Crowd Funding ?? How much do you need to make a feature ??

Yes, different levels for different people and different projects.

I don't know how to edit, and have no desire to learn. I don't know how to grip (ok, I do a little) and have no desire to learn. I don't know how to boom, and I have no desire to learn. You get the idea. My MINIMUM crew on a feature is 12 to 15 people. If I want them to know what they are doing I'm going to have to pay them. Especially on a feature shoot going 10 or 14 straight days as opposed to a single weekend, or even a couple of weekends. That takes money. In addition, without a name actor you have about a .05% chance of ever getting distribution. Name actors cost money.
 
I am making an Indie feature in India on HDLRs and we are raising money on indiegogo since the last few days. We are hoping to raise $35000 for the shoot. Then we'll raise more for the post production but I think we should get to a festival print - in $100K
Thats our budget with publicity.
 
Go to some filmmarket type things, pitch BIG money people...
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With backup budgets, I think the big money types would be impressed that you had a solid business head, and weren't just trying to get big money for the hell of it.

One cool thing: I live in Bali / Indonesia. Minimum wage is 120 bucks a month. I pay more: 10 bucks for a six hour day to my assistant, which is double what I could get away with, but I believe in paying a living wage. Other foreigners tell me I'm paying too much, but I think they are being colonial assholes.

I can train people. They learn fast here. At that level of financial outgoing I can relax. I can have 5 crew for 50 dollars a day, and we can learn on the job.
We'll make mistakes together and enjoy the journey. I already have a competent sub-editor. Talented westerners who come through are starting to offer to work for free. My money will go five times further than in Europe or the States, or I can pitch for 5 times less money.

They get the hang of things really quickly. A Balinese friend might never have seen a boom in his life, but I bet that their background as dancers and silat martial artists, plus their superior physical strength and agility, would make them learn real quickly.

Nope, I don't have name actors, but on the other hand some of you don't have spectacular scenery, crazy gamelan concerts that you can tape for 10 bucks, jaw dropping huge secret temples, hyper-magic mountains, monkey armies 10 minutes from your door, audio post at 100 bucks a day, jeep hire for 15 bucks, platoons of kids in traditional ceremonial dress riding through the streets on motorbikes...

I live on location. My life, on a good day, is Apocalypse Now meets Slacker. On a bad day it's Trees Lounge meets Pi. I'm still a newb in this business, with hardly anything to show for it yet. I know my place, and I know my technical skills are fairly low. I'm just excited. In a years time I hope to have a thriving microbudget studio.
 
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Focus

partho said:
I am making an Indie feature in India on HDLRs and we are raising money on indiegogo since the last few days. We are hoping to raise $35000 for the shoot. Then we'll raise more for the post production but I think we should get to a festival print - in $100K
Thats our budget with publicity.
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I think this is about right as a minimum.

@poster

Here's where the line is on whether or not you need (minimum) tens of thousands of dollars to make a film.

If you are making a film because you want to make a film, nothing beyond a camera and some friends is really required.

If you are making it to compete, or for many others to really enjoy watching, you need to spend.

People have grown used to a certain standard of quality from a lifetime of television, and it's my belief that if you dip too far beneath that, your product becomes unwatchable to the common person.

About the greatest artists having the least money, and hollywood being a creative tarpit. I think its a romantic notion that all us starving artists have, and there's no question that corporate marketeers prove us right pretty often, but guys like Speilberg, Zemeckis, Kubrick, Attenborough, etc prove that often the worlds greatest talents do get the budgets.

Don't let me get you down though, you have to start getting experience no matter what your current budget. The best advice I can give you on getting money from other people, I got from a book about the topic. It says, "quit trying to explain to people why you need the money. Focus on getting them to like you. People are selfish creatures. They don't give money to geniuses or those that need it, they give it to people they like, because that's what THEY want to do". Be creative, keep refining your approach, and above all keep trying no matter how many times they shoot you down.

This is pretty American advice. If you live in Europe, you may have better luck with a positive and philanthropic approach. It's said to be a climate more sympathetic to artistry.
 
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In the U.S. getting money is all about presenting a complete business plan that shows similar projects, budgeted at a similar level, how much money they made, and exactly how they did it. Basically here is the template that was successful for someone else, and here is how I plan to follow a similar path.
 
Gonzo_Entertainment said:
In the U.S. getting money is all about presenting a complete business plan that shows similar projects, budgeted at a similar level, how much money they made, and exactly how they did it. Basically here is the template that was successful for someone else, and here is how I plan to follow a similar path.
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I understand what you are saying, but I was referring to investors at the angel level, and you are referring to investment groups or business people.

