Crowdfunding Nightmare

I'm from Frankfort, KY, where no one shares an interest in film and no one gives a shit.
I tried bringing an independent film to town with an exciting take and I'm not getting any response.

Here's my pitch and idea:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/heartcore/x/6145445

How in the world can I promote? I'm even accompanying the film with the fictional band's EP and selling it prior to the release. I've reached out to bands, but again, my community isn't ideal in the least.

Help?
 
Hey man, have you tired reaching out to local media? Newpapers, Radio Etc? how about colleges and universities in the area? they may run a story on a local film maker. The only thing I could think of right now would be to head to malls in the area, handing out flyers and talking to people, you never know who you might meet.

Hope this helps any good luck
 
Well, I'm not a big hard core music fan, so personally, I wouldn't take much interest in the project. This problem may be one of the reasons you haven't had much traffic towards your goal - you're appealing to a niche market of musical fans. My understanding of Frankfort is that while it's the capital of your state, it's still a relatively small town. So you're taking a small town, and trying to appeal to fairly small niche musical market that would also be interested in funding a film. That's a bit difficult. If you were in a music town like Portland, this would be different.

Secondly, you mention that the fictional band has a real EP as part of the promotion. So, why on earth is this not one of your rewards? It's not even mentioned on your crowd funding page - you need to change that. That's a big promo tool you aren't utilizing. (Assuming the album is decent, I'd release a single of it first to see if people like it. Or hell, offer the single as a reward, and the album as a further reward)

Lastly, I think one of the best parts of crowd funding is that it open you up to the WORLD, not just your home town. In fact, it encourages you to not rely on locals and to build an audience on the internet instead. You need to be releasing Youtube videos, trailers, teasers, etc. Build a website for it, promote that website online in communities like this, etc. The purpose of crowd funding is to get out of crappy dead end towns that we live in, and out into the internet for support. Get on communities that like this sort of music.

All the best!

EDIT: Another thing I noticed - many people may not care about a PDF of your script. Only people who would be interested in the film making aspect of it. It's not a huge reason to give you more money. Switch that out with the music you have and then you may have something.
 
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To be honest, you should have taken a good amount of time to develop a good plan and some backup plans. You may learn it the hard way, and start over with another campaign to be honest. once you come up with a fully developed plan.

What I recommend you do is find your target audience, and ask them what they would like to see in a film or project that concerns their interest/hobby/job, and perhaps past films and other pieces of art that appeal to them. Then examine whatever appeals to them, and study what exactly made those things appealing to your audience. Isolate elements, then put them into your film with your own unique spin.

As far as the campaign goes, the video really doesn't grab me and, IMO, it's lacking in info (such as where as the money that will be donated will go to, exactly.

To promote the work, I recommend promotional ads on site that appeal to your target audience.
 
I've been in contact with my local paper. The editor said they get requests like this all the time so they have to sift through which ones are "important enough." I get an interview but no guarantee. I'm also going to local venues to promote, planning to network.
 
The plan was to do all the band promotion separate. Yes, visitors know that the film includes the band, but alongside, the band will become its own thing. We're developing it as a completely separate entity as another marketing tool. We want people to buy the CD, not give it away.
 
The plan was to do all the band promotion separate. Yes, visitors know that the film includes the band, but alongside, the band will become its own thing. We're developing it as a completely separate entity as another marketing tool. We want people to buy the CD, not give it away.

My point, was that the CD is tied directly into your film, as is the band. It baffles me why you would want to promote the band separate, considering they originally began as a fictitious concept FOR your film. If you're already having trouble gaining any traction at all with the film, I can't imagine why you would want to separate the entities, giving you a whole lot more to attempt to gain traction for. Chimp is right in his statement, it's not a marketing tool if you don't want to associate it with the movie. This doesn't many any sense to me. I understand if you want to develop the band into its own entity after the film, but it should certainly be part of promoting it.

An example right off the top of my head is the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World film. It created a fictitious band to play the soundtrack (which was written by others, but my point stands). When it came out, I had fellow band mates from the band I was in at the time raving about how they enjoyed the sound track as it's own entity. But the film used that soundtrack as a way to promote itself, and certainly wouldn't have done as well without it.

Or the new Inside Llweyn Davis. One of the best films of the year so far, I believe. It was a music based film that certainly used it's own sound track, which consisted of mostly of 'original' songs by the story's main character. (Well, they were arrangements of traditional folk songs, but that's original)

More so, you're not 'giving away' anything you offer as a crowd funding reward. Those people gave you money. If your thinking with this mentality, then by that logic, whatever you are offering as a reward, you don't believe it's worth much. If you don't want to reward backers with something you consider of value, why should they value it?

That's my two cents; I think that your decision to keep these two pieces separate is a very poor one, and combining them could result in a much easier time promoting the project, and it would make a whole lot more sense.

Good luck with whatever you do on it.
 
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No, you're absolutely right. In my head, I just had it backwards. I guess I wanted the CD to lead to the movie, but I'm actually creating the movie to lead to the CD. I wish I had consulted the forum prior to the campaign. Also wish my partners didn't correct my vision.
 
No, you're absolutely right. In my head, I just had it backwards. I guess I wanted the CD to lead to the movie, but I'm actually creating the movie to lead to the CD. I wish I had consulted the forum prior to the campaign. Also wish my partners didn't correct my vision.

I can see that. I released an album last year that resulted in a series of story videos done to each song. In that case, the music preceded the film, and the music promoted the film. In your case, I'd say it's the other way 'round. Use the film to promote the music.

Music is a great tool for promotion, I've found. It's something that anyone can get behind, and everyone values in their own way. I would seriously consider altering your campaign to include the music and the band, and I would offer the music as rewards. Then go out and promote it online to people who like that kind of music. They'll support you for the music, figuring they're also supporting your film of the music in the process.
 
We want people to buy the CD, not give it away.

I suspect you're looking at this the wrong way. Crowd funding campaigns are one of two things.

1). A friends and family fund (where your immediate friends who'd love to financially support you, can do, and you're able to ask them in an indirect way).

2). Selling them stuff.

If you don't have a lot of family or friends who will give you money to chase your dreams, you're stuck with option 2. Which is selling stuff. It's give and take. While there is an option to convince people to give you everything for nothing, it rarely motivates people. You need to motivate people into handing over their hard earned cash to someone they don't know.

The problem with the campaign looks like it's a combination of wrong offerings combined with a too small reach to your target audience.

If music is your biggest asset, try pre-selling CD's to get the money you need to make this work. Just realize, if you need $3k for your budget, you're going to need way more than that in sales to cover fulfillment costs.

There are a few other tweaks like noting it's equipment hire as people don't usually like to donate to help you purchase equipment. You cut from the front on to a side on shot. The angle is too far. You loose all the connection with your audience.

I wish you the best of luck with it.
 
The one thing I always say to people with IndieGoGo campaigns is that you really need to make it Fixed Funding. You’ve chosen Flexible Funding, so you get all the money that anybody contributes, regardless of whether you reach your goal or not.

To my mind, that’s unfair.

What happens if you only get $1500? You can’t make your film, the very thing that your backers were paying to see done. If you could still make the film for $1500, what’s going to give? Somewhere, the quality has to drop. You’re no longer making the film you promised.

Try Fixed Funding next time; that way everybody knows where they stand.

I, for one, would never contribute to a Flexible Funding campaign.
 
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