Crowdfunding Project Of The Week: 'Hardly Sound'

Since "Austin City Limits" has been the coolest music series on PBS since it premiered in 1976, it seems fitting that the second coolest also comes from Austin. "Hardly Sound" is a distinctive music series that combines a mix of documentary footage, musical performances and other scenes into a final product that is manages to be artful, entertaining and quirky. Director Chris Kim uses his first-person voice-over narration as the structure to hold it all together, in much the same way Anthony Bourdain does in his travel and food series "No Reservations."

Kim and producer Randy Reynolds financed the five episodes of season one out of their pocket. The episodes aired on Austin's KLRU and the hope is to get a wider distribution for season two. The duo is working under the non-profit umbrella of Austin Film Festival, so all of the donations are tax-deductible.

Their Indiegogo campaign is seeking a mere $3,500 for five season two episodes and based on what I've seen of the show, it's an investment worth making. I also can't help thinking that this business model would be an interesting one for other local PBS productions. Donors might be much more willing to donate if they know the show already has a TV home. And local TV PBS stations that are strapped for money can offload the fundraising and production of local programming with a potential national bent to hungry local producers.