When you make a contribution towards the film or purchase stories, an account is created for you. As a member, you have your own exclusive space, which keeps track of your contributions and purchases over time. This allows for the accumulation of contributions and the advancing to next tiers, which come with further perks. In addition, the membership grants you a closer look into how your money is being used by being able to follow the process of the making of the film. You can choose to receive updates in your e-mail or simply check out the Making Of Page for regular news.

Part of the process of purchasing stories and of contributing to the film necessarily involves becoming a member. This allows the system to remember your contributions and purchases over time and accumulate towards further perks.

When you make a contribution, the money is specifically allocated towards the making of the film. A purchase implies an exchange of money for content. As such, the money received from a purchase is not contractually bound to go towards the production of the film, although it is very likely that it will. However, both a purchase and a contribution count towards your contribution total and accumulate in order to help you get to the next tier and receive more perks.

A tier is a membership class. Each tier comes with a specific set of perks and requires a particular total contribution amount. Minimum contribution grants you the “Starter” status and its equivalent perks. All subsequent contributions and purchases add on to your total contribution. In the membership area, you can track your purchases and your contributions and see how much is needed to reach the next tier.

The tier system allows us to remember your contributions. As such, if you decide to make further contributions or decide to purchase stories, we can keep track of all your current contributions in order to grant you further perks. This allows you to move to higher tier classes and receive more exclusive perks without having to contribute from the beginning.

Your contribution will be proportionately distributed between the film production components the funds are being raised for in a particular funding round. The specifics of the breakdown can be found on the Contribute Page.

When you receive your perks depends on the type of perk. The categories of the perks fall into digital content, items, VIP access or recognition. Digital content is received (unlocked) immediately after payment and can be viewed on the Stories Page. Items are received upon completion of the film. VIP access and recognition are mostly related to festival events and acknowledgement in the film credits. As such they are received at the relevant times.

The projected finish time for Post-Production 1 is January 1, 2018. At this point the film will be at the stage of Picture-Lock, i.e. all editing, animation, special effects and captioning will be complete. Post-Production 2 is intended to be complete by February 1, 2018. This stage involves original score, colour-correction, and sound-correction/effects. The first festival submissions begin in March, 2018. This gives us a buffer of one month to complete the fine-tuning stage.

The film will be submitted to film festivals worldwide. As many of the larger festivals require a world premiere or at least a premiere on their own continent, the film will be submitted strategically to cover the most festivals, starting with the Cannes Film Festival submission in March, 2018. After the larger festivals, submission to the smaller festivals around the globe will commence. In addition, the film is projected to play at art theatres and at galleries. Further venues will be broadcasters, digital platforms, the educational context and events with relevant organizations. Details can be found on the Marketing and Distribution Page.

You can choose to receive updates through email. In addition, regular updates will be posted on the Making Of Page.

The Close the Door Book has not yet been created. It will be a hand-made book comprised of images and dialogue from the film, together with additional story-elements that will make it read more like a novel. You will receive this book sometime upon completion of the film, because right now we have to focus all our energies and time on that. However, you can rest assured that you will receive a quality book that has been given the proper care and attention.

Any purchase that you make will count towards your perk benefits, but will not be considered as a contribution publicly. In other words, we want to acknowledge your ongoing interest and support by having a model that remembers all purchases and contributions, so that you can get to the next tier faster and receive more perks. To clarify further, money received for stories does not publicly count as a contribution as this type of transaction has a money for content type of relationship, i.e. the contract is already mutually fulfilled upon transaction. This said, although not contractually binding, a large amount of the money earned from story purchases will go towards the making of the film regardless.

If you are asking this question, you have probably both purchased stories and made a contribution. The perks granted through contribution work according to a tier system. Each tier has a fixed list of perks, one type being the unlocking of stories. The amount of “additional stories” (i.e. stories not directly purchased) unlocked depends on the particular tier. “Additional stories” can be unlocked by crossing to a higher tier class. Of course, if you would like to see all stories, you can purchase them directly.

The film and the stories remain their own separate artwork. I have over a hundred hours of footage from which I am creating these stories and from which the final cut of the film will be crafted. It is possible that some of the footage in the stories will be seen in the film. However, it will be assembled differently, i.e. shown from a different angle. A large portion of the footage is also exclusively and consciously kept for the film alone. The relationship between the stories and the film is best seen as complementing each other and collectively providing a more in-depth view of the same story.

Yes, there will be more stories in the future. I cannot predict when as the priority and focus remain on the completion of the feature-length film.

A flexible, rather than a fixed purchase amount allows for two major mechanisms to take place and interrelate. One is individual assigning of worth. The other is the interplay between assigned worth and one’s resources. Assigning of value to anything in our society is a complex web of social, cultural, political and economic structures. Instead of allowing these mechanisms to determine the worth of the stories and standardizing their value, I would like to give you the choice to decide what you want to give and to what degree you believe the stories hold a significant message or how much you think they add to your life. The minimum purchase amount is calculated in such a way to accommodate those with lesser resources. In the end, what you give is not so much perceived as fixed value, because fixed value cannot be assigned to something so immeasurable, but as what you choose to give.

The Stories Book is a handmade book comprised of the written stories and images from the short films accompanying them. You will receive the book once the film is completed as we have to focus all our energies on the completion of the film. But you can rest assured that it will be in your hands after that and that it will have received the utmost care.

All sales are final.

We collect basic contact information such as your name and email solely for transaction purposes. Such information is never shared with any third party.

You will receive a receipt each time you make a payment. These receipts cannot be used for tax deduction purposes as we are not a charity nor are we sponsored by an organization with a non-profit status.