B-roll
The table, before you speak
Campaigns with a video fund about half again as often as campaigns without one. You must speak. Strangers back a person at a table, not a slide.
- Film yourself at your own table, phone horizontal, window light, 90 seconds of talking. No script in your hand.
- Drop our B-roll under the middle of your talk in iMovie or CapCut. End on the Lumen card.
- First line to camera, not to the pack. Last line is the ask.
The campaign story
The evening
University lectures for the kitchen table. Aristotle through quantum physics, written for kindergarten through high school.
A university lecture is a real idea, spoken at undergraduate speed. A child at the table cannot hold it at that speed. A worksheet that pretends the idea was a cartoon cannot hold it either.
Lumen rewrites the lecture into one sitting: a grey still that is a question, a short body, a check they must pass, and a reason to come back later instead of rereading. Written for kindergarten through high school. You pick an age. The idea stays. The language and the number of evenings change.
This campaign prints the first founding packs. Cream paper. Grey pictures. A kitchen table, a parent in the next room, twenty minutes.
What you are backing
A limited print of three courses we already teach from texts you may adapt: American Civic Year, a Leonardo sitting, and Write so a stranger can follow. Public domain and CC BY. We do not sell the lectures we are not allowed to sell.
Each pack is a sitting you can hold: cover, lesson, practice, a check, an answer key. A4 and US letter. Designed for a tired printer.
Higher pledges open Bring for a household — hunt talks, keep a shelf, paste words, write courses that stay on your household. The catalog on the site stays free. No account to browse.
Why $1,000
That is what it costs to print the first packs, pay Kickstarter, and keep a postage reserve if we fund at the goal and nothing extra. It is not a wish. It is the bill.
If we stop at $1,000, the packs still mail. Stretch goals add PDFs first, paper second, and only when the print quote still fits.
Who it is for
A parent who wants a real idea on Wednesday, not a login. A tutor with a table. A household that already prints.
You remain the teacher. A certificate, if we issue one later, records completed work. It is not a diploma.
Photographs
No children in frame. The chair is empty on purpose. Upload these to Kickstarter as gallery stills.
The actual pack
These are pages from a real sitting. Use them. Lifestyle photographs without the product are decoration.
Where $1,000 goes
If we fund at the goal, nothing extra. Fees first. Then print. Shipping is charged on top of the pledge.
- Kickstarter + payments (~10%)$100
- Print the first sitting packs$420
- Postage reserve$180
- Grey stills for the founding edition$200
- Paper, proofs, envelopes$100
If we pass the goal
$1,000
Funded
The founding pack prints. Every backer is in the colophon.
$1,500
Write so a stranger can follow
The writing course PDF unlocks for every $19+ backer.
$2,000
Bridge to the math
The algebra bridge sitting PDF for every $19+ backer.
$2,500
Leonardo at the table
The studio sitting PDF for every $19+ backer.
$3,500
A second sitting in the mail
$29+ backers receive a second printed sitting. We only unlock this when print quotes still fit.
$5,000
Spanish cover sheets
A Spanish-language cover and contents sheet for the founding pack, all backers.
Giveaways
Kickstarter forbids raffles that require a pledge. These happen off the campaign, or they are stretch gifts for everyone.
One founding sitting PDF
Pre-launch, each Friday · Off Kickstarter — waitlist only
Join the campaign list. No purchase. We pick one address a week until we open. Never “pledge to enter.”
Five extra PDFs after we close
During the campaign · @lumenathome
Post the table you will use, tag @lumenathome. We pick five tables we want a still of. Not a raffle on Kickstarter.
Early-bird $19 and $49 tiers
First 24 hours · On the campaign
Scarcity is the prize. Fifty early sittings, forty three-month households. When they go, they go.
Unlocked PDFs
If we pass the goal · All qualifying backers
Stretch gifts go to everyone at $19+, not to a drawer. That is how you thank a room without a raffle.
Risks and challenges
Paste this block into Kickstarter. Do not soften it.
- Print-on-demand quotes move. We lock files after the campaign and print to order, so we do not sit on unsold paper. If a quote jumps, we say so in an update before we charge extras nobody agreed to.
- Mailed packs: two to four weeks after we lock files for the US, longer abroad. Customs is not in our hands.
- Household months start when you redeem the code, not on pledge day. Codes go out within seven days of the campaign ending.
- We do not sell MIT OpenCourseWare. The catalog stays free. Founding packs are public-domain and CC BY courses only.
- If we overfund the printed sitting, lead times slip. We will write that in an update the day we see it, with a new date.
Questions on the campaign
- Is this the same as a household year on the site?
- No. The site year is $224.99 plus tax. The founding year on Kickstarter is $99, limited to 25, and includes a printed sitting and a colophon line. When those 25 go, the year is only on the site.
- Do I need Kickstarter if I only want the free catalog?
- No. The catalog stays free. This campaign is the print and the founding household tools.
- When do PDFs arrive?
- Within two weeks of the campaign ending. Printed packs follow when the printer ships.
- Can I back from outside the US?
- Yes. Digital rewards have no shipping. Printed sittings ship; we charge postage at checkout so the pledge is not eaten by a stamp.
- What if you do not reach $1,000?
- Kickstarter is all-or-nothing. Nobody is charged. We would rather miss than print a pack we cannot mail.
- Are you selling university courses?
- No. We rewrite lectures we have the right to adapt. Credit stays on the lesson. The free stays free.
When it arrives
- Campaign endsWe send a survey: address, sitting choice, household email.
- 7 daysHousehold codes for three-month and year backers. PDFs begin.
- 14 daysAll digital rewards out.
- 4 weeksPrint files locked. First US sitting packs in the mail.
- 6–8 weeksUS and EU packs in hand.
- 8–12 weeksRest of world.
Video files
- B-roll trailer, 32s, 16:9 — Bed under your voice. Not the finished campaign video until you are in it.
- Establish, 10s — Open after your face.
- Lamp, 6s — The object.
- Pages, 6s — The still.
- Hands, 6s — Square-ish; we letterboxed it in the trailer.
- Story cut, 6s, 9:16 — Instagram / TikTok / Reels. Loop it. Caption is the ask.
Voiceover script and the day-one roster are in the downloadable kit.
Paste-ready story, emails, and the launch list live on the owner desk. Public kit: download the markdown.