Kickstarter, Fundraising, and the Future of (truly) Independent Film

I came home Sunday afternoon to find, waiting patiently in my inbox, an email from Kickstarter.com:

Hi Nathaniel –

[your project] sounds great. Welcome to Kickstarter.

Let your community, your audience and your network know about your project. The lion’s share of your funding will come from them. Spread the word!

Rewards are just as important. Offer something of real value, and consider something more intangible, more about an experience. That will have an enormous impact. Three or four reasonably priced rewards is ideal (think of it as S, M, L, XL). Take a look around the site if you want some inspiration.

And finally, include a video. It’ll drive home that this is a real person doing this.

Good luck!

Whaaaa! This is what I had been waiting for!! I was elated for the remainder of the day. Instead of waiting around for an invite from a stranger, I decided to email the staff to see if I could get the ball rolling. I had spent all day on the Friday before building a website for the upcoming project, and had sent it off with my proposal to kickstarter at 2am.

Come Sunday afternoon, I was surprised how fast they responded. The excitement hasn’t worn off – but the sheer realization that the heavy lifting is now begining has officially pushed down on my shoulders. It’s just the beginning, and we haven’t even launched our project yet.

New Documentary Film Website - Screenshot

Kickstarter.com is an interesting model for independent filmmakers like myself who tire of competing for studio dollars or scrapping for a bad distribution contract. The key (I think anyway) to running a successful project is networking. This sounds obvious, but for me and our team, I think that it’s time to capitalize on our social networks (both on and offline) to make something we’re passionate about and make something we believe people will want to see. We also think they’ll enjoy it.

I’ll be keeping an active journal of our fundraising activities, both here and on the acutal film website. As I navigate the somewhat chartered waters of crowdsource fundraising, I hope to become something of an expert so to continue in my efforts to make interesting documentaries. Stay Tuned!!