The super-hip, super-modern crowdsourcing funding drive for Jon Spira’s Anyone Can Play Guitar movie drew to a close within the past day or so, seeing an outstandingly healthy total of $25,419 being raised by kind supporters.

For anybody that’s in the dark, the film – a history of the Oxford music scene – has been Spira’s obsessive labour of love for the past couple of years, and the money raised will help with a final production push. From the horse’s mouth (that horse being Jon Spira):

“I’m stunned by the generosity of everybody who donated. When we put the project on IndieGoGo with a target of $15,000, the idea of hitting it seemed like a total fantasy. When we hit that, it confirmed that the film would actually get finished (which was never guaranteed). We extended the target to $30k because it was apparent we might be able to pay off all of the music and footage clearances too. Although we fell $5k short of that, it’ll go a long way! We’re still negotiating those fees at the moment but I’m confident it’ll all get sorted in due course.

“The sound mix is being finished today in London, I get to watch the final thing tonight. The picture grade and conform (a laborious process of re-digitising the whole film to make it suitable for HD) are happening and I should be starting on assembling all of the extra stuff for the DVD within the next few weeks.

“I’m hoping to announce a premiere date fairly soon, too. Thanks so much to everyone who contributed or spread the word in any way. This film couldn’t have happened without your support. Join the Facebook group and you’ll get all the news first!”

Warm hugs to anybody that contributed to the funding, and good luck to all involved in getting the project completed! Anybody that’s interested in finding out more, why not read our interview with Jon Spira?