Introduction
Hi, my name is Matt Grayson and I'm the Editor of Steampunk Journal (www.steampunkjournal.org) which is currently the most popular online steampunk magazine in the World.
I grew up in Sheffield, UK and I took an interest in photography from an early age. In fact, I have over 20 years of experience. I can turn my hand to any type of photography, but my passion is portraiture.
My campaign is to raise funds to build a subscription based website by steampunks, for everyone interested in this amazing science fiction inspired by the 19th century aesthetic.
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The Hellfire Club will feature galleries of photoshoots up to artistic nude level. They will have models of all genders in various situations that will always sport a steampunk or Victorian theme to them. Not being gender specific is something that hasn't been done before on a website like this and will reinforce the steampunk ethic of inclusivity. I will also look to take on shoots from steampunk photographers and steampunks from the community who wish to model.
Members will have to pay a monthly fee to access the site and all the shoots that are available to see in the gallery. Everyone involved in producing a shoot will get paid in some way.
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By contributing to the success of The Hellfire Club, you will be expanding a business that is already on the rise. My magazine, Steampunk Journal, is the most popular steampunk magazine in the world. I already have campaigns in place to help the community, such as Steampunk Write, Steampunk Read. It's designed to give independent authors some exposure of their novel right into the faces of the people that they want to read it. I champion supporting independent artists and always look to help them as much as possible. With an arm of the business bringing in finances, I can maintain the Journal as a free resource for steampunks and even expand to some other projects I've had to shelve due to costs.
I'm looking to raise £13,000 in order to fund the bulk of the outlay to get the Hellfire Club started. In order to have something for people to subscribe to, the site needs to have shoots accessible from the time of launch. I wouldn't be happy paying a monthly subscription for an empty website, so I can't expect anyone else to. I predict that having 20 shoots to upload will be good number with ten online at launch. That gives a buffer of another 10 shoots should I run into delays or other problems.
The cost of a single shoot is broken down typically into the following sections*:
Model hire £135
Make-up artist £180
Studio: £45
Clothing hire £50
Props travel costs £35
Retouching £205
Total: £650
*prices are for half a day shooting (approx 4 hours)
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Perks for investment
The amount that you decide to contribute will determine the perks that you get and I've thought long and hard about what to award the lovely people that help me. Based on an estimate of a monthly cost of around £12 a month to join the site when it's live, I decided to give some discount to Indiegogo investors. Therefore, for just £10 investment, you will get 1 month access to the site. This will increase by a month at £10 intervals and from Level Three of investment I'll start giving away images that will be of a scene from your favourite shoot. At Level Five, the pictures will be printed and signed by the photographer, making a unique artwork even more rare as these will only happen for investors of the initial launch!
As the levels of investment rise, the pictures will become albums and you'll even be invited to input your creative ideas into a shoot at the top tier investment level.
I've also included three special stages especially for businesses. These will range from sponsorship of shoots with 12 month access, to full creative control of the shoot, to including company branding in photographs and advertising on Steampunk Journal.
Should not all the funds be raised, I will use what I have to get as many shoots done as I can. I've not included myself in any totals as I will be financing part of the project myself and I don't think it would be proper. I'll also be funding and building the site myself while the shoots are taking place.
However, if the target gets smashed and we go over, I will be able to expand the benefits such as a custom made website for ultra smooth viewing and a book of images if we do really well. Anything we have spare will either go to more shoots or I'll get some little goodies made up to hand out to people who have helped in the campaign.
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One of my aims for the site is to empower the people who pose for the camera. This won't be a seedy website with naked girls. The site will have a variation of clothing removal which will be completely at the request of the model. I want the Hellfire Club to do what burlesque has done whereby it gives people self confidence. That's why the people taking part will be all genders, skin tones and orientations. Any adult who wants to take part will be welcome to be in front of my camera.
Aside from the confidence boost that people can get, they'll also get paid a reasonable wage for working for the Hellfire Club. There's a great deal of angst at the moment surrounding artists and how they feel that people are taking advantage of them under the banner of "exposure".
Risks and overcoming objections
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I'm a regular guy in a regular life, so obviously not everything will go right. Problems rose from the start before I even started planning the campaign. I contacted 30 people who I thought may be interested in working with me and I only received 5 replies. Eventually I managed to find more people and I have a good number of people looking forward to working with me. The biggest risk is people's reliability. However, people working on a shoot for money are much more likely to show up than those working for free. That's another reason I knew I had to raise the funds to pay them.
I expect to run into issues with the site build. I'll be using an entirely new system which is why I'll be starting from when shooting begins. That way I'll have a good 20-30 weeks to get it up and running. I ran into build issues with Steampunk Journal though but it's a smooth running, attractive and bright website now.
I'm a grafter, I currently work on a farm delivering goods and that can be up to 1.5 tonnes a day. I also look after my two children on my own and run the magazine when I'm not doing either of those things, so I'm not averse to hard work. I'm also more determined about this project than anything else I've done. I've even made a video! With me talking on it!
I've been taking pictures for over 20 years now and I know how the industry works, so I'll always have a back up plan. I also worked for a large magazine for two years, so I understand how to make the website popular in the ranks. That's why searching general steampunk terms brings Steampunk Journal either to the top of the list, or within the top three:
- Steampunk news: 2 (after steampunknews.co.uk)
- Steampunk reviews: 1
- Steampunk articles: 1
- Steampunk interviews: 1
This demostrates how seriously I take my work, how reputable I am and how focused I am to make my projects the best they can be.
What you can do
I really hope by now you can see what an amazing website this could grow to be. I also hope that this is something that you want to invest in. Simply click the preferred box in the top right corner.
I know what it's like to have little or no money, but still have the compassion to want to help with a project you believe in. Don't feel that if you can't spare any funds that you can't help. I need as many people as I can get to spread the word about the Hellfire Club. I need people who can see this is going to be a success to help me make it the success they desire it to be. I will still reward people who help in these ways, even if it's like a Bookmark or a CD or something. I will find a way to say thank you.
So share this project, tell people about it, register your interest on the
Steampunk Journal Landing page where I'll update by email. Liking and sharing posts extends the organic spread of posts on social media, so anything like that which can help with will be gratefully received.
Please accept my advance thanks for reading about my project and I hope that I've convinced you that this is a wonderful investment opportunity. If you have any other questions, though, please feel free to get in touch.