Financing / Crowdfunding : Decideo by Shereen Elcherif

KS and IG work by providing material benefits for funding. So 5 dollars for a sticker, 10 dollars for a shirt, 25 dollars for a blu-ray copy of a movie, 1,000 dollars for a walk-on role, etc (not actual representative numbers, just ones throwing out of the top of my head).

The main difference between the two sites being you have to make your goal with Kickstarter (so if you need $50,000 to make your film, but you only raise $49,999, you don’t get that money) and you can keep what you raise on Indiegogo (so in the above hypothetical, you’d get the $49,999).

But you need to properly budget (as Indiegogo will take a percentage out off every donation, so you end up not raising as much as you think) and really go out to engage your audience, as it’s built on word of mouth... so no promotion, no one knows about it and no one donates.

Likewise, it’s important to communicate with backers if successfully funded and fulfill everything you promised, as nothing burns bridges faster than no communication and no rewards.

Which is why it’s a gamble to fund with these sites, as if you don’t complete your film (for whatever reason), that leaves certain rewards unfulfilled and lots of pissed off people who want their money back.

But with filmmaking in general it’s all about risk/reward, so weigh your options and if you feel like that route works for your film, do it!

Thanks Shereen for your question and Ryan for responding. Good information everyone can benefit from.

It is a lot of work - the platforms are basically hubs and payment gateways. They do not promote your project. So you will have to do a lot of marketing and advertising to get people to go to the sites and then support your film. Can be quite successful, but it's not "free" in terms of being easy or without work.

Also forgot to mention, that all the rewards are things you must account for, as they should also be part of the “budget” that you’re raising. So $50,000 grand is your film budget+rewards+platform fees (aka what KS/IG will take out if project is funded).

Kickstarter does do staff picks all the time and if you happen to be lucky enough to be chosen and get featured, that can be amazing. I've always had way better luck with Kickstarter than Indiegogo because the platform does better at cross-promotion and if your projects hits some good keyword searches, random people may find and support you. Of course, you can't count on that, so, as others have said, you must promote! On my last project, we didn't offer any rewards that had to be mailed because we suck at mailing things. It was a wise choice making rewards that were easy for us to manage, because making a film is hard enough. :) Good luck!

Crowdfunding, IMO, isn't the way to fund a film unless you have a huge social media following. Our fearless leader, RB Botto, has a book out, Crowdsourcing for Filmmakers, that would be good to get if you really plan to crowdfund.

Like John said. There is also now a profit share option on new platforms that make the contributor part of the production. Woth a look and probably the way to go to get your film made.

here's where i first saw it: https://wefunder.com/pencilish

Thank you All so much. Your responses are very helpful and I truly appreciate it. I will look into all what you have said. I just need to figure out what the best options are for my project.

Crowdfunding It’s easy if you know how to crowdfund and you need to start certain things 4-6 months before you begin your campaign it’s a lot of work. Crowdsourcing is also useful but you have to have a thick hide as you will get trolled but there are ALWAYS those willing to help for free or swops. I can help you run your whole campaign from the beginning for 5% of your takings, but only on projects raising 15,000 plus. So with the crowdfund platforms commission 8-9% and mine you need to stick a bit more on your target. There’s more crowdfunding platforms than the ones you mention. Email me info@luminofilms.co.uk to hear more. I have a Track record.