Last year I found myself in a position where I was unable to physically get involved with or facilitate very much filmmaking for quite a long time. I’ve always been a collaborative filmmaker and so, on a whim really, I became a backer to a crowd funded project called Death Wish and liking the idea of a project that didn’t require much from me, but that I could be a little bit connected to, I decided to make a foray into supporting other filmmakers in this way, mainly through speciality websites Kickstarter and Indiegogo and connecting with the filmmakers via Twitter, usually before (sometimes after) backing their projects.
This certainly wasn’t my first exposure to crowd funding. I’d been fortunate to have chosen to become an Associate Producer on Chris Jones’ Gone Fishing short film. It was a high budget, high end piece of filmmaking that was documented extensively throughout the whole creative and marketing process, was Oscar shortlisted, received numerous festival awards around the world, and obtained distribution.
For my initial financial investment and later investment of a little time to help with marketing a bit, I received so much back in terms of events, experiences and learning, that I feel it has truly paid me back for my initial faith more than tenfold. Chris is like that though; it was why I didn’t hesitate to get involved with his venture in the first place and why I’m still so proud to be connected with Gone Fishing and the amazing people who got behind it, and why I continue to edify the film on a regular basis. Gone Fishing is, in fact, still going strong and we’re still all learning from it’s process. It’s available on iTunes or here from Chris’ site and well worth a look as is the online short filmmaking course that came out of it.
Anyhow, that good experience behind me I found, during the course of 2010 thirteen more crowd funded projects to become a backer for, mostly in a small way as I’m but a poor arty un-financed type myself, but all endorsed by me with the hope that out of these cold cash transactions, something cool might come sparking back to illuminate a moment of my creative soul. A fanciful wish perhaps, but that’s my particular trick. I look in the gaps of things to see the possibilities that might be there if I venture in.
And so, the projects and filmmakers I’ve backed have given me an initial insight into the crowd funding process from the perspective of the crowd, I’ve learned what appealed to me and why it did, and what sort of projects would ultimately make me want to part with actual money (however piffling the amount) to fund someone else’s film and spend my time paying attention to it’s developments and talking about them to spread the word of the filmmakers work. How my expectations were fulfilled, and what the downsides of crowd funding may be were also things that came to light.
I think any filmmaker out there who’s looking to crowd fund a project needs to understand whether it’s really right for them and if so, to think how they are going to maximise their rewards in asking for strangers and friends alike to help them get their film made. It’s not really an easy ask, it’s not free money, and there’s plenty negativity to negotiate from people who think you've got a cheek to come begging. Some projects I backed really could have done better. Some people were so great I backed them more than once and would again, because they were so very worth it.
While each of these projects probably deserves an entire blog post of it’s own (and I may well do that in future) for now, I’m just going to list what projects and people I have backed and how with a link through to them. Some are completed, some are still ongoing projects and after nearly a year of helping other projects get going I have now drawn a strict line under my crowd funding backing, while I concentrate on getting projects off the ground in more practical ways.
Whether I’d ever crowd fund a project I was directing myself or not, is something I’m actually still on the fence about. The main thing I observed is that crowd funding is a two way act of giving that requires an extra investment of time and resources from the filmmaker that must be given freely, enthusiastically and frequently. Not every filmmaker is cut out for this on top of managing a busy project, and if I do ever go down that route myself I will choose my project and my timing very carefully to ensure that I do it right for the people who believe in me enough to put their hand’s in their pockets with no hope or thought of their contribution gaining them profit. That’s a special kind of trust that I respect too much to meet half hearted as a director. As a Producer there are people I've worked with who I'd wholeheartedy get behind to crowd fund a project for.
So, the projects I micro-funded were.
KICKSTARTER
Solomon Grundy ~ Mattson Tomlin
TILT ~ Phil Holbrook & KingisaFink
Up Country ~ Lucas McNelly
Dream Lover ~ Mattson Tomlin
Neil Gaiman’s The Price ~ Christopher Salmon
The Sea is All I Know ~ Jordan Bayne
A Year Without Rent ~ Lucas McNelly
INDIEGOGO
Death Wish ~ Timo Puolitaipale / Chad Costen
Black Lotus ~ Angelo Bell
Heroes & Villains ~ Open Cinema
The Night The Reindeer Died ~ Garry Scullion / Nick Acott / Jon Campling
OTHER PROJECTS FUNDED VIA THE FILMMAKERS DIRECT WEBSITES
Gone Fishing ~ Chris Jones
Love Like Hers ~ Danny Lacey
Lemonade: Detroit ~ Erik Proulx
And now to the crux! My insights into what worked or didn’t.
