Filmmakers, you’ve been lied to. Film school has taught you to pitch the WHAT about your project — WHAT is the story, WHAT is the cast, WHAT are the target group for the film etc — but the WHAT is not the most important element when it comes to crowdfunding. The WHY is! You see it comes down to your likability on camera. ‘But I’m cool and I’m a great filmmaker’ I hear you say. While that’s good for you, that’s not why people want to engage with your crowdfunding campaign.
Over the past years I directed two no(?)-micro(?)-low(?)-budget (what’s the latest on who qualifies?) features and a dozen short films and almost every time I held open community meetings seeking the public’s support. I didn’t think this was anything special but the producers on Free in Deed asked me to describe the rationale for running ‘Open Call Info Sessions’ to the community on low-budget projects instead of traditional ‘closed-door auditions’.
How do we make it better? How do we make our indie film infrastructure work for more filmmakers and more diverse audiences?
How do we improve things as individuals as well as a community?
This is the season of giving and that’s not a bad place for us to start. I have always liked the idea of buying local, of buying direct — be it from the farmers, artisans, or owner/operators. I have lamented the loss of more intimate connection that all of our innovation delivers. I have always hated shopping and have enjoyed how the internet kept me out of stores, but there have been some stores, notably book stores, video stores, and record shops, that I enjoyed and now miss dearly. The only online phenomenon that gives me the same rush I got when I discovered from those “stores of old” something I did not know about and simply needed to have is… crowdfunding sites.
There is such a unique pleasure in making something happen. It is an even greater pleasure when you give to an artist that you admire.
This gift giving season I am going to give to twelve artists via their crowdfunding campaigns. I hope
By Rob Millis
Two changes in tech and finance are about to have a huge impact on independent film: crowdfunding and the JOBS Act.
We all know about Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, the crowdfunding platforms that have been helping independent creators launch projects. These platforms and others have already been hugely successful with DIY projects and direct-to-fan networking, yet even after years of growing popularity they haven’t come anywhere close to their full potential.
Last year the Slated networking and fundraising platform joined the market as well. Slated offers a system geared toward film professionals seeking (or supplying) investment dollars. Unlike previous crowdfunding platforms, Slated’s approach is less about DIY and more about professional partnerships. In short, they are taking crowdfunding to the next level.
This past week, we’ve had a lot of input from filmmakers who have used the IndieGoGo crowdfunding platform. Filmmakers have been sharing techniques and best practices on what made their campaigns a success. It’s a practice we hope will continue for all filmmakers, across all platforms, utilizing a wide range of tools. Let’s figure this out, together.
Today is no exception. Although a lot has already been said on the subject, there is still more that can be added about how to make crowdfunding really work for your film.
A FEW MORE THOUGHTS FROM DAVID FINE, OF SALAAM DUNK (Los Angeles Film Fest)
Make sure the trailer for your film is strong
We waited to put up our Indiegogo page until we were all really happy with the trailer. For many it was the first thing they saw of a project that they had been hearing about from us for quite some time. I think asking for small donations from friends in the same breath as showing them the first thing they’ve seen of your project will create more donations.
Don’t worry about setting your goal low
We were worried that people would see we got to our goal and stop giving. But they didn’t. It’s better for your $ and your morale to set a goal you think you can reach. That’s how we left this experience feeling anyhow.
Make your crowdfunding efforts a way to boost team morale
Keep full control of our project through crowd funding has been a blessing. But honestly, a big part of the boost that we got from IndieGoGo was morale. I had been cutting the film for 9 months and we were not yet in a festival. Having people respond so positively to our trailer, so positively in some instances that they donated money, that felt great and really re-energized me at a time when I was running out of gas.
We all one know how to do more with the very little we have. This is the year the indie film world turned to each other for help. And people responded. It is so exciting that we are working together to get the work done. Indie / Truly Free Film has never been more of a community!
In just the first half of this year, eleven films that raised money on IndieGoGo appeared in the world’s leading film festivals. From Tribeca to Sundance, intrepid filmmakers learned the ropes about what it takes to make a splash in these festivals. This is the first in a series of posts are from the teams behind some of these films.
–Adam Chapnick, IndieGoGo
RIDING THE INDIEGOGO TRAIN STRAIGHT TO SXSW WITH HAPPY NEW YEAR
by Happy New Year Writer/Director K. Lorrel Manning & Actor/Producer Michael Cuomo
In January of this year, we received a call from the great Janet Pierson (Head Honcho of Film for SXSW) informing us that our film Happy New Year had been accepted into the Narrative Competition at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival.
