We are Danilo and Nadja, we are the team behind The Outwitted and we live in Northern Germany. Danilo had the dream to tell the story of The Outwitted for many years and since 2019 we are working on the production of the animated short film for the Godstory, the prologue of The Outwitted. We completely self-financed this first part while working and living off savings. We are proud to present you now our first animated short film for free.
Enjoy watching:

The content of the Godstory:
The three ancient gods Lyandaal, Heraborim and Xalith together created the universe with all its life. While his two siblings created the planets and life, Xalith had other plans: he created an army of dark creatures called “Maer” to ensure his dominion over the universe for all eternity. But the dark creatures were so powerful that even their creator began to fear them. A war with a fatal outcome breaks out. And finally the dark creatures meet the species that couldn’t be more opposite to theirs: the humans. (For the full story we recommend you to watch the short film)

The Outwitted is a dark fantasy and grimdark tale and the story is far from finished after the Godstory. We want to take you into another world, into another time and distract you from your everyday worries and problems with a fantastic story. With your support we would be able to continue the animated short film series around The Outwitted and reveal the whole story step by step.

 

It takes a lot of time, a lot of nerves and hard work to produce a short film. That’s why it’s important that Danilo can focus on the production full time. We don’t have a department of artists where each one can dedicate himself to only one important task. Danilo is an all in one artist who develops the story, designs the characters and the landscapes, thoughtfully creates the storyboard, works out the many individual images and finally does the animation.

Since we want to tell the story continuously over the next years, it is essential that Danilo can dedicate himself to this task full time. All of our days have only 24 hours, so it would be counterproductive if Danilo had to work an additional job and only the evenings and weekends would be left for The Outwitted. That would work, but it would unfortunately drag out the production time a lot.

Therefore, your support for the realization of our project is very very important and we would be very happy if you would consider supporting this campaign.

First and foremost, you deserve our deepest gratitude. It means the world to us that you are right here on our campaign page reading this text. We’re happy if the story behind The Outwitted makes you curious, immersed in another world, and want to know what happens next.

We offer you a fantastic story with fleshed-out characters that we hope will still be relevant fifty years from now because it is detached from current events. This story is meant for immersion, for reflection and for dreaming. We offer you an exclusive 60 page graphic novel in the style of the Godstory short film. In addition, we will produce the second episode of The Outwitted as a short film, which will be even longer than episode 1. We are aiming for a length of 15-20 minutes.

The Godstory is the prologue of The Outwitted and with it, the story has just begun. In Episode 2 of The Outwitted you’ll follow a young girl named Aneva on a journey through strange and dangerous worlds, where decisions can also have harrowing consequences. This will be no modern disney style storytelling. Get ready for a dark story with cruel events, with a small glimmer of hope and an unexpected ending.

For your support, we have thought of exclusive perks that will only be available here on Indiegogo for the time being. So be quick and get the perk of your choice!

Part of the donations will be used to enable Danilo to continue working on The Outwitted full time. Producing a short film and graphic novel is truly a task that takes up 24/7 time, so it would be incredibly great if Danilo could focus on that. We use another part of the donations for the production of the Perks and for the worldwide shipping. The last and unfortunately rather unpleasant part is then the taxes and fees we have to pay.

If we don’t reach the Funding Goal completely, we will still produce the second part as a short film, because we are passionate to share the story with you. But if Danilo has to do other jobs on the side, the completion will of course take longer. Nevertheless, we are more than grateful for any support that is collected through this campaign and are happy for everyone who is on board with our journey.

The more support we get, the more we can speed up the production process of The Outwitted. We might even be able to hire a freelance artist for a few months, but that’s just a distant thought that would be absolutely mind-blowing if we could make it happen.

We will keep you informed all the time about the production process of Episode 2, so you can see that we really use the donations only for that and for the production of the Perks. It’s important to us that you trust us and that you feel comfortable with us. We will always process your requests as soon as possible. We promise!

 

DANILO – He is the artist behind The Outwitted. After being in the military for over a decade, he wanted to take a different path and become an artist. He taught himself all the skills and programs it takes to create a short film.

His dream is to tell the story behind The Outwitted to the world, just like other great storytellers did with their masterpieces. His goal is to make the story so big that it will still be told many years from now.

In his free time he enjoys playing SciFi computer games, watching movie classics like the Abyss and Predator, and occasionally reading stories by H.P. Lovecraft. He likes to barbecue all year, spend time in nature and is just a fun person to be around.

NADJA – She is the organizational component who has Danilo’s back. She took care of organizational tasks, necessary research and also built a presence on social media.

She works full-time as an online marketing manager and has additionally supported the project in her free time after work and on the weekends.

In her limited free time, she enjoys reading books and watching series like Gilmore Girls. She also has a thing for old movies like Alien, The Thing and The Edge.

Because our team consists of just the two of us, the entire responsibility lies on our shoulders.

Since Danilo is the only artist, it would also be problematic if he got sick, as that would delay the production. But we have never been sick in the last 3 years, so hopefully we can keep it that way for the next few years. The secret is fresh air, exercise and a glass of water with fresh lemon juice every morning for an extra boost of vitamin C. 😛

Another challenge will be the completion, production and timely shipment of the perks. Nadja in particular will make sure that we stick to the schedule and that all perks are shipped on time, as promised.

So there are certainly a few risks and challenges, but we are exactly the right team to overcome them.

It is not a problem if you are not able to support us financially. Maybe you can tell your friends about our project or share the campaign on Facebook or Instagram instead. You can use the Indiegogo share tools or copy the campaign link above under the funding bar. We are very grateful for any kind of support and thank you for your interest in The Outwitted.

For more information, follow us on Instagram at @popcorn.and.monsters