It's not every day that the producers of a television show that doesn't air on PBS solicit direct financial support from its viewers, but that is exactly what the Outdoor Channel's 'Wild on the Fly' is doing. 'Wild on the Fly', which premiered last year, is a fly-fishing show that focuses on using a documentary format to provide a higher level of value to the viewer that its typical Saturday morning fishing show counterparts. While the Outdoor Channel has renewed the series for 13 new episodes, thus obviously putting an operating budget behind the series, the show's producers don't feel it's enough. That's where they hope the viewers will come in.
Using the popular online fundraising platform, Kickstarter, the show's producer Joseph Daniel has taken to the internet to try to raise direct support from the show's viewers. As Daniel explains, the goal is to raise an additional $2,000 for each episode's budget in order to raise the production value and add cinematic polish to the final product. Daniel goes on to say that
We produced our first season on an absolute shoestring budget and still attracted over 300,000 viewers per episode during just the first three months. In fact we were one of the highest rated shows in our genre! For our second season we want to raise that bar again, expanding our creative team and incorporating a higher level of post-production finishing ... it's important to realize that we're not just producing a single short documentary film; we're producing 13 of them! And each one has to be stand alone, drop-dead fantastic or we're not taking off our waders.
The show covered ambitious topics in its first season, such as the Pebble Mine situation in Bristol Bay, Alaska (a topic many fly anglers are passionate about) and the plight of Cuban refugees in the Marquesas, all in the context of fly fishing, of course. Daniel aims to keep the bar high and likely set it higher for season two. That's where he hopes the viewers come to bat for the show. Thus far, the show has a ways to go, with only $1,215 of the $26,000 goal raised.
If you'd like to learn more about the show, or their fundraising efforts, head to the 'Wild on the Fly' Kickstarter page.
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