Filmmaking, Fundraising

My recent crowdfunding campaign bombed, and I want to share with you why it didn’t work. 

For those of you who have done crowdfunding, you know it isn’t easy. Whether you’ve had a successful campaign or not, crowdfunding any project is a challenging mission. Turns out, it’s pretty tough to get people to part with their money!
(For reference, here is the campaign I did)

I have 3 big things I learned when doing my campaign, so I’ll get right into it.

Audience and Reach: getting your work out there

Ultimately, if you look at any successful campaign, chances are they had one of two things:

1. A pre-existing fanbase: They had either a fanbase built off of a brand (for example, a fan film or reboot of a pre-existing franchise) or they had their own brand, such as a long-standing, popular YouTube channel, to draw their supporters from – here’s the ultimate example.

2. Huge social net: The number of people they are connected to – their network – is far greater than an ordinary person’s and they know how to capitalize on it. Examples might include a person with a popular blog, large social media following, etc.

What I’m getting at is that expecting that your own network (even if a bit bigger than the average hombre, perhaps), is not realistic. You can’t expect that (unless the amount is under $2,000, I’d say) your film or project can be propped up by friends and family alone.

Not even considering that you have to convince (yes, even your friends and family) that your project is worth investing in, most people don’t have a ton of disposable income or cash laying around to throw your way.

Physical Perks: conceptual rewards aren’t very motivating

That sums it up in a nutshell: consider your own life. How hard is it to set a conceptual goal, put it out there in the void, and motivate or convince yourself to get up and achieve it? Not easy at all. Now imagine trying to make someone else do that… plus they have to give up some money for it.

Sheesh. Talk about a tough. But that’s basically what you are doing.

Apple doesn’t sell you an idea of how your life will be with their product – I mean, they do in a sort of abstract branding sense, but without the physical product, there wouldn’t be anyone throwing cash at them. People are paying for something they find amusing or has some utility. They pay for the physical device. That’s important to the selling process.

Of course, this problem is really only prevalent if you are making something such as a short film, where there’s not much to offer in regards to physical proceeds of the film (like there would be for tech or even something like a board game).

1. Offer quirky, unique, or fascinating physical rewards. It’s a pain because you do have to plan and budget time and money to ensure you can fulfill these rewards. But they are motivating. If people know they can get a shiny object (something that interests them) for their money, the stakes won’t be so high for them and they’ll be more likely to pledge.

2. Offer specific, unique services in exchange for pledges. This is still a tough sell because the offer is less concrete, but if you offer something that is very specific, that people are interested in (not vague like ‘Q & A’), it could just work.

Your Pitch: show the actual product

Based on our statistics, people did not view much of our pitch video, well put-together that it was. Despite the upbeat vibe, informational content, and so on, people just weren’t interested, weren’t engaged, and the promise too vague.

1. Get straight to it. You NEED to hook people in the first 10 seconds or so, and a ‘fun, energetic intro’ that isn’t specifically a demonstration of what you will be creating isn’t going to cut it. If people don’t know what the heck they are looking at… click. They will watch something else. Tell them exactly what you are making in the first few seconds.

2. Demonstrate the actual product. While it is important to show that you are a human being with skill and personality bringing the project to life and to give some additional info about the project (what it is, your plan), you should keep it short and sweet. I’d say no more than 30 seconds, honestly. You should primarily plant a vision of what your project will look like in their head. This is best done with a promo or trailer shot for the project (and so yes, this may take more effort). There are a couple of campaigns that did this well. Kung Fury (an internet sensation), and another more recent, Slice of Life, that had a wonderful trailer.

The Skinny: how to elevate your campaign

1. Your audience. It’s important that you have a plan for reaching and appealing to a wider audience than your circle, or even the circles of your friends.

2. Give ‘em the goods. Incentivize people with real, physical perks that they will actually care about. This is especially important for short films.

3. Show the real end-result. Show your potential supporters what they are really getting themselves into. A miscellaneous montage of cool stuff or you talking all about yourself, team, and the project isn’t going to cut it.

You never know unless you try.

When the rubber meets the road, you are better off to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all (to borrow from a similar saying). Crowdfunding is challenging and time-consuming, but you should always give your best effort. Putting theory to practice is how we learn… and you never know. You might just succeed.

Remember, the stories you tell, and how you tell them, matter. Now get out there and do great things!

As always, if you found this article useful or amusing in some way or another, or even hated it with a burning passion, please comment below and share with others. I will always make an effort to discuss the topic at hand and answer questions.