Hey everyone. It’s been a long, long time. There’s good news and bad news. You deserve an apology, an explanation, and an update. Let’s start with the difficult part.
I’m sorry. I’m genuinely, personally sorry the project has stalled, dragged, and taken so much longer than anyone ever anticipated. You supported this, and you deserved better.
I wrote a long version of the ugly story, detailing the many roadblocks and challenges faced (including an extortion attempt). But in the end, the details don’t really matter. It comes down to this: The project stalled because our team failed. After crowdfunding, we began filming, and it became clear that the Life on Bitcoin team didn’t all have the same vision. We also didn’t communicate well, we weren’t aligned on responsibilities and delegation, and we were naive about the lengths necessary to complete and distribute a feature documentary.
As the project dragged, tensions rose, and the scope sprawled. The production company hired for the project stopped making progress. Individual team members left for other projects. This was a long term venture, and they felt the imperative to pay immediate bills. Most of the team (including Beccy) have full time jobs. The core team dwindled to just a couple of us, hustling to try to get it all done and released. In the end, I (Austin) am the last one working on this. It’s not a comfortable position to be in. I alone didn’t have the skills to complete most of what needed doing over the last year, and the budget had already been spent in production. But my face and name are all over this project, with thousands of dollars contributed from thousands of backers. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t have the option of walking away.
With what little budget was left, I hired an independent editor and worked to complete the film. And we did finish it. And as the people who’ve seen it will tell you, it’s a good movie. Audiences have been overwhelmingly positive in their reviews, regardless of their prior knowledge or views of bitcoin. It’s a great introduction to the subject and its world-changing potential. I’m proud of that. My hope was that completing the film could be the end of the road. It turns out making a movie is just another mile marker, before the monumental task of marketing and distribution for a first time filmmaker.
I knew nothing about the film festival process and the strategies to succeed there. I knew nothing about the myriad paths to distribution a film can go through and the many parties involved. All of this was originally the responsibility of other people. I was just planning a crazy life experiment, not managing every piece of a feature film business. And nobody would have predicted that, compared to the management of this project, living on bitcoin would be the easy part.
For the past year and a half, I’ve been editing, re-editing, seeking feedback, figuring out usage rights, researching, attending film festivals, screenings, and marketplaces, emailing distributors, aggregators, and sales agents, and generally trying to navigate a notoriously complex and difficult industry. In my spare time, unpaid. It was the best job I could do.
Here is the good news. The movie is good, and we finally have a sales agent to get this out to the world. They’ll be at the Cannes film market next week to get this in the hands of media groups around the globe.
I’ve repeatedly underestimated what it would take to get each step completed, so I’m hesitant to say when we’ll ship the Kickstarter rewards like DVDs. One of our core team-members has long experience in product fulfillment, and will be on the job. It’s coming.
If you have questions, requests, complaints, threats, hopes-fears-dreams-ambitions you want to share, email me personally at austinmichaelcraig[at]gmail[dot]com.