WHAT'S THIS

A loanraiser that will allow me to finish the renovation of my studio/home and prepare it for winter, thus enabling me to continue my work on various projects I'm involved with. This is the rundown of it – I expand on it all in detail down below for those who'd like to read and delve deeper.

WHAT'S THE STUDIO

It's a space in Dnipro, Ukraine where I already live and work for a year now – however, it required a lot of renovation (way more than expected), and now, while close, I am struggling to ensure I have heating and partially autonomous energy source for the upcoming winter. It was bad enough last winter and it's looking to be worse during this one if I fail to prepare.

WHAT'S NEEDED

I have counted the approximate amount I need to be ready for the winter and it's about UAH 130k / EUR 3000 / GBP 2500.

• A/C unit that is capable of heating as this is the most affordable efficient way to service the 55m2 room (and the summers are hellish here as well).
• Powerful battery-powered generator as there will be guaranteed blackouts during the winter and the possibility of having just a few hours of electricity per day cannot be ruled out.
• Basic furniture so that I can set up an adequate workspace and keep my equipment organised and readily available.
• Two months of rent that will allow me to continue shooting for my documentary Darklight Cities while editing a proper teaser and applying for more funding as well as looking for work.

HOW

I am more comfortable with taking loans rather than donations, so this page will be shared with a limited number of people only, who I hope may be able to help me with a larger amount. Anything below EUR 100 will be considered a donation, anything above a loan to be repaid within 6-9 months (as agreed individually). Please see the bank details on the right – the name for all of them is Egons Upitis. I will update the funding-meter manually as I made this little page myself and kept it simple :)

On the hyperreal sidenote, this in a way life-changing amount I am seeking to meet is around half of what a single artillery shell costs, of which a few million are expended annually in this fucking war to actually kill and destroy livelihoods instead of improving them. Living the dream, yo!

THE PLAN

I am quite certain that once I have a proper workspace, I can be much more productive – and also with the renovation hurdles out of the way, be able to better focus on both film and commercial work.

• I am gradually becoming more integrated within Ukrainian media landscape and filmmaking community, but I haven't been applying for work and advertising myself enough. Right now I have agreed on developing a short docu with Kyiv Post and started making plans with a local reporter for Frontliner, plus a number of pitches have been made, such as one about recycling of Ukraine's rubble for reconstruction.
• While I will also work on funding applications for my film Darklight Cities, I am unlikely to receive any funds for it within 6 months – however, there's one I have already applied for and decision is coming up in November. If it's positive, this loanraiser can be nullified. But of course I cannot rely on it, and I also need to act now as it's getting colder by the day.
• There's also a number of projects I am involved with in the UK, USA and Ukraine, who are actively looking for funding, the success of which would mean payment for the many days I have already shot for them (please see the list of projects and more information about my own feature-length film further below).
• My trial against Transport for London is to finally be resolved in December ;)
  I am not sure at all I will win but I stand to lose nothing as my costs are covered by the law firm who took on my case.
• Finally, I plan to go to London in January 2025 and stay for a whole month, having previously arranged for as much work as possible. Planned wisely and owed to some luck, this could easily cover the whole borrowed amount, but again, not relying on it alone.

DETAILED

BASICS

Never been good with fundraising or crowdfunding in particular – the few times I tried to raise funds for someone, not once I reached the target. However, I have been more successful collecting donations privately for the cat rescue 😻

Now I have ended up in a situation where I could really use some help myself. I been thinking about this for a while – could certainly survive as it is, but it would just be so inefficient and sad, not to mention my projects would suffer. So I decided to set up this little fundraiser – or perhaps titled more appropriately, a loanraiser, as I feel more comfortable getting a few bigger loans instead of many smaller donations. This is for a few reasons, foremost one being the fact I am confident of my capacity to earn this amount and more in the next 6 months or so, however for that to happen, I need to create working and living conditions that will get me there. I also don't have any perks to offer as is customary for a crowdfunder, apart from giving you all a thank-you credit in the film I'm working on (more about it later). Finally, I am not keen on doing a public fundraiser during the times of war, so I'll actually invite just a small number of selected people, my close friends and/or those potentially interested in what I am doing here in Ukraine.

