About Us:

What is Channel Awesome?  Well, it's awesome, for one thing.  And it's a channel!  Actually, it's not a channel.  It's more of a website... type... thing.  You know what?  Just focus on the awesome part!

We are an online video company that launched in the bygone year of 2007.  Ah, those were the glory days!   Back when M Night Shyamalan was bad but, you know, not THAT bad -- and when a young boy named Shia Labeouf emerged from his molting husk to become the man who would ruin multiple franchises.  During this tumultuous time, we created and produced the popular Nostalgia Critic show, as well as Ask That Guy, Bum Reviews, 5 Second Movies, and more!  We also found many independent video producers and brought them under our Awesome Umbrella (think of it like a normal umbrella, only it makes you fly and stuff and talks back to you like something out of Mary Poppins).   Together, these producers teamed up with us to create yearly anniversary specials -- which have been universally praised as being: "Light years ahead of M Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, but not better than The Avengers."
 
As we continued to grow we realized that we needed to expand our self-produced show lineup.  And in order to do that we needed a location.  So we found a location!  It was October of 2012.  Ah, those were the glory days too!  A young vagabond named Daniel Craig was fresh from escorting Queen Elizabeth II to the Olympics and... never mind.  Should probably stay on point.  The point is: it was a great location!  But it was empty.  Turns out filling a location with stuff costs time and money -- the two least favorite words in the entertainment industry.  So over the past 8 months we've been building sets, collecting props, and upgrading the equipment on our own dime. Unfortunately, that dime isn't as big as we'd like it to be.  Turns out they're rather small -- just barely large enough to fit FDR's head, and certainly not the rest of his body.  So with large plans in mind and not enough resources to fund them, we've decided to go with IndieGogo to see if we can get some help.

Still interested?  Read on.

The IndieGogo Campaign:

Our main goal of $50,000 will allow us to upgrade our lighting, cameras and audio to get our film quality to something more respectable than The Blair Witch Project.  We're aiming for at least the sequel, but have the noble goal of surpassing Clerks and -- if the fates allow -- most Happy Madison productions.  Let's face it, Grown Ups 2 beat Pacific Rim at the box office.  Why can't we look as good as them?  Heck, we can even go so far as to not cast Rob Schneider in our sequel projects as well!  And isn't that the most noblest goal of them all?

In addition to equipment, we'd also like to finish construction on our sets and fully soundproof them as well.  See, the thing about studios is they're cavernous.  And the thing about caverns is they echo.  So if we don't want our shows to sound like they were recorded in the Batcave, we need to invest extra capital into fixing this problem.

But what will these sets be used for?  We're so glad you asked!  You'd get cookie, but we're afraid it would crumble in the shipping process.  And no one should have a cookie that fills them with sadness and regret.

Anyway, our first major show will be a Pop Culture Challenge.  It will be funded by this campaign.  And hosting will be put in the capable hands of Brad "The Cinema Snob" Jones -- a man who oozes charisma with the frequency of a derelict oil tanker.  Initially, it will be a weekly game show revolving around questions from the 80s to the early 2000s.  It's tailor made for the Nostalgia Critic crowd and Gen Xers, Ys, Millennials, and all those other groups advertising execs like to create buzzwords for.   So, are you nostalgic for your childhood?  Remember what you were watching in high school and college?  The movies, the music, the sports, the events, the video games -- everything will be on the table!   After we get a few episodes under our belt we plan to start implementing physical challenges into the mix.  But of course, this costs money.  Brad's Cheshire Cat smile alone requires 24 hour maintenance by an army of orthodontists working out of a mobile command center.  At least, that's what he claims.  We told him to just use a whitening toothpaste like the rest of us.  So, thankfully, donations will be better used on actual resources apart from his teeth.

 We plan to make every donation count and have prepared stretch goals for if we go over our $50,000 mark.  What are these stretch goals?  We're so glad you asked!  Again with the great questions!  These stretch goals will not only be new shows, but also ones that will allow us to complete other areas of the studio.  It's our hope that this will allow other Chicago area content creators to film in our location.  As we get closer to these goals we will announce them below!

But wait, you want more?  Ask and you shall receive.

Perks:

We will have a bunch of perks to choose from, and plan on adding a new perk every week until we are done.  If you want to collect on a perk please make sure you include your email address and/or personal address (if an item is to be mailed to you).

In Conclusion:

We think we're pretty awesome -- but that's only because our fans are awesome!  While we've had a lot of fun here, we would like to close with an important message.  It's a personal word from our CEO Mike Michaud:

"Our fans have always been amazing. Heck, you all are the reason that the anniversary specials started! Without the donation drive of January 2009, we would have never been able to film the Brawl and your generosity exceeded our expectations when we did our Charity Drives for the Ronald McDonald House Charities in December 2009 and 2010. We know that we would not be where we are today without you.

Every dollar received from this campaign will go to new show production; equipment and studio upgrades. If we hit some of our stretch goals they will also go into hiring others to help film and edit our new shows! The math is pretty simple, the more money we raise, the better we can make the site for you."

Stretch Goals:

 Note The Gaming Gauntlet and Retro Pop Culture Challege are just temporary names for the show, and most likely both shows will have new names by launch.