Life is a series of moments strung together over time. A scientist might call these moments a “cognitive event.” I call them stories. We compress thousands of stories/moments/events into a meta narrative that defines who we are. The most meaningful, memorable moments are packaged into self-contained stories that give shape to our personal story arc and mark plot points along life’s journey. We use these moments, these stories, as a way to understand and make sense of world around us. These moments are powerful because they deliver all at once “information, knowledge, context and emotion.” (Norman, Don Things that Make us Smart)

Cognitive scientist Roger Schank observed that “Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.”

Ursula Le Guin, one of my favorite science fiction authors, once noted that “The Story – from Rumpelstiltskin to War and Peace – is one of the basic tools invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”

In the ICS program, I spent most of my time trying to figure out the academic world around me. It was overwhelming, to the point where I would cry myself to sleep feeling it was utterly impossible to succeed in the program. I wasn’t the smartest student in the program. I wasn’t the best writer, I’m terrible at debate and new concepts take me 3 times as long to wrap my head around than my colleagues. It was frustrating.

Let me share with you a moment from my time in that program, 10 years ago:

While wrestling with some difficult cultural concepts and new vocabulary, I admitted defeat and swallowed my pride as I asked some of my colleagues meant. To my surprise, and delight, they had never heard the word either. “say it again…” my sister in law called out. I repeated the word: paradigm. “Huh?” Spell it, another said. P-A-R-A-D-I-G-M, Paradigm, I said. The room erupted in laughter, and then sympathy for my plight. “It’s pronounced paradigm,” my sister in law said with a smirk, “and it represents a way to look at something – A paradigm shift is a change in the way you see that same thing.”

It was a powerful learning moment for me, as I had just experienced the cultural concept I was struggling to understand. This was a minor plot point in my life’s evolving narrative.

Eventually, I got a handle on cultural theory, and began to see the world with new eyes. The theory I gravitated to early on was Arnold van Gennep and later Victor Turner’s theory of Liminality. Liminal, means threshold, literally: you’re not in the building, but you’re also not outside. You’re in between. I became obsessed with life’s in-between moments.

Turner and others noted that especially profound moments occurred during rites of passage, where young people shed the innocence of youth as they transition to adult-hood and during that time are instructed by their elders. That time represents a time out of time, an axis mundi or center of the universe where the initiate is endowed with knowledge about their place in the univers is unfolded befre them.

A second moment:
I was in South Africa recently, filming a global oral history project, and one of the people we interviewed lived in a township on the outskirts of Port Elizabeth. As we approached the community, which stretches for miles up the sloping hillside, I noticed in the dense vegetation opposite the freeway, a number of fires burning with smoke coming up through the trees. “Do people live there?” I asked? “Yes, in fact those fires are camps where the Xhosa elders officiate circumcision ceremonies for young men from the township. They live in special huts for several weeks, shave their heads, are covered in white clay, and wear nothing but a loin cloth.” Is there something similar for the girls? I asked? “There is. During a girl’s first menstrual cycle they are taken into seclusion, and undergo a metaphorical “circumcision” as prepare for womanhood among their community.”

This was the first time I had come face to face with an indigenous rite of passage in an urban setting. I wasn’t reading about it, I was driving by it! My years of filmmaking were useless to me in this moment. They didn’t help me process what I was being told. On the other hand, my ICS training allowed me to synthisize this information and relay the knowledge to the rest of my production team, who sat there slack jawed and baffled as to why any 18 year old would trot out into the woods to voluntarily submit himself to circumcision. I was helping my team with their own paradigm shift, and enjoyed watching their collective “ah-ha” moment as I explained the significance rites of passage play in our own lives.

At this point you’re probably wondering what on earth circumcision and menstrual cycles have to do with my life as a filmmaker and producer. I’ll get to that in a second. Honest.

But what about college? Is this not a time out of time? A threshold between worlds? Could it qualify as a rite of passage? Is it the time when we come of age? I believe it does, and is, and for a western audience, I can’t find a closer parallel to a traditional rite of passage. We leave home, enter the wilderness of the world, and subject ourselves to be circumcised of heart and mind. But there is a disconnect.

Despite the parallels and the potent ritual nature of the college experience, we are greatly distanced from our elders throughout the process. Yes, we have mentors, our teachers and ecclesiastical leaders, but we are out of touch with elderly wisdom. Elders are not a part of the community experience for youth today. Without elders to help contextualize the human experience, I believe we have no hope of confidently progressing through life with an enriched world view.

Now, as an artist, I feel an obligation to make original contributions to the body of human knowledge with my work. In 2010, I asked myself a creative question: Could I take a series of short films, or moments, and string them together to create a meaningful meta narrative about life’s purpose? Could I do it in a way that provided the viewer the opportunity to step out of time, in that liminal viewing space, to experience their own cinematic rite of passage as we watched the film? The only way I felt I could do this was if the driving voice in the film was that of elders in communities all around the United States. And that’s what I set out to do.

A third, series of moments:
In April 2010, I decided I needed to raise $30k to make this project a reality. I turned to kickstarter.com which is a crowdfunding website, and created a pitch for the project which I was calling The Elders. I spoke plainly and directly to the camera, making a plea for the idea and encouraging any who watched to make a contribution to the film.

