Here's the Deal...

Hello, friends of the Big Idea. This is your producer speaking. Hi there.

I have good and bad news for you.

Good: I got two jobs! 

Bad: I got two jobs.

What does this mean for you?

Big Idea Interviewee of the Week, Part Two: Morgan Marshall

BEER, you guys.

BEEEEEEER.

BEEEEEER.

Big Idea Interviewee of the week, part one: Amy Rourke Wasserman

Last Tuesday we finally interviewed midwife Amy Rourke Wasserman, an interview that has been over a year in the making. Sometimes getting schedules coordinated takes a lot of time!

Our new camera operator Jayson DeLeon came with us up to the northwest side of Chicago, edging close to O'Hare, to shoot our interview with Nurse Wasserman, who sat down with us in her home so we could ask her about her job.

Animation Alert!

Hey there Big Idea Friends,

Check it out. Valencia Spates just sent us her animation of a strong salad for Episode 105 (Nourishment). Watch it after the jump or check it out on our YouTube page.

Interviewee of the Week: Dr. Marsha Rosner

We're back, everyone!
And as always, don't think that just because we're not updating means we're not up to much. A few weeks ago we returned to Mimi's Garden to talk to Amy Fowler about the harsh winter and long spring effects on her garden. We also talked about honey bees and what they mean to us as a species. Heavy stuff, considering their recent disappearances.
Speaking of bees, one of our animators, Jeremy Wiss, has been working on a stop-motion animation of a bee going through a garden.
That's just the start of it. More animations are starting to roll in, and interviews are starting to build up. We're inching ever closer to the end of production, which should wrap in September.

Yesterday was a great day. We headed down the University of Chicago to interview Dr. Marsha Rosner, a cancer research expert.

What We're Up To!

This is gonna be a quick one; we are up to so much.

Stop-motion animations!

Backer rewards!

Lots and lots of notecards and post-its!

More soon!!!

Interviewee of the Week: Amy Fowler

Hey out there, Big Idea friends!

We went back to Mimi's Garden yesterday! The last time we were there was late summer, and the unusually high temperatures had taken a toll on some of her plants.

Amy with one of her foster dogs

Time is an endless march...

Aaaaand it's May. Aaaaaand when did that happen. Holy crap.

I know the majority of these entries consist of us going, wow it's been a while, I know we haven't updated but we swear there's a lot going on. Which is usually the case except for the past few months.

Here's the truth: it's really really ridiculously hard to be consistently creative when you're also trying to pay your bills and break into an industry that's notoriously difficult to break in to, especially when it's a town as small as Chicago. Yeah yeah I know it's the third largest city in the US but when you've lived here as long as I have everything becomes super incestuous and begins to bleed together.

Also it seems like no one in my field ever dies or moves or changes careers because LORD there is no movement. You can hustle your ass off and still have to wait tables or work retail to pay rent and bills. 

Which has been the case. Truthfully, the reason there haven't been many updates is because of this. I am not using it as an excuse, but I am. And it is the last excuse I will make. It's crunch time. 

We've got animators working on cool, original stuff, and its time to start getting back into interviewing and shooting some recreation stuff. We've got a modern retelling of Pandora's box as well as some cool puppetry going on. Time to get to work and stop using busyness as an excuse to slack. Nap time is for the weak and sleeping is for losers and babies. 

March?! OVER?!

It certainly doesn't feel like spring has hit here in Chicago, and while we are definitely buoyed by the success of the kickstarter, this crummy weather makes it hard to keep our nose to the grindstone and continue work on this project.
And, I'm just gonna get real with you here -- as the producer/director, I (Adora) am pretty much the only one doing everything, considering this show is on a shoestring budget and people, ya know, mostly want to get paid for their work. And, that being said, in addition to an internship, I work a day (night?) job on the side to pay my rent. As a server. In a sports bar. And I am not sure if y'all know this, but it's March Madness this month, which means a LOT more waiting tables and a LOT less working on webseries stuff. Which, when you've spent all day dealing with grown men crying because their Alma lost, makes you want to curl up in the fetal position and eat an entire pizza lying down when you get home, because you're just that disillusioned with the human race.
But I digress. My point is, we are sorry (and by we I mean myself and my DP, mostly) that the thank yous for your donations and support have been lacking. Also, there's lots going on 'round these parts, I swear.
We got in contact with with Columbia College animation department and are now balls-deep in student animators looking for work. God, aren't students the best? Mostly because they don't demand compensation. We have so many talented artists to feature now. Wa-hoo.
Anyway, April should be bringing in more activity; we're trying to finish up our interview with Mimi's Garden entrepreneur Amy Fowler and check out interviewee John "the Duke" Wayne's new restaurant endeavor E+O this month, as well as get in interviews with Blue Nose Brewery and a monologue by Steph Douglass about a Queen Bee.
Also, a party to celebrate!!
Hold us to it, folks. We'll try to keep this blog on the up and up as much as we can.
Until next time.

New Pledge Prizes!

