YOU DID IT!

Wok In Progress Kickstarter Successfully Funded
Wok In Progress Kickstarter Successfully Funded
YOU DID IT!

You helped us reach our funding goal! Thank you sooo much for everything; for the pledges, of course, but also for sharing Wok In Progress with your friends and for the words of encouragement. We’ve learned that every bit helps when it comes to not only crowdfunding but life itself. It’s amazing what we can achieve together.

It’s been an beautiful journey, but the path doesn’t end here. We look forward to discovering what lies ahead with you. Stay tuned.

3 Hours To Go

3 Hours Left In The Wok In Progress Kickstarter
Did you know you can get your very own Wok In Progress wok as a reward for pledging $75?

3 more hours left in our sitcom’s Kickstarter! We still need to raise $1,765 to be able to keep the rest of the money we raised. NASA (nerds analysing sh*tty analytics) still thinks we are on target! Stretch goals coming soon! Please pledge if you haven’t already, and be sure to share your passion for our sitcom with your friends: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nopets/wok-in-progress-bilingual-sitcom-series

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nopets/wok-in-progress-bilingual-sitcom-series

With 3 hours to go NASA (nerds analysing sh*tty analytics) says things are looking good. Stretch goals coming soon!

4 More Hours!

4 more hours left in the Wok In Progress Kickstarter
4 more hours left in our Wok In Progress Kickstarter! We’re still short $1,820, but NASA (nerds analysing sh*tty analytics) thinks we are still looking good! Look for stretch goals coming soon! Please pledge if you haven’t already, and be sure to share your passion for our sitcom with your friends.

With 5 hours to go NASA (nerds analysing sh*tty analytics) says things are looking good. Stretch goals coming soon!

5 Hours To Go

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We have 5 hours left to raise at least $2,080, dear fans of Wok In Progress. Please pledge, if you haven’t already, and by all means share our Kickstarter with your friends: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nopets/wok-in-progress-bilingual-sitcom-series Thank you! You rock!

With 5 hours to go NASA (nerds analysing sh*tty analytics) says things are looking good. Stretch goals coming soon!

Sound Stage Inspection

Huili County mayor Li Ningyi and vice-mayor Tang Xiaobing are inspecting the soon-to-be constructed sets for Wok In Progress in a sound stage in the north of Beijing with some of the cast and crew
Huili County mayor Li Ningyi and vice-mayor Tang Xiaobing are inspecting the soon-to-be constructed sets for Wok In Progress in a sound stage in the north of Beijing with some of the cast and crew
Huili County mayor Li Ningyi and vice-mayor Tang Xiaobing are inspecting the soon-to-be constructed sets for Wok In Progress in a sound stage in the north of Beijing with some of the cast and crew

Huili County mayor Li Ningyi and vice-mayor Tang Xiaobing are inspecting the soon-to-be constructed sets for Wok In Progress in a sound stage in the north of Beijing with some of the cast and crew. Mayor Li Ningyi had this to say, “Serve the Wok In Progress Kickstarter!” You heard the man. Our Kickstarter is here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nopets/wok-in-progress-bilingual-sitcom-series Pledge, share or both.

Yes, this is where we’ll be filming most of the interior scenes for Wok In Progress. After Huili County mayor Li Ningyi and vice-mayor Tang Xiaobing are done with their sound stage inspection, of course.

Man At Wok

Victor Muh & Murray Clive Walker
Actor Murray Clive Walker (pictured right), a one-time resident of Taipei, is in the midst of trying to make his Beijing sitcom dream come true. (Photo: Sanna K)

By Joe Henley

Getting a sitcom up and running is a special sort of hell. Convincing TV industry power mongers to pay attention is akin to standing along a stretch of highway and yelling at the cars that whip by. Oh, and there are about a million people alongside you, all braying ad nauseam about how they’ve got the next Friends on their hands. In short, it’s next to impossible.

Actor, writer and producer Murray Clive Walker is on the verge of making the impossible happen. The South African thirty-something has not only gone through all of the above to breathe life into his pet project, he’s had to do it while navigating the cultural complexities of a foreign land—namely China.

