Highly Acclaimed ‘Aidan 5’ Sci-Fi Series Seeks Season 2 On Kickstarter

The first season of Aidan 5 arose from a hastily-constructed pilot that won the 48 Hour Film Project, where creators have two full days to make the best possible short film. After winning that project, Aidan 5 continued its meteoric rise by earning multiple award nominations. Now, over 18 months after Aidan 5‘s first season began airing, its creators are hoping to bring it back for another go, launching a Kickstarter campaign that has already raised enough money for a second season.

Aidan 5‘s appeal comes in large part from its visual style, where live actors are placed in front of a hand drawn background

. The whole series, which explores common sci-fi themes such as clones and identity crisis, is hard to peg down, but if I had to label it I’d call it 1/3 Blade Runner, 1/3 Sin City, 1/3 ‘Take on Me’ music video. No matter how you define it, Aidan 5 left viewers wanting more.

What’s even more amazing is that the entire first season – all 16 episodes of it – were all financed out of pocket. In a pitch video, creators Ben Bays and John Jackson explained that they tried to film a second season on a similar budget, with poor results. Thus, a Kickstarter project was born, and fan response allowed the pair to easily reach their $7,000 goal with six days to spare. Feel free to check out the Kickstarter page yourself; though the pair have already reached their goal, I’m sure they’d be happy to take your money.

Don’t expect the successful Kickstarter to result in an immediate release of more Aidan 5. As one would expect, this kind of carefully constructed visual style (I’m going to call it the reverse-Real-Artists) takes a lot of time to create. Bays and Jackson are aiming for an August 2013 release, which will coincide with Gen-Con in Indianapolis (the duo’s Room 101 Productions company is based in Columbus), where they hope to screen the season two premiere. Look for more news from this film noir spectacle as that date approaches.