are there a lot of fundraising film sites? is it best to just use one?
- Thread starter davidevans10
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what are you even talking about. Someone gave me a straight up answer. You couldnt. Only a failure wants others to fail. My films already in production buddy i dont need money as much as you. Its funny how you can be passive aggressively vengeful but when i'm honest i get warned.
Why dont you fuck off. you dont even make sense.
I can't speak for Sweetie, but I think you may have missed the point of my post. Although you can read it as a straight answer, as something that may be a good start to promoting your movie without any material, the point I was actually making was that you weren't, and still are not, doing yourself any favours.
Do you think anybody on this forum will back your project, after all of this? Maybe they will, if your project is outstanding. I don't think the majority will though.
i was just looking for an example.
In all the fuzz I have no idea what the answer is you looked for...
(Remember this is a messageboard, so while you may think your reply is logical, I have no clue what your are referring to, since mad_hatter's reply was more or less repeating what was said before with the addition about how attitude can affect the support of a community.)
I kept repeating how do you advertise a film before a campaign. There weren't any examples. Atleast he gave a couple. It's really in the end not much
I believe in Karma and she's going to bite you in the ass.
The information that was given to you, in the way that you understand how marketing needs to be done for films (in Development or Pre-Production) is only going to dig you into a hole, especially with your narrow view attitude.
I saw what he found and what he responded to. While the information is fine for amateur productions trying to raise 3 to low 4 figure budgets from friends and family, anything on a more professional scale or if he's trying to raise money from the public, he's doomed to fail. What's worse, he's going to chuck a h44 and blame Madhatter and you (WalterB) for his failure.
The answer is really simple. You give your potential audience what they want. I know you're failing to understand this simple concept.
It's the execution that's a lot more complex and I suspect you're looking for a simple answer where none exist. What your audience want depends on who they are. Coincidentally, how to contact them also depends on who they are. Take for instance, if your target audience is doctors, all of the examples you've been given in this thread won't help. If you don't yet understand this, you need to hire another person/team who does.
I acknowledge that I don't make sense to you. I'm sure the intelligent readers here understand where you cannot. So while this thread may be wasted on you, others will get some benefit from it.
there was nothing given to me on this thread before. i'm not worried about this community. I doubt you guys have money haha. i'm looking for advice. thats what this site is for yes?
In that case you either quoted a non related reply or you didn't read close enough (because it had been mentioned before that part of a prelaunch campaign could be joining communities that are related to your topic. I.e. if you were going to make a Star Wars fan film, you should join a fan forum.)
BTW, you still don't seem to understand what networking means.
It's not just reaching out to the person in front of you, but also to the ones he or she knows.
That's why you want people to be interested before you launch the crowdfunding campaign: they can share that news with their network. That way you reach more people than your friends on facebook and more than your followers on Twitter.
Combine it with press releases and you are present in traditional and social media.
One thing that every succesful and failed crowdfunding campaign share is they needed a big enough crowd to start with. A lot of campaigns fail, because they start with a minimal crowd that isn't even 'activated'.
A friend of mine started a photography project about grownups who still have stuffed animals/cuddly toys (I don't know what the best translation is) in bed.
She posted it on facebook: she was looking for people who had the same 'secret'.
Her friends shared it, because it was a fun idea. And strangers shared it as well.
Her new photography page got more and more followers.
A few days later she was interviewed for a newspaper. The next day for another one. And the day after shewas on the radio and TV. The number of followers grew.
A few months later she finished shooting, writing and designing: she launched a crowdfunding campaign to have the book made. Because she already did the effort to gain a following (although she didn't anticipate it), the campaign became a success.
Her book is finished now and got coverage in several national newspapers, she has been on the radio again and I'm sure she'll beinvited on TV shows as well.
Had she started with her crowdfunding campaign with just her friends as crowd, who would also be surprised by the idea, it probably would have gone with less ease.
Now she had friends, fans and people who were part of the project that could donate and share. And the media were more or less familiar with the story and would gladly publish the followup.
In The Netherlands 2 brothers raised funds for their fantasy-film trailer project in a few days only.
