What I Learned Crowdfunding a Short Film
What I Learned Crowdfunding a Short Film
Lessons in community-based storytelling.
Hey honeys and hustlers,
We are one week away from the virtual screening of Trail Therapy! Join us live on Thursday, September 19th at 7PM. Add it to your calendar here. 30+ folks have already signed up to join us, and we’d love to add you to that number! Can’t wait to see you all (virtually) there!
By Indie Means Possible.
Getting funding for independent and original creative projects isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible. When I reached out to Sharon and pitched doing a short documentary film with her, I knew I needed to have creative control of the project to grow and maintain trust with her. After all, I was essentially asking to follow her around for 3 months. I applied for grants and pitched corporate sponsors which didn’t pan out, but I also wanted to try crowdfunding. I was super nervous about this. What if no one supported the film? What if people didn’t find the film interesting? What if we didn’t get enough money to finish the film? But what if isn’t a deep enough question. I felt it was more important to ask:
What can we learn from this?
How can we test messaging and packaging an original creative project?
How can we provide an incredible experience for our audience, community, and supporters?
How can we get this film in front of as many people as possible?
So we moved forward with those end goals in mind, rather than the limitations of our fears. After researching, talking with the folks at Seed & Spark, asking others who had done crowdfund campaigns, and my own experience, here’s what I learned from crowdfunding for a short film.
Direct 1:1 emails asking for donations and/or asking people to share the crowdfunding link with their network move the needle the most. Have 10-15 people that you reach out to on the first day the crowdfund is live. People on social media want to see that your campaign is already getting traction.
Asking for a certain number of supporters rather than a dollar amount is really effective. Whenever I asked for a specific number of supporters by the end of the day or the end of the weekend, we hit that number exactly like clockwork most of the time.
Have your crew involved in sharing the main post to help it get traction. Whoever has the largest social following should lead the charge. In this case, it was me and I was the producer/director.
Here are the types of visual content that moved the needle:
teaser trailer with me making a direct ask with footage of the film
graphic with all the names of people who have supported the campaign (I did more than one of these throughout the campaign as the list grew)
photo series depicting a scene from the film using behind-the-scenes action shots
direct-to-camera video from the cast and crew while the crowdfund is happening
Other good practices:
saying thank you via the crowdfunding platform but also making a point to reach out to people 1:1 via DMs, email, text, etc. to say thank you. Thank them for sharing and for donating. Some people you may know and some people you may not.
reiterating that no donation is too small. Our average donation amount was higher than average/expected. The average donation for film projects, according to Seed&Spark, is $25 for reference.
Things that didn't really move the needle:
Tagging Seed&Spark on social media. While they said they were active on social, that wasn't the case for us. They post about 1x per week on Linkedin, and weren't active on Twitter in over a year. They commented and shared our post on Linkedin where we announced that we hit our goal, but obviously, that wasn’t helpful in our pursuit of reaching it. I honestly think this would be the same with Kickstarter, Indiegogo, etc. There are so many people who are using the platforms, I could see how it could be hard to be engaged with them all online (though I may be giving them too much slack).
Having large accounts post about the campaign on platforms you’re not active on. I had a large account in Durham share the video on Instagram, but I don't think it really moved the needle. I'm not active on that platform so I wasn't too surprised. They tagged me as a collaborator so my followers could see it, but I don’t post or engage with my followers on Instagram so I think it was a nice to have but not a necessity.
If you’re thinking about crowdfunding for a creative project, here’s a rough checklist to get you started (in no particular order):
make a list of 15-20 people who would be interested in supporting and sharing your project.
make a compelling trailer that’s around 90 seconds.
have at least 5-10 photos to share. If you have edited a film poster, that would also be great to share.
have a social media plan for the first 7 days. Your goal should be to get 50% of your target amount within the first week. (We reached ours within the first 3 days.)
think critically about how to go above and beyond for your supporters. No matter how much money you raise, crowdfund campaigns are an opportunity for you to connect with your existing audience on a deeper level, create new fans of your work, and turn casual fans into raving supporters. Focus on creating a great experience for them from beginning to end.
think beyond just getting a project made and funded. Create a marketing a distribution plan for the project once it’s finished, because it will get finished. In hindsight, I probably would’ve budgeted more money towards marketing and distribution.
I hope these are helpful for you all as you grow your audience and community around your creative work. If you have any questions about crowdfunding that weren’t answered above, drop a comment or respond to this email, I’m happy to help!
Please Hustle Responsibly,
🤙🏾✨
If you’d like to engage with this community, here are a few ways you can do that:
Forwarded this message? Sign up here.
Have a question? To get direct creative or entrepreneurial advice from me, submit your question here or leave a voice message.