NEW TIER! EXCITE! SEE INSIDE MY BRAIN!

Hello, you lot.

So. I’ve mentioned it. Now I’m going to do it: a new tier. I’ve looked around at friends who also have Patrons, and all of them have an upper tier that’s between £20-30. Some of what’s offered at those levels are one-off or annual rewards, and I’d rather we offer something that’s ongoing. Something really, really exclusive and unique.

Candidly, I’m doing this because my TV work continues to be thin on the ground in this post-Covid world. Sanja and I have bills to pay, but we’ve had a brutal couple of years because of the pandemic and shifts in the TV landscape.

I’m developing a lot of stuff, but development is painfully glacial. In an ideal world, it might be that if any of work seeds I’m planting do bear fruit then I’ll have no need for the new tier – but let’s see. Something positive will happen on that front sooner or later, but I can’t really wait around much longer.

We’ll never get rid of the £1 and £5 tiers – I love that you can support what I do with an amount you’ll barely notice, and still get some benefits.

Also, The Writer’s Club is one of my favourite things I do at the moment. The podcast is a joy.

So… I thought the new tier could offer something that is similarly behind-the-scenes, and a deeper insight into my creative process… while offering a sort of unprecedented access to me (and, no doubt, Sanja). And we can all have some fun to boot.

A month or so ago I took part in a Patreon exclusive Zoom call with a bunch of other Patrons of Marillion’s lead singer Steve Hogarth, and it worked really, really well.

So, here’s the plan: a minimum of a once-a-month scheduled Zoom call between myself and everyone in the new tier. Sometimes there may be more than one – depending how I’m feeling.

They’ll all be saved and uploaded so you can watch them back, or watch them if you miss them. And the idea is that I’ll chat with you for some of it, but the main thing will be me sharing my computer screen – and what’s on that screen will vary from call to call.

I might do some video editing, some animation, some writing, some Photoshopping, some teletext art – or we might go on an exciting eBay or Amazon safari together to find weird things! It’ll be fun and interactive, and with a live commentary from me. Heck, I’ll even take requests. I want it to be a dialogue, and it might be a really unique insight into the production of Digi Level 2.

In the event that a ton of you sign up, I’ll do more than one call, so we can really interact. Or you can just watch and not say a word, or not watch at all because you just want to support me – that’s fine too! You know me though: I want to offer value for money, and a lot of the Kickstarter backers seemed to value personal and unique rewards. Of course, if you’re in this new tier, you’ll also get access to EVERYTHING ELSE including Writer’s Club.

But there’s more… . Everyone who signs up between now and the end of the month will be rewarded with a unique piece of personalised teletext/Digitiser art that I’ll email to them to do with as they wish.

Anyway. That’s it. I think it’s relatively easy to switch tiers if you want to do so. Don’t just upgrade the amount you’re paying.

Scroll down and select the “Edit” button under your current tier description in the “Summary” section of the page. Scroll through the tiers and tap the “Join” button for the tier you'd like to switch to. Tap the “Update” button to confirm your changes.

That’s it! I look forward to talking to some of you on Zoom early in May.

Paul