How?
One of the reasons is that they are part of the fantasy LARP community and that community has already seen what they can do. A few 1000 people that like what you do is a PR army and a good start to get donations.
A liquor store wanted to move, but the bank said 'no' when she asked for a credit to do so.
However: she was one of the twitter pioneers in The Netherlands with over 100k of followers. She started a crowdfunding campaign and raised 100k or 200k in a few days.
It was not her intention, but in the end the years she tweeted interesting things about wine and doing business and her deals, was a perfect prelaunch campaign to gather the crowd she needed.
I know these stories are full of survival bias.
That's why the crowdfunding thread on IT (the link is in this thread somewhere) is interesting, because it also deals with failed campaigns.
But if you look close enough you see the need to create a following...
And yes, this community is mostly about advice: you have been given plenty, but you keep looking for that 'everyone can paint-formula' where you just have to fill the blanks with the paint with the right number.
The Matrix and The Blair Witch Project are interesting examples predating social media.
You should also check out Cloverfield's campaign to gain buzz: quite interesting.
But these are big budget examples, so you need to analyse and take the elements you can use and apply.
So, in what stage is your feature at the moment?
@sfoster:
A quick search yielded: Crowdfunding for Filmmakers EBOOK | John Trigonis
There are a lot of books about crowdfunding, but whether they are good: I don't know.
i was given no examples once again. i wasnt looking for an all in one. Just a simple answer on how the hell you sell a film that aint a film yet haha. I'm half way through filming.
Half way means you have something to show. 
The simple anwser (always) is: just do it.
It's the how that often takes the simplicity out of it.
My impression was that it was about crowdfunding and a prelanch campain.
If you want people to be interested you need something to show (and that is said before):
it can be concept art, storyboard, part of a script, a mood film, teasers.
Look at what Neill Blomkamp did:
http://www.slashfilm.com/neill-blomkamp-alien/
He shared concept art of an Alien movie while it wasn't planned to be made. (That went more or less viral and now it will be made.)
The simple anwser (always) is: just do it.
It's the how that often takes the simplicity out of it.
My impression was that it was about crowdfunding and a prelanch campain.
If you want people to be interested you need something to show (and that is said before):
it can be concept art, storyboard, part of a script, a mood film, teasers.
Look at what Neill Blomkamp did:
http://www.slashfilm.com/neill-blomkamp-alien/
He shared concept art of an Alien movie while it wasn't planned to be made. (That went more or less viral and now it will be made.)
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Half way means you have something to show.
The simple anwser (always) is: just do it.
It's the how that often takes the simplicity out of it.
My impression was that it was about crowdfunding and a prelanch campain.
If you want people to be interested you need something to show (and that is said before):
it can be concept art, storyboard, part of a script, a mood film, teasers.
Look at what Neill Blomkamp did:
http://www.slashfilm.com/neill-blomkamp-alien/
He shared concept art of an Alien movie while it wasn't planned to be made. (That went more or less viral and now it will be made.)
Yes. Maybe I got something confused. But film or no film. I'm doing crowdfunding for some things. And I got the idea before launching you had to get people " interested" before having or showing anything. Still not really convinced but i've taken the points
Not everything is in book form, though for marketing and advertising, there are literally thousands of books.
It's been a long time since I've read any, though Raving Fans and Stickiness (I think it's called) are both decent, non-technical books for beginners to read that are somewhat relevant to the subject at hand. There's also a book called something like Guerilla Marketing 101. It comes in a real tatty looking book. It's essentially a book of low budget ideas for marketing. If you're looking for marketing books with more meat, just go searching on Amazon. You'll find lots.
If you're not so much into reading, there are video courses too.
I've also noticed that udemy has some courses specifically on crowd funding that was put out some months ago. I have no idea to the quality of those courses, they may come in handy.
Lynda.com has a fair few on marketing. I do remember they have a very interesting course on what makes videos go viral.
Just think about it for a minute. Of course it's not going to change much. Marketing is how you move people. People haven't changed that significantly, so why would marketing? Sure the technology changes. That'll change how you deliver your message. It's your message and your target marketing that is important.
