I can hardly believe it, but we’re finally here.  The public debut of the Chicago Shadows trailer is this Saturday!  After three years of dreaming and working, I am so excited to release this to the world.

What started as a cooperative story—a roleplaying game with friends—quickly took on a life of its own. The story continued past the edges of the table and into our imaginations.  It grew into a script that was molded by writers who saw something shining within that tentative first draft.

We talked about it to everyone who would listen and were met with enthusiasm every step of the way. One question in particular came up, again and again: “How can I help?” We developed partnerships and created the core cadre of Rem Alternis Productions.

With little more than our collective excitement, we launched our Kickstarter one year ago.  We kicked off our social media platforms and reached out to the various geekdoms we thought would be interested, from sci-fi and cyberpunk fans to tabletop gamers, cosplayers and roleplayers.  It took a lot of work, but we pulled it off, reaching our $15,000 goal, a modest budget for a teaser.

The rest of 2019 practically disappeared. Production in 2020 seemed so far away, but we were shooting in February and in post-production by March. Redleg has guided us through the entire process with professionalism and grace.

The first rough cut of the trailer brought me to tears. Even with so much work still to be done, it was far beyond everything I had hoped for, given our low budget. Every cut after filled me with pride, filling me with the knowledge that we had everything we have access to all of the people with the right skills to pull this off.

Of course, our intent was to release the trailer officially at the various film festivals over the convention season, but we had to remain flexible in the wake of Covid-19, just like everyone else. We’ve opted for an online release, to push the trailer out into the world and see how far we can take it. We are certain it will be the foundation from which we will continue to build our following, growing our community, and building confidence that a fantasy cyberpunk series is well within our grasp.

And we could not have done it without all of you. So, thank you.  Thank you for the fan mail, for the outreach, for the social media likes, and for the engagement. Thank you to our supporters, to the backers, to Redleg Films, and to my team at Rem Alternis. This is real because of you and I am forever grateful.

When the trailer releases this Saturday, I hope you love it as much as I do—and I call for your help one more time:

Let’s get eyes on it.

Share, engage, react, and comment. Help us spread it wherever you can, everywhere you can think to share it. We want this to be just the beginning of our story, not the whole thing. Our audience is passionate—YOU are passionate.  This is a project that came to fruition on pure enthusiasm.  Let’s have that enthusiasm drive us to the next chapter.

With love and gratitude,

Sarah