All I'm saying is that when you are going to just an individual that has money, they may be more inclined to take an interest in the business side of the project if they like you as a person first. As independent filmmakers we kind of approach at a disadvantage, since from the perspective of investment, there are many safer bets than film.

It all depends on the individual, there are some really smart, really nice people out there, you just may not meet them your first day.
 
No doubt, and the lure of the "movie business" can help sometimes as well. It just also helps to be able to say "if you're interested in seeing it, here is a detailed plan of exactly how we can make money"
 
I can see that some people are better at the business side, while others are better at the hands-on creative end and wear many hats. So, what works for one may not work for a fellow film maker. IndieBudget is more of a hands on guys, while Gonzo is more experienced in the business planning end with investors. They will yield two different levels of product. But, they are both committed to their ways of making films. Variety makes the world more interesting.
 
I'm an old fart (46) and have been in the business world, on the fringes of the movie business for a long time. It's rubbed off. I don't "like" that part, it just is what it is. Money makes the world go round.
 
Gonzo,

Have you ever tried crowd funding? It seems you have a better in with the big high rollers than some of us. Crowd funding depends more on a pitch than a business plan.

I'm better at scripts than business plans. My scripts have motivated people in the past. I've always needed help writing business plans.
 
My fiance' is working on her MBA right now. She's my producer and does all the yucky poo number crunching.

It's a process. I'm going to go for real money, if it doesn't pan out, much lower budget and crowd funding is the fall back position.
 
IndieGogo works if you already have a network of rich friends with money to give away. Otherwise it can be a dog. It was a complete waste of time for me. I raised about $100 for my short film. That's nothing.

I'll try again with another and hopefully have better luck, but making it work is like catching lightning in a bottle.
 
The first person that I interviewed for my podcast was trying to raise $20,000 for her film on Kickstarter. On the last night they were at $7,000 but managed to reach their goal by the deadline.

Watching this campaign has been a real revelation for me about how to run a crowd funding campaign, because it just seemed to me to be almost impossible to get strangers to help you. But it can certainly be done, the key seems to be: publicize the fact that you are crowd funding. Make this seem like an original initiative. People in your home town probably haven't heard of IndieGoGo or Kickstarter and will think that this is an 'incredible' and 'original' idea...
 
I don't have rich friends :(

msp1518 said:
IndieGogo works if you already have a network of rich friends with money to give away. Otherwise it can be a dog. It was a complete waste of time for me. I raised about $100 for my short film. That's nothing.

I'll try again with another and hopefully have better luck, but making it work is like catching lightning in a bottle.
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You can't put up your campaign and smoke a cigar thinking the people are going to drop in and check out your project among 20 000 projects that are on Indiegogo and give you all the money. You need to work hard build a campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social media that you can have. I have had my project on for the last 19 days and we have collected $6490 of our 35K goal (81 days left). I am constantly sending emails, sends tweets, (it was ReTweeted by Film Angels yesterday:yes:). My tweets are retweeted by 4 or 5 people every day. I have increased the number of followers. I managed to get my project into the 30 odd featured projects on Indiegogo (out of the big 20K cloud) because I have thousands of successful referrals. It's also in the popular list. I have over 6500 hits on my page.
Crowdfunding is not easy, you have to work hard to succeed like any other way of funding a project.
So bro if you only made $100 its because you sat under the tree waiting for the fruits to fall into your lap.
 
partho said:
You need to work hard build a campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social media that you can have. I have had my project on for the last 19 days and we have collected $6490 of our 35K goal (81 days left). I am constantly sending emails, sends tweets, (it was ReTweeted by Film Angels yesterday:yes:). My tweets are retweeted by 4 or 5 people every day. I have increased the number of followers. I managed to get my project into the 30 odd featured projects on Indiegogo (out of the big 20K cloud) because I have thousands of successful referrals. It's also in the popular list. I have over 6500 hits on my page.
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Partho you are spot on! In my opinion crowd funding works only if the communication effort is focused on establishing relationships. I would never give my money to someone only because they have a good presentation on IndieGOGO. What I want to see is behind the project there is a team of serious people that spend time on it every day.

My suggestion is: before starting a fund rising ask yourself '' Do I have a good business proposal?, Do I have enough material to keep the possible future donors engaged? Will I be able to offer them the added value that would make them want to support my idea?
 
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