low goal crowd funding rant!

Well I guess both sides of the story can be true.
I can imagine that I would do a crowdfunding campaign to raise €3000,-. (Which is obviously more than $3000,- :p )
It would be to add to the total budget instead of being the total budget.
And it will be a way to gain support for the project while it's in it's infant stage. The contributors are the first audience your project will have.
 
Think of it this way - Crowdfunding is work.
Either you've invested in developing an audience already (which is work) or you're cold-calling developing an interested audience from a grass-roots campaign (which is work).

Work's work, folks.
You're NOT going to pop up a crowdfunding campaign, post on a few forums, and then have some field-of-dreams experience where 10¢ of effort is going to reap $10 worth of gain.
Umm... nope. Ain't gonna happen.
You're lucky to get $1 in donations for every 1,000 in contacts.

WORK, B!TCHES! SHAKE THOSE MONEY TREES! WORK! WORK! WORK!
40hrs of crafting, creating, launching, posting, reading, responding, adapting, reading, replying, checking, designing, reading, posting, updating, etc is going to render... how much money?
How many hours of tree shaking do you hope to provide?
10?
20?
An hour a day for 30-ish days? 30hrs?
Maybe 2hrs a day for a total of about... 60hrs invested?

Do you think that large plot of successful campaigns between the $1.5k and $8k point put in 60hrs of effort?

20130404KickStarterGoalAmountFrequency_zps1471c92c.png


If so, that'd be a pretty cool return on investment.
What izzat? $25 to $130 an hour? Not bad!
But I don't think they really just phoned it in quite so easy.

Now, consider a typical crowdfunding campaign lasts for 30 days.
For simplicity's sake lettuce call it four weeks.
Most of us got plenty of other sh!t to do already, but lettuce imagine a extra 20hr/week part-time job x 4 weeks = 80hrs.
Certainly more than our 30 - 60hr crowdfunding prospect.

80hrs
x $13 - $17hr (it's a part-time job, don't expect the world) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States#By_educational_attainment
= $1040 - 1360 Gross Pay
* 0.7 taxes
= $728 - 952 Net Pay

Sh!t.

I think I just proved myself wrong for any campaign over $1k. :lol:

Okay, b!tches! SHAKE THOSE MONEY TREES! SHAKE 'EM! SHAKE 'EM! WORK! WORK! WORK!

For all you wieners with sub-$1k campaigns: GO GET A JOB! :lol:
 
But you've sorrta forgot the risk factor.
When working a part time job is pretty likely you'll get paid for your work..

with a crowd funding campaign, you can spend weeks of work and have what amounts to a lame project, or you fail to convince anyone of your vision, or your pitch video is weak, or any number of reasons why you fall well short of your goal.
 
wheatgrinder said:
with a crowd funding campaign, you can spend weeks of work and have what amounts to a lame project, or you fail to convince anyone of your vision, or your pitch video is weak, or any number of reasons why you fall well short of your goal.
Click to expand...
If there is any justice in a meritocracy this is it! :yes:
 
If you really need to get the job done, there are ways! just keep lookin... always people who want to participate in a creative project... not EVERYone is in it for the money, majority yes. good luck
 
I once did a crowd funding for a low 5k amount. Obviously I can work to save 5k but the issue was I was already working overtime, saving every cent for the rest of the productions costs which was a higher figure. I don't recommend crowd funding for low amounts. it's reallly more trouble than it's worth and it does feel like begging. Campaign wasn't entirely successful either.

Instead try some fundraising shows. I put one of these on to raise money for the same project. I hired some dancers, got a large venue and charged people $30 a ticket to come along, see a show and help raise money for a little indie project at the same time. While I had a crowd there I took the opportunity to sell 'em some raffle tickets as well. This way you're making money in a fun way, there's no real element of pan handling and you're raising awareness of your project.

We raised way more doing this than we did crowd funding, it was a lot less work and everyone had fun.
 
My main problem is that a lot of these Mickey Mouse projects that want $500, $5,000 or $15,000 aren't interesting, the team don't inspire confidence of turning out a good film, and they have no idea what they'll do with their Horror/Syfy Channel-quality epic once it's completed.

Do I really want to pay $10-20 to get a DVD of zombies walking around somebody's ranch, with make-up down by the director's girlfriend and her mate?

HELL, NO!

I'll go to my local supermarket and walk right by these god-awful £1 films without a second look, and why? Because I've bought a few in the past already, expecting a laugh, but even for a quid, felt like I got a bum deal.

So, why donate at all?

People bitch about established Hollywood pro's leeching the public, but the difference is receiving a professional end product, something I could actually stick in my DVD player and not worry if its badness was going to destroy my laser, cables and TV, as well as hurt my brain.
The "producers" may ramble on about "festivals", but will their finished film even pass the basic quality requirements?

So no, I'm not interested in donating to a student/wannabe film or worse yet, god damn "trailer" for a film(!!!); I'm also not saying that I'll only invest in established Hollywood crap either; what I'm saying is simply:

Let us know that you want real money to make a real professional film and I'll consider it.

I honestly believe that a decent, character-driven thriller/comedy/horror could be made for £50,000-£100,000, and if the team has a good enough idea and sells the skills to pull it off, they'll make that money on Kick Starter alone.
 
This is all interesting information having just gone through the whole indiegogo process with a film that completed principle photography a couple weeks ago. I found crowdfunding to be a very difficult process. It wasn't even my campaign (I was the cinematographer) but I of course participated in trying to raise awareness and funds.

Each campaign is unique with totally different circumstances surounding the production needs and the level of experience of the team.

In our particular case we were dealing with a well established director with a proven track record. I happen to have many years experience with a couple features and several shorts to my credit... and a boatload of equipment, that I was providing to the production at a loss (because I believed in the film, and wanted to work with the director again).

We were looking to fund $5000 (to help augment funds that already existed... not sure exactly how much, but certainly less than $10K). We also had an angel willing to match whatever we raised from the campaign. These funds were to be used for food to feed the production, buying materials needed for building sets (the film was done on a stage in a blackbox theatre where we built the sets), and renting a Super PeeWee dolly and some specialty lenses needed for particular effects that would enhance the film. The majority of the team was not even getting paid.

The director has 13 feature films behind him (plus many shorts and many years of experience) and a pretty good following. You would think raising $5000 wouldn't be that difficult. Guess again. We did not reach the goal, though they set up the type of campaign that would allow them to retain whatever was raised (though the percentage going to Indiegogo was higher than if we met the goal).

I posted info wherever I could... being called a troll etc on many sights. I have a huge friend base on FB but don't believe I got a single donation from any of my friends. And this scenario played out for most of the team.

It surprised the hell out of me. Richard makes good films that are entertaining and win awards. Why wouldn't movie lovers support that?

I am not a believer in the crowdsourcing system. It certainly did not work the way we thought it would. In the end we got the film made. We did it for super low money. It will be good. We will not make any money on it but we will have enjoyed our filming process and will have made some art, which in the end is why we do it.

What could we have done better? Beats me.

If you'd like to see some frames from the film check it out here:

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=48137

It goes into edit in June and hopefully will premier in December.
 
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