My goal at this point was $11k and I had faith that I would somehow raise the difference. In 21 days, I raised $12,500 and at the end of the fundraise, I received a phone call from a celebrity who had been following the project online. She and her business partner asked if they could be involved in the project, and what I needed. I told them I was $24k short of actually being able to make the project I envisioned, and 15 days and a contract later, I had a total of $36,500 in my account to produce The Elders.

I hit the road on July 4th, and over 60 days traveled all over the United states, racking up 13,000 miles on the rental car, and interviewing 23 incredible people from all walks of life. A 4 star general in California, a miner/gravedigger in West Virginia, A cowboy poet and rancher in Elko, Nevada, an Ohio woman who spent years in Japanese internment camps in California and Arkansas, a Native American veteran, from Oregon, a broadway actor and singer from Brooklyn, and the list goes on and on.

I began to edit the film in my mind while driving between locations. For 45 of those 60 days on the road, I was alone and was playing the role of producer, director, cinematographer, counselor, grandson, friend, to each person I spent the day with. The pace was grueling, and the days were long, but this project, I recognize now, was my rite of passage to understanding what it means to really come of age, to grow old and reflect on life as we near the threshold that awaits us in the hereafter.

When I returned home I began to sort through the 128 hours of footage I had collected, overwhelmed by the challenge that lie ahead to construct an hour long film out of this oral history mess. I spent months editing the film and felt, on many occasions stuck, unable to move forward, and extremely frustrated with where the project was headed. Maybe I’m overly emotional, but this project had me on my knees in tears more than once, pleading for some help and direction.

Direction came in the form of creative ideas not entirely my own, seeds planted by some spiritual source, as the dews of heaven distilling upon my mind, one might say. I walked away from the edit for 6 weeks, to clear my head and gain perspective. When I felt impressed to pick it back up again, in January of this year, I finished the edit in 10 days.

Exactly 1 year from the time I conceived of the idea, I sat in a packed theater in Boston, nervously watching the screen in front of me, my intangible idea for a film about a series of life moments now a tangible reality flickering away at 24 frames per second in front of a live audience. There’s nothing more grounding than inviting a bunch of friends and strangers into a room for the night to critique a year’s worth of creative output. To say that it’s humbling is an understatement.

The lively Q&A lasted well over an hour and reception to the film was extremely positive. People laughed, they cried, they reflected and they pondered. They were responding to my idea exactly as I had hoped, and in ways I had never imagined.

The viewing of your own creative idea fully realized is cathartic, and emotional. Later that same evening, after the viewing, I felt I had finally crossed the threshold of my own creative liminal space. I was satisfied with what I had created in that threshold, but quickly realized there will be many more to follow as I get this film out to market and move on to my next creative endeavour.

What is your story?
I’ve shared with you moments from my narrative, stories that drive me, and help me communicate my world experience with others. But what of your own stories? Are you working to understand your role as the hero in your own mythology? Are you connecting with the characters that have been placed on your life’s path?

And this would be my challenge to you, friends. What are you doing to craft your own story? What moments in life will define you? As you enter the world that awaits you after graduation, one where “job security” is an oxymoron, you will be one of many with a piece of paper in hand hoping to land that interview, hoping to get that job, that promotion, that raise. But what are you doing right now, during this liminal phase of your life – this right of passage – that will set you apart from the crowd?

I would implore you to begin to craft your own narrative, and your ability to be able to tell it. Write it down. Perform it. Live it. Learn to recognize the power of storytelling in the world around you. You’ll soon find that it’s ubiquitous, and requires critical, analytical, and creative thinking skills to tease out context and determine true meaning. Use your time here to ground yourself in the vocabulary of story and develop that skill set, for in a world where information is free, cheap, and easy to come by, the human family is in desperate need of individuals who can make meaning out of endless facts. Who can solve problems from a unique vantage point, who can create narrative and tell stories that shape lives and provide perspective to life’s challenges. Individuals who can contribute meaningfully to society, beyond pithy 140 character tweets and endless streams of status updates, is what the world needs now.

These skills have provided me with a steady flow of work over the years. Clients and creative partners are drawn to my way of seeing the world, and it didn’t come in graduate school. I began adding these tools to my belt while reading Clifford Gertz’ seminal essay on the Balinese Cock Fight in McArthur’s Anthro. theory class. I learned about the power of personal narratives not as an MFA graduate student, but in a performance studies class and from years of direction on this very stage as an actor by Dr. Craig Ferre. I learned the impact world cinema has as a tool for transporting western audiences to another way of seeing thanks to a post-colonial cinema course taught by Dr. Yifen Beus. I learned the way art and performance can change public opinion and shape government policy not in a book, but while conducting ethnography in New Caledonia for my ICS senior seminar paper.

I don’t mean to say that my professional experiences and my time as a graduate student weren’t meaningful – they absolutely were. But my time on this campus, despite pushing me to the point of nearly breaking, provided me with a sure foundation that the rest of my life would be built upon.

These moments in life define us, but we can shape the way we are defined by others. As you discover the power of your own life’s narrative, as you learn to tell your own story with passion, you will find opportunity comes knocking, you will stand out from the crowd, and work will seek you out.

One last moment:
One of my now good friends, Louise, is a 94 year old twice widowed house wife turned published novelist. She’s featured prominently in the film, as I use her narrative to provide context to the other isolated portraits that make up the film’s 79 minutes.