(Reposted from Kickstarter Update #4)

Well, isn't this just awesome.

105% funding with 5 days to go.

Well it took us a day or two to mention here but if you're following our facebook page or twitter you'll already know this: new awesome bonus prizes for new donors!

Here's the deal: for anyone who donates or increases their pledge after we've made the goal (there's already a few of you) you get this awwdorable plush knitted test tube. The pattern is provided by this amazing artist out of the UK; you can check out here stuff here. So tell your friends! ANY donation or pledge increase over $5 gets a cute lil guy (picture attached) in the color of your choice. We're adding it as a tier today. 

GAWD isn't he just the cutest?! COULD BE YOURS!

Jigga whaaaat

[re-posted from Kickstarter Update #4]
So, wow guys!

We never thought with our push yesterday that we would make our goal with a week to spare. In a matter of hours we went from 72% funding to 100% -- $800 in less than five hours, fifteen new backers and multiple pledge increases. You guys. Are. Amazing. For reals. The support you've given us has been overwhelming and totally invigorating. We can't say it enough when we say: thank you, thank you, thank you SO much. It means a lot that you've all invested in this project. It's been years in the making, and to see it come to fruition and have the support of so many of you is just indescribable. It honestly means so much. We will be personally thanking every one of you once the campaign is over.

March! Already! Crap!

How does the time go by so fast? I swear I just wrote an entry for this blog. And now it's March. And holy crap, there's only ten days left to the Kickstarter. Which is 2/3 of the way funded. So, if you haven't, please consider donating. We have super awesome cool fun-time rewards. Glow in the dark buttons! Stickers! Things we hand-make you because it's cheaper!

Awesome necklaces by a talented artist! Don't you waaaant? You get this AND....

...a one-of-a-kind scientific illustration (and other stuff!) for only $75. AWESOME. Right?!

Yeah, so, spread the word, tell your friends, tell your science-y friends, and your teacher friends, and parent friends, and your nerdy friends, and filmmaking friends, and just EVERYONE, ever.
And thank you to those of you who have supported so far. To those of you we know, we love you and thank you, to employ a cliche, from the bottom of our hearts. And to those of you who we don't know -- thank you for believing in what we're doing. It truly means a lot. And we are excited to send you your rewards! But, we still need some more funding to make all that happen, so repost, reblog, if you want some flyers, send us an email, we will try to get you some...let's keep this awesome momentum going.
Meanwhile, we're coordinating stuff with a puppeteer to do some ancient Greek myths told in puppet form. Yeah, that's right.
We're still trying to hunt down a few more interviews as well, so if any of you out there know a pilot, hockey player, food scientist, or genealogist, send them our way!
More updates soon. We have some video sneak peaks we're working on!

Interviewee of the Week: Chef John Wayne Formica

This week we went out to the suburbs to interview Chef John Wayne Formica, also known as The Traveling Cowboy Chef.

It was a bad idea to write this post on an empty stomach.

Don't forget

Are you a screen printer, or do you know someone who is? WELL, you and/or they are in luck, 'cause The Big Idea is having a poster contest!
Our colleague at the Contreras-Gabriel project, Diana Gabriel, approached us to partner up for a poster contest. We'd offer up our themes, and she'd display the winners at Morton College.

Diana's sculpture in the Willis Tower lobby. She's legit.

The contest is also a print exchange, so you get copies of all the other winning posters.

Link after the jump!

Cameron Moore & Michael Una

Well, the Kickstarter campaign is pending approval. The video isn't quite done -- I'm doing some last minute tweaks this week -- but I got antsy and decided to submit it with the last fine cut. Now it's just a waiting game, reloading the page every few hours to no avail...

Happy New Year

Hello friends and readers,
Happy New Year, belatedly. If you look at the blog, you would think nothing much is going on here at The Big Idea, but that is, like, so totally a fallacy, guys. Lots and lots has totally been happening around here, I swear.
We're more than halfway through January and things are really picking up steam. We're going try to be better at this whole blog updating thing. The Facebook page and Twitter feed are more reflective of how busy we are. Almost done with the month and we've printed 1,000 promotional postcards with info for the kickstarter, locked down all of our prizes, interviewed some brilliant musicians, got a poet to write something for each episode, and saw a 3-D camera in action.
So, we're about three weeks away from the Kickstarter launch, tentative date being February 10th. Things are going smoothly -- the video is nearing completion, as we try our best to make the sound not terrible. Video isn't too hard to fix mistakes with, but sound...if the sound sucks, you're screwed. There's no getting around that. Learned lesson #1 of making this webseries: time to buy a lavalier microphone. For you non-filmmakers out there, it's a mic you clip to a person's shirt. It's way better for picking up just their voice and not the sounds going on all around them (especially traffic, which has doubled the length of the last two interviews we've done just from stopping the subject as a truck drove by).
This is where things like the kickstarter and any grants we manage to get would come in handy. HINT HINT.

The two interviews this week were awesome too -- more on that next week.

More soon, we promise! In the meantime, check out our other pages!