Based on the critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway play, then an award-winning short film of the same name, Happy New Year tells the story of Sgt. Cole Lewis, a wartorn Marine who returns home after four tours of Iraq and Afghanistan to face his fiercest battle yet – the one against himself. The film is an entertaining yet hard-hitting look at the perils of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
We reviewed our budget and quickly surmised that we needed about $25K to not just make a decent splash at SXSW but have the additional funds to attend upcoming festivals as part of continued promotions. Though the news of our acceptance was huge, we were forbidden to publicly announce it for nearly 6 weeks. We had a group of investors but how in the hell were we going to raise $25,000 and not share our biggest news? Many stepped forward stating that they were not in the position to invest but wanted to help out in any way that they could. IndieGogo became the answer.
After studied several studying other campaigns on the IndieGoGo website and bombarding, Slava Rubin (one of the Founders), with dozens of questions, we began to plan our campaign.
Here were the milestones:
Shoot short behind-the-scenes pitch videos
By involving different cast members talking about his/her real life connection to the material we created a human element to the campaign. These scenes were interspersed with some scenes featuring them from the movie.
Announce the video roll out via email, Facebook and Twitter
We posted these videos every two weeks, an idea that proved to be extremely effective. It was a way to excite and inform our fans .
Turned our entire team into evangelists
Everyone from management to each of the featured actors became spokespeople for our campaign, each one going out of his/her way to spread the word. This won the project more support and created an in-built audience for the film.
Identified tactics for our last days of funding
We timed our last video to be posted an hour after the SXSW Festival announced the 2011 competition lineup. In hindsight, saving the biggest news for the final push actually turned out to be our best move.
We decided to parody Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” video by shooting our SXSW announcement in the midst of a snowstorm in a discreet NYC alleyway. This was a more celebratory video in comparison to our more serious videos and it turned out to be a game-changer. The shift in tone worked perfectly – we raised $26,390!
Our decision to join forces with IndieGogo was invaluable. The campaign forced us to become more aggressive and savvy in the area of social media. The pitch videos allowed us to exercise the creative sides of our brains that were often stymied with the challenges of post-production and festival strategy. And we were able to see that with a lot of hard work and faith, anything is possible. Would we do it again? Definitely!
HAPPY NEW YEAR – www.happynewyearsfilm.com
Google became a verb several years ago. In the Indie / Truly Free Film space we are close to verb-izing another company. But just like all tissues are not Kleenex, there are many crowdfunding platforms out there, and it is worth not forgetting that. Find the platform that works best for your film, as there are plusses and minuses on everything.
Today Adam Chanpick speaks of the films (and some of the benefits) of crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo.
14 IndieGoGo Films Showcased at World-Class Festivals in 2011
IndieGoGo filmmakers have been rocking the world stage in 2011. In the first six months, no fewer than fifteen films that successfully campaigned on IndieGoGo appeared in the world’s leading film fests, including Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Tribeca Film Fest, HotDocs, and LA Film Fest. These films have gone on to win top awards (Tribeca Audience Award) and get picked up by top distributors (The Weinstein Company).
In my responsibilities at IndieGoGo and Distribber, I’m regularly asked for advice and help with all facets of film finance and distribution. After answering so many of these one-off questions with the words, “lots of IndieGoGo campaigners have already figured that out,” it’s clear the filmmaker community would benefit from an update from IndieGoGo filmmakers who have had success.
As background, since 2008, the independent film community has been a central part of the IndieGoGo family; thousands of films have raised money for production, distribution, festival travel, promotion, marketing and for many other film funding needs.
IndieGoGo is partnered with leading organizations like Fractured Atlas and the San Francisco Film Society to offer filmmakers fiscal sponsorship services (Fractured Atlas campaigns recently passed $1,000,000. Sheffield Doc/Fest, one of the world’s leading documentary events, also has been an active and innovative partner.
Below is are links to all the amazing films, grouped by the festival in which they appeared. I encourage you to check out each campaign to learn more about pitch videos and copy, updates and perk selections, and how to engage an audience.
LA Film Fest
2. Wish Me Away (1)
Wish Me Away (2)
3. Salaam Dunk
Cannes
4. Cerise
HotDocs
Tribeca
6. Give Up Tomorrow (Won the audience award!)
7. The Bully Project Film (Was picked up by Weinstein Co.)
8. Love Hate Love – Tribeca Travel
SXSW
9. My Sucky Teen Romance (1)
My Sucky Teen Romance (2)
10. 8 (Award winner)
11. Sound It Out (1)
Sound It Out (2)
Sound It Out (3)
12. HAPPY NEW YEAR
Sundance
14. The Rocket Boy
All of these campaigns succeeded on many levels, but there are three key areas that they nailed: They each had a great pitch, a proactive team, and each found the audience that cares about their passion and interacted with them consistently and creatively.
Over the next four days you’ll hear from four of the filmmakers behind these success stories, who’ll share key takeaways, tips, and tricks about their journey from funding to festival. I hope their learning helps your film become the next success story.
Adam Chapnick
IndieGoGo