Near the end of my interview with her, she asked if she could read some of her latest book to me. “Of course,” I said, “I would love that.” I sat mesmerized as she read a few pages from the introduction to her latest book. “Everybody and everything has a source. We all have a history of some kind. Everybody not only has a story, everybody is a story. You are creating your own story every day of your life, just by living.” In that moment, as she read, I smiled inside, knowing as a filmmaker the gift she had just bestowed upon me, as an ICS grad the magnitude of her statement, and as a human being, the true role narrative and story play in shaping the way we think and live our lives.

We filmed and edited this piece over the last two weeks for Leman Manhattan Preparatory school in NYC. Very cool school, and we were thrilled to take on the challenge of “telling their story” to a broader audience of prospective parents and students.

We filmed on location, in the school’s art room, on the 22nd floor, overlooking Ellis Island.

This was shot on 3 Canon 5D cameras with Carl Zeiss CP.2 lenses, and the Kessler Cineslider. On sticks we had the 85 prime and the 35 prime, at f4, and on the kessler cineslider we opted for the Canon 70-200 f2.8 IS. The IS makes a HUGE difference when trying to get smooth shots. It’s tough work for the operator running on the slider though, as they’re working the entire time!

Color correction was a snap, as we used the cinestyle technicolor setting on all three cameras, and simply had to boost saturation and lower the blacks in post.

The CP.2 lenses were a JOY to work with, and I’d rent them again in a heartbeat.

Special thanks to lensrentals.com for an affordable service, and to my crew: Shaun Clarke (DP), Matthew Hashiguchi, Ian Wexler, Lee Strauss and Kristal Williams.

They showed a short segment from the film along with 11 other projects that were successfully funded during 2010. What’s so amazing about this for me is that the quality of the other projects that were up there AND the shear volume of succesfully funded projects that were passed over. Something like 3000 film/video projects were funded last year – which makes it even more of an honor for my project to have stood out. Thanks Kickstarter – I only wish I could have been there.

7 Things to Consider BEFORE you Launch your Kickstarter Project

I get A LOT of requests to help with kickstarter campaigns. Through trial and error on over a dozen kickstarter projects, hours of lectures at Emerson College, and countless meet ups, phone calls and emails with artists and innovators, I’ve refined a “best practices” list that I share when I decide to get involved with a project. I’ve been fortunate to run my own successful campaigns, but also have helped out on over a dozen innovative artistic endeavors all of which have been successful in some way. What you’ll read here, and hopefully in the future, is what I’ve found to work (to the tune of almost $350k and counting). But at the end of the day, two things are really all that’s required: a good idea and A LOT OF HARD WORK. Ok, maybe three – a decent network that supports what you do.

Disclaimer:
This list is not definitive. In fact, it barely scratches the surface, but it’s a start. I don’t claim to be an expert. The word guru makes me throw up in my mouth a little and every project is different and strategy and tweaking are critical depending on audience, budget, content, fanbase, etc. These sections are just a snippet to get you rolling – I could talk for an hour on each – but who’d listen

1. Story: What’s your story? Craft and tell the story of your story.

Story is everything. Let me back up. Your story is everything. People aren’t so much getting behind the idea as they are getting behind your passion to produce it – be it a book, film, album, live event, business, it makes no difference. I’ve been lucky enough (or dumb enough?) to have smart people with means give me money for various projects over the years. I used to think it was all based on the merits of my “great” ideas – but what these folks quickly chastened was that they were investing in me, my spirit and passion, and my drive to make something happen. Of course they were investing in the project, but they’re won over by YOU! In my experience, and my opinion, this is the very heart and soul of an effective kickstarter campaign (or any crowdfunding campaign). It HAS to have heart. Kickstarter isn’t a place people come to make an investment expecting a financial return. They come to engage with other interesting people and to help along artistic projects they believe add value to the world in which we live. I’ll stop there for now (I have an hour long lecture about the role story plays in our lives), but for the record: Story is everything.

So, what does that mean? Well, you must first write a treatment for your project and develop a strong pitch. The treatment is an overview of what you’re trying to do. Feature Film treatments that get shopped around Hollywood might be 60 pages long and include scenes, storyboards, budget figures, and a distribution strategy. Does your pitch need to be this complex? That depends on your personality and what you’re trying to accomplish, but you cannot proceed with your project successfully until you’ve gone through the process of developing your pitch through a treatment. The treatment essentially becomes the “written” portion of your project from which you can cannibalize to write everything down the road.

This also leads into one of the most important visual components of your story, in that you ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE A PITCH VIDEO (and a trailer of your film doesn’t count). The pitch video is your chance to “sell” yourself and your ability to produce what you’re pitching. Does it have to be slick? No, but it shouldn’t be painful to watch either. I really believe that a direct to camera approach is the most effective. Put a bit of your previous work in there, or a clip of your trailer, and sit down and talk to the camera. It works, and it’s your chance to get people to catch the vision and spread the word.

a. The pitch video should be compelling, honest, humble, and decently produced. It can also be funny, clever, and tongue in cheek, just don’t be arrogant. Be you, but remember a little humility goes a long way, and, you NEED as much support as possible so try your best to make it “shareable.” As an aside, I’ve seen some projects that I was willing to back but not willing to share the video as it was so poorly put together (it’s almost a reflection of your ability to deliver). Imagine sauntering in to a hard-to-get investor pitch meeting 20 minutes late, without apology, totally disheveled (not as a style choice), and with an air of expecting them to give you money. That’s what a shoddy pitch video reminds me of. Harsh, but it sends a message that you don’t really care.

b. Ideally the pitch should be direct to camera combined with some trailer/footage/images

c. Keep it brief – attention spans are waning these days! I’d try and keep them under 5 minutes. Here’s one of mine, and some others that I like (embedding them wasn’t working consistently – these are direct links to the videos on kickstarter.com):

The Elders

The Price

Freaker

The Last Cause

2. Fans: We all have them.

We really do. You might not think you do, but you have teachers, colleagues, relatives, co-workers and other associates that actually do care about what you’re up to. This step takes some time and thought (and some research!), so plan for it, but start to assemble a list of these people in excel or google docs. I should clarify: I’m not talking about facebook friends here, I’m talking people that are actually looking forward to your holiday greeting card, or news from you that you were promoted at work etc. We’ll talk about facebook later.

