ASK & DISCUSS
INDEXThe one thing all successful crowdfunded and microbudget films have in common
10 years, 7 months ago - Vasco de Sousa
The producer and director of Dara Says were discussing how we'll put together our next project. (Okay, stop talking about myself in third person.)
Anyway, the producer is not available full time now, so it's pretty much just me asking her for advice. I say I'm thinking of crowdfunding. So, she tells me that she notices that the projects that needed crowdfunding most never seemed to get it. We didn't get our goal last time, but we got partial funding from it and got something from pre-selling stuff off the crowd funding project, and were able to put together a film through long hours of both of us working unpaid. But, she still doesn't think it really worked.
I say it crowdfunding work better next time.
So, she points out that the people who got nothing at all, not a single pledge, and the people who didn't complete their projects, almost all of them, whether male or female, black or white, film student or second grade drop out, lacked one thing in common. Yes, they seemed to need the money most, but something else. Perhaps they needed the money because they lacked this one thing. (I backed one of these interesting projects, and was the sole backer so I got my money back.)
And the people who succeeded seemed to have that one thing that the failed projects lacked.
One factor seemed to determine more than any other who will win and who will lose.
No, it's not a track record. It's not some pre-existing money, although celebrities generally had it. (And I'll exclude celebrity campaigns because some of them seem to be publicity stunts that actually lost money.)
I'd like to say it's something that I have better than anyone else, but I'm not sure at the moment.
It's a team.
Lone rangers failed. Every project we've seen, no matter how interesting, if there was just one person behind it then didn't get it's money. Some only had one person visible in the video, but if you looked closely they had someone else behind the camera, someone who was not just hired for the day, but someone else who believed in the project before it asked for money. It had a core team, not employees but advocates who felt a part of the project.
The bigger the core team, or the tighter the core team, the more likely the success (celebrity vanity projects with big marketing budgets excluded.)
We even saw a project that gave no clue what it was about, but the core team put together an awesome video, and it brought in lots of money. I don't remember the name, it's the one with the lady who's husband is in the bath. Looked like they might not even have a script yet, but the team gave funders confidence that it would get done.
When I read journals of no-budget filmmakers, I also find they tend to have a core team at an early stage (even if it's just family members or an old film school buddy.) The famous director has her best friend musician, or brother co-writer, or sister producer, or room mate accountant. But, it's usually someone else who is actually interested in the filmmaking process, not just someone who thinks they have ideas.
From Pi to The Matrix to The Coen Brothers, the money doesn't come in until that core team is there. The script is often written with the core team members in mind, playing on their strengths. Even for terrible movies like those by Ed Wood, the core team includes people who like the director/producer and working with him. And even Shooting People's own Ben Blaine had his mysterious brother in the wings when he made his shorts and feature.
Has anyone else noticed the same phenomenon? The importance of having a team together at the development phase?
I think that's where Shooting People's new motto comes from, right?
By core team, I don't mean an idea person who asks a writer to work for free. Those get nowhere (who wants to invest in a film written by an unknown who doesn't value their own work enough to charge for it?)
No, both parties need to be committed to putting in the time and effort, and to publicly acknowledge that they are committed to the project. And, they are usually related, or old college buddies, but not always.
I also noticed, much to my surprise, that a lot of successful spec-scripts are actually written by teams. I always thought teams a hindrance in the writing process, but I've learnt more how they did it now and make a team work.
After seeing how much further films go with a team, I know what they mean by "it's a collaborative" business.
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10 years, 7 months ago - Nick Hilton
I've crowdfunded, successfully, with a pretty small team, really just 2 of us. Of course, we had other people attached who would give some support, but the core will come from the key crew.
It obviously helps: 2 people drumming up the attention of all their contacts, friends, press..etc is going to be twice as effective as 1 person doing it. And 4 is twice as good as 2, and so on...
But if your project is well organised, well thought out and you put together a decent campaign, you'll find that people come onboard, whether you solicit them or not. Some of the biggest supporters of my project were people who had no formal attachment to it but who just picked up the baton and tweeted/FBed about it all day, or who email their friends and contacts to get them interested.
Like so much of indie filmmaking, it's something of a crapshoot but the best thing you can do is be prepared and take the time to plan your strategy. I think this is more important than having a big team, though, obviously, having a decent team should be part of your strategy.
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - Nick Hilton SHOW
10 years, 7 months ago - Michael Lebor
@vasco de sousa
He wrote the pitch script and came up with the Kickstarter campaign himself. He just asked me to film it, which I did in my living room in a couple of hours.
Then he got his team on board and made it. It will presumably premier at Sundance because the UK cast and crew screening was canned due to sensitivity surrounding a court case.
He did get lucky, as far as I'm aware one individual put up most of the money, though it did attract many small donations.
It's called "Saturday".
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/258631210/saturday-short-film-about-the-hillsborough-disaste
I broadly agree with your point though, it looks better if you have a team in board, however this experience leads me to believe it's all about the idea and being able to present that in an engaging way.
