The Prodigal Altar Boy

Thursday, March 28, 2013

PRODIGAL ALTAR BOY BLOG - WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO








The Highlights

  • Consultation with Karen Everett
  • Plans for WIP screening in Norfolk continue
  • Donations continue at diminished level, fundraising at crossroads



CONSULTATION WITH KAREN EVERETT

ü  Phone conference with story consultant Karen Everett took place 21 March 2013.  The upshot is Karen sees progress and has suggestions for the way forward.  I will digest her notes (written, video and audio recording) and apply those to the cut.  The result will be what I take to Norfolk.

PLANS FOR WIP SCREENING IN NORFOLK CONTINUE

ü  Speaking of Norfolk, I placed an ad for the WIP screening in the bulletins for St. Mary’s.  Kathleen McBlair (havescripts.com, publisher of TQ’s book, “A Reluctant Malachi,” has given screening information to the staff at Holy Family (Virginia beach) for inclusion in their bulletin.  I have exchanged emails with one family at St. Kateri to spread the news there.

ü  I printed 50 additional posters to sell at the WIP screening

ü  Printed address labels to send tickets to the current donor list.  For tickets I repurposed postcards I printed to update the mailing list.  I bought custom labels and turned the postcards into tickets.  Admission is free, but I am asking people to request tickets.  I built a ticket tool for the web site, and put a snail mail address on all the advertising so people can write for tickets.  My thinking with the ticket strategy is I want to collect the tickets at the screening to:

1.      Assess, out of how many tickets requests, how many actually attended, and

2.      Continue to build out the email and snail mail address lists for further fundraising.



DONATIONS CONTINUE AT DIMINISHED LEVEL, FUNDRAISING AT CROSSROADS

ü  Donations continue to come in, albeit at a diminished rate.  A few donors are making second donation as well as sustaining donations.

ü  Fundraising is at a crossroads.  We are at the limits of how much fundraising TQ’s mailing list can produce.  The WIP screening will be the transition from TQ’s mailing list (of course leveraging emails culled from that list) to Crowdfunding. 
FINAL PAINTING FOR THE FILM
I took delivery of the piece that will be the last in a series of paintings based on images from the film.  Anna Pasqualucci, a Baltimore screen painter, dropped off a painting based on TQ's "Chock Full O'Nuts can.  Anna took a picture of the can and other images to create a 3D piece that exceeded my expectations.  Check it out: