Crowdfunding

(Watch the series here)

“I’m talking a lot of people of color who’ve never made a pledge on Kickstarter so I really think that it’s a fallacy, it’s a misconception and it’s just plain out wrong with a capital “W” that because someone puts $5 on my film, someone who backs my film with $5… that was $5 that a young filmmaker was going to get and that logic does not follow through.” says Spike Lee.

Why Most Filmmakers Fail At Crowdfunding by Seed and Spark Founder/CEO Emily Best

Most Likely Reason Why People Fail At Crowdfunding by Stage32.com Founder/CEO Richard “RB” Botto
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(More here)
Why I Chose Indiegogo Over Kickstarter by James Franco

(More here)

The Only Reason I’m Crowdfunding PALO ALTO STORIES
by James Franco

(Watch the video interview here)

(Watch the video interview here)

‘Why We Chose Indiegogo Over Kickstarter’ by Michael LaPointe

‘Every Crowdfunding Campaign Has These 3 Jobs’ by
Rafal Zielinski & Gina Wendkos

“How we crowdfunded half a million dollars” by Nicolas Alcala of ‘The Cosmonaut’

The Revolutionary Benefit To Crowd-Funding That No One Knows by Distribber CEO Adam Chapnick

The best way for us to preface this conversation is to say that if you have or if you ever plan to crowd-fund in your life there are very few resources that are going to rank higher than this 50 minute discussion we had with Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina affectionately and professionally known as Joke and Biagio.

Filmmakers Joke Fincioen & Biagio Messina tell us how DocuWeeks answered their Oscar prayers, how despite their insanely busy schedules now was the time for them to crowd-fund, how they have exceeded their best distributor offers in their first 8 days on Kickstarter, and we all share tears as Joke and Biagio try to put into words what this all means for comedian Steve Mazan and his wife Denise Mazan who’s stories are showcased in DYING TO DO LETTERMAN.

(Watch the video here)

Filmmakers Joke Fincioen & Biagio Messina (MTV’s Caged, Dying To Do Letterman) tell us that a powerful pitch video begins with honesty and passion. They say if you care enough to put your blood, sweat and tears into making your project then you should care enough to tell people why. They advise against copying other campaign videos. They do advocate testimonials and social proof as a way to show that you are not the only one who cares about your project. Lastly they talk about the importance of knowing your audience.

Filmmakers Joke Fincioen & Biagio Messina (MTV’s Caged, Dying To Do Letterman) give us their take on what it really takes to create a powerful pitch video. They believe the work doesn’t begin with the pitch video, but rather in creating goodwill within your community first. In their case they began a blog two years prior, sharing as much useful information as they could. The point is to give a lot so that in your heart you know it is okay to ask. From there they suggest watching as many successful pitch videos as you can and studying them to see what works and why. Use that information to help you script an outline for your video. After you have shot your video they encourage you to get feedback and polish it over and over again. They believe your pitch video is a big deal and that it is your responsibility to make it the best it can be.

Author / Writer / Producer Marc Zicree talks about his Kickstarter strategy for SPACE COMMAND which reached it’s $75,000 goal in 3 days and is currently closing in on $170,000 with 14 days to go. He shares insights regarding the research he put in prior to his launch, building his team, the time he put into his pitch video, and how he decided the perks for the campaign.

Filmmaker / Web Series Creator Joe Wilson (VAMPIRE MOB) gives us his thoughts on marketing and promotion, how Twitter and Facebook have become part of his job, and his belief that when it comes to fundraising that Twitter is more powerful than Facebook.

We’ve been hearing some great things about the first documentary KEVIN from filmmaker Jay Duplass about musician Kevin Gant. Also grabbing our attention was the fact that Jay has decided to use Kickstarter, not for himself but to help launch a comeback tour for Kevin on the film festival circuit.

Jay was kind enough to sit down with us and tell us about why he had to make this film along with his experience in crowd-funding.

‘Where Kickstarter Excels And Where It Fails’ by Brian Jun

‘How Blogging Can Lead to Crowdfunding Success’ by TINY: A STORY ABOUT LIVING SMALL filmmakers, Merete Mueller & Christopher Smith

(Watch the video here)

Filmmakers / Actors Etta Devine and Gabriel Diani (The Selling) agree that most people think crowdfunding is going to be easy. That by simply launching your campaign, backers from all over the world are going to pour in. They tell us crowdfunding is a full-time job. They reveal the majority of their pledges have come through Facebook and how they are using the new Kickstarter dashboard to track where their backers are coming from. They believe in the legitimacy of having outside sources validating their efforts, such as blogs, websites, and influential people. At the end they tell us some things that have not worked in attracting new backers.