The result is WOK IN PROGRESS, a bilingual sitcom following two college dropouts who try, and mostly fail, to bridge various cultural gaps in Beijing. In the self-produced and financed pilot episode Walker plays Larry, a skirt-chasing dreamer fresh out of his studies in the U.S. His comic foil is the level-headed Melvin, played by Scotty Cox.

In real life, Walker spent three years in Taiwan working and studying Mandarin the mid-aughts before upping stakes for the Middle Kingdom. Prior to living in Taiwan, he studied acting in Vancouver and New York.

While living in Taipei, Walker worked a desk job as a writer and editor at a publishing company that made ESL materials. It was there that the idea to write a sitcom struck.

“They were using a sitcom-type show as part of their English instruction,” Walker recalls. “I tried getting a role in that, but they already had enough actors. But the editor told me they were looking for a lower level English show which I could take a crack at writing. And so I started creating a sitcom for the first time.”

That show was never made, but the idea had a hold of him. His love for the city notwithstanding, Walker knew he would have to leave Taipei in order to fully pursue his dreams of writing and acting.

“I love Taipei more than Beijing actually, but the industry was just too small. I needed the next big thing in my life and so I made the move to Beijing.”

Upon arrival in the Chinese capitol, Walker was poised to fall into the usual western-expat-in-Asia McJob. Then the first in a series of serendipitous meetings occurred.

“I was about to start teaching English again when I met an Australian guy in a coffee shop. He was running lines for an independent movie and he gave me the number of his agent. I met with her and a month later, just as I was being hired to teach English, I got my first acting job on a Chinese TV show called Zhuangshi Chuzheng (壮士出征).”

Since that chance encounter eight years ago, Walker has acted in over 30 TV shows and eight movies. He even landed a role opposite action star Dolph Lundgren once, with Drago himself wrapping his fingers around his neck despite the script not calling for it.

By Walker’s own account, trying to break out as a foreign actor in China hasn’t been easy, but he has been able to make a steady go of it. Now, rather than wait for roles to find him, he’s trying his hand once more at writing his own.

Nobody gets by in the entertainment industry without help, though. To get Wok in Progress made, Walker needed someone with a bit of industry clout on his team. Cue the second entrance of fate into the picture.

“Funnily enough, I met Victor Muh (慕全胜), co-producer and director, at a speed-dating event. Although neither of us found girlfriends that night, we did instead sow the seeds for an awesome friendship and partnership. I showed him the pilot and we got to work putting the different pieces together. Victor and I pulled in our resources in order to make the pilot happen.”

Walker and Muh are now in the final stages of a Kickstarter campaign, attempting to raise the US$30,000 they need to film the first season. With just a few days to go, they have recently passed the halfway point of their goal. It’s all or nothing. If the thirty grand doesn’t come in by Monday night (China Standard Time), they are back to square one.

In the end, Wok In Progress is a work of comedy. But that doesn’t make it any less meaningful, nor the message any less poignant.

“We wanted to create a sitcom that would address these cultural discrepancies,” says Walker, “but also convey the idea that although culture is important, sharing the same culture is not paramount to getting along with each other. Yes, we are all different, but it’s these differences that make us interesting and unique.”

Corporate Sponsor Reward

New Corporate Sponsor Kickstarter Reward
We are now offering a Kickstarter reward for corporate sponsors. Interested in buying our souls? Here’s the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nopets/wok-in-progress-bilingual-sitcom-series

This is what you’ll get: Have your company be our sitcom’s elite backer. This means your company’s, 30-sec. maximum, TV commercial will run once during the 3 commercial breaks in each episode of Wok In Progress for a total of 3 TV commercial spots per episode, for as many episodes as we produce during season 1, for 2 years minimum. Your company’s logo will be featured on all press kits, email newsletters going out to fans, posters, flyers, banners at Wok In Progress events, and all other marketing materials not specifically mentioned here; and will receive preferential sizing and 1st priority placement ahead of other corporate sponsors for 6 months after the end of the first season. Your company will also have the opportunity to distribute promotional items of your choice (pens, t-shirts, hats, etc.) at select Wok In Progress screenings in China. Your company will also receive 8 invitations to our Wok In Progress premiere in Beijing which will include an exclusive and delicious Nam Burger dinner (travel and accommodation not included) with the creators of Wok In Progress and its Executive Producers.

