Spring Update!

CHECKING IN:

Greetings from Chicago where we have been working tirelessly on Ty’s List. There is a whole lot to update you on, but first let me apologize for the lack of communication between our team and all of our awesome followers (you guys!).  We’ve spent the last 3 months working with our editor making a rough cut. Yep you heard us correctly—we now have a rough draft of the movie! It’s a 90 minute movie with a beginning, middle and end.  

AWESOME OPPORTUNITES:

1) We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to show our draft to the talented editors, producers and directors at Kartemquin Films, Chicago’s premier documentary film production company.  In the audience was legendary filmmaker Gordon Quinn, who was there just to give us feedback.  How cool is that?

The good news…We’re well on our way to finishing this film. We got a lot of interesting and valuable feedback on how we can make this film better and more relevant to people who didn’t know Tyler. Since we want this movie to not only be a memorial of Tyler for the people who knew him, but also an introduction to Tyler and his life philosophy for strangers all over the world.

2) We were invited to go to the Big Apple to present Ty’s List to a group of active Northwestern Alumni. Generous Wildcats sponsored our trip out East, and we gave a speech on Ty’s List—from explaining it’s origins to giving the audience a sneak peak of the Expedia video. It went super well and we are happy to have NU behind our project. 

3) We’d like to give a special thanks to RIPS Licorice for keeping our crew’s sweet tooth satisfied.  We ate so many RIPS on the trip that they decided to send us a box so we could keep enjoying. Woohoo!

CHALLENGES:

(something we’ve learned to expect during the journey toward a good product!)

1) Angela, our amazing editor, got a really cool opportunity to produce a television show for PBS Chicago.  We are very happy for her and wish her the best of luck, but now we need someone to take her place. If you know any good editors in the Chicago area, let us know!

2) We are so lucky to have raised money from our Kickstarter, get a sponsorship with Expedia and have many generous people help pave the way to making this film.  As it turns out, post-production is expensive, and with our new direction it looks like we will have to do another round of fundraising to pay for the next draft. Hopefully the Expedia video will help after it’s released, and we’re currently brainstorming other avenues. We don’t plan on doing another Kickstarter though. We want to reach a new market of donors and Ty’s List fans with this push. Stay tuned for updates and let us know if you have any ideas!

3) We’ve been slow to send out the rest of our Kickstarter rewards, but we PROMISE that Kickstarter rewards are going out soon. Keep your eyes on your mailboxes, and send any address updates to tyslist.themovie@gmail.com

CHECKING OUT:

Once we figure out our next steps, you’ll be the first to know about them! The plan for now is to finish the next draft and start to submit the film to festivals by the end of the summer.

We hope that May 13, the anniversary of Ty’s Passing, was a peaceful day of remembrance for all. Also we hope that many of you participated in CommuniTyler on May 18.

Life is good,

Ben, Jesse and the rest of the Ty’s List Crew.