Kickstarter Campaign Launched For Warped Tour Documentary

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Director DJay Brawner of Anthem Films, along with a production team that includes Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman has been compiling interviews, live footage and more to help build the documentary “The Story Of Warped Tour,” with a Kickstarter launched Oct. 24.

“The biggest benefit of crowdfunding is the ability to control the entire filmmaking process from creation to release,” DJay Brawner says in a statement. “Sure, we can pitch this to studios. Yes, it would be rad if this was on a streaming platform… but at the end of the day if we do this ourselves we’ll get to tell our story on our terms.”

The goal is to raise $150,000, with fans who donate given a chance to win a visit to the Los Angeles premiere, one-on-one lessons with musicians, merch, limited edition vinyl, Vans shoes and more.

“I’ve engulfed myself into the music scene that Warped supported since I was a teenager, and I have spent the last 15 years becoming friends with, working with, and developing partnerships with the bands and people I’ve met through the Warped Tour. You could say my career, as a filmmaker, was forged because of these relationship,” Brawner adds. “My passion for this music scene and my love of documentary filmmaking is what’s driving me to see this project to completion.”

Interviews have already been completed with artists including Bert McCracken (The Used), Tyson Ritter (All-American Rejects), Yungblud, Sean Forman (3OH!3), Kellin Quinn (Sleeping With Sirens) as well as members of Sum 41, The Starting Line, Bad Religion, Atreyu, Set It Off and more.

More information is available at http://www.warpedtourdocumentary.com/

Brawner has directed videos for artists including Danny Ocean, 3Oh!3, Melanie Martinez, Halestorm, Panic! At The Disco, Beartooth and others, and has directed episodes of the show “Noise Ink,” before forming Anthem Films, a commercial and music video production company.

For a slew of bands, agents, managers, venue owners, production crews and fans alike, Warped’s final tour was an emotional moment and marked the end of an era, as told in the Pollstar cover story from August 2018.

Kevin Lyman Wraps Warped: ‘It Worked Because It Was Never Perfect’

The Vans Warped Tour was not only the launching pad for punk and rock bands like Paramore, A Day To Remember and Simple Plan, and helped sustain the careers of veteran acts including Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, Pennywise and NOFX, but its purview grew to include hip-hop and pop stars.

“Everyone saw that it was a cool idea so they gave me [another] chance,” Lyman said. “So I tell kids all the time [that] building up a network of people who will support you when you fail is very important. If you start too early or try too soon or get too impatient nobody is going to give you that second chance.”