This list should include the names and emails of those in your circle that care about you. These are people that would buy your bestselling book, or a ticket to see you perform at symphony hall, or come to your funeral. Make sense? If you are young (right out of highschool/college), this list might be mostly your parents network and that’s ok because guess what? The AVERAGE donor age is a ripe old 42. Zing!

List building is like brainstorming and you can make many associations based off one name that leads to others. Again, plan for this as it will take some time (but it’s worth it!).

a. Compile an exhaustive professional/personal/family/friends email contact list

b. Edit this list and maybe ask for some objective help (mom/dad/partner) to weed out people that might be annoyed or are put off by these things. When I compiled my first list, I had over 500 names and emails. I cut out 20 or so just based on what I know about those people and how they would respond. Relationships are everything, so take care of them.

c. Plan to email this list a total of 4 times during the ENTIRE fundraise (we’ll get to this in a bit).

3. Evangelists: We all know some.

You’ve likely met someone, or are friends with someone, who is especially talented at sharing the latest thing. To evangelize is the act of converting someone to a cause, traditionally through “preaching.” In the case of social media – we’re all evangelists to some degree. We craft pithy status updates and 140-character tweets that annotate our lives for those that “follow” us, and we appreciate the RT’s and “Liking” that goes on in support of our micro cause. For a successful kickstarter (or any crowdfunding campaign) to really catch fire, you need a handful of committed evangelists.

Take that list you compiled in step 2, and identify several people in your professional network who could aggressively promote and evangelize your project. What you’re attempting to do in this step is identify a few evangelist types that have a circle of influence outside your own, ideally to a group that you’d have no hope of reaching otherwise. Your networks should be quite different. They won’t be of much help if you have too much overlap or identical professional/social networks. For example, assume you find a willing evangelist that has a nearly identical network (family, school, and work) as you do. This type of project promotion will have little chance of going viral because of the overlap – and you run the risk of alienating and annoying friends and family besieged by different people about the same project. They can certainly help promote the project, but they wouldn’t make an ideal crowdfunding evangelist.

The key here is to think carefully about those individuals who can help reach out to those beyond your own network. When I was helping Christopher Salmon raise funds for The Price, we knew we wouldn’t raise $150k or anywhere near that on Christopher’s network alone. Before we launched we reached out to Neil Gaiman through his assistant and they graciously agreed to help spread the word. We weren’t sure exactly what that meant, but because Christopher had spent nearly 5 years nurturing that relationship through occasional correspondence, we knew it was genuine and, well, Neil is a consummate gentleman with an enormous aortic pump.

We reached out to others like Jim Lee, Amanda Palmer, Zoe Keating, and writers at Io9, Wired, Aint it Cool, etc, in order to maximize our reach via social media. Without their help by reaching out to their expansive networks, we would have never raised the funds for Christopher’s project.

This is a dramatic, celebrity-packed example, but the template applies for even the smallest fundraise. It’s also a testament to how important it is to 1) never burn a bridge and 2) do everything you can to nurture and feed your diverse network of relationships.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t “pull the weeds in your relationship garden” from time to time, but do what you can to keep your relationships fresh and up to date.

Find those individuals who are wiling to get on board your project but who don’t have the same friends and relatives as you.

4. Write: And write…and write…and write.

If you don’t like writing, you’d better start. Start liking it or walk away while you still can! If you’re uncomfortable reaching out to friends, family and strangers about your project and about asking them for their financial and social media support, then crowdfunding isn’t for you.

Actually, what this becomes is a great litmus test for how committed you are to your project. You may feel reservations about reaching out regarding your needs – but your passion for completing your work will overcome any intimidation to network.

There are several things you need to write. For starters, you need to reach out to a few groups of people, particularly the two groups I mentioned above: Fans and Evangelists.

a. Draft an “I need your help” email for fans that outlines the project
Here you outline the project and what you’re trying to do. You need to educate your fan base on kickstarter and social media and crowdfunding. They’re not dumb, but don’t expect them to have any idea what you’re talking about and be careful with the vernacular. If you use a buzzword – define it. Be gracious, be humble, and remember you’re nothing without an audience and this email IS your only audience for now.

Also tell them that you’ll be contacting them with updates during the project and that you would be happy to remove anyone from the list. Also BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) your list. It makes the “ask” more personal and keeps people from jamming inboxes with “reply all” responses.

b. Draft another email for Evangelists
This is a version of the above email, but also outlines how you think they could help (via blogs, twitter, email, etc). Take the email you just wrote. Copy it, and paste it into a new email for Evangelists. Double check that your evangelists aren’t on your fan email list – you don’t want to email them the same email twice – it’ll make you look unorganized.

c. Draft your press release
Yes, you need to have a press release for your project no matter how small. Getting your project out beyond your network is critical to getting it funded and to generating buzz about what you’re doing. Remember, you’re building a fan-base through crowdfunding and the more people you can attract the better.