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - Michael Lebor SHOW
10 years, 7 months ago - Vasco de Sousa
You were involved, so he had a team. The fact he didn't mention his team doesn't mean they weren't there.
I'm not saying you make a mention of it in a video, but it becomes obvious in other ways.
I've seen some proper one man bands, people who are asking me for quotes to write a script or edit their video. They basically set up a tripod and talk to the camera. I can tell that they have no friends helping them. They tend not to work out, so I don't really want to give them a quote.
But, I'd like to see your friend's project anyway, so I can see if my theory is wrong and he is somehow able to completely hide all evidence of his team to potential backers. (Of which you seem to be part of.)
What's the name of the project? Is it still up on Kickstarter?
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - Vasco de Sousa SHOW
10 years, 7 months ago - Vasco de Sousa
@Michael Lebor Thank you for sharing that. Your friend was pretty energetic, and made good use of existing footage.
The sound and picture were clear and undistorted, so I'm sure your involvement behind the camera helped.
But yeah, that short documentary did hit it's target, so he found a popular subject, presented it well, and made a success out of it.
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - Vasco de Sousa SHOW
10 years, 7 months ago - Vasco de Sousa
Where are you Wozy?
Completed feature film? Film school? Short films that I can actually watch and see your name in the credits? Memorization and complete familiarity with any post-production software or piece of film equipment? Anything to offer? :)
Check the Library if Congress registration lists for some of my script titles (It takes over six months to register, and if they get the spelling of your name wrong then it's hard to find, pain in the... try deSousa too, and other variants. And under books too.) If you're in DC they might let you read some. I'll be getting more under my name soon, as soon as they get around to finally sorting it out.
(Tip, don't give the registry your address to display publicly, "agents" and others will keep contacting you with offers you're not interested in.)
Check our Youtube and the ptara Vimeo pages for samples of work. (And look up Dara Says if you want to watch a feature film that my team made. Yes, we charge for it, that's how we make a living.) Notice how the stuff made after Dara Says has changed a bit.
I appreciate my team, even if some of them have moved to bigger towns or are on maternity leave or otherwise unavailable. And I want to make sure y'all appreciate yours too.
This ain't 'bout me, it's never been about me. I don't have a team, the team has me. There ain't no "I" in team. (Unless you're speaking Welsh. Then the "i" has a hat on it.) And I can't commit the team to anyone else's project.
This is about teamwork, and about projects that go somewhere and others that don't.
Here's a shout out to all the teams I ever worked with, at Uni, on film festival films, on Dara Says, and so on.
Happy Shooting,
Vasco
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - Vasco de Sousa SHOW
10 years, 7 months ago - Vasco de Sousa
Thanks for clearing that up. I thought that kind of question would be sent in a private message if you were thinking about funding or joining a team, but maybe I'm wrong there. (Hey, with the way things are going for Sony, maybe there are no private messages any more.)
Checked your shooters and IMDB, I had a couple questions that I'll ask you in a PM.
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - Vasco de Sousa SHOW
10 years, 7 months ago - Michael Lebor
The only crowd-sourcing project I've been involved in, was shooting a Kickstarter pledge video for a friend. He was pretty much a one man band (he found a producer to help him) and appeared on his own in the video.
He got the money and his short has just been accepted into Sundance.
I'm pretty sure he made no mention of cast and crew or his potential team.
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - Michael Lebor SHOW
10 years, 7 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren
So where you at? Team? Script?
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren SHOW
10 years, 7 months ago - John Lubran
Quite so Michael. Huge marketing budgets may convince some audiences that a pigs ear is a silk purse but the old adage that content is king remains true. There's another discussion going on about Hollywood imploding that has also assumed an artificial paradigm to be an empirical reality. Relatively low budget films with big integrity will emerge as economically viable productions benefiting from the 'long tail' business model made possible by the World Wide Web.
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - John Lubran SHOW
10 years, 7 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin
I can see why this might be - although it may not be causal but correlatory. One man bands may be unrealistic about getting their feature filmed for £10k because they've got an idea/script but no production. And production without a script has nothing to list.
However, the make-up of the team may be more important than the fact that it's a team per se. The project may get funded because the requisite skills are represented as opposed to body count, but the skills are often better represented where more than one person is on board. Correlation, rather than causal.
Not sure it's a particularly useful distinction in most cases, but I can imagine pairs of creatives with very little production experience still going unfunded/not completing the film where maybe some soloist who demonstrates the ability to deliver may be more sympathetically viewed.
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin SHOW
10 years, 7 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren
My reason for asking was based upon you talking about possibly doing a crowdsource funding for a film and the analysis you did and wondered if you had a script and team ready to go... I've supported a few and been part of the team that ran a couple more.
If you really want to know about me then you could easily look my my Shooters page where there is a link to my IMDB...
Response from 10 years, 7 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren SHOW