The Last Supper

The Last Supper: Wok In Progress Kickstarter Steak Eating Contest at Pinotage (Sanlitun)
Think you can eat more than Victor Muh, the director of Wok In Progress? Throw down or throw up for our Wok In Progress Kickstarter at Pinotage this Sunday, Sept. 20th at 7PM. Whoever eats a 1.2kg, perfectly aged and cooked, ribeye steak the fastest wins RMB800. 2nd place gets 2 bottles of wine. 3rd place gets one bottle of wine. We’ll all be winners though, because the ribeye at Pinotage is perfectly cooked; full of flavor, moist, and melts in your mouth. Plus, Pinotage will pledge proceeds from the contest to our Wok In Progress Kickstarter.

We have surpassed 60% of our funding goal! We just need to raise $12,000 more before Monday night to keep producing episodes of your soon-to-be favorite sitcom. Please pledge or share our Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nopets/wok-in-progress-bilingual-sitcom-series

The Last Supper Contestant Fee: RMB480
PLEASE RSVP BELOW

Pinotage is in Sanlitun.
Just south of the corner of Sanlitun & Dongzhimen Waidajie (opposite the Qatar Embassy)
朝阳区东直门外大街12号东门小楼 (三里屯酒吧街北口,卡塔尔大使馆对面)
5785 3538 / 5785 3539

50% and 1 Week To Go

Half To Our Kickstarter Funding Goal With 1 Week To Go
Good news! We are past the half way point in our Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. Unfortunately, we have just one week to reach our funding goal. If we don’t reach our funding goal, we don’t get anything. Nada. Nix. You will all get your pledges back, but won’t get any cool rewards. Sucks for everyone, right? What used to be a marathon has become a sprint for the finish line. You know those guys handing out cups of water to the runners at marathons?  We need you to do the same.

Thanks so much to everyone who’s already shouted encouragement at us, patted us on the back; handed us cups, buckets, 5-liter jugs, and frickin’ barrels of water. Please pledge, if you haven’t already. If you aren’t pledging, please help us spread the word.

Check our Kickstarter campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nopets/wok-in-progress-bilingual-sitcom-series

Kickstarter Meet & Greet

South African Wine Tasting & Wok In Progress Kickstarter Meet & Greet | Sun., Sept. 13, 2015 @ Pinotage

South African Wine Tasting
Wok In Progress Kickstarter Meet & Greet
Sun., Sept. 13, 2015 @ Pinotage

Come to Pinotage to try 30 different South African wines for only RMB10 per tasting glass. Meet Murray Walker, the South African actor known for his roles in Legendary, an English-Chinese co-production and Dragonblade, China’s biggest budget movie. He also stars in Wok In Progress, the upcoming bilingual sitcom, which he also wrote and is the co-creator of. Wok In Progress is in the midst of a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to raise money to produce the entire series. Ask Murray anything about his sitcom, Kickstarter and more.

PLEASE RSVP: danwei[at]wokinprogress[dot]info

WOK IN PROGRESS is about the adventures and misadventures of two college drop-outs from the U.S. as they arrive in Beijing for the first time. At the same time, a noodle shop owner/would-be landlord and his gorgeous daughter struggle to make sense of these two “laowai” (foreigners). For more information about Wok In Progress, visit: http://wokinprogress.info

Haven’t seen the pilot episode’s trailer yet? Check it out here: http://wokinprogress.info/pilot-trailer

Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects. It’s the world’s largest of its kind. Everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of ambitious, innovative, and imaginative projects that are brought to life through the direct support of people like you! Find out more about the Wok In Progress Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nopets/wok-in-progress-bilingual-sitcom-series

Questions About Kickstarter?

WokInProgress.info
danwei[at]wokinprogress[dot]info
Kickstarter.com

Pinotage

12 Dongzhimen Waidajie
Dongmen Building, opposite the Qatar Embassy
朝阳区东直门外大街12号东门小楼 (三里屯酒吧街北口,卡塔尔大使馆对面
5785 3538 / 5785 3539
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