Media outlets, publications and news sites NEED content. A good press release is a way to provide these places with content that they can then redistribute. You want to make it easy to read (8th grade level) and it should contain quotes from those involved. It’s written like a news story and in the third person. There are a lot of examples of press releases online. I’ll attach two examples here:

Nathaniel Hansen Kickstarter Press Release: The Elders
Nathaniel Hansen Kickstarter Press Release: The Price

In the next section we’ll discuss where to send the press release, but you should have already spent some time crafting your project narrative during the pitch/treatment phase. You’ll come back to it again, and again throughout the project.

d. Blog> tweet >(bleet?)> facebook. Rinse and repeat.
If you don’t have social media accounts in place already, get on it. You also should make sure you have a place to distribute and disseminate information about your project. Set up a facebook page, a twitter account (or do it through your personal account), and a blog/website for the project. This helps show fans you’re serious, and gives you a place to archive everything that happens during your fundraise. Think of it as a transmedia diary, where your project narrative has multiple entry points: link on facebook, a retweet, a published article, etc.

I promise this works, but this becomes the ongoing challenge for most crowdfunders as it takes SO MUCH TIME. One project I consulted on (10,000 Trees by Sarah Ginsburg & Sarah Berkovich) did this expertly. They set up a site on wordpress and started funneling people to kickstarter but also documented what was happening on their site for people to learn more. They took their press release and blasted it out – and it was picked up on blogs nationwide including the prestigious Sundance blog.

As this is a Pre-Launch article, I’ll merely state that at this point your job is to “get the barn up” so to speak, and you’ll start filling it soon enough. Also: DON’T SEND ANYTHING OUT UNTIL YOU’VE LAUNCHED YOUR KICKSTARTER PROJECT!

5. Research: It’s mission critical, and ongoing

Hopefully if you’re thinking of crowdfunding, you’re pretty internet savvy. Why? Well, one of the most critical and never-ending components to crowdfunding is research, as you’re constantly needing people and places to distribute information about your work. You’ll encounter a lot of rejection, and a lot of “no thanks.” But don’t let that get you down. Use research as a time to explore where and to whom your press release can be sent and where your story/blog/tweets can be shared. I have a zillion ideas for this section, but here are a few:

a. Identify active bloggers and twitter-ers, facebookers, who can help spread the word (should be germane to your project topic)

b. Identify where the press release could be sent, and to whom at that magazine, blog, program (Wired, NPR, university radio, etc).

c. Create list of minor celebs using social media who might take an interest in the project

d. Draft email/tweet with link to the project, asking for help

e. Identify all possible forums, blogs, and news site to send press release to and could post in comments – or get people to post blogs about

f. Think local and home grown. Identify places who care about you who might release the news (high school paper, college/university alma mater, town newspapers, you get the idea).

You should be doing this every day before and during the launch with the goal of attracting as many potential readers/fans as possible. It’s exhausting, but so rewarding when a link pays off. I remember how giddy I was when my first press release for The Elders was picked up over on DVinfo.net – a filmmaker’s news site and forum I’ve been frequenting for years. It was blasted out to dozens of sites, picked up by a handful, and eventually noticed by a NGO that came on board to match what I had raised on kickstarter. Can you imagine if I had not sent out a press release?

Similarly, I’ll never forget when the press release I wrote for The Price was picked up by Gawker’s io9, then by Wired magazine and a thousand sites in between. You can imagine how giddy we were when Christopher’s interview and parts of that carefully crafted narrative were ultimately featured on CNN.



As fun as the ride was with The Price, I’m grateful I wasn’t the face of that project. Christopher had the arduous task of implementing many of these more mundane tasks to ensure it was personal. Emails, giving interviews, blogging, writing articles, etc. If you have a large project with potential to go internationally viral, be sure you have a support structure in place to help you with the very hard work you’ll have ahead.

6. Reward: It’s better to give than to receive.

A lot has been said about rewards, and I’ll echo some of those things here. Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites are set up to provide a small reward in return for someone’s financial pledge. Figuring out what rewards you should give for your project will take some time so plan for it. Browse the site and see what other successful projects have done, especially projects that are like yours.

Generally speaking:
a. Rewards should be easy and affordable to deliver. On average, rewards will cost you 5-7% to deliver (production, time, postage, etc) – try not to have any rewards that will require intense “production” under the $25 range, and I try not to put anything in the mail for rewards under $50. Not a hard and fast rule, but a good guide.

b. Get Creative! T-shirts and stickers are cheap, digital downloads are appreciated and EASY, postcards from location or a phone call to bigger donors is fun, etc.

c. Have a strategy to get out of “the trough” (the inevitable slump/flatline in your project’s fundraising timeline). But be careful about postage and production costs. You could launch a new reward, or have a giveaway or an auction. It doesn’t matter and the only limit is your imagination, but be sure to have something to jumpstart the project when it flatlines.

d. $25, $50 and $100 are statistically the biggest sellers but under $10 will help it go viral and provides a way for anyone (read ‘starving student’) to get involved. I generally think less is more on the rewards, but there are differing opinions. Get creative, and try and offer something valuable at each price point.