It’s not just the film it’s the filmmakers.
The projects I backed were often about the people as much as the project. It’s not really an earnest desire to get help to make a good project but an extra something that filmmakers like Mattson Tomlin, Timo Puolitaipale & Chad Costen had that made them personable but also made me rock sure that they had the chops to really take their work forward through the projects they were making and achieve something special with them that I would love.
Why are you so special?
People need to know why they’d fund you and not themselves (especially if they’re filmmakers). What is exceptional about what you’re doing? Why should it interest anyone other than yourself to make it? An earnest plea for ‘help’ because you’re nice and you want to make a film but need support, doesn’t really cut the mustard as much as something that holds real innovation that inspires others to want to be part of it, Christopher Salmon had his own distinctive vision for The Price and had sketched out his visual intentions well in a way that both captured my imagination and explained with certainty how he was going to achieve those aims. It was this far more than the fact it was a Neil Gaiman story that really made me want to invest after less than a minute of looking at the project. It had to get made because I wanted to own it!
What costs you?
What doesn’t cost you? What do people really want? I was at times a bit put off by projects that were clearly being tight with their perks and there were a myriad that I turned away from for this reason. In filmmaking there is no such thing as a free lunch or free money. I wasn’t making a huge investment in these things and didn’t expect a lot at all but when a filmmaker so obviously begrudges or doesn’t know what to offer in return for support then I don’t think they deserve any. The perks I really liked were credits aknowledging that I had contributed to making the project happen (which let’s face it don’t cost the filmmaker anything to give away), fun things that bring me smiles or getting to see or own a film I really wanted to see.
Investing is a guts thing.
In selecting projects to hit the pay button on, I got a gut feeling about a couple of people, and those people turned out to be filmmakers who had their own guts, and who have really made being a backer on their projects the best experience. The shining stars I was inspired to back on two projects each and wouldn’t hesitate to back again in future, were Mattson Tomlin and Lucas McNelly. Mattson has more filmmaking chops than virtually any other filmmaker I’ve seen. His projects are ambitious and his talent to get them done to an incredible standard is unrelenting, especially for his age. Give him a couple more years and he’ll be one of the greatest feature directors on the planet, or anything else he wants to be. I know it in my bones. Lucas is just fearless. Up in Maine, miles from anything but bears he sources an amazing cast & crew and makes a feature on a teeny budget, then says “I’m going filmmaking for a year, who needs a house” and then packs up and sets off to help out as many filmmakers as he can achieve their aims, is just courageous. He’s dauntless, and he is doing it and making it fun and an edifying experience for everyone. How cool is it to be supporting a project for people like that?
Fun is Money. Give a little to get a little.
The fun asides to investing in the project itself are often more than worth the bit of money I’ve chucked into projects. Long after I'd forgotten it was part of the perk, I got a bear postcard from ‘Up Country’ Maine with a note and drawing from the director on the back. It lives on my fridge, and will be joined at some point by an interactive Haiku picture thingy, from a Haiku I had to write myself (thus gaining a new art form to practice in my idle moments) from the 'A Year Without Rent' project and a signed still from 'The Sea is All I Know'. I also have an alter ego of myself that has green thumbs and is (alongside the alter ego’s of some of my twitter contemporaries) an honorary citizen of the virtual hub that is Tilt the Town. The banter alone about some of this fun stuff has been priceless. Who doesn’t need extra smiles in their life while helping someone create something good? That’s worth a few quid of anyone’s money!
Fame is fortune, but so is fidelity.
A filmmaker who previously made a short from a Stephen King story. A cool project made from a Neil Gaiman work, or a menacing adaptation of well-known childhood poem or character can add a familiarity and kudos to a project, especially if it’s something the filmmaker clearly has a genuine desire to create and not just a way to get a ‘name’ attached to a project that might attract more funding. Truth is it may well attract more funding, but use with care. Contrary to projects that had a kudos were projects I was so happy to fund not only because they were good but because the filmmakers had been so nice to me. Angelo Bell was one of the first people to follow and talk to me when I joined twitter and didn't really know what it was all about and I never forgot that welcome and interest he took in me, King is a Fink are two lovely women who entertain constantly and put a lot of effort into communicating with and encouraging others. Who wouldn’t want to be involved with people who are nice people. Frankly that's what I was put on this planet for.
Your existing network is your net worth.
