We Did It!
To everyone who has donated and made this happen! We honestly can't thank you enough for your support. You are awesome!
As we have so much time left on the crowdfunder, we are now looking to make things even bigger and better.
Our Stretch Goal will look to fund:
- Film Subtitles: We will tailor the film to be accessible for all overseas audiences.
- Promotion: We will utilise the necessary resources to gain maximum visibility; and to a mostly non-vegan audience.
- New Media: We will expand to the literary world to spread the message to a wider audience.
- Animal Rights Music Gallery: There is a vast potential to showcase the immense amount of research material we have complied over the past 6 years
- More Possibilities: The chance to build upon our already long inventory of interviews with key people in the music industry who are supporting the cause. The more people involved , the more people we will reach .
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Taking Note, for the first time ever, documents the exciting history of animal rights and music and features exclusive interviews with over 100 musicians from across genres and the globe.
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Protest has always played a huge part in the music world with artists throughout history using their music and platforms to incite change and help make the world a better place.
In 2002 music fan Chris Hines discovered the subject of animal rights after listening to the band Goldfinger’s ‘Open Your Eyes’ album. This discovery leads him on a journey to discover how music and animal rights have worked together throughout history to answer two important questions:
Would animal rights be where it is today without music?
And would the music world be the same today if it wasn’t for animal rights?
Not only will this film tell a story that has NEVER been documented before, but its story also features some of the world's biggest music stars from across genres and era's, giving a brand new perspective on the music world that has never been seen.
From classical composers standing up for animals, to The Beatles poking fun at trophy hunters, musicians rallying to help save the whale, the legendary Prince speaking out against the wool industry, Morrissey banning meat at his shows, the Animal Liberation Front setting up a record label, the creation of a fully vegan music genre, Billie Eillish promoting veganism to her millions of fans, how Moby started an animal rights music festival, and even the story of how an American Idol contestant went from the stage to the slaughterhouse, these are just a few of amazing stories this film will tell.
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As well as being an extremely unique music documentary, Taking Note is also very much an animal rights documentary, and from day one our aim has been to educate as many people as possible on the subject of animal rights and veganism.
Where other films about animal rights can be difficult for people to watch, and difficult to convince others to watch, we feel Taking Note can fill a much-needed gap in the market for a film about animal ethics that is not only accessible, but has mass appeal.
With Taking Note being essentially an animal rights film presented as a music documentary, the film will be a far easier sell and still strongly retain that important animal rights message and call to action.
And with over 100 musicians on the film from across eras and genres, we also have the entire music and entertainment media world as a marketing tool, with a potential reach of millions; most of whom will be non-vegan.
Our hope is that our viewers will be inspired to make a change for animals through the power of music in the same way I was.
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A few of the musicians we have interviewed for this project include...
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plus many more to be announced!
As well as musicians we have also interviewed representatives from PETA (Dan Matthews), Sea Shepherd (Paul Watson), Animus Records (Geoff Francis), Ocean Alliance (Roger Payne), The Mahler Foundation (Morten Solvik), Vegan Campout (Jordan Martin), The Animal Liberation Front (Ronnie Lee), Direct Action Everywhere (Eva Hamer) and many others.
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Having worked on this for over 6 years, most of the filming and research is complete and we are now focusing on the post-production stage where we will be pulling everything we have together to get the film done.
Your donations will allow us to...
- Complete all additional filming and edit the project to a broadcast standard
- Licence all needed music and video archive clips we need to tell the story
- Have a soundtrack produced
- Pay for legal expenses to make sure the film is ready to go!
With your help, we hope to have this film complete and ready for release next year!
* PLEASE SEE OUR ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE FOR UPDATED INFORMATION
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Chris Hines - Writer, Producer, Director (Left)
Chris has worked in the music industry for well over 20 years seeing him run his own record label, radio show, music magazine, and been a touring musician. He has also been a passionate animal rights activist and vegan for the past 8 years. Chris has worked on numerous large animal rights campaigns seeing him interviewed on both TV and Radio, as well as being invited to talk at numerous colleges and universities on the subject of animal ethics.
