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

David Jimerson

David Jimerson

Administrator
Staff member
Hey, all -- time is running out to make SOUND for Film and Television Vol II a reality -- ONLY 7 DAYS LEFT! We have only raised ~30% of our goal, so this is the crunch!

SOUND for Film and Television has been one of our biggest successes, and over the years, one of the most-requested products has been a follow-up. Now's the time to make it happen!

THERE IS STILL TIME, and WE CAN DO IT!

But if the Kickstarter isn't successful, it never will -- to answer a question which a number of people have asked in private, no, if the Kickstarter doesn't reach its goal, we will not be making SOUND Vol II. This is the only opportunity for it to get made!


We know it takes a lot of faith to pledge toward a product which doesn't exist yet, so we've offered some great incentives --

SOUND for Film and Television Vol II will retail for $89.95. But as a backer, you'll get your copy for $65. AND, you'll get exclusive content that no one else will get. You'll get exclusive mini-lessons. You'll get exclusive production BTS. You'll get outtakes. And, you'll get to be a part of a private DVXuser forum during production for updates, feedback, and even to help guide the content along the way.

ONLY our Kickstarter backers will get all that. So, you'll get $25 off the retail price, lots of exclusive content, and the opportunity to help guide the content.

What we're going to do in SOUND Vol II -- It will be a similar format to the first Sound DVD, with instruction, comedy, cinematic parodies, but also following sound professionals from pre-production all the way through production, post, and delivery on an original film project. So, it'll be encyclopedic when it needs to be, and practical and immersive, too. Plus, we'll be covering sound recording in a live/newsy/documentary environment by being on the set of a reality TV pilot.

Production topics to include:


  • PRE-PRODUCTION, where the most important planning takes place.
  • Dual-system recording
  • Slating
  • Timecode/Jam synch
  • Sound recorders
  • Wireless systems: UHF/VHF/Digital/Analog/Diversity/Non-diversity
  • Complex booming scenarios
  • Reality TV/news sound setup
  • Field/multi-channel mixing
  • Stereo recording

Post-Production topics:


  • PRE-PRODUCTION, coordinating with production recording with post-production concerns in mind
  • Proper sound mixing studio setup
  • Synching via timecode, synching via waveform
  • Intros to Pro Tools, PluralEyes, other software
  • Pulldown/pullup
  • Asset management
  • Setting up audio tracks in editing for optimal export to sound post
  • Sound editing workflow
  • Working with EQ, compressors, limiters, and other sound filters and FX
  • Leaders and timecode burn-in
  • Exporting from edit/NLE to digital audio workstation -- formats and workflow
  • Foley
  • ADR
  • 5.1/multi-channel/surround mixing

So, in all, we'll have:


  • Great lessons from Barry and David
  • Great practical, hands-on expertise from sound professionals
  • Sketch comedy, cinematic vignettes, and our trademark humor
  • A short film designed to get you behind the scenes, following production all the through to post
  • And even a dynamic reality-TV set!

This will only happen if the Kickstarter is successful, so please, don't hesitate to pledge. You won't be charged at all if it doesn't make the goal, so you've got nothing to lose, and so much to gain, by pledging your support.

And the more we raise, the better we'll be able to make it, so please, spread the word!

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE PLEDGED SO FAR! :thumbsup:
 
Well, we're in our last ~24 hours, and with over $10K to go, it's pretty clear we're not going to get anywhere close to our goal, and probably won't even break $5K.

A BIG THANKS to everyone who did pledge, especially those of you who were pledging to support us specifically! I think most pledgers are also owners of our previous work, so it's nice to have people who definitely want more. I'm sorry that it ultimately wasn't possible -- I was looking forward to making it as much you were looking forward to watching!

I never did compare this to other Kickstarters; the yardstick for this venture was previous product releases and pre-sales, and this project fell exceptionally short of previous perfomances, even though we approached the launch in all the same ways, and even some new ones.

