A Crowdfunding SUCCESS!!!

Updated on 4th July, 16:20 pm

It’s 00:24 o’clock and I’m feeling quite bedazzled. Let me tell you what’s going on: I’m setting my alarm for 5:20 am, because at 6 am I have to get into a beautifully ricketty bus with two gorgeous circus artistes to drive to a school where we’ve been giving a circus workshop all week. My part in all this isn’t circus-teaching; it’s film-teaching: I am teaching 8th graders to make a documentary about the circus workshop, beginning from the first classes to the full-on performance for the school & parents on Friday afternoon. If you want to read more, it was in the Schwäbische Zeitung today: http://alturl.com/fa698

Apart from that, I am also participating in the first Dance Festival in Ulm: ULM MOVES! I will perform tomorrow (Thursday), Friday and Saturday as part of the “Parcours”, wherein dancers, actors and performers make static buildings come to light. Marion Glöggler, for example, will do a “vertical dance” in which she suspends herself from the walls of the Deutschhaus car park.

Marion Glöggler of the Vertical Dance Compagnie

I am at the Kulturfahrschule (at the Ehinger Tor), performing on my red aerial silks, suspended from a red crane… Here is an image from today’s rehersal:

photograph courtesy of Sabrina Fischäß

If you want to see it, here are the dates:

Thursday, 4th July:  approx. 6 pm

Friday, 5th July:  approx. 6 pm

Saturday, 6th July:  approx. 4 pm

I say approximately because my performance is part of a tour / parcours through the city, so when I perform really depends on when my audience arrives. I’ll be told some 5 minutes beforehand, which should give me enough time to climb the silks and get into position.

But none of this has anything to do with the title of this post! I just wanted to show you what I’m up to, give you a bit of an insight as to why I haven’t been blogging lately: BECAUSE MY HEAD IS in the air… in school… on the StartNext Website!

Which brings me to the POINT.

THE POINT!

It is now 00:43 o’clock.

It just happened. 5 minutes ago we were beneath the goal. Now. RIGHT NOW, I clicked “refresh” and everything suddenly moved slower…

screenshot 00:45 o’clock on http://www.startnext.de/qayqa

We did it. We actually actually DID IT. 

About an hour ago, Pixie called me from the States. All she said when I picked up was: “Congratulations!” We hadn’t reached the goal yet, but we were €50 away.

I couldn’t believe this. I replied: “I feel like I should do something crazy as a thank you for all these amazing people! Like maybe jump out of a window naked.” She laughed and said: “You totally should!”

Dearest most wonderful, most beloved ayllu of my heart. I owe you more than words can express. I owe you more than a ridiculous blog post 4 hours away from getting up again.

You have baffled me, bewildered me, AMAZED me. You supported me, you believed in Qayqa, and now, my dearest people of the world: Qayqa you will get…

I want to take this moment to express my absolute sense of … UTTER PANIC. If you’ve been watching Qayqa on StartNext, you’ll know that we were slowly trickling, and when people asked me if I thought we could make it, I replied honestly: “I really have NO IDEA. It could work. It could not. No clue.”

Then a sudden overnight leap of €800. It put us back in the game! And that was the moment when my panic struck.

Shit. People will actually read Qayqa. To the end. What if it’s rubbish? What if no one likes it? Is it too late to back out now?  Maybe I should go back quickly and do some serious last-minute-full-of-panic editing. Delete everything. New ending. Damn damn damn. Why do I always do such silly, ridiculous things? I never learn.

So, no lies: you are actually going to get Qayqa and that makes me feel a terrified – and excited!

I want to post properly about my crowdfunding experience, but the main thing I need to say right now is that I always felt like I wasn’t doing enough (and I probably wasn’t). There were amazing people out there who sent me long emails / messages, suggesting brilliant new tactics to get more supporters. I couldn’t follow up on all the ideas, and I often felt like I really wasn’t doing enough. For example, I never got around to making a Qayqa facebook page. Such sacrilege!

And yet. Crowdfunding: A SUCCESS!!!

I made you a video just now. It’s just me being nonstop grateful in my pajamas:

A few days ago, after the €800 struck overnight and I first realised we could actually make it, I was pulling a heavy suitcase along a train platform and my head began singing a song. This song, my darling ayllu, my beautiful supporters, IS FOR YOU. For everyone who believed; for everyone who supported; for those who wrote saying they couldn’t pledge but believed & wished me luck; for everyone who spread the word (like love), who hit the forums, who believed.

THANK YOU for helping a dream come true. This song – along with all my gratitude – is for you. Y’all made Qayqa feel pretty damn mthrfcukn special. 

1:21 o’clock. GOODNIGHT AYLLU.

You people kicked some serious Crowdfunding BUTT. I also decided something:  In the last pages of the book Qayqa, I will publish an excerpt from her sequel Munay, in English, so that you get a feeling for what is coming next…! Like?

Our Upcoming Circus Performances & Filming My Crowdfunding Video

You can call this my MIDNIGHT ACTIVISM. It’s what I do when I finally have a few hours to myself. I go crazy on the internet, blog, sign petitions, listen to music, respond to emails and even manage to skype with my parents.

It’s been an especially exhausting weekend. I cancelled my shift tomorrow at the Café Naschkatze because not only does my body need a break; my mind also needs time & a break to get everything that needs to get done, done.

actually taken on a different weekend, but it’s still our group!

I spent the weekend with my Circus Serrando, where I teach aerial silks and – since two weeks ago – I also supervise the trampoline / gymnastic balls group. What happened with the trampoline group is this: three weeks ago, their official trainer had to take a break from his teaching responsibilities. Reasons: classified unknown. This was one month before the performance premiere, so everyone panicked. I had worked with the trampoline group during our Bonlanden Circus Weekend, so I offered to continue as the group’s trainer.

