Learn Filmmaking & Post-Production in one place.

Hi guys!

My name is Jameson. I just wanted to let you guys know I just launched a Kickstarter to fund a filmmaking website that will feature highly-detailed video-tutorials covering Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut, cinematic video capture and camera settings, color grading, and much more.

We're up to $1,600+ in our first 2.5 days!

We're really excited to make this content available! Watch our video and consider backing us! :yes:

xPO3


Kickstarter Link: http://kck.st/1pTg57g

http://youtu.be/nSBRhYsNp4w

https://vimeo.com/103744013

Thanks for reading! Feel free to respond with any questions!

Jameson
dslrfilmschool.net
 
I really like what you guys are doing. Kickstarter is a great idea for this, I will add some funds. Are you going to do teach any kind of film marketing services to go all with the technical videos? I am about to buy an awesome DSLR camera from my friend Jon Gursha and could really use your technical how-to insights.
 
Billy Jack,

Thank you for choosing to back us! We're going to be primarily focused on easing the pain-points of learning videography.

So, we will be demystifying things like color correction and providing extensive training on getting the best image out of DSLRs right from the moment you hit record through the post-production process. (there's quite a bit to this because of the low bitrate and dynamic range of DSLR video files)

We will be covering the ins and outs of Final Cut & Premiere and processing digital video to get many different final color grade looks, like the gritty cooled down 'Bourne Identity' action-film look with crushed blacks and saturated blues, getting digital video to look like film (adding emulated filmgrain, adding a fade, etc), and much much more.

We will also be covering cinematography techniques, advice on location scouting, using anamorphic lenses, and probably even some scriptwriting information, and we will reach out to other educators to share their content as well.

As far as marketing, we may cover some stuff on good practice for shooting commercials.

We will however respond to our backers (and once the site is live, customer's) interests and provide the content they're looking for.

There's a full list of outlines of what the initial three curriculums will cover over on the kickstarter page! Please do back, and I'm more than willing to answer any other questions you have here!
 
Personally, I find it a little bit concerning that you're seeking $13.5k, of which 1/3rd is allocated for "living expenses" for a site you intend to charge people to access. Also, I'm skeptical of your website budget, as a web developer by day -- unless you're doing the work yourselves I'd question the quality and amount of work you'll get done for $1500.

I guess, really, it seems to me that if you intend to do this as a business, you should probably prepare a business plan and go to the SBA for a small business loan. And/or should/should have ideally saved the money to cover your living expenses while you get this thing off the ground.


All of that said, I like the idea, overall.. I'm just a bit wary of the approach. As for your kickstarter rewards, they seem fair, but it's hard to determine what the real value is for the 6 month and 1 year access reward levels since the actual subscription costs are not clearly detailed.

Good luck, whatever the outcome.

EDIT: You're also going to face an uphill battle having a .net domain rather than a .com, it might be a good business decision to consider a new .com domain, and then set up the existing .net domain to redirect to it. People are very accustomed to tacking .com onto the end of things, even if you show them a business card and it says .net, there are still a great many people that will ignore the suffix and type in .com instead. At some point in the future you'll probably want to promote your business with print advertising in various magazines and whatnot, so you can't really assume that you'll be able to rely on a link to take people to the right place... and since the .com of your domain already exists and is someone else's site doing somewhat similar training, differentiating yourself from them more would probably be wise.
 
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Will,

Thanks for your criticism! We calculated the living expenses sum based on a barebones calculation of the living expenses my portion of income covers in 4 months. I'm married, and my wife will continue attending nursing school and working part-time, as well as using student and personal loans to cover the portion of bills she normally pays while we're producing our content.

The amount allocated to 'living expenses' also includes my brother and partner's phone bill, grocery expenses, and fuel expenses for those four months.

My brother will be staying with my wife and I in our 700sq ft, 2 bedroom apartment to keep the process efficient.

To be honest, I feel like we kept the living expenses amount very slim and modest- it's only covering bills we already pay for necessities, with no added percentage.

The reason we need to raise money for living expenses is that we're intending to produce probably 20-30 hours of instructional content and there's no way we would be able to meet our commitment in a reasonable amount of time for our backers, while working normal jobs. To keep the production term short, we're going to have to work on the content for 40+ hrs a week until it's finished, for what we estimate is 4 months.

I have been working the highest wage jobs I've been able to find (tile-setting, photography at car dealerships, and jack of all trades remodeling jobs here and there) while working in my free-time to improve as a digital artist and videographer, and have unfortunately not been able to save much money over the past few years. I would have loved to fund this out of my own pocket if I had planned it before the day the idea popped into my head this past January.

I have done all of the graphic design and web development myself, so the only costs involved in the development will be be hosting & startup fees aside from unanticipated costs, which we left room for.

I hope this will clear some of the skepticism up!

Thanks again for your comment.

-Jameson
 
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I'm sure my comment came across as highly critical and a bit cynical.. I do wish you well on this, and may even consider backing it sometime in the next month... but I'm generally very critical of crowd funding. It's abused far too often by people who are essentially an unknown quantity looking for a handout, more often than not to buy gear. :)

There is a lot of good training material around the web, much of which is already available freely. So you've definitely got some steep competition. If you didn't see it previously, look at the addendum to my previous comment (prefixed 'Edit') that is a very real issue you should put some thought into.
 
Will do William! Thanks for the kind words.

Yes, there is some good stuff out there for free. The problem we think we can solve is localizing the concepts in one place, as well as covering many specific processes that are still largely unexplained on the web, such as detailed color grading, especially in specific NLEs.

Another niche thing we want to cover is anamorphic lenses with DSLRs, and one-on-one video lessons via the internet.

The first pilot lesson is posted on our Kickstarter page as well- Check it out and review our style! We're trying to make it really stand out in it's ability to guide the total beginner right into top-flight editing- As well as helping intermediates improve.

Your questions are good ones! And they're the kind that keep people sharp!
 
While I don't want to discourage you, I find that most people who take up teaching filming often do so because they cannot find a way to pay their bills through filmmaking. What concerns me most is learning methods from people who didn't achieve success. If you guys have achieved some level of success and you're offering to help people get to your level of success, it may be worth showing why you're the right people to learn from.

On the same ticket, some people are just meant to be teachers, not doers.

Just some feedback: Your kickstarter video didn't instill confidence in me that you had the right frame of mind or capabilities to be able to achieve the results you propose you're aiming for.

I don't see a need for another "me too" service, let alone wanting to wait another 4+ months for it to be delivered. I think there are better options already available right now without needing to wait. I have the feeling you'd find most of the information already on Lynda.com for most of what you'd be training. Maybe they may need to go to another site for the mid range color grading training.

What I don't think I've seen is much training material for grips/PA's/catering (maybe a few other areas too). Those may be worth considering, but it may be too small a market to worry about. From what I can tell, everything else has pretty much been covered rather extensively by relatively established people (and some shysters too).

It'll also be hard to compete with those giving the information away for free on youtube. The convenience factor may be enough to get people on board. It may be worth considering licensing content from others to put on your service instead of needing to create everything yourself.... or create a portal where others can contribute content in exchange for a share of the overall booty. Consider taking a look at some of the poker training sites work and you may find a business model that works better for you.

I wish you luck in your endeavors. I hope you succeed and prove me wrong.
 
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