard-working team for their work, and ensuring a level of quality in the content you love. Our hope is that the Kickstarter will allow us to shoot our next season in much the same way, and keep creating work for our amazing team!

But back to you, our Patrons. We simply could not have come this far without you. Your contributions have meant that we can continue to create, no matter the adversities we have faced. The monthly income we have received from your generous subscriptions has helped us keep Deerstalker Pictures alive through multiple lockdowns, has helped fund episodes, and has kept us afloat. We wouldn’t be where we are without you, so this is why we want your input.

Your Patron contributions help us to keep running, covering our ongoing operational costs and keeping our core team in work. While the Kickstarter is a once-off funding goal, our Patreon runs month to month, and we appreciate every dollar that comes our way. We want to make sure that you feel that this platform is a worthwhile place to show your support, so what would you like to see from us?

Currently, we have some awesome content coming up for you including:

- More Q&As with Cast and Crew Members
- More Behind The Scenes peeks and content
- Additions to our Adventurer’s Pack collection including stats for iconic NPCs and additional character sheet pages for you to play in your home games

Whether you’d like to back our Kickstarter, or continue your support here, or do both, know that we are so incredibly grateful for every bit of support you have shown us, and continue to show. If there is something more you’d like to see, please let us know! We’d love to hear your feedback on how we can make this Patreon for you!

All our love,

Elliot, Goldie, and Eva