financing What makes movie crowdfunding campaigns successful?

[m-wall]

Hi guys,

I’m currently working on a research project for my university. The goal is to find out what potential backers are looking for in movie crowdfunding campaigns and if the crowd responds to certain signals.

As a part of this, I'm doing an online experiment, in which every participant sees a couple of crowdfunding configurations and is asked which one they'd prefer. I'd love for you all to take part: http://www.dev.bwl.uni-muenchen.de/cgi-bin/ciwweb.pl?studyname=moviecf&ref=ekQkZ

But I’d also love to hear about your personal experiences and opinions on movie crowdfunding. Has anyone of you successfully financed their movie project like that? Has anyone tried and it didn't work out? What are you personally looking for in a campaign? Thanks, everyone!

 

[WalterB]

There is an older thread full of crowdfund experiences from 2012 to 2015:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=39742

Lots of insights on failed campaigns as well.

 

[Favedave]

Not necessarily, since the JOBS act got signed into law. Other countries have similar laws.
In fact, there's already a couple of movie crowdfunding campaigns which are taking advantage of equity crowdfunding, but it's still very much a niche. I wonder, why it's not more popular.

It worked for us! We raised over $1 million with Equity Crowdfunding to make our movie, which was released in December, 2018. Equity Crowdfunding raises an average of $270k, and Kickstarter mostly raises less than $10k. It's the future...

 

[Favedave]

The old saw is, "Crowdfunding is two words. If you don't already have the crowd, you ain't gonna get the funding." Strangers are not going to give you money to make your movie. You must build your audience before you get to the crowdfunding stage. (Very helpful, I know.)

-- Damian

Uh, we raised over $1 million from 893 strangers to make our movie with Equity Crowdfunding. We had no social media presence at all when we started.

 

[mlesemann]

It worked for us! We raised over $1 million with Equity Crowdfunding to make our movie, which was released in December, 2018.

For clarity, is this the movie that you're referring to?

I'll Be Next Door for Christmas

 

[Favedave]

For clarity, is this the movie that you're referring to?

I'll Be Next Door for Christmas

So sorry I didn't answer you sooner -- I didn't have notifications on correctly. Yes, that's the movie!