About a month ago several members of my cast and crew lobbied for me to create a kickstarter campaign to help with our first feature. Having been through one horrific crowd funding experience I was very reluctant to embark upon another. After many days of them telling me their huge networks of friends and followers throwing money, I finally relented.
One month later with about a week left on a failing campaign, I can tell you that I will not ever do this again. Why? I had no help at all. I have raised $495 of the $1500 we needed through my own begging and pleading. The people who promised to help did absolutely nothing. They haven't even pledged a dollar of their own money even after vowing to help get it rolling (two actors excluded).
My DP, who was very vocal about us needing money and him being willing to do ANYTHING to to make this KS project and the movie a success, told me he will not ask people he knows; it is beneath him. The actress that was most vocal about getting it started has vanished (She still answers listings for casting calls). The rest of the crowd funding instigators have suddenly become busy.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that people are not obligated to do anything, but when you make vows to help complete a project and just disappear or you goad someone into doing something and just pull all support, that is a character issue.
I know that a big part of it is my fault. I allowed myself to be moved by false conviction. I took these people at face value, and now after a month of me shaking every tree I can find I am alone on a sinking ship with the same actors and crew wondering "If he can't even raise $1500 how is he going to complete a movie?"
Once again, I get it, but I am the one writing, producing, directing, editing, and marketing this project. Each of them (CREW) have declined to help do anything more than show up. They are more than willing to spend my money, eat my food, and pimp the finished product to make themselves feel special, but no one is wanting to do the hard work it takes to actually make something special.
That is the biggest issue. I am not a rich man. In a place where no one is getting paid, I have been paying these people out of pocket. They know that. They also know how hard I am working each day to make sure that everything goes according to plan, and we are always on schedule.
Hard as I try, I can not do everything. I am just one man. While I can not afford the crew I need on my current salary, I am wondering if I would be better off firing these people and finding a more competent crew.
First I totally understand how you FEEL.
I'm guessing that this is your baby, your passion project, and if it was anything like my experience, at times you can feel utterly alone because your commitment level to this is magnitudes more than anyone else on your team. And that feeling of being overwhelmed with no one to go to, making it feel like everyone around you is cold, uncaring, etc. And some of that may be true.
However, if I can provide you some advice based on my own experience (recently finished directing a feature), I think the biggest problem isn't with your crew (you may very well have to let go of some of them, but that's a separate issue, as is this Kickstarter thing).
The biggest problem is with your crew or Kickstarter. It's this:
Once again, I get it, but I am the one writing, producing, directing, editing, and marketing this project.
Hard as I try, I can not do everything. I am just one man.
You have a crew. You have a cast(?). But you have no dedicated production team. You need at least one other person who is solely a producer, and maybe two or three people on the producer side even for a tiny budget.
Study the credit lists of some of your ultra low budget indie films that found some success - you will find that they have a bigger team than you may realize.
When I see that you're going to be the writer, director, editor, AND on top of that producing and marketing - that's a huge concern. You said it yourself - you cannot do everything.
But you shouldn't be looking to your crew to double as producers. They voiced a strong opinion, they have even offered to help, but they are crew.
Simply put, you need a bigger team to get this off the ground. It's not your crew, it's not Kickstarter. It's that you're solo in too many departments.
At the minimum, get someone who can focus solely on producing and marketing. From there, you can then (along with your producer) decide what to do with your crew. Your crew may very well jump on the bandwagon to help out - but ONLY if they see that you have some momentum going, and you can't get that momentum going without enlisting dedicated producers.
And yes, a good producer is one of the most elusive and hardest people to find. But when I see you taking on so many roles, it's a HUGE red flag about the quality of the final product (even before a single frame has been shot) - and I'm willing to hazard a guess that your crew and cast probably picked up on that. Ideally find two people to work in production: a producer, and a production coordinator/assistant.
And creatively, I would suggest you bring in another editor, even if you see yourself as an editing guru (I really hope that "editing" doesn't also mean you'll do color grading, sound mix, DCP, etc yourself).