As I said before, the beauty of a Kickstarter is that it allows for no-risk pre-sales, so no one is out any money here. It's just good to know that there isn't a market before we actually spend the money to produce it, so in that sense, as a means of testing the market, this Kickstarter was always going to be successful one way or the other -- it would either show the demand for the product, or it would show there isn't one. And that kind of information is invaluable either way.

So, the market has spoken, and there will be no Sound Volume II. And being likely symptomatic of the market at large, we'll be transitioning into other things and the tutorials will be no more.

It was a GREAT ride while it lasted, but things change, and nothing lasts forever. Thanks for some truly great years! The DVXuser community has always been a HUGE part of it, and we'll always be grateful for that.
 
Man, that's sad news. I wish it had succeeded. I had hopes there would be a plan B. Some sort of scaled down version or something.

I am curious, would you mind sharing some of your conversion rate data and stuff like that? I have read a bit about kickstarters that have succeeded, but only have very superficial information about kickstarters that haven't.
 
Ultimately, only about 1% of page views resulted in a backer. They should have mostly been prime audience views -- previous customers, people interested in the topic, etc.

I'm curious myself, though -- considering how many times I said there wouldn't be a Volume II if the Kickstarter didn't reach its goal, why would you think there might still be some version of it anyway? I really didn't think I could be more clear. In fact, I worried I was pounding it too hard.

Which makes me wonder -- were there a lot of people who didn't pledge because they thought it would still happen?
 
One percent is not too bad a conversion rate actually. According to a crowdfunding expert (I linked to a video of her talking in some other post), one percent is kind of what you should expect. That makes me think that there are just not enough sound people who are not professional enough to want this (or willing to admit that they are not) to support such kickstarter unless you get a really exceptional conversion rate.


My hopes for a plan B came from my own wish to see this succeed and also, partly, from a post in this forums where you talked about "prepping production". But it is absolutely true that you said several times that this would not happen without the kickstarter succeeding.

If the crowdfunding expert I talked about before was right (that you should expect about 1% conversion rate) and your conversion rate was pretty much that, I would guess that there must have been very few people that didn't pledge because they thought it would still happen. In my case, I pledged. But I already own your first sound tutorial, so it was an easy sell. I even upped my pledge to 100 when I saw that things were not going all that well, because I thought "Whatever, I'll get the light tutorial too and help a bit further".
 
Well, that's the thing, Aram -- this wasn't run as a "typical" Kickstarter. It was run as a pre-sale launch. We weren't going out to the world looking for a crowd to fund our pet project, as many Kickstarters are. We were looking to pre-sell a specific product, and approached it from that perspective, as we have done before. I'd agree that 1% would be a good return if it were just the public at large looking, but that's not who we were after. We targeted previous customers and those specifically interested in the topic, and that's who would have been looking at the page. That's why you really can't compare it to other Kickstarters, but we can and do compare it to previous product launches. Kickstarter was simply the mechanism, and we chose it because it made it a low-risk venture.

Believe me, if this would have followed the results of previous pre-sale launches, we would have significantly overshot our goal. We have always had a very high repeat-customer rate (WAY more than 1%) in the past, well more than enough to get this funded. Plus, we were opening up our production process in a way we never have before, so there was even more benefit to our customers this time around.

But I think the market has changed significantly, and there aren't nearly as many people who are willing to pay for this sort of thing as there have been in the past. And Sound Volume II was an oft-requested follow-up to our best-selling product, the content of which was also by request, so if anything was going to succeed, this would have been it. So, as I said, the gig is pretty much up on direct-customer instructionals, and we're moving on to other things. Great fun while it lasted, but everything ends.

I know you not only pledged, but you increased your pledge midway, and we appreciate it very much. :)
 
I think you are absolutely right about the market. I myself took quite a while to buy your first DVD because I thought I could cobble together enough stuff from youtube videos and books. Most youtube tutorials are of quite dubious value (never trust a guy who is teaching you sound and has terrible sound on his video) or are more interested in selling you some product than in teaching anything. I read Jay Rose's book on capture and damn, that took ages, was boring and in the end, I don't think it was the best way of spending my time. I bought your DVD because I had given up on youtube videos (although some good ones exist and some more may come along), was not happy with the stuff learnt to time spent ratio of that one book and your DVD was reasonably priced enough.

