Londonist returns to Kickstarter to unearth five more projects with a London flavour that deserve a little bit of your hard-earned.
As proven by the incomprehensible successes of both Ripper Street and Whitechapel on our TV screens, nothing excites the public more than fictionalised brutality on London's streets. The Slaughter is a point-and-click adventure (computer game, to the rest of us) in an 8-bit style that looks to combine genuine horror with black humour as private investigator Sidney Emerson sleuths his way around Victorian London on the trail of a serial killer.
As shown in the screenshots included in the Kickstarter, one of the actions you can command Sidney to carry out is 'Use Eel Kebab with Squirrel'. Don't deny it – you'd pay good money to see Rupert Penry-Jones do that. We recommend using those funds instead to help London developer Alexander Francois complete his intriguing endeavour.
High on the list of things people in the western world take for granted is that there will always be food in the shops. But think back: can you remember as a child being educated about the origins of what you ate? We're now told that we should look at how far food travels as a measure of the damage we do to the planet, but shouldn't we all have been told this when we were young?
Step forward Abigail Wright and Erika Ollén, two London-based friends who plan to create a series of five illustrated and fun books (and interactive e-books) for children, telling the story of how food gets to our plates. The title of the first book, 'Can fish fingers swim?', is in itself a question that would have most children scratching their heads as they inevitably disassociate the orange sticks with their sea-based origins. One of those projects that causes earnest nodding and, hopefully, earnest funding.
Whoever the people who design seats on coaches, planes and especially trains are, they seem to intentionally create these seats based on the exact angle where resting your head back will allow it to stay still for a minute or so before slowly but inexorably lolling forward and jerking you awake, to the hilarity of fellow passengers.
This is where the Sleep Easy comes in. Designed by London-based innovators Cerebral Products it is, simply, a band that softly straps your head to the seat's headrest and includes a handy eyemask to block out light (earplugs to block out children and stag parties are not included). Best of all your hands will remain free to stick two fingers up to the gits who design the seats.
Amusing tales of school and student life range from the true-and-hilarious Inbetweeners to the true-and-hateful Fresh Meat. The latest to (hopefully) hit screens is Kettled – the tale of two hapless university students who decide to stage an unlikely protest having been locked out of their residence, rather than simply look for a window to break in through. Much is promised of the short film's satirical and snappy dialogue.
London-based filmmaker Christopher Ashman encountered a few set-backs while making the film, including 'unexpected canal barges', which sounds painful. With pledges of a tenner and upwards you can help any future obstacles be overcome and get Kettled onto our screens and, with any luck, Fresh Meat off them.
Andres Buzzio has recently moved to London, and according to his Kickstarter page "I spend my days exploring the urban environment, walking the streets from morning to evenings and capturing anything that captures my attention". All right for some, eh?
That he has captured the excellent images included on the Kickstarter page using just an iPhone with filters from Instagram and Camera Plus is quite something. He is now looking for funding to help him produce a matte-paper book of these images that will capture the life of our city through the optimistic eyes of a newcomer not yet hardened to its everyday realities.
