Hello, hello everyone!! First off I would like to apologize for being so quiet for the past couple months. I was working as a dispatcher for a delivery service partner that delivers packages for Amazon and we had been short staffed for...too long. I was spending my days working 10-13 hour shifts with a TON of stress and even working on my days off. I barely had time to do my chores and run my errands, let alone devote any time to this project...and it was destroying me. So, I quit. I've never felt so much relief in my life...such a weight lifted off of my shoulders and my mood increased 10 fold. Wowza. I took a week to just chill, take care of myself, set up a schedule for myself for the next week, and enjoy being able to breathe again.
Then the next week came and I went hard into Crossing Borders. I finished my Kickstarter page and application, it got approved, and now our pre-launch page is up, here with the expected full launch date of April 1st. I've created flyers to put up in local businesses to promote Crossing Borders' Kickstarter campaign and created postcards to send to businesses and residents in my area for the same purpose. Those will be going out once they're ready and I've picked them up and addressed all the post cards- estimating by the end of this week!
Having time to focus on Crossing Borders, means that I've been able to do research, get a more detailed itinerary for travel, create a project proposal, and really looked hard at the budget. Part of that was figuring out how in the world to get a fiscal sponsorship. I had read a bunch of stuff about it here and there, on break at work or in between chores and calls on my days off, but didn't really get it. Thankfully I was able to find some guidance, and we are now fiscally sponsored by From the Heart Productions!! But, what exactly does that mean?
Well friends, it means that this project is now sponsored by a non-profit which allows all contributions from investors to be written off on their taxes. This is a HUGE incentive for investors to...well...invest in Crossing Borders for a few reasons. The main one being that films are a risky investment, there's no guarantee that the investor will ever turn a profit because its hard to judge the successfulness of a film, especially one by a first-time director such as myself. Knowing anything they invest will be able to be written off in their taxes is a pretty big perk, allowing them to get something in return regardless of the film's success.
Another reason fiscal sponsorship is a big deal, film grants! Many, if not all, film grants require that your project have a fiscal sponsorship, and I'm guessing that's for tax deduction purposes as well. Though I'm not 100% certain about that. While none of this means that Crossing Borders has the funds to go anywhere yet, it is a pretty gigantic step in the right direction and investor emails are going out today! Most have been sitting in my Google Drive waiting for me to obtain sponsorship so I could include the name and other important information for the sponsor! Others I'm still working on writing because I keep thinking of new potential investors that might want in.
Lastly, we have an unofficial, official start date. What does that even mean right? It means that I have officially purchased tickets, in October, for Japan followed by South Korea in November and then the Philippines in December!!!! So our official start date will be October 20th! **However** Even though tickets have been purchased, they are all flexible. We can only start filming when it has been deemed safe to travel and airports, cities, countries, are all welcoming to tourists again. So, this date has the big potential to change, and of course we will keep you updated!
Oh! I lied- one more update! I have an appointment on April 7th for the 1st of my 2 COVID vaccines, I finally qualify and while I'm a bit wary of getting it (I really flippin HATE needles man- yikes) I'm also very excited.
Alright everyone, that's all I've got! We look forward to seeing you on the road and as always, thank you for supporting us.
Take care, be safe, and stay healthy <3
-Becki
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