Financing / Crowdfunding : GoFundMe or Kickstarter? by Elie de Rosen

Hi Elie - I myself have not raised on any platform, but I have watched all our crowdfunding education (education on your top menu bar, search for crowdfunding), and as far as Kickstarter goes it is definitely hard to get eyeballs on your project to get it to stand out. GoFundMe I have heard people have had a good experience, but again, you have to have the strategy and plan to get eyeballs to your page. I'd also highly recommend that you read Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers: Indie Film & the Power of the Crowd written by our CEO Richard Botto, it is the definitive guide that will help you understand how to crowdsource and to crowdfund successfully - two different things but you can't have one without the other: https://www.amazon.com/Crowdsourcing-Filmmakers-American-Market-Presents...

Elie, have you looked into Indiegogo? A friend of mine raised about $60k on it - maybe more. It takes a lot of work though, to get eyeballs on your campaign (as Amanda said).

I was successful on IGG and KS -- I funded two of my short films. KS is all or nothing, but has a larger "film" base and Indiegogo offers a partial funding path if you do not reach 100%. The real key is building a following/base before launch. I took 6 months to build up contacts before launch. Find like films that were successful and review their perks -- that is also key. I can post my current active campaign for my POC female driven action/drama/thriller Velvet -- if requested.

I'd love to see that, Robert J. Butler! How did you build up your contacts? And what kinds of contacts did you target?

Hi Elie -

I've successfully raised money on Kickstarter. For larger amounts, a lot of it is marketing / having an initial gameplay before launch. For something smaller 5k or less, I'd have a list of friends and family to hit up when your campaign launches. Also - create a personalized pitch video which outlines who you are, your background and what the funds are going towards!

As for a platform, Kickstarter is the way to go. When I hear gofundme, the first thing that comes to mind is financing someones tragedy (surgery or house burned down, etc)

No matter what happens - best of luck to you! :)

How did you build up your contacts? I had two focused campaigns -- local & national. For Local -- I connected with area comic book conventions, was given a table, and invited my cast to come out to sign autos/take pictures (I had a con exclusive premiere of my short POC film). This was great for collecting emails, selling posters but specifically connecting real people to my campaign to the cast. I was not raising feature level money - but enough to try and cover the short film budget. For national - I created several graphics featuring my cast and the story, then target market on FB the demographics that like my stories. I received over a 6-10% click rate to my crowdfunding campaign page which helped a lot. Local requires time, energy, followup, some expenses -- National requires expense (ads), time (creating graphics) and refining the process. Both my campaigns I followed the basic plan to start 6-8 months building connections -- I created Instagram/FB Page/Reddit/Twitter accounts -- started posting/following/etc. I used free and paid scheduling services -- I set up my studio website on Wordpress and bought some plugins to manage my contact list. For one person it was a lot -- so I reached out locally for some help in exchange for film credits on IMDb. EX. IG @velvetmovieofficial

Very methodical. Thank you for sharing, Robert J. Butler.

Thanks, Robert. It sounds like you pulled out all the stops, and that your efforts paid off. I'm curious, roughly how many connections did you have by the time you began your campaigns?

Regardless of the platform, you need at least 3-6 months of crowdsourcing to give yourself a high percentage shot of a successful crowdfunding campaign. Shameless plug for my book, but it is all about this subject and contains 2 chapters strictly dedicated to launching a successful crowdfunding campaign as well as 3 case studies.

https://www.amazon.com/Crowdsourcing-Filmmakers-American-Market-Presents...

Looks like a great book Richard "RB" Botto !

Elie de Rosen -- Getting actual email tied to live people is always the challenge. You can adv and drive people to your campaign url -- but its tough to know other than the conversion rate to see if you are connecting with them. Doing local events meant we physically connected to those who were interested in us and they continue to engage on Social Media. We ended up with 275 emails before the campaign started plus I had 1K + from my other projects. Building a constant stream of info/graphics/videos/posts/PR posts etc helped keep us in mind throughout the campaign. My only other advice is to keep the target amount as low as you can to "fund" then everything past that is a win and you have a positive campaign to promote.

Thank you, Stephen. I'm extremely proud that the book is part of the curriculum at 7 universities featuring film courses around the world.

Stellar post and advice, Robert.

Thanks, Richard. I've now ordered your book. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Thank you, Elie. Please do let me know what you think. Truly believe you'll enjoy the ride.