Crowdfunding A Case Study

[Zak Forsman]

I'm in pre-production right now on a kickstarter for a web series.
We've been in pre-pro for over a month with about three weeks left to go until we kick it off. Here's a couple of things I hope will make it a success.
1. It's aimed directly at a target audience, a particular horror sub-genre. That audience has websites and forums devoted to it. I know the web masters of a couple of those sites and can count on some pretty decent promotion there. I'll also pound the genre forums with it.
2. I'm spending about $500 in expenses next Sunday on an all day shoot for a 30 second teaser. I have already cast the lead and hired the key crew, so we'll try to get very high production values on the teaser.
3. I'm recording the pitch portion later this week. I come from an acting background so very comfortable in front of the camera. It is scripted and will be shot with coverage and edited, not a one angle talking head video.
4. I'm the announcer for the local roller derby team. I get paid with a sponsorship. That means I'll be able to pimp it on the mic at at least one bout with an audience of about 2000 people.
5. I have my previous film in a well attended film festival about a week before the kickoff, so should be able to do some good promotion there as well.

No guarantees, but we'll see how it goes.

This is all great to hear. You're ahead of the curve. If I could stress one piece of advice over any other though: most people will not back your movie for the movie's sake. You've got to give them a reason to back you. It should be personal and relatable. And ideally, you gave most of them that reason long ago.

Do not expect much out of the people in the roller derby crowd unless they know you. I had Joe Carnahan tweet about the project twice and can't attribute any donations to his 2,000 followers. Unless your web series is about roller derby... and even still, you need a platform where you can foster a dialogue about it. Forms of one-way communication did very, very little for us.

[El Gato Negro]

Here's my campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/enemyofthemind

I think it has almost everything to do with who you are and who you know. And to some extent, where you are and timing.
I've seen your posts so I know you're in San Antonio, and I'm in Austin, and to be honest, there are so many crowdfund campaigns that pop up on my twitter
and Facebook feed, it's ridiculous. The people who post these things even say initially, "I know you see these all the time but..."
People turn off immediately.

Plus, you have to post about this s**t nonstop and I know the majority of the people on my FB/Twitter don't even actually KNOW me so why would they give me MONEY? I've found even if I do KNOW them, they don't even know I've made a film or posted about funding, because Social Media is sometimes so convoluted with other s**t that how does yours get through!?
Even some of the lead actors in the film haven't even liked the FB page or couldn't tell people about the project!

Honestly, I get it, because I myself have been a part of many INDIE projects that never finish or show up so why invest in the FB page or donate, when the film may never even see the light of day?

I went and trolled Austin Film Festival, with tons of postercards. I hit up everyone, celebs included.
I made some great contacts, press people, producers, blah blah, but out of a thousand cards/flyers given out, I got exactly ZERO donations, or even new Fans or follows on Twitter.

I was inspired by Zak's campaign and started one to try and raise money to pay the people who haven't been paid yet on my own film, we've raised around 1300 out of 27,500.
Yes, that was ambitious but I thought if we'd make it that far, I could then give the money to the people who deserve it, didn't pan out.

I'd like to hear some critiques on my campaign as well, though I'm pretty sure it's just that my vid isn't all that great, among other things definitely, and the particular film I made isn't a personal story that's a masterpiece.
I'll be the first to admit that the film itself isn't even that original, maybe that has something to do with, and I shot it because it's my first and I wanted to do it without a budget and actually finish it, within in a year. Well, I accomplished that.

Good luck on your film when you get it going.

Hey Brandon and Manny. The energy level between you both was energetic and positive. Only real issue was the production value of the pitch. The video was shot well but it was just a typical flat texture (I did the same thing). I personally liked that you included snippets of the the trailer which was really cool and engaging. Something I would watch. The acting is superb. If anything I just don't think enough people are seeing the video.

I know indiegogo has a dashboard which gives you stats on how many times people have visited your page. I only had 1, 134 views in a span of 3 months. That's horrible. I need those stats everyday. We both had a campaign goal of $25k. If the 1% conversion is correct that means you would need to have your page viewed at least 50,000 times with an average of $50 per contribution to reach $25,000.00. That's massive. Without a solid digital street team its hard to reach that kind of networking.

Regardless I think your film would do well in the indie film festival circle. Wish you guys the best of luck.

[gonzo_entertainment]

Good stuff Zak.

Yeah, not expecting a ton from the derby crowd, though I've announced for 6 years, have a few fans of my own, so maybe pick up one or two people you never know. I also fronted a popular local punk band in this area for a long time, so some minor celebrity there as well.

My best bet is the genre fans and their websites. If it catches fire there I might do ok.

I'm setting my funding level at the bare minimum I think I could shoot it for and hoping to get over funded.

[j]

Good Thread.

ElGato, you should consolidate your thoughts and experience into a blog post or article like Zak.

[Kholi]

Been sorta glancing at this thread on and off and staying silent. A lot of what's being said is true... but, one thing that needs to be recognized is that no two campaigns are alike. It's definitely true that if you've got a more generic property, it'll be more about your support group (fam, friends, fans) than your project.

On the other hand, check out the Kickstarter campaigns based on popular franchises or niche groups. Gothic or say Discworld? They both raised 30K-50K just on fanbase alone, and it wasn't because of the work.

As filmmakers we tend to think that "oh we do cool stuff, people want to pay for this." ... No, they really don't. People don't want to pay for ANYTHING that they don't have to pay for, so you need to keep that in mind. We aren't Kickstarting again until we've done another feature and some more free web content. And, when we do, we'll heavily way the niche factor versus the fan factor when deciding which project to tackle.

Maybe by the end of 2012.

[El Gato Negro]

Good Thread.

ElGato, you should consolidate your thoughts and experience into a blog post or article like Zak.

Hey J. I was thinking about it but I think this experience works best with input from other filmmakers who have both failed and succeeded at crowdfunding.

[marcusmeisler]

Hey everyone--

This is a really helpful and inspirational thread! It's definitely helped me with mine! I'm in the final stretch after a REALLY short period of time. IT'S GREAT!

Best,
Marcus

[El Gato Negro]

Hey everyone--

This is a really helpful and inspirational thread! It's definitely helped me with mine! I'm in the final stretch after a REALLY short period of time. IT'S GREAT!

Best,
Marcus

Keep us updated bro!

p.s. congrats on reaching your goal!

[El Gato Negro]

Been sorta glancing at this thread on and off and staying silent. A lot of what's being said is true... but, one thing that needs to be recognized is that no two campaigns are alike. It's definitely true that if you've got a more generic property, it'll be more about your support group (fam, friends, fans) than your project.

On the other hand, check out the Kickstarter campaigns based on popular franchises or niche groups. Gothic or say Discworld? They both raised 30K-50K just on fanbase alone, and it wasn't because of the work.

As filmmakers we tend to think that "oh we do cool stuff, people want to pay for this." ... No, they really don't. People don't want to pay for ANYTHING that they don't have to pay for, so you need to keep that in mind. We aren't Kickstarting again until we've done another feature and some more free web content. And, when we do, we'll heavily way the niche factor versus the fan factor when deciding which project to tackle.

Maybe by the end of 2012.

Absolutely. We all have lots to learn from this fairly new structure. It's going to be an interesting year.

[Patryk_Rebisz]

I guess i'll pose an obvious questions... But assuming that everyone of us has some rich friends / co-workers (making a few million a year) why not go directly to them but rather scraping away in hopes of making $15k for a month of work??