Help Conci get her business loan

Thank you to all of you reading this gofundme.com campaign. My name is Conci Nelson and I am the co-producer, co-writer, lead actress playing "Sarah Carter," and a whole long list of other things for the Indie Naturist comedy "Act Super Naturally."

This project is extremely close to my heart, as I recently described in a guest blog for Young Naturists America. Through "Act Super Naturally" I've also rediscovered my passion for human dignity and gender equality that was always there, but my dedication to the cause has grown exponentially as I want the discussion of women's rights, body positivity, and gender equality to continue and evolve from my work.

"Act Super Naturally," is the sequel to my partner, JP Riley's first feature, "Act Naturally ," is like the little engine that could. No matter what gets in our way, we just keep pushing forward.

JP brought me on to the team back in September of 2013, having just survived a nasty motorcycle accident where he was hit head-on by a woman who ran a red light. I came on with extreme optimism and excitement to try something outside of my life-long experience in soap operas.
(Yep, that little girl in the video is yours truly playing "Betsy Sanderson" on "The Young and the Restless" in 1987.)

At that time I signed on, everyone seemed on board for making a sequel to "Act Naturally," executive producers, our distributor, the cast, and everything seemed to be in order. I looked at the numbers for what "Act Naturally" should be bringing in from rentals and sales, and I didn't see how there could possibly be a problem for the movie financially, given all of the support we seemed to have. Not to mention, JP's personal injury lawyers had told him the defense in his motorcycle case had agreed to settle.

In the interim, I drained my personal bank account, and maxed out my credit cards because the money was supposed to be coming in at any moment and making sure we could proceed with pre-production and then production was part of my job.

That was three years ago. And three years later, the motorcycle lawsuit is still not settled, the money we have been paid by our distributor is substantially less than what was expected according to the numbers they posted originally.
To top it all off, I have been in and out of the hospital for the last year and a half or so. My last hospital stay for Thrush in February was almost permanent between the Thrush itself and being allergic to most anti-fungals, I was lucky to get out of there.

Between February and April, we lost four dear friends who were related to the production; Chris Larsen (who was background and has worked as background many, many times for Letter Blue Productions throughout it's tenure) to an irreversible epileptic seizure: 
Jason Hinkle (our DP, my loading mentor, and collaborator with Letter Blue for close to two decades) had to step down when diagnosed with colon cancer (he passed in March), so JP and I picked up the slack:
Shay'wa Olawumi (one of my dear friends who shared all of her expertise in hair with me back when we worked in a salon together, and was scheduled to do hair for some of our Chicago shoots, but was often too ill to make it) passed unexpectedly in her sleep: and then, Chas Springer, one of our executive producers, four financiers, and the crux to our original ending, went into renal failure which was a complication from his lifelong struggle with diabetes.

Needless to say, we were hit hard this year - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Our morale and dedication has been tested, and yet time and time again, when it seems as if we are not going to be able to have the capital, energy, or resources to finish this flick, we manage to muster up just enough to get us a few steps closer.

Originally, I was hoping to find someone to loan us $10,000 until the business loan money was deposited into our account, which I'm told by the broker should be mid-September, and pay them back immediately. And then we were going to sell some of our personal assets or gear to make up for the remaining $5,000. But, times are hard and very few people have that kind of money at their disposal.

I was not planning on raising money through gofundme.com. I have been approved for a $60,000 small business loan to continue to get "Act Super Naturally" through post-production and make it availabile for our extremely patient and fervent audience as soon as possible. The catch is, in order to get the loan, I have to bring my debt to equity ratio down, and the broker gets at 12% commission. What does that mean in laymen's terms - I have to pay off the credit cards I have maxed out making this movie for the last three years, by another $10,000, but I also have to be able to pay other bills, including electric, gas, insurance, and rent before the loan will come through, which is why I am asking for $15,000. The payments to my credit cards must be made by September 3rd, and then we can proceed with the paperwork on September 6th, and finally wrap the last days of production and complete post-production.

I have literally put everything that I am into "Act Super Naturally." I have learned more than I ever imagined, and not just about Indie filmmaking. I've also taught myself how to load, clean, fix, and rebuild, Eclair ACL camera mags out of necessity;
construct a call sheet; communicate with managers and agents of our other actors; succinctly speak with crew members and explain what production needs from them, just to name a few things. 

While we're goofballs, it is with the utmost humility that I ask, you, the reader, and the world, to help me, JP, and our company, Letter Blue Productions, finally finish this project that we love, but are practically dying to wrap. I promise your gift will not be in vain, though I'm not entirely sure how I could adequately thank any of you for your help.

Thank you from the very depths of my soul.

With love and gratitude,

Conci Nelson