If I had a penny for every view
Not many filmmakers can boast that their film has been watched over 23 million times, and when British director Kate Madison released her Lord of the Rings prequel, Born of Hope, in December 2009 she had no idea that she would be able to do just that.
“The film was made for the enjoyment of us and other fans of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. It was driven by my admiration for Tolkien’s work, and my desire for film making, and it’s just mind blowing that it has reached such a huge audience.” The film has been available to watch for free on Youtube for a little over three years and is attracting thousands of hits every day “if I had a penny for each view I would be up there with JK Rowling” jokes Kate.
Since the release of Born of Hope, Kate has been working on her next project, which is an original web based series called ‘Ren’ that takes its inspiration from both Lord of the Rings and TV productions like Game of Thrones. “In resent years online based shows, especially those from the States, have gotten better and better with production qualities almost matching television but I want to show that we here in Britain can do better!”
Ren is the story of a young woman, who lives a quiet life in a small village until dramatic events, involving an ancient powerful spirit and the ruling warrior order of the Kah’Nath, forces her to leave her safe existence and find the truth behind the web of lies she’s believe in all her life. “The first season of 6 ten minute episodes is ready to be filmed and it’s so exciting to already be working with concept and story artists to brainstorm what the next season could bring” says Kate with undeniable passion.
She has launched a Kickstarter campaign for her new project to get the fans involved once again. “Even though Born of Hope is such a huge success doesn’t mean that Hollywood has come knocking” she says with a smile “I want to make films for and with the fans, who like and live for fantasy based content”. Crowd funding is the new buzz word but it’s nothing new to Kate, who actually got her fans involved in the production of Born of Hope more than five years ago. “When we found the going particularly tough and my savings were running low, we turned to the fans with an online video and they came to our rescue. Without their help Born of Hope may never have been finished. Now with sites like Kickstarter it’s even easier to engage with your audience and they become an essential part of the project you’re trying to make.”
If you would like to know more about Kate’s project and give it your support please link over to the official Kickstarter.com campaign.
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