7. Schedule: The first marathon runner died once he had delivered his message

Everyone, without exception, underestimates how much work goes in to running a successful campaign. On average, during my campaign for The Elders (in which I raised $12,519 and then got a match from a non profit that was following the project online), I spent on average 4 hours a day curating the campaign. On The Price, with Christopher Salmon, I was spending 3-4 hours a day easily, as was Christopher, strategizing and tweaking the campaign as things panned out day to day. Every day feels like a month, especially when the stakes are high or you are impassioned about your work.

I really believe that projects should be less than 35 days. Longer might kill you – figuratively speaking of course. But you’ll feel completely worked over at the end of a campaign no matter how much you try and raise. Having just stated that 35 days or less should be the rule, there is a caveat, which is to say that this time-table is contingent on what kind of project you have. Do you have an artistic project and you just need to get cash in hand to get going? 30-35 days. Conversely, if you have product that you hope to sell (Tik/Tok, etc) or want to use kickstarter as a short term store front, then opt for a longer time frame (90 days) to maximize (pre) sales.

In conclusion

To reiterate, this is just a jumping off point. There is MUCH more that could be said about each of these points, and there’s no one size fits all answer to crowdfunding. I can tell you confidently that this list will ensure your project is built on a solid foundation, set up for success. I have a list of 10 tips for Post Launch that I’m not sure what I’ll do with just yet – but they’re equally important to ensuring your project accomplishes your goals and helps you maintain sanity.

Two parting tips:
a. Launch and THEN send out press releases and emails – NOT BEFORE!

b. Be ready to curate, tweet, facebook, and lose sleep. This better be a project you’re passionate about.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for a follow up article.

Nathaniel
Filmmaker/Producer

http://www.nathanielhansen.com

In May 2010, I set out to make a low-budget-high-quality documentary feature film about elderly Americans. I raised the funds on kickstarter ($12,500), got an unsolicited and very generous donation from an LA based non-profit, and by mid June found myself on a journey that would take me over 13,000 miles by car all over the United States. It was a thrilling adventure and for two months I sat across from some of the most inspiring people I’ve ever had the pleasure of getting to know, some 22 interviews in all.

In my mind’s eye, I had always conceived of the project in a very specific and stylized way. I wanted desperately to move past the “shallow-depth-of-field equals-quality” plague that seems to have struck the indie film world. While I very much appreciate the ability to obtain shallow depth of field on video, especially in interviews, I often ride the focus with the aperture wide open to follow a character as they move during an interview. Essentially I was trying to create my own style and look for this project that wasn’t only relying on the technical convention of shallow depth of field. It was clear that I’d need a suite of high quality still lenses and a lighting strategy to accomplish this effectively.

I had experimented with Carl Zeiss prime lenses in fall of 2009 in a series of naturally lit portrait interviews (of which Pat the shop-owner was a part), which have screened internationally in several festivals. Those “test” shorts allowed me to hone in on the style I wanted, and I became very adept at shooting alone. For that portrait series, I relied entirely on a 50mm f1.4 and a 85mm f1.4, mounted to a Sony EX1 via the Letus 35mm lens adapter.

Pat – (Sony EX1, Letus Extreme, 50mm Nikkor f1.4 and Zeiss ZF.2 85mm f1.4)

The Glass:
My primary camera was/is a Sony EX1 with a Letus Extreme 35mm Lens adapter on the front, supported on aluminum Letus rails. There is something very organic about the EX/Letus setup that current DSLRs just can’t seem to match (IMHO). I think it’s the ground glass the EX imager is focused on that takes the edge off. Regardless, I have owned the Zeiss (ZF.2) 85mm f1.4 for three years now, and it’s a very, very high quality lens for about $1,200 (over at Zacuto where I grabbed mine). You feel it when you pick it up because it’s built like a tank – it feels worth its weight – and I don’t feel like it’s going to shatter into a billion pieces if it were (heaven forbid) dropped. Dented and scratched maybe – but not broken.

Hands down, on the EX1/Letus, the Zeiss 85mm f1.4 is my favorite lens. It’s sharp edge to edge with no obvious need to find a “sweet spot” and because of the low aperture, I am able to shoot dimly-lit interiors that would otherwise not have been possible. In my portrait series, and in The Elders, I wanted the focus to be on the person’s face. I ride the focus ring pretty hard, so if they’re moving I’m right there with the eyes. For me, the shallow depth of field isn’t what makes it look good – for me it provides frame after frame of attention to a particular part of the frame, usually the eyes.

Lilah – (Sony EX1, Letus Extreme, 50mm Nikkor f1.4 and Zeiss ZF.2 85mm f1.4)

My secondary camera is the Canon 7D and I own the Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L Series that I use often as a master-wide, although with the 1.6x crop factor is more like 38mm. The telephoto is handy but when I’m rolling with two cameras alone, it usually stays wide at 24mm and wide open at 2.8.

For The Elders, I was desperately searching for a lens solution that would give me a more creative range of options. This wasn’t “run-and-gun” filmmaking, so having an assortment of primes on hand was an option, and I didn’t “really” need a zoom lens on the 7D, as it wasn’t my primary lens. What I really wanted was the option to lock the 7D down with a much wider prime lens that could make up for the 1.6x crop factor (what’s great about the EX/Letus setup with a prime lens is you can still “zoom” through the range of the EX1 turning that 85mm into something close to a 120mm!).

