Nothing about independent filmmaking has ever been easy. If you're making movies outside the studio system, you must be at least slightly nuts, and no matter your project, filmmaking is a collaboration involving many other people who are probably just as nuts as you are. This is the upside. The downside is that everyone involved usually has a day job, a family, and/or other interests. If shooting movies was just a hobby, this might not be so tough, but shooting a movie is not only a job in itself, it's nearly all consuming. It's difficult to think about anything else when you're making a movie, let alone making ends meet or raising a family. And the work is harder than it looks. There's always an audience, but in the digital age, it is getting harder and harder to sell to them. Not just to make a profit, but to fund a project at all. It's enough to drive you, well, nuts.

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Voyage Of The Chimera has a cast of over 20 performers, and this may grow with subsequent installments. Behind the scenes, the series has to be written, shot, and edited. Sound has to be recorded. Props must be made. Effects must be effected. Music must be musiced. Equipment has to be procured and operated (focus, no matter how reasonably you ask, simply will not pull itself). Lights, set dressing, sweat beads, and other items such as actors must be rearranged on a shot by shot basis. Logs kept, bulbs changed, costumes designed and created.

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And everyone has to eat. Has to. Or we will starve. We're artists, this can happen.

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However, while dire consequences may be just a "no thanks" away, gifts of just a few dollars can go a great distance, especially as they start adding up. For the cost of, say, a single online streaming rental, you can be a part of the unique and joyous madness that will allow us to create more installments of our series. A gift of $5 can feed a cast/crew member for a day of shooting, or cover a day's placement of a Facebook or YouTube ad. Because marketing costs money, too, and without it, the finished films may never be seen by anyone in the first place.

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So if you enjoy our first film and feel the urge part with a bit of your hard-earned cash for our sake, we would appreciate it immensely. We loved making this first film, and with your help and generosity we can push forward to make more while stepping up our game to make each one better than the last.

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Best wishes and thanks from all of us!

-The VOC Team