We're here to collect your hearts. And your glitter.

Who we are.

The girl with the red hair is Mary Kate Wiles and the girl with the glasses is Rachel Kiley. MK acts and Rachel writes. Sometimes those two things tend to go pretty well together.

We met working working on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, an Emmy award-winning modern day video blog adaptation of Pride & Prejudice where MK played Lydia Bennet, and Rachel wrote a lot of the words she said (particularly when she got her own spin-off). Over the course of working on those shows, we discovered that we work really well together, and are both interested in telling edgy, character-driven stories that hopefully make people look at the world a little differently than they usually do. Some people liked what we collaboratively brought to the show and asked us to make more things together, so we were like hey, yeah, sure, we can do that.

We also both really, really love Fall Out Boy, so we stole a line from one of their songs and made it the name of our YouTube channel. Loosely Bolted. You probably got that part, we're just being exhaustively clear.

What we want to do.

Make stuff.

Ta-da! That's it!

Really though, we want to keep making our own stuff and eventually create more ambitious projects like ongoing web series and movies. (You like those things, right? ...right?) Rachel has a (super totally useful) degree in "film/TV," which is to say, assorted things related to making film and television, like not holding a camera upside down and putting tape on the ground so actors know where to stand, and MK has a lot of on-set experience, acting in well-known web series such as Squaresville and School of Thrones, as well as several feature films, so we aren't going into this as two people who completely don't know what they're doing. Promise.

Ideally, our YouTube channel will be a place for us to share one-off sketches and short films as well as test out scenes for bigger projects we have in mind. It will be a mixture of funny stuff, angsty stuff, and westerns. Lost of westerns. (Note: We aren't serious about the westerns. Probably.)

We also like music (are there people who don't?), so we would like to come up with some fun covers of songs for videos. MK is really good at singing, and Rachel is really good at tapping empty beer bottles with her thumb ring. If that doesn't sell us as serious musicians, probably nothing will.

Where you come in.

To make a short film, we come up with ideas, pick one to write, write it, get together any props, locations, and additional actor/crew friends to help out, shoot it, log the footage, edit it, color correct it, edit audio, and do anything extra like find or write music, create title sequences, add in special effects, etc. To make a cover video, we find a song we want to cover, come up with an arrangement, learn it, practice it, record it over and over until we actually get it right, edit it, color correct it, and edit the audio.

Basically, this stuff takes a lot of time. 

So the less time we have to spend worrying about bills and finding other ways to make money, the more time we will have to spend working on these videos so we can release things more frequently and make sure they're the best they can be.

Beyond that, we also want to make sure we have a contingency for any video expenses that pop up, like paying any actors and crew who help us out (we try to keep it to an absolute minimum by doing as much as we can ourselves, but sometimes we can't do everything), buying props or costumes we can't find/borrow/make, and other small expenses that add up.

We aren't trying to get rich off of YouTube, or off of you; all we want to do is make things that we love, and still be able to do things like pay for car insurance and buy food every day. So if we make things you love, too, and you have a couple dollars to help out, that would be super cool of you.

Obviously everything we make will still be available to watch for free on YouTube. If you can't afford to help us out, or just don't want to, but still want to see the things we make, we ABSOLUTELY want you to be able to do that. That's way awesome of you. We hope you enjoy it!

Questions we're assuming you may have:

How many videos will release each month?

Right now, we're going to try to release a video every other week, but we'd love to eventually get to the point where we're making more.

You have unscripted videos on your YouTube channel as well, will I get charged when you upload those?

NOPE. The only videos that will count towards our Patreon video count are scripted videos and videos where we make music. Any videos we release that are vlogs or just us goofing around or answering questions are extra. The reason for this is that scripted things and covers take a lot more time for us to do than unscripted, and they also seem to be the things our audience wants to see more. Also worth noting is that any covers or scripted vids we post on our own personal YouTube channels won't count either. This is only to support projects we are creating together under the name Loosely Bolted.

How much money should I donate?

Whereas Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns are often focused on getting the largest donations possible from each person, honestly, Patreon seems to work best so far with a lot of people donating a little money each. So if you've only got $1 to give us per video? Freaking great! If everyone who watched our stuff gave us a dollar per video, we'd be making way more money than we even need. So please don't think that doesn't help, because it really, really adds up and helps us out so much. But if you don't have money to spare, don't worry about it. We totally get it. And we still think you're super cool and thank you for watching our videos and caring enough to read all of this!

What happens if you release 189342 videos in one month??

Well, that would be absolutely crazy and we seriously don't think that will ever happen. BUT in case you are still worried, you can set a monthly limit for how much you want to spend. For instance, if you pledge $10 per video but know you can't afford to spend more than $20 a month, set that as your maximum, and if we make more than two videos in a month, you won't be charged more than $20. Simple!

Can I just stop donating?

Yeah dude, totally! If you decide it's not for you anymore, or money is tight, please feel more than free to opt out. You can always come back later if you want. Or don't if you don't. We promise we will still like you just as much as we already do.

Any more questions? Just ask!