People join in endeavours with people they know and like. If you appear out of the blue and start harassing folk for cash you are likely to receive a bit of neglect and abuse. Better to have built up some engaged, like-minded, contemporaries in sufficient numbers to back your project before going out with the big ask. You'll get more support and encouragement, kindness and solid financial backing if you've previously proved your worth to folks when you've wanted nothing from them.
If you’re not on twitter you’re a twit.
All the projects I’ve been involved with have a twitter presence. It’s a great en mass way to engage people within your field of interest that you don't already know. It's quick and concise and you can feed rss and other fun links into it with updates on your projects automatically. BUT.. If you hustle then be prepared to bustle. If you’re going to give us all funding fatigue and badger folks with cheeky emoticons and cheekier banter until they fund a bit of your film whether they really wanted to or not, then be prepared to earn their respect with what you achieve from your project. If you don’t meet your targets and don't meet your promises it’s maybe worse than never getting the investment because you’ll have picked someone’s pocket and they know it was you who did it and be disgusted inside that they ever let you within range. You don’t need that kind of negativity.
Sometimes it’s about society not perks.
Heroes and Villains was a music video project from charity group Open Cinema that show films to the homeless giving them a place to be a community and engage in society by coming together to share and also to make their own film projects. Though I'm not sure they did quite so well on the whole crowd funding thing, they will, I know put the money to good use. In future I'd prefer to make offerings to them outside of the whole crowd funding expectations. Lemonade: Detroit is Erik Proulx film about how the people of Detroit are reinventing their city after it's main industry collapsed. It's a film about people who come together to make their city happen again, made by people who have come together to make the film about that happen. I like that. The short is in progress and the feature is stil being funded one frame at a time and for just $1 to engage with a society that won't sit down and desist I think that becoming a film producer on this project is something nobody who likes films or people should pass up. I'm very surprised that it's taking longer than expected to raise the full feature funds, especially considering the press that's been generated, but I do think it will get all the way to where it needs to be, and when completed, will be spectacular for those of us who knew it could. In the meantime the short film is on it's way as a taster and I couldn't be happier with this cool film.
Understanding your funding engine.
There's different options out there for crowd funding. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the main ones, but there are others and there are options to fund via your own site if you feel you can reach enough people by yourself. For me as investor I liked Kickstarter best because it's policy of giving you no money unless you reach the full target means that the films I ended up funding (all that I backed exceeded their goals incidentally) were made to the level they were intended to be made for. Indiegogo projects didn't always reach their goal, and sometimes the film I wanted to support never realised it's full potential, which was a shame. I'm not so much disappointed by that but it would certainly reflect on me funding that entity again. I funded Danny Lacey's Love Like Hers via his own website rather than via his indiegogo page because I knew more of the money would go directly into the proejct and that he needed it more than indiegogo did. I do feel that I tend to manually follow progress on it via Danny's blog rather than getting the regular updates into my email box but that's no biggie as I invested because I was interested in the film and in Danny who just goes the extra mile with his live TV show each week to document his filmmakers journey. But in general I didn't go searching for film outside of those sites. For Erik Proulx on Lemonade: Detroit funding the film has been as I mentioned, a bit slower than planned. That it happens via his own site has allowed a build of investment without a cut off date which on a long documentary type of project can be really useful. It's worth looking into everything with a view to what suits your project best and as micro-financing has been around for a while considering whether you intend to raise all or only part funding that way.
Putting your money where your mouth is: Part funding.
The Sea is All I Know was looking for completion funding. It was great, they had made it, there was a great team behind it who clearly loved their project, what's not to like to invest a few quid so it could be finished and I could get to see it. No brainer. They'd invested far more than I had. I trusted them.
Talking about what you want to achieve helps people help you to achieve it.
This is going back to the people thing. I know that many of the films I backed were not films I wanted to see per se but were people I wanted to see make the films they belived in. Because they had shared that desire, their willingness to go all out and stretch themselves, they were inspiring. They made me want to back them just so I could see them do it and be inspired to stretch myself via their example. I have learned a lot from them and while they are grateful to their backers, I'm far more grateful for having had the opportunity to be a small part of their journey and make them an inspiraiton to mine.
Make your project their project and they will spend more of their time talking about it. Which is great free publicity.
Some projects I backed have just included me, kept me informed, validated what I gave to them (not a lot) with a feeling of inclusion. Those are the projects I share and retweet on social networking sites and the filmmakers who's paths I talk about. Mattson Tomlin and Lucas McNelly were the shiny stars of my backer experiences last year. Chris Jones was the ultimate includer, my first and best experience of getting behind someone else's ambitions. I like and totally respect them all and I won't let you forget their names or their projects. Ever.
