Stacey Parks shares constructive crowdfunding advice based on what works and what doesn’t in film campaigns, with a healthy dose of common sense.
These tips are based on my experience watching what works and doesn’t work well during crowd funding campaigns mixed in with a healthy dose of common sense (1.) The Money’s in the List
This is a big one and I tell my clients this all the time: do not attempt to do a crowd funding campaign without a ‘legal’ email list. What do I mean by legal? I mean when you do your crowd funding campaign you don’t want to spam everyone in your hotmail address book. Instead you should be emailing your fans and supporters via a 3rd party email database like Aweber, Constant Contact, or Mail Chimp (I personally use Aweber), where users have ‘opted in’ to receive messages from you and where they can safely unsubscribe at any time should they wish to stop receiving email messages from you. Yes it takes serious time to build up your own email database – sometimes 3, 6, or even 12 months depending on who your target audience is, how you’re reaching them, and aggregating their email addresses. But remember, patience is a virtue and Rome wasn’t built in a day. And neither is a good email list!
(2.) Got Partners?
Alright I can hear you complaining now that you don’t have enough email addresses in your ‘legal’ database to make a dent in a crowd funding campaign. So what do you do now? Time to leverage other people’s email lists! What this means is you want to seek out promotional partners. Blogs, organizations, Facebook Groups, etc. that are aligned with your target audience. For example, is your target audience Veterans? Then which online organizations support veterans and have email newsletters? Can’t figure out who your target audience is to begin with? Then you have a big problem and better go back to square one and figure it out or rewrite your script. Think, “Who will my movie speak to?” and you’re on your way to finding your target audience. Then, seek out complementary organizations from there.
(3.) Give Before You Take
So you found some potential promotional partners for your crowd funding campaign. Now what? Give before you take, people! I see this over and over again with filmmakers who find a nice partner who is aligned with their mission or target audience and BAM they ruin it. Why? Because they approach them from a place of ‘please help me’ rather than ‘how can I help you’? Before you even contact these potential partners you’ve got to think about what you can offer them – whether it’s to help spread their mission, or maybe offering them a private screening of your film when it’s completed, DVD’s of your film that they can use for fundraising… something! This way when you contact them you can introduce yourself and the project, offer up how you can help them, begin a relationship with them, and eventually ask for their support in helping you to promote your campaign by emailing out to their constituents. This goes for blogs and Facebook groups too. You don’t want to spam the comments section and walls, rather you want to join the community, insert yourself into the conversation, offer help to members. And only then after some time ask the administrators of the blogs and Facebook groups to help you promote your campaign. Make sense?
(4.) Get Real
Another big mistake I see people making is that they treat their crowd funding campaign like a fairy tale. Don’t forget this is real life and real business – there are costs involved with raising money as well as commitments on delivery. You’ve got to set aside funds to manufacture and ship all those DVD’s and other merchandise you promised in your campaign, you’ve got to account for credit card processing fees and other fees from the crowd funding platforms (like Kickstarter and IndieGogo), plus legal costs to run everything by your lawyer to make sure you’re doing things by the books. It costs money to make money so don’t forget these realities of the crowd funding process.
(5.) Pursue Other Sources
99% of the time crowd funding monies will only account for a portion of your overall film budget. Yes there are a few cases of six figure crowd funding wins but most campaigns are only good for about $10K-$30K. I agree, this is nothing to sneeze at! But my point is this – don’t rely on crowd funding to be your only source of money for your film. You should simultaneously be pursuing corporate sponsorships, private equity, tax incentives, pre-sales, and everything else.
Stacey Parks is the author of the “Inside Guide to Independent Film Distribution” (Focal Press). Stacey has worked in independent film for over ten years, working previously as a foreign sales agent for several years, and currently as an independent sales rep. Her website is www.FilmSpecific.com.
Accepting Applications for Post-Production Grants
A program of the Foundation for Jewish Culture, the Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film provides grants for the completion of original documentary films that promote thoughtful consideration of Jewish history, life, culture, and identity. Since 1996, the fund has supported the completion of over eighty original documentaries that explore the Jewish experience in all its complexity.
Grants ranging between $15,000 and $35,000 are available for original documentary films in the latter stages of post-production. For more information, visit www. jewishculture.org.
Deadline: July 16, 2012
National Film Preservation Foundation Accepting Applications for Basic Preservation Grants Through its Basic Preservation Grants program, the National Film Preservation Foundation is accepting applications for lab work to preserve culturally and historically significant film materials. The grants target orphan films that were made in the U.S. or by American citizens abroad and are not protected by commercial interests. Materials originally created for television or video, including works produced with funds from broadcast or cable television entities, are not eligible. The grant must be used to pay for lab work involving the creation of new film preservation elements (which may include sound tracks) and two new public access copies, one of which must be a film print. The grant does not fund HD transfers. The funds can be applied only to work commissioned between September 1, 2012, and November 1, 2013. Funds must be used exclusively for preservation expenses and may not be applied to staffing or operational costs. Awards generally range from $1,000 to $15,000 in cash and/or lab services. For more information, visit www.filmpreservation.org.
Deadline: June 1, 2012 (Registration)
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