Yehoodi.com wants to bring lindy hop to the world in a way it’s never been done before -- a live, television-quality, HD video broadcast of the best lindy hop competition in the world.  With your help, we can do just that.

For 15 years, Yehoodi.com has been providing, free of charge, an online home for the lindy hop community.  We’ve run discussion forums, live events like the Basie Centennial, streaming online swing radio, and audio/video podcasts like the Yehoodi Talk Show, Hey Mr. Jesse and SwingNation.

In all of that time, we have never asked for a dime from our members and viewers.  Today is the first time on all those years we are asking the lindy hop community for support. 

Last year, we went to the International Lindy Hop Championships in Washington DC and produced our first live on-site dance competition show. Using basic production equipment and a skeleton crew, we were able to put on a high quality production that had 23,000+ views over the weekend, with viewers logging in from Korea, Sweden, Australia and many more countries. We heard from hundreds of you how much you enjoyed the live broadcast and the video archive later.  

This year, we think we can do even better. We have an opportunity to create a television-quality, high definition video production from ILHC.  But we need your help.

 Here’s what we need:

• bad ass equipment

• a killer production team

 Luckily, we are close to having both. But we need additional funding to get this production going. 

Bad Ass Video Production Tools

The NewTek Tricaster 40 is a state-of-the-art compact video switcher and live production box.  It’s like what we currently use for "SwingNation," but much, much better.  It can:

• pull in live footage from up to 4 different HD cameras,

• display HD quality video,

• play pre-recorded footage,

• handle titles, transitions, "picture-in-picture" and more like a champ

In short, it will enable us to show ILHC -- and any other swing event in the future -- with HD television quality production values.

To take full advantage of this system, we will also need at least one HD camera capable of interfacing with the Tricaster. 

A Killer Production Team

As we demonstrated at ILHC and continue to do so on our weekly show "SwingNation," we can put out a high quality video production on a shoestring. Our full production crew includes:

• Producer Manu "Spuds" Smith
• Managing Editor Rik "Rikomatic" Panganiban
• Co-host Nicole "Zuckerpunch" Zuckerman
• Videographer Jim Thorpe 

We have had two seasons of shows to develop our pre-, live and post-production chops, and we think we work pretty darn well together. Your support will make it possible for all of us to be in DC for ILHC.

Yehoodi has been producing online video for as long as it's been available.  Our first online talk show was released in 1998, and we’ve been doing some version of it ever since.  We have the crew, the experience, and the technology to make this happen.

And we should mention, the organizers of ILHC 2013 have graciously invited us to be  their video production partners, for which we are extremely grateful.

Beyond ILHC

This is just the beginning of what we hope is a new era of online video for lindy hop, which we believe can be just as exciting and awesome as dance shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Americas Best Dance Crew.”

We have already been approached by several event organizers to stream their competitions and showcases live to the internet. In particular, the team behind the Frankie100 Centennial Celebration have said that they would love for Yehoodi to be there in May of 2014 to stream some of that historic event to the world.  With your support, that can happen.

Also, if we reach our goal, we will be able to provide the lindy community with a much higher quality version of our weekly lindy hop based show, SwingNation, the only weekly live streamed video podcast that delivers news, events, interviews and featured dance videos for our Lindy Hop audience. The SwingNation show archive will be in the best quality possible for future generations to come.

Funding Goals

Base Goal: $5800. Yehoodi is able to purchase a Tricaster 40 and an HD video camera and fly one crew member to ILHC.

Stretch Goal #1: $9,600. Yehoodi is able purchase a Tricaster 40, three HD video cameras, and support all four crew members to be at ILHC.

Ah One, Ah Two...

If you believe that lindy hop is an awesome dance, and that people around the world should be able to see it in the highest quality production, we hope you will consider supporting our fundraiser.

But whether you support this project or not, keep spreading the love of lindy hop to those around you. It’s what Frankie would want you do to.