For those of you who have already made a contribution to our filmmaking exploits - and a little background for those that haven't - here is an update to further expand on our plans for 'Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge'.
The video above says it best, but you've probably noticed that we've rolled over funds already contributed by existing followers (thank you SOOOO much!) into this current goal. It is true that those previous funds have been spent as promised in our original offer - in the making of a film called 'Long Barrows of the Cotswolds'. That film is still in post production but will be coming out in the next months - you'll be first to know when! While some of that money IS rolled over into this fund, our goal is, in reality, less than £5,000 but we still think that's a good ball park figure to aim for to fulfil this part of the project. It also helps for new donors to see they're not alone! Hope that makes sense.
The whole of our Buy Me A Coffee page has been revised and now speaks solely to the new project and it's our intention to make this site a whole lot more lively as we progress towards fulfilling the next goal.
In case you haven't seen it, the main gist is this - bearing in mind we know many of you have already contributed so this is just For Your Information, as they say:
With your help, we are going to produce a collection of films that will tell the story of the first farmers, the people who were inspired and audacious enough to express themselves in stone; to be the megalith builders.
(Although it may look like a whole film crew were involved in the teaser above, we are strictly a two-man team. The production values on display here will be the same as in the production proposed but funds raised here only go to supporting Michael & Rupert during location filming).
We are raising funds for Episode 1 right now. We will begin shooting as soon as possible after our budget goal is met. Any surplus funds will be rolled over to costs for the next episodes.
EPISODE 1. OUT OF MESOPOTAMIA* (working title)
Travel with us as we tell the story of the first farmers of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent and their development to be the first builders - as shown at sites such as Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe and Çatalhöyük.
We will show how the lure of exotic materials from the west lured early traders and prospectors across the Aegean Sea to such places as the Greek Cycladic islands and beyond, spurring the spread of Neolithic culture into the Mediterranean Sea.
Then, as an introduction to what will be the next episode of Göbekli Tape to Stonehenge, we take you to Istanbul and the Bosporus, to show how farming spread north up the Black Sea coast and to the Danube.
Outline for following episodes as follows:
EPISODE 2: THE NEOLITHIC HEADS NORTH
Exploring the prehistoric archaeological sites of the Balkans, the Danube and the legacy of the earliest Neolithic people of Europe, the Linearbandkeramic culture.
EPISODE 3: MEDITERRANEAN MEGALITHIC EXPLOSION
What happened on Malta, Sardinia, and the other Mediterranean islands that had them birth some of the earliest and finest megalithic monuments we know of today?
EPISODE 4: ECONOMY OF THE AXEHEAD
How did materials from asa far away as the Italian Alps and the Mediterranean find their way across land and up the Atlantic seaboard to enrich and empower the great megalith builders of N.W. France and Brittany.
EPISODE 5: THE ROAD TO STONEHENGE
From the earliest settlements and tombs of the first farmers to the last hurrah on Salisbury plain of Stonehenge, what happened Britain & Ireland during all those years - in the final outpost of the Neolithic?!
Thanks again for your contribution.
Michael