Carlos and I would like to thank each and every one of our kickstarter backers for raising more than $10,000! With your help, we are now able to get the camera we want and so much more!

We would like to a moment to thank each one of you.

Isya, Xabier, Travis Richey, Patrick J. Walsh Jr., Kirsten Schierman, Hyacinth, Clay Poupart, Maurice Kessler, Steve Koll, Norman G. Cross, Stacy B Gao, Davy Gee, David Cutting, Chris Hensley, Modern Gay Male ™, Kim Kinney, Viktor, Jodi Raybuck, Leslie Silverman, Jd Redline, Rob Williams , per Jacob, Keith Divver, Sean O’Neill, Matthew Sholar, Soul Surfer, Bart Leirs, Mickey McCommons, Dewayne Helms, Josh, William Odman, Jonathan, Christopher Holladay, Juztin DeMeuse, Keith Hafner, Daniel L. Merritt-LeSatz, Amy O’Brien, Howard Stump, Bernard Cocchiola, Al Davis, Jeffrey Tork, Michael Hinman, Suzanne E. Ritzko, CL Lassiter, David W. Hill, Bas van Wilgen, Andrew Monroe, Dirk Vreys, Jennifer Crawford, Ernie Ruble, Rick Pike, Peggy Flynn, D. Mac, Matt Jamieson, Joseph Baneth Allen, Peter P.Y. Mao, Brian Osbourn/Osbourn Draw, James Wood, Claudia Pedraza, Jason Dean, Lane Roth, Woody Embry, Richard Ulmer, Fritz Smail, Albert n Texas, Alan Batie, John Nunn, Genise O. Ghee, Stewart Anderson, John LaRegina, and Paul Lei.

And to our 15 Kickstarter backers who chose to remain anonymous, thank you.

Also, extra thanks goes to our cast members, Lane, Cindy, Doriane, Chris and everyone who spent 30 days tweeting all your friends about us at kickstarter! We did it!

Sincerely,

J.T. Tepnapa and Carlos Pedraza

With a little less than a week left in the Kickstarter campaign, we want to aim higher — ‘cuz that’s what we do. We don’t settle when we know we can do better. I believe that’s why so many people out there want to give this film a chance to be more than ambitious; they want it to become reality.

Help us raise another $2,500 in this remaining week (the deadline is 11 p.m. PDT, Friday, July 9). Click here to donate. The initial $5,000 from our Kickstarter backers will pay for an upgraded high-definition camera that will allow us to release Judas Kiss as a 1080p Blu-Ray disc, the better to showcase the talent of stars Charlie David, Richard Harmon and Brent Corrigan; the filmmaking finesse of director J.T. Tepnapa and cinematographer David Berry, and the cutting-edge soundtrack of world artists contributing to the film’s soundtrack.

The additional $2,500 we hope to raise by our July 9 deadline will enable the production to improve its production values by paying for:

• Rental of an expensive crane, which will give key shots the look of a bigger-budget film;
• Improved visual effects to sustain the scifi elements of the story;
• Part of the film’s post-production expenses; and
• Helping with the basic (and essential) craft services that make sure the cast and crew get fed really good food. Film sets run on their stomachs!

And, of course, additional donations entitle backers to the cool gifts we’re offering for supporting the film.

I’ve been amazed at the people who have appeared unexpectedly and out of nowhere to sign aboard this project — production companies, record labels, independent artists, fellow filmmakers — just in the past several weeks. We’ll be making announcements about all of these in the coming days and weeks. Judas Kiss is already becoming a bigger project than I ever thought it was meant to be, and so much of it is due to the support and word-of-mouth by longtime and new friends and fans. Twitter and Facebook alone contributed so much to us meeting our Kickstarter goal a week earlier than we hoped.

Subscribe to our RSS feed or “like” us on Facebook to stay abreast of all this great news as we release it. I promise you’ll be impressed by the artists who will be joining this project.

And if you want to go a step further and make an investment in this project (earn your money back!), check out our prospectus and contact us. We’d be happy to talk to you.

Stay tuned!

—/carlos

If you haven’t seen the video yet over at Kickstarter, we’d be pleased to have you watch it here. But then you must truck on over to Kickstarter to do your part in helping our feisty little independent film take wing. Every bit helps — donations start at $5.

—/carlos

You can also learn how to become an official investor in the project. Download our prospectus excerpt from the Invest page and contact us for more information.

If you have been keeping up with our tweets and blog posts, you probably already know we just had a super-secret Judas Kiss mission go off without a hitch. In the next few days, we are going to be able to tell you all about it.

The not-so-secret part of our Judas Kiss mission is that we’ll be finishing up our Seattle-Tacoma location scouting, make a Canadian visit up to our co-production partners, Border2Border Entertainment, and start coordinating local auditions to fill out the remaining roles in Judas Kiss. And all the while taking care of our early investors and enticing new investors onboard to what is now looking like a very successful film. And if we have our way, not only critically successful, but also financially successful.

Somebody pinch me. Just to make sure it isn’t all a dream. ::ouch:: It’s real, yo.

– Jaytee

Designed by Minneapolis-based graphic artist Andria Peters, the prospectus reflects the film’s fictional Keystone University setting by mimicking a campus recruiting booklet.

You can download a shortened version of the prospectus. If you are interested as a potential investor, please contact us for a copy of the full document.

So, I think some of you think that a few dollars here and there doesn’t help, I’m here to tell you that every dollar helps. And I’m here to introduce Producer on Layaway!™  Bradley Gorder did it and moved over in the Judas Kiss Circle from Visionary to Senior Producer, and he has his eyes set on Executive Producer. And Kyle Shepherd from Texas is just starting the program and hopes to keep adding every month. So that’s my suggestion to all of you. It all adds up.

OUR NEWEST PRODUCER I also would like to give a hand to our newest associate producer, Farrell Pearson from the midwest. I’ve known Farrell for about a year, but just recently he decided to contribute and join the Judas Kiss Circle.

Please tell your friends to buy a DVD or send them over.  It’ll take all your help to get this movie made.

— Jaytee

We have had several generous contributors over the past year, too. But it’s not enough yet to make the kind of movie you want to see made. So why not stimulate Judas Kiss with your stimulus check and become an instant contributor or producer?

Everyone who contributes their stimulus check will get a special gift from us.  And you’ll be instrumental in getting us one step closer to getting Judas Kiss made!

C’mon, stimulate Gay Cinema!

– Jaytee

I had the an opportunity to sit down with our Londoner, Nicholas Oemcke, in Atlanta for Gaylaxicon. Enjoy!

— Jaytee

1. Respect everyone. It’s a great way to respect yourself.

2. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Plan ahead!

3. No movie can be made without the generosity of Producers.

And with that I’d like to thank our first three producers, Nicholas Oemcke, Bradley Gorder, and Ben Randall.

We have a long way to go before we are ready to shoot this picture. But with the help of benefactors and producers, we are well on our way. May we inspire you join us in making Judas Kiss a reality!

— Jaytee & Carlos