Josh Pratt - Director, Editor (Right)
Josh is a photographer and videographer who has worked in the music industry for over 10 years and has been vegan since 2015. He recently worked alongside the Lions Barber Collective charity as Director Of Photography on their documentary 'The £1.7 Million Haircut' on the subject of male suicide and has future plans to work on a vegan travel series.
Online Editor - Adam Hughes (Worked with National Geographic, BBC, MTV etc.)
Animation - Rob Halhead (Worked with Plant Based News, Animal Justice Project etc.)
Camera Assistant - Glen Luscombe
Production Assistant - Jenifer Hart
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As a thank you for supporting the project we have some really exciting perks you can take advantage of and we will be adding more throughout the campaign!
A few items need some extra details which can find below!
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Vegan Campout are allowing us to run an incredible deal where you can grab a weekend ticket for next year's event for £20 CHEAPER (£65) than the current VCO website price (£85)!
Please read the terms below carefully before purchasing this perk.
Terms & Conditions: By purchasing these tickets, you do so with the knowledge that 50% of your purchase (£32.50 per ticket) is a non-refundable donation towards the Taking Note documentary crowd funder. In the event you require a refund on your festival ticket for any reason, please understand that you will ONLY be entitled to a refund of 50% (£32.50) of the ticket price. By purchasing these tickets you agree to the above conditions of sale.
Once your purchase here has been made, your details will be sent to the VCO team who will send over your tickets so please allow time for this to happen.
This offer only applies to adult weekend tickets and all other tickets (VIP, Car Parking, Kids etc.) can be purchased on the VCO website here - https://vegancampouttickets.com/
To contact Vegan Camp Out with any enquiries - info@vegancampout.co.uk
To contact the Taking Note team - crowdfunder@takingnotefilm.com
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If you donate £50 or over you will automatically be entered into our raffle with a chance to win some awesome prizes! Here is the current list of what you could win (more on the way!)
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Win an epic Anticarnist bundle including a t-shirt, hoodie, beanie and more!
Check them out at anticarnist.com
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Win these limited-run Joey Carbstrong 'Animal Guardian' hoodies and t-shirts!
Make sure to connect with Joey on his YouTube channel here
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You could win 2 x tickets to the amazing Burn It Down Festival in Torquay next September!
Last year's event saw Deaf Havana, Salem, Yours Truly, Vukovi, Static Dress and many more amazing bands take the stage and next year is apparently going to be even better!
Stay up to date with Burn It Down Festival here
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Here are some larger photos of the signed drum skins we have on offer.
Neck Deep - Signed Floor Tom Skin (Signed at Warped Tour 2017)
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Neck Deep - Signed Tom Skin (Signed at Warped Tour 2017)
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Archenemy - Signed Bass Drum Skin (Signed at their recent London show)
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Huge thanks to everyone who's donated to help this project. We love you all x
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We believe the inclusion of any additional clips in our pitch video that have not been filmed by ourselves to be done so in good faith under "fair-use". None of these clips are confirmed nor finalised within the final film and are used here only to explain the historical story and educational value of the project.
Music Video Clips: Rage Against The Machine - Sleep Now in the Fire (Epic Records - A division of Sony Music Entertainment), Plastic Ono Band - Give Peace A Chance (EMI Records), Green Day - American Idiot (Reprise Records / WEA International Inc), Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues (Sony Music Entertainment), Childish Gambino - This Is American (mcDJ Recording, RCA Records, Sony Music Entertainment), Live Aid, Billie Eilish - Bad Guy (Darkroom / Interscope Records), Paul McCartney - Take It Away (Capitol Records, MPL Communications Inc/Ltd, UMG Recordings, Inc.), RZA - Tragedy (Wu-Tang Records), Morrissey - Live In Santiago, Chile (Movistar), Conflict Live (Conflict), Architects Live (Sea Shepherd / Architects)
Animal Footage: Pexels, Sea Shepherd, PETA