I think if people could be convinced of the convenience of having a good tutorial without seeing it, more would be willing to pay for it, but I don't know how you could have been able to really get that across, without their being actually familiar with your previous work.

I have seen a few online schools out there that charge what to me is a pretty high price. Some of them have pretty impressive material out. Some of them have testimonials of people who swear by their courses. Then I think of a previous "taster" experience I had where the all the good stuff was in the "taster" and I am very much not inclined to pay what is for me a high price for online education in the form of video tutorials. I may be missing out on excellent resources, but I cannot really know they are excellent without running the risk of paying a lot for what may be underwhelming material too. Making people pay for online education is a tough sell.

Anyway, I'll be looking forwards to seeing what you come up with next.
 
It is what it is. Our stuff is much, much better -- in information content, and in watch-ability -- than what you can find for free, but that doesn't always matter, and has mattered less and less as time has gone on. What we do costs, and we can't compete with free.

I was hoping the Kickstarter pre-sale model would be a workable one, but that didn't happen.
 
well this isn't intended to be a discussion point or argument from me, just a piece of feedback from one person.

I would like to see this made. I would probably pay $65 for the finished product after knowing it would deliver immediately and hearing reviews and feedback. Even though your reputation precedes you (in a positive way), $65 was too much for me to drop this far in advance. I'm 100% sure you have good rebuttals and good reasons etc. etc. but I always like feedback from people, and since I'm part of the "99%" that was my personal reason, all logic or other arguments and reasoning aside. $30-$35, I would have probably sprung for.
 
I think this is the very reason it didn't get the support you were seeking. The very people that need/want the tutorial can't afford it. Young filmmakers spend their available cash on filmmaking. There is very little cash available for the good stuff, be it a tutorial or professional equipment.
 
I bought both the sound and the lighting dvds. I didn't pledge for sound II. Just in case you might be curious as to why one person (me) didn't spring for this, here's my feedback, below - of course, you may have no interest in this, in which case, skip the rest! Warning: unvarnished, straight, no holds barred.

I liked the content of what was going to be covered in sound II. If it was a DVD, available for $100, or even $120 (my limit) you'd have my money (repeat: yes, I'd pay not merely $89, I'd pay up to $120).

The reason I didn't spring for it, is because it wasn't a simple DVD - end of story. Instead, it was some kind of complicated 'extra this' and 'extra that', and for the special people 'bts this and that', and private lessons this and that. I hate it. It sounds tiring and obligating. I don't want all those hoops. I want a simple, clean delivery. I am not enticed by private rooms and exclusive stuff that I'm sure to have to jump hoops through to get and why bother? Charge an extra $20 or $40, and I'll pay, and be done with it. I don't have the time to play silly games trying to figure out months in advance what hoops I'd have to jump. I don't want online anything. I want a DVD I can put in my computer and play at my pace and my schedule and my convenience. I don't want to have to chase down anything. I want a DVD I can pop in - and that's it - in toto. And I want it available now, not whenever - if it's not available now, or within like a couple of weeks, wait until it is available and only then announce it and I can then buy it.

It is my suspicion, if you just had a product (DVD) and sold it, like the first time, you'd sell a lot more. I bought the first DVDs. I'd buy this too. You think the market has changed, I think not in this respect, but who knows who is right. Yes, I understand the kickstarter model for a movie, but it's not the same thing - however much you think it is. And I understand that you think it's too much of a risk to put all that $ upfront and then wait for sales, and that this is a way to gauge demand - I disagree that this is a good method to gauge demand, because I know for a fact at least in my case it was not, and instead I'd have bought the DVD the traditional way.

Of course, it is possible that i'm just an outlier kook, and my motivations are not meaningful in the scale of a market and I'm not in the least representative, so all I can speak for is myself, a single data point, perhaps easily dismissed. I'm still sorry not to see Sound II.
 
I bought both your DVDs. I would buy probably buy another sound DVD from you guys as a product. I didn't even know you did pre-sales as your way of financing the previous projects. I saw it shown here, I've always trusted you guys as competent, experienced producers and so I bought it. I have always been appreciative of your contributions to the forum too.