You can fumble through marketing and get luke warm results. Consider this. The difference between your next movie making 4 figures and being the next project to have the success Blair Witch did is likely to be the marketing skills your team brings to the table.
Half way means you have something to show.
The simple anwser (always) is: just do it.
It's the how that often takes the simplicity out of it.
My impression was that it was about crowdfunding and a prelanch campain.
If you want people to be interested you need something to show (and that is said before):
it can be concept art, storyboard, part of a script, a mood film, teasers.
Look at what Neill Blomkamp did:
http://www.slashfilm.com/neill-blomkamp-alien/
He shared concept art of an Alien movie while it wasn't planned to be made. (That went more or less viral and now it will be made.)
This is what I don't get. You said you have to have something to show. Everyone said you must network your project before it's anything. How are you showing nothing. How can you. This is obviously the question
What you just said contradicts them but you guys make me feel crazy
Read "To sell is human" by D. H. Pink
http://www.amazon.com/To-Sell-Is-Human-Surprising/dp/1594631905
He argues that internet has changed the balance from 'buyer beware' to 'seller beware', because the buyer has access to knowledge and other people's experiences now. And it covers a lot of info and techniques on selling and 6 ways of pitching.
There maybe is a subtlety that hasn't been made clear yet:
you can start networking, building a 'crowd' before you have anything: like:
- joining an online community to interact: answer and ask questions.
- start a twitter account and share thoughts and articles (they don't need to be your own) about the subject of your feature. (If it is about surfing: share cool surfing news) That way people can discover your account, because they like the subject. If you retweet something: the original tweeter can see that. If you see a tweet you can reply something useful to: reply and you are in fact networking.
- setup a facebook page. Not only can you share news on your project. You can share related news/posts as well. That way you can start collecting likes, by presenting the subject of your feature OR by presenting the production of the feature (and other productions you work on). This depends on: do you want a page as a producer or as a movie?
- setting up a blog to post your own articles, pictures and videos.
As preproduction progresses you will be able to share more about the feature:
short BTS videos, BTS pictures, maybe some blogs.
On a forum you could make a thread about your project and post updates.
And when the time comes to crowdfund, you'll find yourself in a position that you do already have a following and you are having social media in place with things you can use.
So you could desribe that process as an organic prelaunch campaign.
Before you start the crowdfunding campaign, you can actually start a short campaign to announce it and to get more attention to the project. You want your already collected crowd to be aware and ready to chip in and help spreading the word from the very first second.
Plus: people will recognize your project easier if the heard about it before, so when you launch the crowdfunding campaign, more people will be already more or less familiar with it.
There is one very important thing with crowdfunding for a movie: an excellent pitchvideo.
Because that will also show your skills as a team.
And it really helps if you have some footage to show, bcause it shows you are already actually doing it.
It also helps if you can show something you made before, because that will show you have experience AND that you can follow through and finish what you start. (Another reason to start with a short
) In your case I expect your DP must have something to show.You can also play the 'we already got this funding' card, because people are like sheep: a lot don't like to be the first ones to donate, but if someone else already trusted enough in the project to give a lot of money to make it, then that can help their decision to donate.
Long story short:
launching a campaign before you have shots to share is not the same as having nothing to share.
Building a crowd/following can be started in a subtle way without anything to show at first, but you will have to get and hold attention once you bring up the project.
A first announcement can be:
"Hi everyone, I'm working on a feature film about this and that. If you are interested you can follow me here or like my page there or keep an eye on this thread: I will post updates and BTS stuff here. If you have any questions feel free to ask." (That last sentence opens the door to interaction: it makes you approachable)
And yes, that is hard work.
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are you retarded. honestly. I've been so straightforward and you beat around the bush trying to act superior. But you know nothing. you are a nothing filmmaker with nothing to offer. you dont even make films you have nothing better to do than respond to my every post . biggest loser
i feel bad for you that you have nothing to do. you try to say that i wont have success i already have i have a funded film . so take it.