Do you want to learn to act like Tom Perkins, star of Skinemax’s Born to Win, Nothin’ to Lose? Then you need to sign up for his Master Class.
The 10-part web series features Bill Wise (Uncle Steve from Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and a veteran anime voiceover artist) as Perkins, a washed-up ex child actor who runs acting classes for the hopelessly untalented. Written and directed by Justin Wright Neufeld (co-creator of Austin-set Rennaisance fair comedy Disenchanted), Master Class charts the humiliations and triumphs of his students. Will the local improv troupe, the Loony Spittoons, stop being such dismal show-offs? Will Carson (Peyton Freiman) ever learn that speech from Cocktail? And will Tom’s awkward legal issues ever allow him to teach that class on nude scenes?
Mixing Episodes with Office Space and Between Two Ferns, the series is midway through shooting, with the first six episodes in post-production. With three weeks to go, the project has raised $3,535, and you can help them reach their $25,000 goal via their Indiegogo campaign page. Best of all, because the production is part of the Fractured Atlas art alliance, not only do you get the normal backer perks, but all donations are tax-deductible. Plus, in a special announcement via their Facebook page, the producers said that all contributions made up until Christmas Eve will be matched, dollar for dollar, by another donor, up to $2,000.
One in a Crowd is a series intended to showcase Texas film and tech projects that are crowdfunding their way to a goal, be it distribution, a prototype, or production costs. If you have a project that we should know about, email us at filmflam@austinchronicle.com.
This article appears in December 12 • 2014.
