Welcome!

One of film's greatest strengths is showing us something we know, but asking us to see it in a new way.

Back in the early 1900s, the world got its very first taste of horror in cinema with German expressionism, and audiences have been covering their eyes with delight ever since!

Now 100 years later, we're working with today's techniques and tools in animation to bring you a new, original story told in this spirit. This is the Mechanical Dancer - an animated twist on the classic horror of long ago.

The Story

In a run-down part of town there stands a small theater, owned by an eccentric old man. His spectacle "The Mechanical Dancer" is quite a sight to behold, though perhaps it has seen better days...

We follow him and a strange cast of characters as sinister crimes unfold, and ghosts of the past are revealed...

Our Goal

We're hoping to share this film with as many people as possible!

Our trailer contains some of the first completed moments of the film, and seeing them together carried a great feeling of excitement - we hope audiences feel that too!

When and How can I see the Film?

90% of the character animation is done, and the post-process is not far behind. We're estimating the final sound and renders to be complete in 2017, and then we aim to show the Mechanical Dancer in as many festivals and screenings as we can.

If you're concerned you might miss the chance to see it, you won't! After audiences have had their fill at the festivals, all backers will receive a link to the final film, so you can see it for a limited time before the general public!

It might sound crazy, but we never wanted to use this story and these characters we love to make a profit! We want to give you the opportunity to see it, to enjoy it, and come to love it as much as we do.

Stretch Goals

If our film is successfully backed, we'll have what we need to finish. Any funding we raise beyond our goal can only help - we'll use additional processing power to speed up render time, work on hardware upgrades for the team, and offer more chances to catch a screening in more festivals. And we wouldn't want our journey to end there - that's why any additional funding we raise will also go towards our next animated project. Yes, there is already another in the early stages of development, and we hope many more to follow!

How your Support Helps

So far we've put our own time and money into the production, with our reward being the opportunity to tell the kind of story we want to tell. Although we've made great progress, we need your help to finish strong & maintain the level of finish we set out to achieve.

To put it simply, every donation, no matter the amount, and every person you share this project with, brings the film closer to completion! We love storytelling, and if you want to see this film at its fullest potential, please help us make it happen!

When it comes to budgeting, we prepared this graphic for all the visual folks out there: