Thank you to all our supporters who donated to the Kickstarter and believe in this project.
We are putting the finishing touches on season one and preparing to release soon!
The Susie House Podcast KICKSTARTER
WHO WE ARE
Co-creators Allison Moseley and Liz Belile have been developing, writing, and producing The Susie House Podcast since 2018, when the pilot became a Second Rounder at the Austin Film Festival’s first-ever Fiction Podcast Script competition. Since then, it has been a semi-finalist in Google’s PRX competition. Allison is show-runner, co-writer, director, actor, and producer, while Liz is co-writer, actor, and producer. Patrick Costigan is our sound designer and plays the role of Father Judah. All live in Austin, Texas.
With a cast of over 26 voice actors, and a handful of crew members, we are fortunate to be working with a wildly diverse group of many of Austin’s most talented creative types.
WHAT WE ARE MAKING
We have finished recording 14 episodes of season one of The Susie House, a Southern Gothic audio drama series.
Sadly, after recording six episodes of our podcast, we had to shut down production in March 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic. But that did not stop us from being productive. Liz and Allison used this time to continue writing and editing, while Patrick figured out a way to assemble field kits for our cast so that we could do our best to continue recording.
We've used our pandemic time wisely to participate in the excellent Sundance Collab programs; Liz won a scholarship to take a comedy screenwriting class, and Allison participated in a TV writing class. Despite production being shut down, we applied our respective Sundance experiences to rewrites of The Susie House.
We've used our pandemic time wisely to participate in the excellent Sundance Collab programs; Liz won a scholarship to take a comedy screenwriting class, and Allison participated in a TV writing class. Despite production being shut down, we applied our respective Sundance experiences to rewrites of The Susie House.
Now we need to raise money so that we can get the rest of the series recorded and to reward our actors and crew for their patience, persistence, and hard work, as well as their faith in the power of The Susie House script and characters.
We need your support so that we can finish and launch this project.
HERE'S THE PLAN
The plan is to finish recording. We have seven episodes in the can, with three more to record. If we succeed in raising the money we need, our timeline will be shortened considerably. At the moment, all of the writing, recording, editing, and production work is being done on the side while we are all working other full-time jobs and/or raising families. Raising money will mainly expedite the engineering of the episodes, while also helping us to pay our actors and crew at least a modest stipend. More money will make it easier to deliver this series faster. We must launch it within the upcoming year, and your support will help us do that. We’d love to launch before the end of 2020, but realistically, it will probably be early 2021.
THE BUDGET
We are asking for $6,000 to go toward sound engineering, music, cast, and crew. Let's put this baby out into the world!
Whether it's a "thanks" on our website or an Executive Producer credit on the series, we have something for everyone.
We are offering a variety of Susie House themed items, from cool, specially commissioned, vintage-style poster art and t-shirts, to scented candles and stickers, to a CAMEO ROLE in our next season, to EXECUTIVE PRODUCER credits when we launch.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Having spent two years of our lives researching, writing and revising hundreds of pages of audio, participating in Sundance writing programs, submitting to competitions, and learning to network in the entertainment world while managing a team of actors and crew has challenged us mentally and emotionally (as well as physically) in myriad ways.
Since March, we've tried to offer financial support to all of our team as best we could, out of our own pockets. We continue to have weekly meetings with our social media interns and our web designers, and we've had one live Zoom table read, with plans for more. And when we can, we'd like to have live listening sessions and possibly table reads for a public audience.
On the path to creating The Susie House we have debated, researched, and explored multiple controversial topics, ranging from domestic abuse to religion to racism. We have agreed and disagreed, written and rewritten, and above all, looked for ways to thread these relevant topics throughout an entertaining story with creepy, spooky, and shocking moments.
The process of writing and producing The Susie House continues to be a major learning experience for those of us in key positions. We have documented our process at every step of the way, and hope to be a resource for other makers as well.
Listening to the wonderful actors bring our words to life has been a thrilling process, and watching our young crew develop their design, writing, and social media skills has also been inspiring. The early results are acoustically enticing, and we think audiences will enjoy listening to this series as much as we have enjoyed making it.
We have poured so much work into this project and we are so excited to share it with all of you.