Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch Seeks Funding for 'God Help the Girl' Film

BY Alex HudsonPublished Dec 16, 2011

Given that Stuart Murdoch is the frontman and principal songwriter of iconic indie pop troupe Belle and Sebastian, we kind of assumed that he was at least decently loaded. Well, evidently not, since the famed Glaswegian just started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a filmic accompaniment to his 2009 album God Help the Girl.

As you might remember, God Help the Girl was billed as a "musical narrative" (no matter how difficult it was to follow the story) and was always intended to have a film component. Now, Murdoch is hoping to raise a whopping $100,000 by February 12 in order to make this a reality. As of press time he's raised just over $15,500.

The campaign page describes the project like this: "Set in Glasgow, Scotland over a long, lazy summer, the film is about a girl called Eve who is in hospital dealing with some emotional problems and starts writing songs as a way of getting better.  Her music leads her to a guy called James and a girl called Cassie each with talents and musical dreams of their own. The story emanates from the universal idea of having a dream and how living it can free you from your troubles."

Even if the Kickstarter campaign fails, the filmmakers promise, "By hook or by crook this film WILL start shooting in Glasgow this summer, ready for a 2013 release." See a video about the campaign below, which features Stuart and producer Barry Mendel talking about Kickstarter ("It's like eBay except you automatically win").

Pledgers will receive a variety of thank-you prizes for their support, ranging from a personalized digital postcard for $5 to a cameo appearance in the film for $3,000. Sorry, Belle and Sebastian fans -- the Tigermilk gold record for $1,500 is already gone.

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