Hey everyone

Thanks for all the support/interest with the project so far. Sorry for not making an account here earlier, I just assumed that Shenmue 500k was sort of an extension of the dojo but I realize that not everyone uses Facebook. My bad!

I figured I would use this thread to keep you guys up to date as best I can. Here are how things are looking right now:

Voice actors I have interviews with Corey Marshall, Lisle Wilkerson, and Michael Naishtut. I've reached out to Deb Rabbai and Eric Kelso and they are both interested. I figure thats enough to go on for now and see how it develops.

Fans/youtubers I've filmed interviews with Amy Lei, James Reiner, Adam Koralik, and Mike Paprocki. I've spoken with Happy Console Gamer and Alpha Omega Sin and they both seem interested as well, it's just a matter of solidifying a time. They are both super busy so that might get pushed back until later in the year.

Critics I have one guy from Toronto who is a friend of mine that writes from various websites occasionally. The main one I got was Malik Forte who is the editor for Nerdist, he also has a bunch of videos on youtube. He had some pretty great things to say about Shenmue actually, really happy how that turned out.

Developers I have a long list of people I want to interview but I have yet to reach out to any of them. The project is still fairly new so I'm hoping to use the Facebook/twitter pages to gain enough buzz so some of the high priority people I want to talk to will agree to speak on camera. If I reach out too early I will just look like a diehard fan from Canada who wants to make a movie (which is 100% true) and they could easily ignore my emails if I don't look somewhat credible.

Luckily I am working with the guys from Fauxpop.com on this. We live in the same town and work together all the time; I pitched them the idea and they thought it was interesting, even though none of them knew what Shenmue was. They are the same guys that created Turtle Power: The definitive history of the Teenage mutant Ninja Turtles. That documentary had some pretty good success so I was able to go through them to initially reach out to people. They are close with some people at Nerdist so that's how we were able to contact Malik Forte, and they were the ones who first reached out to Cory on my behalf and got him interested. Right now Im doing pretty much all of the shooting/editing on my own but will collaborate with them later on and iron out some details.

I do plan on visiting the UK eventually, as well as China/Hongkong/Japan to get more interviews and shots of the in game locations etc. It's been all out of pocket at this point so I'll have to wait a bit longer.

Lastly I need to mention that I still do not have the rights to use in game footage from Sega (or whoever the heck owns the license at this time). The plan is to set up a meeting with them (Fauxpop should make that a little easier) once I have enough material to cut together a pitch package. The sad reality of it all is that there is a chance I might get shut down and that all of this will be for nothing. Im going to stay positive though, at this point it's all I can do!

One more thing: I want this to include as much work from fans as possible. I've talked to some people who are willing to translate the film in Spanish and German. I've talked to a few people about providing music, animations, and even doing some filming and sending me the footage. I want to include a bunch of fan drawn images scrolling alongside the credits at the end of the film as well. These are just a few examples so if you would like to help out in any way just shoot me a PM.


There is still not a release date for obvious reasons lol. Still lots of work to do. If you guys have any questions I'll try to answer them as best I can. Thanks!

Hey everyone

We're doing our next round of interviews in late July. We'll be driving from Vegas to LA and then ending in San Fransisco. We managed to line up a pretty high profile interview so Im pretty pumped about that. Hopefully it could lead to more connections within the industry as he does have some influence in that circle. Can't say exactly who at this point...will have to wait until we get back.

Anyway, I wanted to extend an invite for anyone in the areas we'll be travelling. If you want to meet up and say a few quick things on camera about what Shenmue means to you and why its so special etc you are more than welcome too. My plan is to gather a bunch of quick 'streeter style' fan interviews during this whole thing. What it will be used for exactly Im not sure, but it will be nice to have just in case. Perhaps we could even grab a a coffee/beer afterwards depending on the time of day :)

On July 20th we will be taking Route 15 to LA, then leave the 24th for SF. Flying back to Canada on the 26th.

Shoot me a message if you would like to meet up and I'll see if it works.

The documentary now has an official title, its being included is a series of feature length documentaries that Fauxpop media is creating called :The Definitive History. The first one was of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, now they are simultaneously working on one about Shenmue and Conan the Barbarian.

I'm good friends with them and we work together on stuff all the time. The project is in good hands!

http://fauxpop.com/portfolio/shenmue-a-gamers-journey/

Wow, the feedback we have been getting for this trailer has been amazing. Glad you all enjoyed it :)

Please share as much as possible. We are hoping that this will get the attention of YS.net, Cedric, Awesome Japan, etc so that some more filming opportunities will hopefully open up in the near future.

I just wanted to clear up a few common questions that I've seen popping on in various place:

1) No solid release date yet. It's hard to say with these things. On the one hand it would be great to release simultaneously (give or take) with Shenmue 3, but interesting things may develop after the release of the game and we might want to include that in the film, so it could very well be after the release of the third game. Or it could be months before.

It most definitely will not come out before the end of the kickstarter campaign haha. I've had some people ask me that, and while agree it would help promote the campaign if it were to be released now, it just isn't feasibly possible for obvious reasons.

2) The documentary, as it stands, is still unofficial meaning it is not being funded by Sega or any other studio. Faux pop's involvement is from a creative standpoint, we are all just filmmakers and fans of pop culture who want to make an awesome 'Definitive' documentary that we are proud of. We hope that the people involved in the franchise see the value in what we are doing. If we can share this trailer hopefully it will stir up interest in those circles.

Again, thank you guys for all the support thus far!

If you want to get a sense of what the final film will look like I suggest checking out Turtle power: The Definitive history of the Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles. Also, the trailer for the other Definitive film currently being produced can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQXZGNh5luA