Has anyone had any success with funding through sites such as 'Kickstarter' etc??? I am possibly looking at this avenue, but would like to hear peoples experencess with it...Whats the best site for Indie movies? What went right? What went wrong? etc
Crowdfunding
- Thread starter derek smith
- Start date
If you have thousands of moneyed friends and fans you should do OK, if not..well, you're f#cked.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolti...magical-crowdfunding-and-what-actually-works/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolti...magical-crowdfunding-and-what-actually-works/
that was a good read...fits in with a few ideas I have for a campaign...thanks
The problem is twofold. Getting the money is only a part of the difficulty, knowing how to spend it wisely to make a product which meets expectations is the other side of the coin. This latter is ultimately just different sides of the same coin because strangers will not give you money unless they think you are capable of using it to create the product they are expecting.
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spoke yesterday to a mate who tried unsuccessfully to fund money threw a crowdfunding site (cant mind which one)....He told me he already had the Crew and main Cast in Place first....To be fair, his film didn't sound good....which made me think, how would you go about getting Cast / Crew in place for the promise of a Project were the success of the campaign will determine if it gets made or not
This whole thread is about your initial question:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=39742
All crowdfunding experiences from IT-ers and others.
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=39742
All crowdfunding experiences from IT-ers and others.
I can't answer that question because few commercial projects are funded this way. Mostly, the first people aboard a film project are either the "star", who guarantees a certain amount of audience and therefore investment potential, or the producer, who brings their professional experience of successfully acquiring funding and their investment contacts.
If you're in a major metropolis, it might not be so incredibly difficult to get a cast/crew aboard, specially if a successful funding campaign means they might get some pay. However, without a star presence and/or a well respected director/producer, you're only going to find an amateur cast/crew this way.
G
I can answer this question.
There are two worlds in filmmaking. The paid world and the unpaid world.
In the paid world you say "Hey, who wants to get paid?" and a bunch of people will hear your call, and want to get paid, and give you their professional expertise for pay.
In the unpaid world, this guy wants to be an actor, that girl wants to be a DP, and that other guy wants to be a director and they all sit around and meet each other at meetups, and they talk about how each of them wants to be this thing or the other. Their numbers are large, and they all discuss the various aspects of filmmaking. What's missing is the "script." Then one person says, "I have a script," and suddenly all of these people have something to do. So even if you don't think that the script is that compelling, it's the only one around, and that is what gets all these people together.
That's my rough answer.
I've had only one experience with crowd-funding so far, and from what I have gathered from that experience, it's extremely important to build an audience way before hand.
The point of this is, you market the film, you gather interest, and you get a following going that you can somehow track, perhaps based on Youtube video hits and likes, Facebook post likes and views, Twitter notifications, blog entry views, and so on and so forth.
Then, once you have a good solid foundation in a decent sized crowd, once you launch your crowdfunding campaign and let every one of these Social Media outlets know about it, then you just might be able to get an initial flood of people excited and ready to fund your project. And then if the project gets off to a good start, and you continue to market it on your sites and in new venues as well, then the rest of the money is more likely to come.
But, if you only do minor marketing and don't try your best to build up initial momentum, then once you launch your campaign, you're likely to not get very far, and you'll only bring in the most closest and dedicated individuals: your family, your crew-members, their parents and significant others, a few interested strangers, and maybe one person who just thought it looked cool and liked one of your perks. Sometimes this can be enough, but for people like me who don't tend to be very social and do make a whole lot of friends all the time, it usually isn't.
So it was a pretty sad outcome in my case. But the film still got made, it's still being worked on as we speak, and I now have a much more realistic understanding of what might be necessary next time around to get a much better reception and response from potential donators.
The point of this is, you market the film, you gather interest, and you get a following going that you can somehow track, perhaps based on Youtube video hits and likes, Facebook post likes and views, Twitter notifications, blog entry views, and so on and so forth.
Then, once you have a good solid foundation in a decent sized crowd, once you launch your crowdfunding campaign and let every one of these Social Media outlets know about it, then you just might be able to get an initial flood of people excited and ready to fund your project. And then if the project gets off to a good start, and you continue to market it on your sites and in new venues as well, then the rest of the money is more likely to come.
But, if you only do minor marketing and don't try your best to build up initial momentum, then once you launch your campaign, you're likely to not get very far, and you'll only bring in the most closest and dedicated individuals: your family, your crew-members, their parents and significant others, a few interested strangers, and maybe one person who just thought it looked cool and liked one of your perks. Sometimes this can be enough, but for people like me who don't tend to be very social and do make a whole lot of friends all the time, it usually isn't.
So it was a pretty sad outcome in my case. But the film still got made, it's still being worked on as we speak, and I now have a much more realistic understanding of what might be necessary next time around to get a much better reception and response from potential donators.
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