Financing / Crowdfunding : Best crowdfunding platforms for a short film by Rita Avellar

Kickstarter.com seems to be one of the best platform in my knowledge, since I know someone who ran a campaign on Kickstarter and raised $50k for their Documentary movie.

Nitin Shashindran Thank you, that's great! Do you also have experience using it or just your friend? I have another question about it too. Thank you so much!

I have strategized crowdfunding campaigns but never used the platform to raise by myself.

It depends on what you are trying to do with that film. For instance, on a generic level of a short or feature film Kickstarter is good enough. But most creative projects one can see on the Indiegogo platform. Now there are different reasons people make films like social cause or Woman centric short/feature films. So for that, there are different platforms that are good to try. For example,e GoFundMe, JustGiving are platforms that lean on cause-driven initiatives.

There are many articles like below which listes.

https://www.easyship.com/blog/best-crowdfunding-sites

I have tried it, as I needed to have my own laptop and camera so that I can shoot a series of indie single-handed documentaries and shorts, but it didn't work. What I learned is that, I got to be a super amazing CROWD PULLER like Elony Musky kind of Marketeer Advertizer. Someone who is out and out there, extrovert, promoting, connecting, giving out some kind of flash people pleaser ads, marketing collaterals, brand kind of approach to drawing investments or funds then only it works. Like, make a good video pitch, some great goodies, and a very well digitally connected audience already set up before creating the campaign.

"Platforms come next, to be frank."

And interest rates are different for each platform one should always check.

So no matter whichever platform we put our campaigns on, if I have a BRAND value, a strong Digital Advertising nature, Digital Marketing tactician brain, then Crowdfunding is the way to go. But I'm quite opposite to Musky's approach of Marketing, Advertising, and Branding to get my work sold somehow. So I have to find genuine Art house-based producers who are interested in collab with me who are humble, low-key profile and mostly hidden from media glare but works somehow they are my aim to find.

Just sharing what I have learned.

RB has a great book on this! https://amzn.to/3j3qoss The audio book is free with an Audible trial!

Nitin Shashindran Thank you once again!

Rohit Kumar Thanks for sharing your experience, really info! I appreciate it, this was so helpful.

Cherelynn Baker Nice! Thank you!! I am going to check it out now!

SeedandSpark is another good one.

Karen "Kay" Ross Thank you! Never heard about this one.

Colette "ByFilms" Byfield thank you so much! I am going to look for them here and thanks for your tip too. ;)

Hi Rita, Rohit above is right it’s not all dependent on the platform. In stats Kickstarter has the most successful film crowdfunds, next Indiegogo. Seed and Spark I am quite envious of. being UK based and it’s only available in the US, has a 70% success rate and is I think dedicated to film. Green lit is a new kid on the block and again just dedicated to film. BUT it doesn’t matter which if these you use, YOU can be successful on any. It’s the preparation that counts. A huge build to the campaign, a team of people helping you( this is actually the most important) putting your script into ff before hand and winning awards for it helps, having made previous successful films helps, people want to be part of success. The other thing is always go for the all or nothing vibe. Psychologically this helps you reach your goal as people don’t like to think hey she’s got 8,500 and needs 10,000 so they rally round in the last few days. But if you have flexible- take what you get they don’t care and you stick at 8,500 if you see where I’m coming from. I use indiegogo because I like the interface.

Something that I've learned by financing my own project through crowdfunding, is that no matter the platform you use, you need to make it personal. Most people who back projects on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo don't do it to buy a product, but to be part of something. So, it's important to build some sort of relationship with them from the start. It's a different kind of project than a movie, but when I launched my Kickstarter for my book, some backers contacted me privately to help me improve my campaign because they wanted it to be successful. This experience totally changed my perception of crowdfunding.

Got it @jane sanger! Thank you so much for the tips, so helpful!

@Christian Nommay Thanks for sharing your experience and I totally agree, they want to be part of it, it is a different approach.

Anytime, Rita!