The Kenn Kweder Documentary

Kenn Kweder is an icon in the Philadelphia music scene and yet, his story has gone largely untold.  He is a man of many stories and songs, and is willing to share all of them with you over a bottle of beer in between sets at the many bars he still plays in to this day.  A pioneer in the Philadelphia music scene, he has made a name for himself since the 70’s as one of the city’s most inspirational and hard working artists. And he has never stopped.  If you ask him for a business card, he will hand you one with only four words on it: “Kenn Kweder. Rock Star.”

This documentary looks to tell the story of Kweder, both past and present.  While a lot of the film will go into his history, showing rare and never before widely seen footage, a good portion of the film will also show you who this man has become.  Kweder is a man who still goes out five nights a week and plays with everything he has.  He can tell you some of the craziest stories you have ever heard and you will still believe every word.  (Well, almost!)

This project is for Kweder, his fans, and all those who have yet to hear his words. 

Who am I?

So why should you trust me with your money for this project?  My name is John Hutelmyer and I am a Temple University Film and Media Arts graduate.  During my spare time in college, I would contact bands as they came into town and offered them free video work.  It was a great way for me to meet some of my idols and build up my portfolio.  It also let me really develop my skills with blending video and music together.  I’ve worked with such bands as “Old 97’s,”  “Brendan Benson,” “Ludo,” “The Matches,” Ha Ha Tonka,” and “Hoots & Hellmouth.” 

You can see my most recent demo reel here.

I’ve also worked a lot with Kweder over the years.  I first met him my freshman year at Temple when he would play in a bar across from my dorm every Thursday night.  Since then, I try go get out and see him play as often as I can.  I’ve shot footage for him over the years and even did a mini documentary on him my senior year of college. I want to give him the fully realized, feature length documentary he deserves.

I currently work full time for an advertising agency in their video department, honing my skills and putting them to use.  I also shoot video for a wedding company and shoot and edit projects with my business parter Rob Nicolaides for our company DogByte Digital.  Rob is an integral part of this project as well and is my right hand man for almost all my creative endeavors.

What the money goes towards:

It gets said a lot on these crowd sourcing sites that, “making a movie isn’t cheap.”  And that is honestly the truth.  I want to be very transparent with everyone throughout this process and there is a reason why we have chosen to use Indiegogo and it’s “Flexible Funding” program.  Using this feature, we keep all the money that is donated to the project, even if we do not make our goal.  

I’ve thought long and hard about this and want to explain why I chose this approach.  Since I shoot a lot of video freelance, I already have some pretty decent equipment.  If I wanted to, I could realistically shoot the movie now.  

But I want to make the best film possible and to do so, getting access to higher end equipment could potentially make this movie a much bigger success story.

No matter what, there will be a Kenn Kweder documentary.  This is my promise to you.  The more money we raise, the more in depth we can go to make the best movie possible.

With the funds raised through Indiegogo, we would like to purchase a new high end camera, as well as pay somebody to edit the sound mix and color correct the project.  The rest of the work is going to fall on our shoulders.  If you’d like a full breakdown of our projected use of funds, feel free to email me at kwedermovie@gmail.com and I can provide you details and any answers to your questions.  The same can be done after our deadline ends if you want to see where it all ends up going. 

What you get for donating:

Check out all the neat prizes to the right that you can get by donating.  There are all sorts of different levels and if there is something YOU want that is not listed, feel free to email me and I will see what I can do to help you out.  

And it might sound cliche, but EVERY dollar counts!  If you only got a buck and want to send it our way, I will be eternally grateful.  We really appreciate all the support.

More Information, transparency, and HELP US!

I want to be completely transparent in this process.  If you have any questions whatsoever, do not hesitate to contact me at kwedermovie@gmail.com.  I will get back to you as soon as humanly possible.

We also are looking for YOUR input into the film.  If you have stories, pictures, audio, or videos that you’d like to send our way, feel free!  We can use all the help we can get!  Especially when it comes to the earlier days.

I hope to hear from you and want to personally thank all of you for looking at this project.