DSLR Crop Factor:

In my digging around to find a solution, I turned to Richard Schleuning of Carl Zeiss USA for some suggestions on a lens set that wouldn’t completely break the budget of my already low budget documentary. He suggested (as had Philip Bloom) that I seriously check out the ZF.2 lenses that had just been upgraded to the now very popular CP.2 (Compact Prime) lenses. I asked about the difference between the two sets and to my delight he said they’re the same glass but the CP.2 have a “cine” exterior (markings, follow focus grips, stopless physical aperture rings, etc), designed from the ground up for use on professional projects but also for use with DSLR cameras and on cameras with PL (positive lock) mounting option, as is common with 35mm cinema cameras.

ZF.2 Carl Zeiss Lenses:
As the ZF.2 lens sets are cheaper to rent (and buy) – they retail for about $1,200-$1,800 per lens, versus +/- $3,500 each for the CP.2 – I opted to go for the ZF.2 lenses and was extended a sponsorship by Carl Zeiss and given a complete set for the duration of my project.

What was amazing about this lens set, is that I had SO MUCH choice, and wasn’t relying ONLY on my 85mm Zeiss, but had a veritable army of glass at my disposal. Even better – I could pop anyone of these lenses on my EX1/Letus OR on the 7D.

I was pretty stoked to be on the road with such an amazing lens set! But what I discovered was that many of the ZF.2 lenses in the set would have been more useful to me on a full frame camera (5D) but on the 7D (APC-S), after some playing around, I settled in to five of the lenses that accomplished everything I needed: 28mm 2.0, 35mm 2.0, 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.4, and the 100mm Macro (!!). The wider 18mm I only ended up using in one shot, outside, in Elko Nevada. On the 7D (remember the crop factor!) it’s really more in the 28mm range – so not “that” wide.

Still from The Elders:

The Look:
When I started thinking about how I would shoot The Elders, and what “look” I wanted to achieve, I decided I would stick to my “focus riding” method and keep the aperture open in the interviews. I devised a lighting scenario that would be easy to set up, but would give me a dramatic look specifically intended to make the interviewees’ facial features “pop.” Working alone for much of the shoot, it took some trial and error. I was lucky enough to have some help from Matthew Hashiguchi for the first 12 days of the shoot, and we dialed in what would become the standard setup. I also decided that the EX1/Letus would be my primary camera and would handle most of the close ups, and that I’d leave my Canon 7D fairly wide and untouched for the bulk of the interviews.

I also decided that I would need the ability to get pretty wide in close spaces but still have my subject fill the frame. 50mm didn’t do it. 35mm was a little better, but on the EX/Letus and on the 7D there’s the crop factor so a 35mm is really more like 56mm.

In my preproduction research, I was also trying to determine if I would shoot the interviews contextually, or with an isolated background (black).

In the end, I decided to go with a hybrid approach, where the interviewee was contextualized in their environment but the background was soft, and the the lighting was high contrast, as you can tell in these photos of “Coach” and “Doy.” We interviewed Doy inside his shop. His interview is EXACTLY what I wanted to achieve on every interview – and out of 22 in all, we came pretty close.

I lit the interviews with one KinoFlo Diva 401 from directly overhead with their built in dimmer and soft box (which is really more like a soft bag that you pull tight on either end), and when space permitted, I had a keylight (a 200 watt mole richardson on a dimmer) just out of frame – also high contrast but with a chimera softbox – and finally another 200w backlight (mole richardson) on a dimmer to give them a tiny glow.

This turned out to be a really great set up, although the interiors weren’t always space permitting, I came out the other end with a lighting set up that I believe helped achieve a more filmic and dramatic look. Below are some of the only behind the scenes photos I have of this project due to the fact that for most of the shoot I was solo.

(Ungraded)

What I would have done differently
There are a few things I would have changed, but foremost, I would have spent more time refining my camera and lighting set up before I left. The first interview once I was officially “on the road” was wonderful, but from a lighting and color balance standpoint, a total disaster. We were somewhat rushed (which turned out to be a fairly common occurrence throughout the film), as we were just a 3 hour block on someone’s surprisingly busy schedule. The tight time frame had us rushing during set up and I wasn’t very meticulous in calibrating the two cameras, which caused serious headaches in post-production. Making sure the 7D was recording a FLAT color should have been at the forefront of my setup from the begining. It’ll get fixed in post – but not without some talented color correction. Had time permitted, I would have blocked out a full week to test various light and camera set ups and I would have calibrated the cameras before ever leaving Boston. This is my only major regret, as some of the best interviews suffer in the image.

Overall, I’m very pleased with how The Elders has turned out, and I think you will be too. Below is the official “trailer” for the film. Enjoy, and thanks for watching/reading.

The Elders – Official Trailer)

Directed by: Nathaniel Hansen
Produced by: Nathaniel Hansen, Maria Menounos, and Keven Undergaro
Original Score by: Lee Strauss
Lens Set provided by: Richard Schleuning – Carl Zeiss USA
DV SOLO 20 Tripod provided by: Gus Harilaou – Miller Tripod
Crowdfunded via: www.Kickstarter.com

Special Thanks to Chris Hurd, Philip Bloom, Mitch Aunger, Miller Tripods, Carl Zeiss USA, and http://www.Kickstarter.com

More clips at http://www.theeldersfilm.com

I’m also delighted that people make the connection to The Elders as a “short” film project. I suppose, technically, that’s accurate as it is a collection of short films that make up a feature-length film (70 minutes). And that was my intent from the beginning: Could I create a feature-length documentary film built entirely on short portraits of mostly talking heads? It worked, and it’s working as support continues to pour in!

http://blog.kickstarter.com/post/2713612870/best-short-film-project

Thanks Kickstarter!