HISTORY

So, to break it down.. Just over a year ago I permanently moved to Dnipro, Ukraine, where I started to rent some office space with a view of adapting it both for living and working. There are two separate rooms: the big one for the editing suite and music studio, where I also intend to work with others; and a smaller one with makeshift kitchen and sleeping area. Both were in less than ideal condition when I moved in, notably some of the windows were blown out and the whole electricity had to be rewired – in the end it turned out there's much more work to be done to fix them up than it appeared initially, at a cost far exceeding what I expected. With the last winter closing in just as I moved in, I had to spend it under suboptimal conditions, where even with the electric heater on full blast, the average indoor temperature would be +4-8C and even dipping down to zero at some point. Worse yet, the summer that followed was even more hardcore with inside temperatures passing +40C on a regular basis.

CURRENT SITUATION

Despite this, I have been doing my best pushing on with the renovation alongside sorting out the residence permit, shooting for my documentary, doing voluntary filming work, and regularly travelling abroad just to have a day or two of paid work. It feels like given the circumstances (cold/heat and lack of proper workspace), I have been at no more than 50% of my working capacity for most of the year, and ultimately I haven't been able to prepare for the winter once again. This time though, I am close – and the sole obstacle right now is the lack of funds to complete the main studio room, where I could both live and work for the time being. There's a lot of work done to insulate the room and make it suitable for work, but what's missing is a powerful A/C unit, which could also efficiently heat the space. Due to the inevitable power outages I also need a powerful battery-based generator to get me thru the day. Depending on the severity of Russia's attacks on the energy infrastructure, blackouts may last up to 18h a day, although hopefully we won't come to this – still, I need something that could also run the heating for at least a couple of hours a day if things get real bad.

The other thing is, I must continue filming my observational documentary about Ukrainian cities as I been doing from the first days of the full-scale invasion. I have already covered Kyiv and some of its oblast's villages, Chernihiv, Uman, Odesa, Izmail, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Huliaipole, Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, Nikopol, Kharkiv, Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Chasiv Yar, Lyman, Kramatorsk, Uzhhorod and Yasinia – but there's many more I need to visit.

Getting an interest-free loan now would be a real life-saver as it would enable me to sort out the living and working conditions and avoid the paralysis in winter, as well as allowing me to continue shooting my documentary and other as of yet unfunded projects I am contributing to. I am certainly going to earn or be awarded the funds required quicker if I have the studio/home sorted out. My situation is certainly improving as I gradually introduce myself to the Ukrainian media landscape and integrate into local filmmaking community.

There are a number of projects in the works as well as potential funding opportunities and job prospects, for some of which I am gonna give a brief overview further below.

THE PROJECTS

• Darklight Cities – feature-length documentary by myself; role: everything; status: filming ongoing, producer attached, looking for funding
• Dear Britain – feature-length documentary by Matthew Somerville; role: one of DOPs; status: filming finished, producer attached, looking for funding
• The First – feature-length documentary by Larysa Artiugina-Pokalchuk; role: DOP; status: filming ongoing, producer attached, looking for funding
• Forest Song – short fiction film by Alina Yakubenko; role: DOP; status: filming ongoing, producer attached, looking for funding
• Through Positive Eyes – series of shorts by Mo Stoebe; role: one of DOPs; status: some filming funded, on halt pending further filming
• Growing Up – feature-length documentary by Larysa Artiugina-Pokalchuk; role: DOP; status: pre-production, completing team, looking for funding

DARKLIGHT CITIES ROUGH EDITED SEGMENT

DARKLIGHT CITIES SCREENSHOTS

Odesa, Huliaipole, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Kherson, Yasinia, Kramatorsk: