ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

6 years, 8 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

I'm wary of these kinds of offerings - are you just getting a kid in his bedroom who fancies himself as an expert after watching a youtube video? I would judge them solely by their results, and only pay if they deliver, but I doubt they're set up with that kind of model since so many campaigns fail.

Don't forget SP has a bit of a best buddy relationship with Kickstarter, I know some members here who sought help found themselves on the receiving end of good advice straight from the horses mouth. https://www.kickstarter.com/pages/shootingpeople. Maybe Helen or Xenia or whoever is around can hook you up if your campaign looks viable?

6 years, 8 months ago - Kristopher Williams

I'm nervous about kickstarter because it's all or nothing - imagine working your arse off for a campaign fro 2 months to reach £5000 and then you only reach £3800 and you cant keep any of it.
It's good to hear SP help out, but I might wait on asking them for help, as this is a bit of an experiment. For this campaign I'm asking for film festival funds but for my next campaign I'll be asking for the actual budget of the short film.

In the end I went with the $75 option with backersinfo and I'll report back here if there's a noticeable bump - They've already given me some good ideas to think about my campaign, but let's see if they have the social media reach

6 years, 8 months ago - Kristopher Williams

Do you know if ShootingPeople are in bed with indiegogo too?

6 years, 8 months ago - Helen Jack

Hi Kristopher - no, we don't have a partnership with indiegogo.

6 years, 8 months ago - John Lubran

I'm with you Kristopher with regard to Kickstarter's all or nothing model. It's purpose has little to do with the well being of campaigns. I imagine we might see that policy amended. It's worth concidering that these facilitating websites have business models that rely on 'signing up' as many campaigns as possible; for them it's a percentages game. Indigogo and Kickstarter both have associated sites for 'non commercial campaigns that are much more flexible. The best way to work with crowd funding facilitators is to use them as escrow services for collecting money and hosting Web pages linked to other websites. It's those services that are valuable. I'm sure that with all their experience they can offer the weakest beginners many useful tips but they can't put much polish onto a proverbial turd. Ambitious campaigns, and the truth is that most are not, require a lot more than either Kickstarter or Indigogo can offer.

Nevertheless both outfits are very very very useful for those two specific services. Escrow and link hosting.

6 years, 8 months ago - Jane Sanger

I have tried a few including Krowdster, but they all are not great for me for generating more money. There are too many indiegogo and kickstarter campaigns in my opinion. As soon as you give to one another pops up. So people are bored of them. Saying that two of my friends are very good at it for their own work and have generated funds through the clever use of Twitter...both of them.

6 years, 8 months ago - Kristopher Williams

Yeah - it seems being a social media whizz is handy - but I was never much into collecting hundreds of 'friends' that I don't really know.
I'll report if there's any noticeable change after the backers info guys help out.

6 years, 8 months ago - Marlom Tander

Crowdfunding platforms are not a source of funds, and you are NOT in competition with other campaigns.

The platforms are a way that allows the people who are willing to commit, (but only if you can really raise the money you need) to actually do so. But it's still up to you to find the people to put the money in. View it as a way to allow friends and family and fans to no risk pony up. Not a way of reaching strangers, not unless you have something amazing. (Sorry, your unknown short isn't that amazing. A feature based on well known popular IP, might be).

The reason you are not fighting with other campaigns is simple - there isn't a load of people with money burning a hole in their pocket and looking to drop it on small scale unknown people.

As to full vs partial funding - I'd NEVER pay into a partial funding platform for a project that needs a lump of money and fails without it, but where they'd get to keep my money anyway. I would for a a charity seeking £10,000 for X because even if they only get 5,000, I know it will be well spent.

6 years, 8 months ago - Richard Anthony Dunford

The thing about 'all or nothing' though is... if that's how much you need to execute the project a lower amount could put you in a worst position as you'll still be expected to deliver the backer rewards people have paid for.

So with indie gogo if you needed say 10k but you only raise a few hundred you'll then need to find the money elsewhere to make up the difference or make a version without the resources you needed. It may sound a bit harsh but at least with all or nothing if you don't hit your target with kickstarter you'll be away to just call it a day and try something else.

I did manage to hit my most recent kickstarter campaign target but this wasn't to raise money for the production just the screening and it was a lot of hard work. As others have said there's so many people doing crowdfunders I'd imagine the overall success rate is pretty low. I've not used any of those marketing promotions for crowdfunding though; I've always been sceptical of their results and needed to make every penny count.

6 years, 8 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Why do people like to back "all or nothing" campaigns? If a campaign has a proper budget attached (and the good ones will know exactly how they will spend every penny), then not reaching that budget means the project will not be delivered (or to the appropriate quality). If it could be delivered with less, then the budget is flabby. A campaign with an all or nothing target and a reasonable budget breakdown is far more compelling.

Not just with crowdfunding, but all investors will want to see your budget and see whether it is "about right". If there's a line in there for "misc £10k" on a £50k campaign, that just suggests the producer doesn't know what they're doing/done their prep right ;-)

6 years, 8 months ago - John Lubran

The thing is though that a crowd funding campaign need not be exclusive to any singular platform. One might reach a percentage of a target budget on Kickstarter for example and then achieve the rest by other means. Ones contact with funders might vary. If for example a project fails launch according specific criteria then monies can be returned. A number of projects have been accomplished, including a couple by Moving Vision, in such a way. There's no singularly definitive method. We have a project cooking that has variable budget targets, each of which provides for differing and commendable outcomes.