For me, I'm bombed by kickstarter donation requests. Everyone shooting a short or a web series or staging a play that I know is funding through Kickstarter or Indie Go Go. These are non profit deals so I know that the donation is exactly that. A donation.

I would buy a self produced DVD but if I'm buying it, then I don't feel any urgency to finance it. I think this hybrid approach is not effective. I'm not sure exactly why I feel that way but I do.
 
Bummed about this. I have the Light and Sound DVDs and the 24fps download. The Light DVD was good value and a hoot. I thought Sound 1 was a little overpriced (although I had a previous background in recording bands - was expecting more of what was going to be in Sound 2 in it). 24fps download the price was right, I didn't mind that there wasn't much new to me at the price because it is still a good reference, if I want to refresh on something it's there. But Sound 2 was going to be stunning value, even at the post Kickstarter prices. The sheer amount of content was going to be incredible at the price. The knowledge from the other DVDs (minus humour and scenes) is all readily available on the net in youtube videos, blogs and forums if you're prepared to search. Although rarely in the same place and rarely as entertaining. But Sound 2 would have filled a much needed hole in the knowledge base out there. For those of us who want/need to do sound 'as well' there are not as many resources that comprehensively target the specifics of what we need to know - the crash course. I'm sure the educational resources are out there but they are not as saturated as lighting advice, mic placement and how to hold the boom.

Hope you give it a few months then have another crack. Maybe the timing was just wrong. Entertaining as it is, maybe some of the 'fluff' can be removed to save costs - perhaps a more scaled back production more focussed on the content could make this viable. A re-pricing (upwards) might get across the line too. I mean it was going to cost the same as Sound 1 despite having much much more content. Maybe set the Kickstarter price same as the post-Kickstarter price for a start. That alone would have got you halfway. And maybe as OldCorpse suggested, all the bonus footage, as much as I would appreciate isn't worth it if it is making the base product cost too much to produce. Or you could include the extra stuff as a stretch goal or at extra cost. I mean, those of us who pledged did so either because we want the product or support you guys and appreciate the site and the previous products. In most cases I would say both. I guess the problem with such a specialised product is that the target market is small, however loyal.

Hope you do have another go. You have a good snapshot right now that you can work with. If you can bring costs down 25%, raise prices about the same you'd be well on your way if you got the same amount of pledges. Anyway, that's my thoughts.
 
I appreciate it. :) And I do hate to disappoint the people who really wanted it (I really do). But, at this point, it's dead letter. For it to happen at all, we needed this campaign to be successful. That's just the reality of it.
 
I have the Sound 1 & Lighting DVD.

I have to agree with what Oldcorpse and HScully said.

I have supported Kickstarter projects before, but a training video doesn't seem to be a good fit for that mold.

If the DVD was out there I'm sure I would eventually buy it as I did with the other 2. Like Oldcorpse says, I had no sence of urgency in buying the 1st one, and bought the lighting one on the strength of the sound one (but probably a year later).

Kickstarter is definitely the wrong way to gauge the interest in this product. Shame that it won't be made; if you believed in the product on its own strengths and if you had produced it the same way the other 2 had been made then there is a good chance it would have been just as successful in the long run.

The Kickstarter bandwagon won't work for everything, but that doesn't mean the product won't work in the traditional way.
 
simonpwood said:
if you believed in the product on its own strengths and if you had produced it the same way the other 2 had been made then there is a good chance it would have been just as successful in the long run.
Click to expand...

Now, Simon, that's just plain rude.

Implying that I don't believe in the product, or that I thought it would not have lived up to the others, insults my integrity as a producer.
 
Sorry to hear your project didn't get funded. I considered it too but didn't for the same reason others mentioned: no DVD. Actually, it wouldn't have to be a DVD, it could be a USB drive, just has to be a physical object with no bandwidth requirements or vendor streaming capability.
 
I hear you, J; I know there are people who really want a physical object, and I sympathize, because I stream very little myself.
 
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