ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 6 months ago - Stephen Follows

I looked at this recently...

https://stephenfollows.com/film-crowdfunding-tips/
https://stephenfollows.com/kickstarter-film-goals/
https://stephenfollows.com/film-crowdfunding-kickstarter-statistics/

Hope this helps

9 years, 6 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Extending what Stephen posted on some of his links, my main reluctance to backing campaigns is that I don't believe the poster has any idea how much money they need, nor how to spend it. I don't care that you're planning on sending it to 20 festivals, I care that it is made and looks right - festivals etc come if those things happen first.

How can you prove your project is less of a waste of money than the next guy? Provide a showreel, provide a budget, provide a schedule, describe how you plan to mitigate high ticket items (script includes a helicopter shot, which is $5000, but you describe that a friend is a professional licensed drone operaror and will do it for $500), etc.

Don't even bother saying you're making a feature if you haven't got experience (and a supportive crew) from doing some shorts which you can show, by the way :)

9 years, 6 months ago - Andrew Harmer

Hi Micah

I've run a few campaigns (the one for my feature was... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1538713376/the-fitzroy)

Here's my top tips for what they are worth.

Back a dozen active campaigns (even if it's just for a pound each). Pick a mix, some you like some you don't, ones that you think will be successful and other you don't. You'll learn a lot by just observing what they do right and what they don't.

When it comes to your campaign, be passionate, humble and inclusive! People back the people behind the campaign as much as the actual campaign (especially in the creative categories).

In many way backers will become part of your team, try to create a sense that the project won't happen without their support.

Be realistic with your target. Can you reach enough people? If you can get a conversion rate of 6-10% you're doing very well. Which (depending on your target) you'll need to get a few thousand to actively sit down and watch your campaign video. Easier said then done. Look at what circles and networks you can hit up. Personal, professional and public. (I haven't used it but greeninbox is meant to be very good in helping with this).

Most importantly have fun, it's incredibly hard work (there's no such thing as easy money), and there will be some dark days during the campaign where it feels like you're in a wilderness but keep going and I'm sure you'll do it.

Hope that's of some help.

9 years, 6 months ago - Jendra Jarnagin

I shot a film that had a very successful Kickstarter, and they director wrote a VERY informative article for Moviemaker magazine which was a case study on the campaign, with what it took to manage it, what the tipping point was, etc. Its the best, most through crowd funding advice I have ever seen and I recommend it to everyone:

http://floatingcamera.com/jendra/crowdfunding-success-a-case-study/

9 years, 6 months ago - rob curry

We did this Kickstarter
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shirleycollins/the-ballad-of-shirley-collins

My main advice is not to see it as a money making exercise, 5 of us worked full time for nearly 2 months to make it happen - if we'd just worked in bars for the period we'd have made way more cash to put into the film! See it as the start of your marketing campaign, engaging with your core audience, exploring what people do and don't like about your project, building an online presence etc etc.

My main tip re getting it right is choose a realistic target, do a brilliant campaign video (you are making a film so use it to prove you can make brilliant films), and choose rewards that people will want anyway, not just as token compensation for giving you their money.

Hope that helps!

9 years, 6 months ago - Paul Campion

We're in the last few hours of a successful Kickstarter campaign for my 3rd short film The Naughty List:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulcampion/the-naughty-list-a-wicked-black-comedy-short-film

Read Stephen Follows articles, we used a lot of his data to help plan our campaign, particularly running a shorter campaign than a longer one.

Back a selection of other campaigns, both to learn how they run, and also to help others in return.

Start building up your audience 3 to 6 months in advance. I started with a blog about trying to get the film made 9 months ago: http://www.paulcampion.com/news/trying-to-make-the-naughty-list-day-001/ That worked well in building up interest in the project, to a point where pretty much all my friends outside the industry were asking me how the film was progressing every time we met.

Do your research on other campaigns, both successful and unsuccessful. Find out what others are setting their reward levels at. Do a lot of research on unsuccessful campaigns, try to analyse why they failed.

Do a 'soft launch' first, going out quietly to family and friends, aiming to get 30% of the money in the first 3 days. Then when you do the 'hard' public launch, there should be money in the pot already. Success tends to fund success - people don't want to come to your project and see you've only got £10 after the first day.

Email 10 family and friends each day asking them to help spread the word about the campaign, and email them personally.

It's incredibly time consuming running the campaign Myself, the producer Michelle Cullen and author Brian Keene have been doing it while working full time jobs.

Only 30% of viewers watched our campaign video to the end. I've heard this from other people as well. A campaign video is important, but my feeling now is people just want to see you've made the effort and want to see who the people are behind the campaign. If I was going to do it again I wouldn't make a video longer than 2 mins.

Plan how you're going to deal with the slump that happens in the middle of all campaigns. Plan how you're going to release new rewards and generate more interest to an audience that after a week will be tired of you asking them to give you money.

We kept our campaign goal relatively low - £6,500 ($10,000) which statistically is more likely to succeed, and it did in our case.

Our short film is based on a short story by US author Brian Keene (http://www.briankeene.com) who has a big fan following and he's very active on social media - and it was his fanbase that got behind the project. You'll need a big social media presence or access to someone who does who can push the project for you.

Twitter is better for promotion than Facebook. Facebook has algorithms which restrict posts when they include a link, trying to force you to pay to 'boost' the post. Paying to boost a post does dramatically increase your number of views, but Twitter is free - but you need a big Twitter following in the first place. See Brian Keene's blog on the subject here:
http://www.briankeene.com/2016/01/20/some-observations-on-crowdfunding-and-social-media/

Hope that helps and good luck!

9 years, 6 months ago - Dan Selakovich

I'm sure the above links are all great advice, but I honestly didn't read them. Seems to me, the crowd funding that fails (and most of them do) are because people did cultivate a crowd FIRST. People have to be interested in you as a person, and want to follow you. The only films crowd funding campaign that I have ever given money to was an Asian actress that was sick and tired of being typecast. Racism in Hollywood was her hook, and it worked. She got the funding. Having said that, she had never written or directed a feature before. It's still not done after a couple of years. And I knew from the get-go, that it would take a miracle for it not to suck. But I didn't care. I have quite a few black and asian actor friends that deal with typecasting on a daily basis, and this was my chance to help get somebody a shot.

9 years, 5 months ago - Jane Sanger

Yes lucky Paul Campion THE main reason as he states is having a person involved in your film be it writer, actorother crew who have a huge fan base. I am talking about 250,000 followers plus on you tube, insta, Twitter etc . There is your crowd. If you go in without a crowd who the hell are you going to ask? Friends and family first, a few odd stragglers. Why should people back you for a poxy copy of your film or to meet you and your Unknown cast? That is why the average crowdfunding campaign generates 2,500 if you are lucky, mum dad and relations support. You need experience with good fan following of your own for your films or as I said someone with clout attached.