The latest round-up of crowdfunding projects based in London.
Playpress: toys of some sort
The two chaps behind Playpress are oddly coy about where they’re actually based. South-east England, they say, but if you go to the Playpress Twitter profile it says ‘Tunbridge Wells / Putney’, and that’s enough for us to claim this as a splendid London project.
Their goal is to get as many people as possible to back their UK-made, gender-neutral, avowedly ethical children’s toys, which are designed to be cheap enough for kids to buy with their own pocket money rather than having to beg parents for their hard-earned.
One of the images on the Kickstarter looks like these are jigsaws, and then they mention colouring in, and the next thing you see is something like that weird church Matthew and Woody found in True Detective. It’s not for Londonist to try to explain what type of toy Playpress is; take the time and finger exercise to click to link in the first paragraph and you will soon realise this is a fine project that deserves your backing. Rewards include Playpress people that you’ve designed, and... we’ve tried to work out what’s going on but it’s simply easier if you click the link.
Half Way documentary
Regular readers of Londonist will know that our singular bugbear is the inexplicable housing and accommodation policies that people in our city often encounter. The serious problems many people face are highlighted in Half Way, a documentary conceived by four young female film-makers that follows a London family evicted into homelessness by a supermarket.
When a new, convenient store turns up in a neighbourhood, who considers the people who used to live on that site? The Hudson family’s story deserves to reach as large an audience as possible because, simply, you wouldn’t want their experience to happen to you. The people behind Half Way are looking for funds to pay those involved in the making of the film and to enter it into festivals. Rewards for your backing include film credits, artwork and the knowledge you’ve done right by London.
The Coven playing cards
We’re struggling to remember a game of poker that couldn’t have been improved by witches.
The Coven is a set of playing cards developed by a London-based graphic designer with a particular interest in witchcraft and the macabre. All the court cards will be female and you can check out many of the impressive designs on the Kickstarter page.
What’s tricky to understand is why this needs nine grand. Trickier: it’s already halfway home. Rewards are in the form of playing cards, mostly.
Shock Treatment: the sequel to Rocky Horror
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: perhaps one of the most divisive stage shows ever put on. Some love the brashness and the songs and the dressing up, while others would very much like to see Richard O’Brien answer for his crimes.
The man himself, along with a number of similarly unrepentant cohorts, has written a sequel involving the further adventures of Brad and Janet Majors, who were the stars of the original, it says here. Shock Treatment introduces a new villain in the form of a despicable TV executive named Farley Flavors, and all this can be yours to experience as it makes its stage debut at the King's Head Theatre, Islington. For this the producers are looking for funding, and potential rewards for backing it include signed programmes, various Rocky Horror-related memorabilia and invitations to gala events at which dressing up is mandatory.
Scampenstein: an animated movie
This has been the subject of a tweet from a supremely famous person. And arguably, if Stephen Fry can’t get it funded, what chance do we have? Nonetheless we plug gamely on to describe Scampenstein as an animated film involving monsters brought to life by the grandson of the original Doctor Frankenstein, in Battersea Power Station no less. There will be an undead dog leading an army of zombie cats to take over the world.
Luckily they’ll soon have those brand new Northern line stations to make the journey to global domination that much easier. Rewards for backing this dastardly caper include Scampenstein playing cards and t-shirts, and a ‘thank you woof on Twitter’.
Dream Rooster
Dream Rooster. There really are no words to describe what’s going on here, except perhaps ‘potentially NSFW’.
