With 7 days to go in 2016, what else can still go wrong?

[Paper Kosmonaut]

The last two years I have worked very hard on getting a documentary film off the ground I really really wanted to make. I got a memorandum of understanding from a broadcasting company and with that I (or rather: we, my partner and me) could start writing and raising funds for the film. This was immensely hard. It took the most of the last two years.
We already did some initial filming because some of the people involved already are quite old and we didn't want them to pass on before the film could officially be realised.
We weren't able to raise all of the money we actually needed and because something is better than nothing, we recalculated the budget and settled for a little more than three quarters of the original (and already very tight) budget. Last week, it looked like it all would be going to work out. We had talks with the broadcasting company for the desperately needed extra funding and it looked very promising.
Today, I got the message the broadcaster actually cancelled the support and funding for our film.

Two years of work, research, effort and energy, all for nothing. I am so immensely disappointed, drained and mad. And sad.
A suitable ending for an already utterly miserable year so far.
At least for me it was.
I hope 2017 will be better. It just needs to be.

(Sorry, I just had to get this off my chest.)

[Knife]

I feel your pain. The fates mock the plans of man. Hope next year is better.

[whulsey]

Sorry to hear that. Have you tried on those internet funding sites?

[jagolden01]

Sorry for the huge dissapointment. I do understand all your feelings and sympahize with you.
Hope 2017 will bring good things your way!

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Originally Posted by whulsey

Sorry to hear that. Have you tried on those internet funding sites?

No, we didn't. Places like Kickstarter are in general great for fundraising but not for this film, since it would have been in Dutch. Besides, crowdfunding isn't that big in the Netherlands because we have a lot of big 'official' independent funds which fund artistic, cultural, sportive and even scientific causes.
Most funds only grant requests from non-profit organisations, but there also are those who include commercial companies who for example, make films. These however, are quite rare but we managed to get one third of the original budget at one of those. Another sixth came from the industries and universities that worked on the project we wanted to make the film about.
We also tried to make it a co-production with a movie producing foundation we regularly work with, so we could get access to those other funds but that didn't bring us any luck at all.

The film is about ANS, The Netherlands' only completely self-made astronomical satellite (a space telescope) which flew in the early 1970s and was more than 1,5 generation ahead of what NASA considered state of the art.
It discovered and pinpoint-located pulsating X-ray star clusters for the first time. It was fully digital and had a reprogrammable solid state on-board computer (a whopping 28K) which could be managed by radio from earth. All firsts.
It was conceived and designed in the late 60s by aircraft company Fokker, Philips electronics, the Dutch aerospace research institute and the astronomy faculties of the universities of Groningen and Utrecht. It was launched on a NASA Scout rocket in 1974, re-entered in 1977.

[Texman]

While I symphathize with your disappointment, if that's all ya got..

Have I got stories for you.

[pjabraham]

I love the subject you picked for your documentary. Good luck in 2017. Hopefully, you'll find the funding you need. If your moviemaking skills are anything like your model making skills, you should do well. While you're at it, whey not do a documentary on paper modelling?

Phil

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Originally Posted by pjabraham

I love the subject you picked for your documentary. Good luck in 2017. Hopefully, you'll find the funding you need. If your moviemaking skills are anything like your model making skills, you should do well. While you're at it, whey not do a documentary on paper modelling?
Phil

Haha! Thanks, Phil. You made me smile. A small doc on paper modeling would be nice. We actually have made a short about an architectural model builder, who exclusively builds in wood. (it's in Dutch but it has a summary of what he tells below.) I guess it would have similar images if it would be on paper modeling.
You also can find other excerpts of films we made on that page. This one , a sort of road movie with two older architects and their work, has English subs. This one about a Dutch cartoon collector who lives in Cologne and organises an annual dinner for cartoonists even has German subs!

[pjabraham]

As they say in Hollywood, fa-bu-lous, darling!

Seriously, great work! My favorite was the one about the architectural model builder. My best wishes for a more successful 2017. Once again, look at doing a documentary on paper modeling. I don't think anyone has done one on the subject. Can I get a cut of the royalties and a mention during the Oscar awards?

Phil

[Texman]

PK,

I would like to apologize for my statement. I should not have tried to diminish your
disappointment over the loss of your funding, by lashing out. Two years is a lot of
work to see dropped like that.

While my year has been ok, my family has had several life changing losses, which is
necessitating ongoing disagreements with several parties, including insurance. I
should not have expressed anything here.

I also would like to apologize to the members who have read my statement. I should not
have spoke out. I just hit a spot in my day that I should have just turned away, and did not.