New Orleans Kickstarters You Need to Support

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Here at Red Beans and Life, we love to support local ideas. Kickstarters are one way in which people can get their ideas out there, find support and funding. Here are a few of the coolest Kickstarters happening around the Big Easy.

 

1. How to Disappear Completely (Film)

Everyone has those times when they want to be away from the world. When they want to escape into the safety and sanctity of their mind. But what do you do when the two worlds start to meld into one? Elliot is about to find out.

A 30-minute film in pre-production, How to Disappear Completely could be one of the big breakout films out of New Orleans next year. Directed by NYC native and New Orleans transplant, Sasha Solodukhina, How to Disappear Completely is already being heralded as a fantasical experience that combines both the psychological and the emotional, the imaginative and idiosyncratic, all to highlight virtue of people and the worlds we create.

The film follows Elliot, an anti-social painter that locks himself away from the world. In the back of his laundromat, he creates a beautiful world of garbage that satisfies his introspective manner. However, when his only friend, a mute bird, dies, Elliot’s created world becomes an uncontainable “reality”  and he finds himself thrust into a world “where nighttime and rain don’t exist, and showers of gold dust make everyone forget that anything bad could ever happen.” And as long as Elliot 1) Obeys the Time Keeper and 2) Does not mess with the Universe, he’ll be okay. Will he? We’ll have to wait for the movie to find out.

Check out the Kickstarter video below to understand the total range of awesomeness that will be this movie.

How to Disappear Completely was recently picked as a Staff Choice at Kickstarter for “an intriguing, New Orleans ­set, highly ambitious film that seems to mix elements of fantasy and reality.” Yolanda Ross of Treme and Antoine Fisher fame has also signed on to be a part of the film.

This Kickstarter has asked $15,000 goal is about 74% funded until their end date, August 29th. In hopes of finishing their Kickstarter strong, the cast and crew of How to Disappear Completely are hosting a party in the Marigny this Friday. Let’s get the popcorn ready and help get this film to 100% funded!

To donate and help How to Disappear Completely become an actual reality, check out and share their Kickstarter Page.

 

2. HopShack (Mobile App)

So you’re in a bar somewhere, right? You probably want a beer. But which beer do you want?

Bud Light? No, you have too much respect for yourself. 

Local Beer? Always a good choice, unless you live wherever Schlitz is made. 

Guinness? You would, but you already ate. 

So you ask the bartender what kind of “craft beer” they have on because you heard the guy in front of you ask the same question and because hell, you really don’t know what kind of beer you want. You’re given an explanation of a process, ingredients and flavor profile that should be on Top Chef rather than this bar. But you order and what do you know? It is freaking delicious. Too bad you don’t know just what makes that craft beer so good.

Well Blake Butterworth and Austin Slakey want to help you learn. They are trying to launch their FREE mobile app called “Hopshack”, “a mobile encyclopedia for discovering and learning about craft beer and breweries.” Also picked as a Kickstarter Staff Pick, this app is only $978 away from their $6,000 goal! Check out all the amazing features they want to create in the Hopshack app:

So instead of being that ignoramus at the bar, picking the same beer you’ve drank since you were 16, with Hopshack you could start drinking beer the way the gods intended. The best part is that these guys want to share their love for craft beer, brewing and all things beer, for free. Now if only they could make the beer free. Alas, but if you want to support these guys in their thirsty endeavor, head to their Kickstarter Page and donate and share with your friends!

 

3. “Reckon” For Prospect 3

How many of you remember Prospect One in 2009? I was a senior in high school and a friend had told me we were going on city-wide art scavenger hunt. I was wary but once I was there, it all made sense. Prospect One, Two and now Three, is interactive art experience, an international biennial (every 2 years) artistic gathering in New Orleans.  Art that you live in, that you have to see from 40 different angles, that you stare into, out of and beyond. It’s reflective, beautiful and challenges your idea of creativity. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here are some pictures from past years:

Now Prospect 3 is underway and one local artist, Jack Niven, is looking for support for his street mural entitled “Reckon.” With his art, he ponders the connectivity and depth of figuration drawing inspiration from “singing tree frogs, amphibian eggs..fish eyes, bird eyes, glass marbles…tree rings, planetary halos…flatness versus depth of a fields.” His street mural will focus on what he calls “panoptic vortexes” featured below, meaning a static image that seems to move as you do . It is set to be located at the Lincoln Lumber Yard street  with lots of foot and car traffic with a prototype featured at the top of this post.

So if you want to donate, head to Jack Niven’s Kickstarter Page today and help make “Reckon” a part of Prospect 3! He is only about $460 away from his $3,500 goal!

 

Well those are just a few of the amazing and inspiring projects happening around the city. These Kickstarters will be over soon, don’t you want to say you were an original investor? Check them out and share with your friends and let’s keep ideas alive in NOLA.