Ever think about backing a film? “Cicada Princess”, by Mauricio Baiocchi will, with a little support from reg’lar folks like us, become a 5-minute short film and companion book. It’s a story based on the remarkable lives of cicadas, which spend up to 17 years underground, and then emerge all at once for a brief period to find a mate and repeat the cycle. It’s being filmed in a miniature world created and animated entirely by hand, and will be produced in iMax format.
The project has attracted the attention of some notable folks, such as Director of Photography Ray Gilberti, who has worked with LucasFilm and movies such as Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.
So how can you become a backer? Funding for the final aspects of filming is being raised on Kickstarter, which is a pretty cool project in its own right, where all kinds of folks with creative ideas seek funding from anyone who thinks their project is worthwhile and who wants to become a part of the project. From the film’s Kickstarter page is the following clip:
You can contribute as little as a dollar, but for more you can get cool souvenirs from the film, such as one of the miniatures used in filming – or, if you want to kick in $3 grand, an “Associate Producer” credit in the film itself. Check it out. I was so intrigued by the claim that these noisy critters live such a strange life, I checked out some other vids on YouTube, and found the following:
