Hello All,
I decided to make this a completely separate blog due to the nature. Are we begging for money? YES. These efforts are taking place of my other job which is keeping food on our own table and every dime that is supposed to go to bills is going to fuel and time, and trying to get out there to get footage so I can make my pitches to businesses and large retailers that much more affective so that they will donate not to me, but to Wings of Compassion. I don't want nor need their money. Their money and donations of goods and services will go directly to the organization and efforts, so rest assured this is a totally separate endeavor. I won't even touch the funding nor goods as they will be given to the organization that will handle everything.
We tell the truth. And we just need YOUR help to get us there which Is even as simple as liking my channel and the videos, following and subscribing. Please just take a moment to go to our YOUTUBE Channel and hit the subscribe and notification bell, like our videos and help us climb in the algorithms show it keeps getting pushed out to more people which will bring in ad revenue, more sponsors, etc.
What I do need is financial assistance though and/or supplies and gear donations. The only way I can get people up here is to pay them because they will be there at the locations for days at a time getting footage, interviewing officials, press conferences, writing headlines and articles and updating everyone in real time. I also have to pay an editor and pay this website where all the video will go, pay for the software, internet services, licensing for the music, the talent talking head who is my interviewer, camera operators, and to hire other independent journalists to help us write, as well as planners and office staff that can man the phones and update us on what is happening so we can send teams to those locations.
If you would like to talk to us about branding for your own company through retainers, business card design, headshots, video production, filming reels and sizzlers for your official website and socials media, and ongoing content, please reach out to us ASAP to schedule a meeting to determine if we can help you, and then step two will be a discovery call. The proceeds will go towards our operating expenses and hiring people to help with hurricane relief.
On top of that are all the other transportation costs. We need work passenger cargo van that is newer in model. I'm going to try to work with a few places to see if they would sponsor us but if they do, we will still need insurance on the van, fuel costs, insurance on the crews, business insurance, and then funding for petty cash to use on the go if needed. Keep in mind, these vans would be used and turned into sleepers so crews can sleep in the vehicles.
With this will come the rental of portable showers and portapotties, ways to heat up food and keep food cool that will also be outfitted in the trailers that we will purchase to hold and secure gear.
With a crew comes their transportation costs, lodging, food, and a per diem, plus any tools and clothes they will need, credentials, new email addresses which do cost a lot per month to maintain their accounts.
If you are a video producer or editor and you'd like to help and volunteer your time, please reach out if you can as we may not get any money donated at all to help, but I'm praying that we do so we can make sure you're paid and we can feed you and make sure you have what you need.
If you would like to donate to this production and all the expenses which will come with it, you can donate here: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/nwphotovideo
We are estimating approximately $125k in operating expenses which will cover food, gear rental, gear replacement or repair, vehicle rentals, business insurance to cover the vehicles and secondary auto insurance fuel expenses, hotel stay for the crews, transportation on site, accessories for the gear, insurance, permits, licensing, clearance, communication ($400 per set of anywhere radios if they aren't sponsored), salaries for the crews which will be about $250-$600 per day (they also have bills that dont' pay themselves). This is rate is a lowered rate as the individuals are already onboard to work with me and for us. As of right now, We would be happy if we could get even $25k which would atleast get us there and back and cover the immediate needs. Bear in mind that these news networks have millions in budget to do what they do and they don't even report the full stories!
We will most definitely need to purchase a heavy duty truck with a tow package and a trailer that is outfitted for our gear and to keep the gear safe as well as a home base for the crew. I would most likely purchase 4 of these as they come in fully built at around $6500 each, and then the batteries with solar panels needed to keep them charged and going since there is no power in many of these locations and no fuel available. If you would like to sponsor at all by providing any of these items mentioned, it would go a very long way and be way easier than having to purchase it, AND it would be an approved tax write off for you and be listed as sponsorship and marketing expenses.
I will have a full disclosure ledger that will be openly viewable in real-time so that you can see where money is going and what it is being used for, for full transparency. Whatever is NOT used will be donated directly to the relief victims through Wings of Compassion.