(Watch the video here)

(Watch the video here)

IndieGogo’s Adam Chapnick encourage you to join him in supporting our IndieGogo campaign for the release of our movie Goodbye Promise.

In the midst of our conversation with IndieGogo’s Adam Chapnick about the release of our film Goodbye Promise on the IndieGogo platform, Adam decides he is going to be the one to help propel our campaign over the $1000 milestone.

Big time discussion here with one of the filmmakers we respect the most. He talks about bit torrenting his first feature PERSON OF INTEREST, getting over 100,000 hits and how that led to 500,000 views on YouTube. He also talks candidly about releasing his second feature JENS PULVER | DRIVEN with Gravitas and reveals that he now receives checks every quarter (which is so great to hear).

Founder of No Film School and Filmmaker Ryan B. Koo is the first person to talk publicly about the online release of our film Goodbye Promise.

We didn’t stop there. We arranged another conversation with a man who knows all about Infinite Distribution, Ross Pruden who was actually one day away from launching his own Kickstarter for Dimeword. Here is our conversation, “The Power of the $1.00 Backer”

Our campaign launch featured on NoFilmSchool.com, “David Branin & Karen Worden from Film Courage Release Feature ‘Goodbye Promise’ for $1 on IndieGogo”
Filmmaker David Paul Baker blogs about our release and we quote his kind words here, “Believe me, I know there is a lot of campaigns out there, and I don’t push for everybody because it’s just not possible. But these people deserve some attention and support because they have given so much back. If you’re a filmmaker, I know we are all looking for money for our own projects. Believe me, I know! I’m a tight Scottish bastard! Besides that, I also run on fumes and make movies with like $100!

However, if you have listened to the case studies on David & Karen’s show, I think we should ALL give something back because of that great content alone. They have made it very easy for us all because they are accepting $1-$2 contributions for watching their film. A film that will speak to a lot of people in the creative industries.”

(Watch the video interview on Crawl Bitch Crawl, crowdfunding and more)

Filmmaker David Paul Baker on crowdfunding preferences and advice for Goodbye Promise, his films Mission X and Screen, the Internet then and now, and more.

Filmmaker Lucas McNelly invites us to talk crowdfunding, Goodbye Promise and Jack Marchetti’s 4 Of A Kind Kickstarter Campaign on his new webshow Clouded Lens. Here is the description in Lucas’ words, “In episode 2, I talk to David & Karen about their innovative release for GOODBYE PROMISE, the upcoming final days of 4 OF A KIND, and why I shouldn’t be trusted to cook anything.”

Nicole Alonso and Oklahoma Ward are two Oklahoma based filmmakers that know all about sacrifice and hard work. They have as much passion for filmmaking as any two people that we know. We had heard that they are currently waiting on Film Festivals in order to release their film Crawl Bitch Crawl. It has been a long wait for them as they have decided not to release their first film The Isolation of Subject #136 until after they release Crawl Bitch Crawl. Considering we had decided to bypass film festivals and go direct to our audience and the overall respect we have for them, we wanted to hear more of their story.

In the midst of our conversation with IndieGogo‘s Adam Chapnick about the release of our film Goodbye Promise on the IndieGogo platform, Adam decides he is going to be the one to help propel our campaign over the $1000 milestone.

(Watch the video interview here)

In our full conversation with IndieGogo’s Adam Chapnick he proclaims our campaign brilliant and the first time he has seen anyone distribute their film directly on a crowdfunding platform.

Another highlight of this day was our conversation with John Yost of Filmmaker Magazine, 3 hours after he relaunched his Kickstarter for White Creek. He cancelled his $28,000 Kickstarter, which was more than 10% funded, in order to relaunch the same campaign with a $8500 goal. He tells us why he made this decision along with discussing our IndieGogo campaign for Goodbye Promise and his thoughts on Jack Marchetti’s “4 Of A Kind.”

Filmmaker/Comic Writer/Author James Cooper tells us about his filmmaking journey, writing/marketing his book (Kickstarter for Filmmakers), and thoughts on our Indiegogo online release for Goodbye Promise.

(Watch the video)

‘How to create a theatrical tour for your movie’ by Mike Dion of Reveal the Path/Ride the Divide