Financing / Crowdfunding : Learning In Real Time -- Tips I've discovered with my own Indiegogo campaign by William Joseph Hill

Hey all, I wanted to share a few points that I've learned so far with running my own Indiegogo for a short film project titled CYBER FIGHTER. It's based on my novel which was adapted from the feature screenplay I wrote first.

This is pretty ambitious project -- we're asking for $20K (because there are a lot of visual effects/action pieces). We are in the third week and have raised 51% so far. It's a fixed funding model because we need to make at least that to shoot the film. Here's a few things I've learned:

1. PREPARATION IS KEY -- I've spent several years preparing this campaign before I launched it. The more money you need to raise, the more prep work you should do. Preparation includes research and deciding on which platform is right for your project. Seed & Spark is a great platform for Indies, though they are more apt to promote socially conscious type content and lower budgeted projects. Mine is a sci-fi/action popcorn movie (in the vein of The Matrix meets John Wick), so Indiegogo was a better fit.

2. CREATE GREAT PERKS/REWARDS -- Depending on the platform, there are different names for these, but having great perks gives a lot more excitement to your production. Because of how much we need to raise, I knew that I couldn't offer any merch that would need to be manufactured/shipped, so I went all digital. As a kid, I loved all the STAR WARS books and trading cards, so with my project I'm creating a Production Art book, a "making of" book, and even my own digital "Topps" style trading cards. It's my most popular perk.

3. EMAIL OUTREACH IS CRITICAL -- You will need to individually write to everyone you know to give a personal appeal. But you have to frame it as inviting them to "join you on this journey", instead of asking for money. Of course you need to ask, but there's a subtle art to it. Indiegogo's educational articles were a big help on this. And you have to reach out to everyone. Contributions will be made by those people you didn't expect. And be sure to ask people to also share your project too. For those who can't afford to contribute, sharing your project is just as effective because the more eyes on your project, the better chance for success.

4. A GREAT PITCH VIDEO IS KEY -- Especially since you're making a film, you need to demo yourself as an artist. Fortunately, in my many years of development, I had tons of B-roll to use with my "talk to camera" shot, and the footage shows my capability as a filmmaker. Study pitch videos you like, and look at bad ones too to make sure you don't make the same mistakes. Make sure that your pitch video matches your personality -- if you're not naturally goofy, don't try to be goofy on your pitch video, even if your project is a comedy. It will just be awkward and you'll hate shooting it. Be true to yourself and people will feel a connection. If you're not good at all in front of the camera, be sure that you have someone on your team who is, and they'll be the face of the project.

5. RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN WILL BE A FULL-TIME JOB -- I knew this going in, but you will find that the more time you can dedicate to updating, sending outreach, releasing new perks, social media posting, the better your results. I have my wife helping out a lot, and a couple other people who have promised to share it to their networks, but the truth is that you are going to be doing most of the work.

These are just a few things I've learned while I am still in progress. Whether or not I will succeed remains to be seen. I'm cautiously optimistic, but there are a lot of ups and downs with this process. I want to be respectful to the "no spamming" rules for posting so instead of a link to my project, if you are interested in looking at it as a case study -- it's called CYBER FIGHTER and I have it on Indiegogo.

(I also posted the project in "Your Stage" - the direct link can be found there).