As stated before, I don't have a huge following so if you'd like to contribute to my channel by subscribing and following my channel on YouTube and watching ads, you can definitely do it that way and help the views climb. We also don't have sponsors right now so that would be where the other revenue would come from for daily operations and expenses. Many of these YouTubers have merch stores and money coming in from other sources that are sustaining them so that they can focus on volunteering strictly. We don't have that. So the only way I can afford to keep going up there and putting miles on my car, and get the required insurance to cover all my gear is through donations. Full disclosure, I'm doing this instead of working my other job during the week which all that money also goes back into the business and to our bills.
So if there is any way that you can help, please please do rather its by donating, sponsoring a day or two, video sponsorship, brand marketing retainers which will go right back into relief awareness efforts and real time updates. For instance, I have to get new tires soon and an oil change just for my car. I also need a car topper immediately because my vehicle is packed full to the brim. I would prefer to have a production van. So if you can donate a like new vehicle
If you would like to contribute by hiring our company to do brand marketing for you, all proceeds will go directly to keeping the lights on, insurance, tires, fuel expenses, hiring people to help,
Here is a registry of what is needed: https://www.amazon.com/registries/gl/guest-view/22J9B35R74936
We definitely need some battery bricks, V-Mount.. V99 and V150 or close to it. I desperately need some new drone batteries for my Mavic 3 Classic so that I can keep flying and charging. Right now, I have only ONE. They are only up to 45 minute flying time so in actuality, about 30 minutes depending on the location of the drone and then it takes about an hour or so to charge them to full. Each battery is running around $160 each battery and we need atleast 10 batteries.
On top of that would be two Mavic 3 Series Fly More Kits that comes with two batteries, one 3 pod charger, cables, and extra blades that runs at around $649 each.
And finally, several 100Watt USB-C Power Adapters.
If anyone has the funds to donate large power stations and a couple 100W Solar Panels per station that we can charge on the go, this would run about $718 each. I'd like to also purchase a couple Solar Panels to charge that unit to keep us going and all of the camera and drone batteries charged as well as the power station as we will NOT have power where we are, so we will be charging and flying by the seat of our pants Literally! Again, THERE IS NO POWER so everything will have to be solar power charging and we desperately need these large power charging stations to keep us operational. The solar panels run about $215- $500 depending on the size.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SM5HBK1/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=AZF6YB7UVA7OU&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SM5HBK1/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=AZF6YB7UVA7OU&psc=1
Jackery Portable Power Station
https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Generator-Expandable-Compatible-Emergency/dp/B0C6DHK68Q/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=8J4b6&content-id=amzn1.sym.b0f81224-c575-416a-93d9-20e612928432%3Aamzn1.symc.c7d845cb-4910-45f5-9826-0c6eb52c18fa&pf_rd_p=b0f81224-c575-416a-93d9-20e612928432&pf_rd_r=YR6Y4ENMB0JA0J7BFT0A&pd_rd_wg=BnoO9&pd_rd_r=b851609d-82c7-4a8c-bc32-8322bc9fc11f&ref_=pd_hp_d_atf_ci_mcx_mr_ca_hp_atf_d&th=1
SSD's for Editing... this is a HUGE need as we need a place to hold the footage. We need atleast one NAS System which we will store all the footage which will continuously back it self up to multiple drives to prevent file corruption and drive crashing. If one drive crashes, it is replaced and then the system completely rebuilds itself and restores all the lost data. If two drives crash at the same time, then there is still an extra drive with everything on it which will completely rebuild the entire array.
Data recovery starts at $5000 and goes up. Unfortunately, we know this all too well because we had to use it. two drives corrupted and we had to pay over $12K to get them both repaired. I'd rather just avoid that by getting several NAS systems and drives which would totally secure all the data and allow us to archive it all.
Please help any way you can.
If you have any questions or would like to help in anyway, please don't hesitate to reach out. Please note, we only got involved yesterday so information is coming very quickly.