It’s been an emotional roller-coaster over the last two weeks as I’ve worked comfortably behind the scenes to spread the word about our animated film project The Price. The outpouring of support has been liberating for me as a maker and producer, and it has been especially satisfying to watch people rally around Christopher and his vision for this beautiful story by Neil Gaiman. I’m excited about what the success of this project, and others like it, could mean for independent artists the world over. The arts and technology landscape is changing so dramatically, Christopher and I both feel we’re peering off the edge of a vast precipice, staring in to an uncertain but limitless future. As my friend Richard Smyth once told me, we are, right now, in the middle of our own renaissance, our own “printing press” revolution, and with this project in particular, I can feel it.

Support has poured in from fans and converts alike. Popular sites like Wired Magazine, io9, CNN, Mashable, and many others have rallied around this project and what it stands for.

From the first time I viewed the animatic (on an iPod when Christopher was in town visiting 3 years ago), to where we are today, I can’t help but get a little worked up and excited. Today we made the home page again. I was pretty chuffed to see that at 9am this morning.

But this post isn’t about why the project is so great – Christopher’s art speaks for itself – this is a rallying cry about why this project, and others like it, will define truly independent media and art.

There are a lot of reasons this project is important in the history of crowd funded films, and I’ll list a few of them here for your viewing pleasure:

1) For a talented but unknown filmmaker to raise $150,000 for an animated short film via an army of strangers is practically unheard of in Hollywood. Kickstarter and other fundraising sites, are empowering artists and fans everywhere to choose for themselves the art they want to consume. One commenter and backer, Rudolf Momjian Pettersen, put it perfectly:

Art, technology and creativity will no longer be hostage to a few large companies. The “small” people will be able to get their ideas and products through with the support of other “small” people. No more monopoly!

2) Christopher’s version of The Price has and will continue to foster a robust and compassionate community. Humans crave community, attention, affection, and sharing. Despite what the news tells us, we like to be inspired and moved. We like to come together for common goals, and if kickstarter doesn’t allow this to happen in a most unique and marvelous way, I’m not sure what does. Hollywood builds and creates audience, and it does it well> But rarely does it build community. I told Christopher on the phone tonight that there are a lot of things that came together to make this project a success, but I believe that his passion, humility, and the merits of his art have made this project successful from the beginning – people LOVE the idea because they know Christopher LOVES the idea and is totally passionate about Neil’s beautiful story.

3) Christopher’s animated film of The Price is doing exactly what art is intended to do: Inspire. Over the last 4 weeks, we have witnessed an unprecidented outpouring of support for this project. People have written to Christopher to tell him of their experience with this story, or how they went out and mowed lawns to make this project happen, or how what he is doing inspired them to quit their job and go after what they always wanted to do. Pledges from $10 – $10,000 have poured in and each are every bit as meaningful to making this project a reality. As a documentary filmmaker, I’m fascinated by the story behind the pledge!

I keep refreshing the kickstarter project page for The Price, and just about every time I do we get closer to our goal of $150,000 – the most anyone has asked for on kickstarter. As Dylan once sang,”the times, they are a changin’” and I really believe this is the start of a new wave of innovation in technology and the arts. Keep a watch over the next 24 hours, and into the coming months. As a producer, I have my sights set on helping Christopher realize his creative vision, but we’ll be working hard to maintain the production blog which we believe is the best way to build and foster this new community of fans. Lets hope that first “official” post is just a day away, and that The Price is just one of many projects that buck against the Hollywood trend!

I’ll catch you on the flip side of $150k – and then we can set our sights on where we’ll gather next … Cannes? Sundance? Tribecca? The Academy? We’ve dreamed this far, and I’m looking forward to the next destination. And Christopher, thanks for taking us along with you on this wonderful journey.

When we discovered kickstarter last year, I decided to dip my toe in the crowdfunding waters with a project of my own, The Elders, and have since assisted on a variety of other successfully funded and produced projects. It was kind of a revelatory experience, seeing what the future of truly independent fundraising was all about. When Christopher asked if I would co-produce this film project with him, I jumped at the chance and I knew kickstarter would be the vehicle to bring this project in.

Well fast forward to today, and we’re 11 days (19 days to go!) in to our kickstarter project for The Price – and we’ve had a remarkable run so far. For starters, this project represents the largest budget ever on the popular website, although other projects have earned much more. We’ve had an incredible show of support from nearly 800 fans and counting. Neil Gaiman himself has blogged and tweeted about the project, and the news media have been all over this thing from io9.com – to newsarama, yahoo movies, and everything in between.

I couldn’t be more pleased with how things are going. The real trick will be to actually make this a successful run to prove to larger studios that fans CAN fund films, and they will. We’ll see a million dollars raised on kickstarter within the next 18 months.

To date, we’ve raised $56,208 – which means we have to raise almost 4700 a day for the next 20 days to meet our goal. It’s possible, and I believe this is going to happen, but wow, does that every sound like a mammoth task. Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll look back and smile on this whole experience.

Until then… Spread the word! http://kck.st/bUQsac and http://www.theprice-movie.com