Kickstarter Spotlight: Help This Storm Fan Film Fly

Maya Glick: It’s pretty much what it sounds like. It’s a DIY film project, typically indie and very low budget, based on something that you’re a big fan of. Some of them are really homemade, and some of them get fancy. It’s fan fiction, or fan art, set to film. Like when some guys dress up like Stormtroopers and film a story they made up about what those Stormtroopers do on their day off, that’s a fan film.

MG: A couple reasons. And no reason at all… it just kind of happened. There was a story I was writing anyway and it just sort of ended up working in this context. Also, I am a big fan of sci-fi and fantasy, comics and superheros and all that stuff… but over the last ten years or so I just started to get really worn out at seeing the same 3 or 4 characters over and over and over.  BatMAN, SuperMAN, SpiderMAN, IronMAN… I dug Batman as much as anybody else 18 years ago… but it started to wear on me that I never go to see anybody that looked like me being the badass. Never. As an artist, I tend to want to create the things that are missing for me…things that I would want to see myself. I really wanted to see this film with this version of this character and it doesn’t exist… so I wrote it!

MG: When I was a kid, Storm was the first black female superhero I ever saw, and she was so amazing. I think some people take for granted how disproportionately rare that is, even to this day. When I discovered her she was punk rock which made her even more amazing to me. I was a rock chick myself during a time that being a black rock chick was entirely unheard of. So here’s this superhero who wasn’t just black and female, which blew my mind on its own, but she was wearing leather pants and had a f**ing mohawk.

Female superheroes always had on skimpy outfits and big flowing Barbie hair and spike heels and giant boobs. That version of Storm blew all of that away– even if it was by accident–and it changed the way I thought of myself and my place in the world. Young women–ALL KINDS of young women–need to see themselves represented in places of power in one way or another, and that is what she did for me.

MG: I majored in theater at the performing arts high school I went to light-years ago,  but otherwise my main experience with performing is as a rock musician. I play guitar and sing and I started playing in bands right out of high school. I moved to New York City and played with bands, mostly my own, for about 12 years there.

I always wrote stories as much as I wrote songs, though, and the performance aspect of my stage show was a huge deal to me, so the jump to film didn’t seem very drastic at first… just seemed like another way to put on a show. But the crew that is working with me to on this project is made up of legit film pros, so it’s definitely a learning process and I feel out of my league sometimes but I do love a challenge. It’s scary and exciting and I f**ing love it.

MG: Just trying to get people to actually contribute without feeling like I’m begging, which I kinda am. Lots of people are really excited about it but it’s definitely a job trying to motivate enough people to take the next step and actually donate. I think people want to, but you know, you’re online and there are a hundred other things to think about at the same time so you figure you’ll get around to it eventually, or maybe you assume somebody else will do it.

There are over 3000 followers on the Facebook page and every time I share a link to the Kickstarter site hundreds of people will like it and share it which is awesome,  but the majority of people don’t actually make it as far as pledging. So I keep pushing and prodding and trying to keep people excited while at the same time trying not to get totally spammy and make people sick to death of hearing about it.

It’s critical to the completion of the project though. We’ve come a long way  and it’s going to be awesome, but awesome is expensive!  So we’re over budget and we need a lot more support to avoid having to chop out entire scenes and players and important bits of the story.

MG: I am in awe of the people making this film. I’ve got 2 brilliant guys named Zane Rutledge and Jeff Stolhand co-directing. They’re also writing partners and we spent months going back and forth with script revisions from my original draft to what it is now. I get frustrated and anxious and impatient, and I get scared about handing over something as personal as the story I wrote for other people to make decisions about… but when I see the work they do I’m blown away every time. I have to check myself and remember I shouldn’t even be able to afford to know these guys, let alone have them bring my silly little fan film to life for me.

Then there is our producer Matt Joyce who is keeping everything on track and making sure things actually happen and everybody’s happy. The directors may be flying the ship, but Matt is the one making sure the ship functions and is safe to fly in the first place. And the crew keeps growing.

I’ve also got one of my dearest friends and favorite musicians Luqman Brown doing the score and music, and that is going to be awesome as well. And  I’ve just started working with the fight choreography team on some of the stunts and action stuff… it’s wild how much really goes into it.

These guys are turning the production into a real work of magic, and I can’t say enough about how grateful I am for what they’re doing.  It truly brings tears to my eyes.   Keep in mind that because we have such a small budget they are working for free. Even if we make the Kickstarter goal and then some, they still aren’t being paid. All the money is going toward hard costs like costuming, insurance, gear rental, set building, lighting and lots of other things. I owe them all my heart and they’ve got it for sure.

MG: People have reached out from all over the world sharing their support and excitement for this whole thing and they are truly the reason this is happening. My original idea was much, much smaller– but this wave of support appeared and lifted the vision sky high.

This project is a lot of fun but it is also a lot of work, and it can be emotionally draining sometimes with all the money worries and anxiety over when and if things will happen, etc… but the amazing amount of support and interest and the encouragement I get every week keeps me inspired and motivated. I am hell-bent on pouring even more of my heart and soul into this project because I owe it to all of our supporters who are part of the team now too.