Unfortunately, I am not a qualified trampoline teacher. Yes, you need a degree qualification to teach it. You have to take courses that teach you safety regulations and only with an official stamp on it can you teach the trampoline. I may be completing my circus teacher apprenticeship at the moment, but that doesn’t include a trampoline qualification.

But we only had 2 weeks to staple together a performance for the trampoline group, so I did what I could. I took away the trampoline but still let them jump. We worked hard and pieced together a little number.

This weekend, my circus met for their dress rehearsal. We went through the two-hour performance on Saturday & Sunday, tackled the unknowns and discussed the last-minute changes. My aerial group is portraying famous scenes from famous films… !My trampoline group is portraying planets in the solar system… Very active, jumpy planets that leap through Saturn’s rings!

And this is where I invite you:

Join us! Tell all your friends!

If you’re looking for an absolutely fun afternoon in the theater COME SEE US. Because these kids are really amazing. We have flying comets on the aerial silks… acrobatic ghosts in black light… wild cloning… butterflies on the tightrope… cheeky little monkeys… and adorable main characters who clone themselves!

I know it’s short notice; it’s all been a bit chaotic, beginning from wooing a new director … to the trampoline trainer’s sudden departure … to lots of other things. In the face of all the madness, our students have kept it together like real pros, and it’d be the biggest thing if you came and applauded their hard work.

rehearsal picture of puppeteers-on-stilts & their marionettes… and our theater director showing his sporty trousers

closer…

Our performances are on 4th (Saturday) and 5th (Sunday) of May, at 3 pm, entry is €5. This is how to find us:

If you need more information, check out:  www.serrando.de

If that doesn’t answer all your questions, then write me on twitter (@rittisoncco) or email me (rittisoncco@gmail.com). Those are usually good ways to get my attention.

!!! NOW TO MY CROWDFUNDING VIDEO !!!

A few weeks ago my personal life got a kick in the balls, and that’s always good for creativity and self-righteousness. Well, that’s the way it works for me. I sit up late writing poetry, making collages, bothering friends with emails … but … (did you notice?) … I’m doing something.

This winter froze us, didn’t it? I was frozen. The cold & the grey crept into my bones and froze up all my creativity, drive, passion, energy, and artistic output. I have a friend who says she uses my blog as a long-distance-thermometer: when I don’t blog, she worries. She’s right.

So lately I wrote poems, got angry with my furniture, bothered my friends and – in the midst of this – I somewhat aggressively texted Fabiano saying: “Come over tomorrow! We’re starting!” We had agreed, in January, that he would film my crowdfunding video. He’s been waiting ever since.

But Fabiano, being the Fab, to my aggressive messages calmly replied: “Alright. What time?”

Did I have a script? A screenplay? Any ideas???

We-ell…

Sometimes, this is how I operate. I can’t apologise for it. Some things you can’t plan. I’ve gone into several projects armed with nothing but my gut instinct, my good mood and my creativity.

And I’ve been doodling into my journal for two months now with no results. But on the way to meet with Fabiano the ideas began to shoot through my head.

We began with the obvious.

There’s the Fab Fabiano perched up ever so high, looking like Banksy and filming down at me.

A million thanks to Karsten for taking some truly amazing pictures that really captured the moment. I have more but I am saving them for the Qayqa Production Book, which will be one of the rewards IF YOU SUPPORT MY CROWDFUNDING.

Afterwards, we discussed my other ideas at length. There are the basics: filming Mark’s illustrations… having a voice-over of me reading from Qayqa (I decided to take an extract from the work-in-progress audio book)…

And then there’s the BIG QUESTION: How to portray myself, talking into the camera, telling you just why you should support my book.

This is what I thought on the bus:

It should show who I am. It should be unique – hopefully. It should be memorable. It can’t be too long.

How would you do that about yourself???

I thought: I want two Rittis.

Firstly, because my zodiac sign is Gemini. When people asked me how I had the energy to juggle several different projects, I used to reply: “I’m Gemini so there’s two of me, really.” When I worked with Mark, who is also Gemini, we’d say: “We can manage all that. There’s four of us, after all.”

Secondly, I wanted to show the two main Rittis: the personal Ritti who is open, excited and talkative; and the performer Ritti who holds back a bit, is slightly aloof and more of a listener.

This is what we did:

our set

my view to the camera

Personal Ritti wears the blue Peruvian shirt that I used for my official picture; a shirt I bought in my hometown Cusco. So a shirt that means a lot to me. Performer Ritti wears the performance outfit you may know from readings.

I talked, we filmed – and then, we did this:

look at that smirk

We called them the “Split Screen Tussis” (German for “chicks”). The idea is they speak in sync. Obviously not all the time, because other shots will be cut in between.

Afterwards, we did this:

The split-screen effect worked fine on the Fab’s computer, but now I’ve taken it onto my Avid Media Composer editing software and have to teach myself how to reproduce the effect and edit it the way I envisioned it.

I did draw a screenplay in the end:

So the next few days you’ll find me sitting in front of the computer, editing. And preparing the last bits & pieces for my students’ circus performances.

And that’s the story of why I’m not working at Café Naschkatze tomorrow.

Once the crowdfunding video is up, you will, ofcourse, know of it first!

I actually wrestled a bit with myself as to whether I should publish my plans for the video before it is done… But I came to the conclusion that that is why you read my blog: to get the work-in-progress. Not to hear about the successes when we know it’s been accomplished, but to hear about the trials and errors, the technical difficulties, and (by default) the things we learn from the process.

Wish me luck! And if you have any technical advice: hit me.

Google & Avid