I don't want to make a crap movie
No one ever goes out with the intention of making a crap movie. It's assumed. The reality is most people aren't able to make a great movie. The difference between a crap movie and a great movie isn't $10k.
10k in NZ would allow me to make a great film and get the colour correcting awesome.
Are you sure you can do it for $10k?
What's the shooting schedule?
What gear do you need to hire. For how long?
Are there going to be any unexpected requirements you didn't expect?
There are a bunch of people who are usually needed to make sure a movie is great. Just a few include:
Caterer.
Production Designer, Art Director, Wardrobe Designer, Property Master, Set Designer
Production Manager/Production Coordinator/First AD/Second AD
Production Sound Mixer
Director of Photography
Editor
Post Sound Mixer
Colorist
Production Photographer
Publicist
Script Supervisor
Producer
Writer
Location Scout/Location Manager
Production Lawyer
Those jobs that don't have someone doing means you're either going to end up doing that job or pay someone to do that job of the film will suffer. Be aware, each job you take on will take away from your directing.
Not to mention the following: DCP, 5.1, Deliverables, festival entry fees, petrol, food costs, expendables, damages, insurance (hard to hire gear without insurance), insurance (hard to get insurance without permits), EPK, paper and the list goes on and on. Did I mention marketing?
It's not all doom and gloom. It's fun and exciting. No budget filmmaking can get done for very little if you've spent the time and built up your network of people or you are extremely talented at motivating and building high performance volunteer teams. You won't need everything. You'll learn what you do need and what you don't over time. If you're learning this while trying to direct, it'll also hurt your performance.
the colour grading...[snip]...$2,500 US
There are better options if you shopped around.
If I get no pledges, [snip] I will just try to do it myself
Hey, that's a great attitude to have. I love it.
I have other directors helping me and it is by no means their first movies, so I feel that perhaps a lot of the learner mistakes will be avoided anyway.
I have been playing with film privately for over 5 years.
I don't do shorts. I cannot write or imagine shorts. They annoy me as they are so tiny. In short, I kind of hate shorts.
I see you don't like shorts. That's fine. Just be aware that your journey may take longer if you avoid shorts. You need to create content. If it's movies, that's great. Make movies. Get them out there. Do whatever you have to do to make them and get people to see them. You're likely to have to both give it away for free and then pay (advertising) people to watch them. That way you can build up your fan base. There are alternative ways to build your fan base and if you discover those ways, you're going to be ahead of the curve.
Is a great film that gets no one to watch it still a great film?
On a more general, crowd funding level:
Who's your publicist? Who's your PMD? (Yeah, I only heard the term the other day, but I gotta use it, right. For those who don't know, it's Producer of Marketing and Distribution - Not sure if it was just something that was coined by a gal or something real, but I got what they meant)
I'd guess the answer is either you, or no one.
This is the primary reason this crowd funding campaign will fail. You don't have the tools and you haven't built up the resources required to realistically reach your goal. I wish it wasn't the case, but it is. I'm not saying this to be mean. I like you as a person and I'd rather see you succeed than see you fail.
You are asking for $10k. You've stepped outside the realm of beginning amateur and moved into the land of the established filmmaker. You don't have a large enough base of fans who are vested in your career to have a reasonable expectation to reach your target of $10k, and on top of that, you don't have either the marketing/publicity skills or the people who have those skills to get you there. There are plenty of established filmmakers who would find it very hard to raise $10k to make a feature film.
All is not lost.
You'll figure it out, I'm sure.