ONLY 7 DAYS LEFT to make SOUND for Film and Television VOL II happen!

Keep in mind that even if people were interested its not as if they want to feel like they have to buy it now. How many years after "lighting for film and TV" was produced was it still being sold?

I think by choosing to use kickstarter as an "all or nothing" deal is just shooting oneself in the foot.

You guys already have a fan base, track record with previous editions, and I think the contribution to any failure here might have just been changing platforms for delivery and the pre-sale vs. produce and sell model. (sorry I am unaware if previous editions were pre-sold or not).

Cheers, and its never too late to try it again somehow! Find some investors, give it another whirl and don't give up.

:)
 
There's no need to "try again." This was never a personal mission. This was about a lot of people having requested it over the years, and giving it a go to see how much THERE is really there.

Would be happy and thrilled to make it if it made sense to do so. Just as happy to do other things instead. The way it turned out, other things, it is.

Besides, one of the major points was that it was a community project, and we didn't want, nor have we ever wanted, "investors." We didn't want to be beholden to anyone but our customers. That was going to result in the product the customers wanted and needed, not what investors wanted. We said that right on our campaign page. Our customers are our sponsors.

Doing instructionals is fun. It's rewarding. While it was viable, it was a great way to make a living. But it's not "giving up" to stop trying to fish from a pier where the river changed course and left only dry land. The only thing it makes any sense to do is find another river.
 
Unfortunately as much as I and a few others want this I have to concede David is right. As evidenced by most the threads on here the majority of the community doesn't like to pay what anything is worth. DSLR, maybe a half-decent lens but then cheap filters, plastic matte box, rigs that fall apart, knockoff lights, etc etc. And for most beginners sound is mistakenly the last consideration they choose to address. The demographics of an enthusiast site like this will always tend to the younger and that means the pirate generation who have no concept of paying for anything they can find another avenue to. At the time of the previous releases it wasn't quite as ingrained and ubiquitous as today. I don't think it hurts the big players half as much as they claim but it can certainly wipe out special interest viability.

It must be remembered that while it might be possible to get up a cut rate version (along the lines of our various suggestions) it should also be remembered the wrightsville beach is a professional organization with a standard to maintain. Asking them to put out something that doesn't meet that standard is potentially damaging to reputations. And reputation is everything. And Barry and David have done these projects before and know what the costs are, how many of us monday's experts can say the same? Keep talking up the project but I don't think it's helpful to keep telling him it should go ahead if he says no. If it costs $15,000 then that is what it costs. If $5000 is the demand then that is some gap to bridge.

I would hope this could maybe be resurrected in the future if the buzz builds some momentum over time but that's up to us and it's not David we need to tell that to. How many agitators are involved in this thread? A dozen? $1000 of potential. No wonder we're not inspiring. If someone else has the knowledge to share and can do it for $5000 then there is nothing stopping them. But without the reputation of the previous DVDs is there $5000 out there? If all else fails perhaps we can make an effort to collect youtube links together in a thread of materials addressing the knowledge base? Although anyone can make a youtube video. Must be taken with a pinch of salt. Oh well.
 
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My main disappointment was the lack of engagement from visible blogs. I "spammed" two different people asking for coverage. These people (who shall not be named) often cover good stuff, but the often cover pretty rubbish stuff that is of zero value. Covering the kickstarter would have been better than their average post.

I know from this thread (or maybe it was another thread on the same topic) that about one percent of people who engaged in some manner also backed the kickstarter. One percent is a typical number, so the kickstarter in itself was not a failure at all, it was a typical kickstarter that performed normally. I would even claim that it overperformed, considering that the low level tiers of rewards were a really hard sell. However, it only raised about one third of the money needed. If one percent of people converting into backers resulted in one thied of the funding, what the kickstarter really needed was to reach three times as many people.

I am now also a bit frustrated that I only plugged this in two other forums (one of which is only used by Spanish speakers, and only one person engaged in the thread to praise your older material) and did not spam people who have a big youtube following. Maybe they would have ignored me too, but if not, it could have made a difference.
 
Kind of offtopic. I listened to one of the tonebenders podcast this weekend and some famous sound recorder said that there were about 8000 professional sound recorders world wide. If only 80 (one percent) people had supported the kickstarter would have failed too. Maybe the whole thing is too niche and there are just not enough people who would use such a tutorial.
 
aram said:
Kind of offtopic. I listened to one of the tonebenders podcast this weekend and some famous sound recorder said that there were about 8000 professional sound recorders world wide. If only 80 (one percent) people had supported the kickstarter would have failed too. Maybe the whole thing is too niche and there are just not enough people who would use such a tutorial.
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Oh, I cannot agree at all, at all. Sound II was not aimed at pros or even semi-pros, judging by the content proposed. It was aimed at any filmmaker/artist who simply wanted to know how to record and work with sound - which means any independent filmmaker just to pick one, and there are a million of those alone. The market sound II addressed was very broad. And quite frankly, underserved. There are quite a few tutorials and resources (many free) that address themselves to light, but very few that cover sound in any detail at all. And the need is crying. I bought the first sound DVD - and while it was nice, don't get me wrong - it was extremely basic, and what we need desperately is a bit more nuts and bolts depth. So I don't know what to think - David appears quite adamant that the demand was not there, that he marketed the heck out of it, that he did all he could. I must take him at his word, it's just hard to reconcile what I see as a great deal of demand (c'mon, anyone would want to pay ~$100 for what was offered), with the apparently dismal numbers. I just don't understand - maybe that's why there is such a profession as market research, marketing and promotion.
 
True fact: while reaching out to previous customers and other targeted, interested parties, we got back more UNSUBSCRIBE requests than pledges.
 
Although I agree that the target is not professionals or semi pros, I am not sure that "any filmaker/artist" is the target either. The market is definitely much smaller than that. I was in a two day film school course about two years ago and the dude asked people about different skills. There were plenty of people who said they could direct, a lot who said they could cut, two who said they could do sound. Then the dude went on a rant about how sound was so important and how if you want to work making films, right now that's the most desirable skill to have (together with being able to drive a van, apparently!). In any case, if the sample of people there was in any way representative, there were about 140 in that course and 2 sound people. Of course, maybe the other 138 were really interested in learning sound, but something tells me that was not the case.

Also, regarding the unsubscribe damn, that's depressing (but also, I admit I was a bit annoyed by the email).
 
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