WE REACHED OUR GOAL!

You did it! And yes, we mean YOU! Thank you to everyone who generously donated, allowing us to reach the $100,000 goal. In fact, you pushed us past that goal. To be perfectly honest, we’re still in shock over the amazing support and love we’ve received during this Indiegogo campaign.

The outpouring of people who came together last November to cheer on Batkid inspired us to make this documentary. Now, we celebrate you, the crowd who will make sure the legacy of November 15^th lives on in Batkid Begins.

We’ve got about 24 hours left of this campaign, and every dollar we continue to raise will go towards making the documentary as beautiful as the day was.  That means more money to spend on the aerials, soundtrack, animations, color correction and special effects.

NEW PERK!

With 1 day left, we’ve got a brand new perk! The San Francisco Giants added a truly incredible offer, a day at AT&T Park, but not just any day. For $3000, you can be the guest of the SF Giants at a 2015 game. You and a guest will get lower box seats to a home game (excluding opening day and the LA Dodger series), 2 autographed baseballs signed by Hunter Pence, a message on the scoreboard, a visit with Renel Brooks-Moon in the PA booth, and a tour of the broadcast level. Plus, we’ll throw in all the lower level perks.

REFERRAL CONTEST 

The Film

Batkid Begins follows the events leading up to the day Batkid saved San Francisco and what happens when an event goes unintentionally viral. The goal that day was to get a couple hundred people to show up to support Miles Scott and his wish to become Batkid, after battling leukemia for more than half his short life.

The thought was a crowd of 200 would seem huge to a five year old boy, but what happened next blew everyone's minds. Support for the idea of granting Miles’s wish kept pouring in and soon it was clear that the crowd would be much bigger than the modest expectations.

Instead of a few hundred, 25,000 people lined the streets to cheer Miles on as he saved Gotham. The superhero spirit spilled onto the Internet as news of Batkid’s heroics reached over 2 billion people, touching hearts around the world. Batkid was impossible to miss that day as we were glued to our computers, phones, and in San Francisco, our office windows trying to be a part of the celebration.

Award-winning filmmaker Dana Nachman wanted to understand why this intense outpouring of spontaneous support for a five-year-old reverberated around the world. She reached out to the Make-a-Wish Greater Bay Area in San Francisco who gave her exclusive access to document this phenomenon. Now after months of interviewing the key players who made the day possible, Dana will leave the audiences to decide; did Miles need the world for inspiration? Or did the world need Miles?

It's not just everyday people that come to support Miles. We talk to legendary film composer Hans Zimmer (The Dark Knight, 12 Years a Slave), who created a special song for Batkid.

Some other people we talk to in the film include:

• Batman
• The Penguin (Boo!)
• The Damsel in Distress (Don't worry, Batkid saved her)
• San Francisco's Police Chief
• Gotham City Chronicle and Mashable Editors
• Apple and Twitter Executives
• Clever Girls Collective
• The Masterminds of the Day (Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area)

The Funds

To make Batkid Begins worthy of its superhero namesake, we’re teaming up with big-name musicians, animators, and visual effects professionals, all working at reduced rates in the name of Batkid, and bringing the post-production price tag to $100,000. It took thousands of people to make Batkid’s day magical, and we want to give everyone who was touched a chance to be a part of this project. The spirit of generosity, of positivity, of saying “Yes!” to an unlikely superhero, is what we’ve tried to capture in this film and what will live on if we succeed in this campaign. Here's how we're going to use our Indiegogo funds:

• Beautiful aerials of Gotham City (a.k.a. San Francisco)
• Composer and original soundtrack 
• Audio mix and sound sweetening
• Film graphics and animation
• Color correction and picture work
• Special Effects
• Music licensing

That's why we're reaching out to fans of Batkid to help us complete the project. This superhero story deserves a superhero stage! 

Interview Clips

The Team

Naomi Ture/Cinematographer

Naomi is a filmmaker & cinematographer, interested in the utilization of media to increase thoughtful dialogue across cultures, and spark social change. Her first independent documentary-in-progress, A PERFECT MATCH, speaks on the dire need for minority blood and marrow donors.  Naomi is also very active with Global Lives, inspiring global empathy through a collection of 24-hour-films of individuals around the world.  Through her production house, Naomi crafts short videos for companies and non-profits. Previously Senior Producer for KMVT Channel 15, she directed & edited nationally award-winning shorts. Naomi enjoys gaining perspective through working on meaningful projects, traveling, conversing and exploring the outdoors.

Kurt Kuenne/Editor

Kurt Kuenne is an award-winning filmmaker and composer of both fiction and documentary films.  He is a winner of the AMPAS Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting who studied at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, where he won the Harold Lloyd Scholarship in Film Editing.  His films include the teen drama “Scrapbook” (1999), for which he was named one of the top 25 new faces of indie film by Filmmaker Magazine,  the documentary “Drive-In Movie Memories” (2001), which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, and the popular short film series of “Rent-A-Person”, “Validation”, “Slow” and “The Phone Book”, which played more than 130 festivals around the world, winning more than 40 awards.  His documentary “Dear Zachary” premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2008, was released by Oscilloscope Laboratories and MSNBC, and was named one of the top 5 documentaries of the year by the National Board of Review. 

Liza Meak/Producer

Liza Meak is an award winning broadcast journalist with a passion for storytelling. Liza has spent her career producing at television stations across the country, including the last twelve years at NBC Bay Area, the NBC owned station in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Liza’s awards include two Emmys and a SPJ (Society of Professional Journalists).

John Crane/Executive Producer 

John Crane is a commercial filmmaker who has diverse experience creating fund raising videos for non-profits such as Make-A-Wish, as well as commercial productions, and corporate clients such as Charles Schwab, UC Berkeley, and Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream. His work embodies the best of both worlds from heartfelt stories that embody a singular, empathetic voice and HD productions 
that have iconic visual appeal. He founded a San Francisco based advertising agency before forming John Crane Films to pursue his passion for story telling. John Crane and his crew of 12 captured video for  “Batkid: The Official Make-A-Wish,” which is used extensively throughout the Batkid Begins Documentary.

Ian Reinhard/Executive Producer

 Ian Reinhard has worked as a producer/director for 15 years. Ian works with many different filmmakers on a variety of subjects. He's also active in different non-profit projects throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and is incredibly excited to be part of Batkid Begins.