Financing / Crowdfunding

it's good to grow your audience first. I realize it's a little late now, but it's never too late to grow your audience. there are many ways to do that. having an audience helps tremendously when doing crowdfunding or approaching investors.

Thanks Steven for your feedback. I'll check that book out.

Thanks Joe! That's what my partner and I are thinking since we're not known. This short can be used as a promo tool.

I funded all of my shorts the same way Kevin Smith funded his first feature.

Bill, mate, I hope that worked out well for you.

P.S. the Proof of Concept, one-day shoot my company just did for our program was fully funded from my own, incredibly shallow, pocket.

Brett Russell Hi, I have been preoccupied with the Premiere of Sin 13 and the launch of Facet.TV, so that's the reason in delay for my launch. First, block chain technology is used to secure a transaction. Transactional security is not an issue in film finance. Never has been, never will be. So the key strength of blockchain is not applicable to film finance. To my mind, the only possible application is, as you allude to, the possibility of raising money through a wide net where people buy cryptocoins instead of stock certificates. That is, essentially a crowd-funding solution with all the inherent challenges of crowd-funding PLUS the challenges of getting people to accept a crypto-coin as a legitimate vehicle and how to exchange money for that, etc. Not to mention the question of whether or not there is any public pool of investors just waiting to invest in film. Seems there never has been. Crypto-technology doesn't solve that fundamental issue and may even make it harder since public perception of crypto is not flattering. Every so often, since the beginning of bitcoin, someone has decided this was a great solution, and tried to use it, and never, to my knowledge, succeeded. As far as a "tokenized asset" being "legal" - as a lawyer I will tell you flat that my opinion is the nature of a tokenized asset is a security. Period. So creating a funding scheme using a crypto token is at best skirting securities laws, and then only if you have gone through extensive legal maneuvers to take those transactions outside the jurisdiction of the SEC. Those maneuvers in themselves should raise red flags for investors. Now the SEC has recently said that ETH tokens specifically are not "securities" in and of themselves, but that really will depend on the nature of the transaction, and certainly does NOT apply to other tokens. In my professional opinion, the SEC is just plain WRONG on their recent pronouncement, and will likely reverse itself when it considers a real situation where people are raising money for a venture like this. Now having said all that, can you lay out any actual advantage to investing through a token rather than traditional stock purchases, etc.?

Hi Shadow Dragu-Mihai getting you a response to this next week. Very pleased to engage you. Have a good weekend.

Hi Shadow Dragu-Mihai ,

I appreciate you taking time to respond, thanks very much. I respect your view.

This kind of feedback is valuable in that it provides a snapshot of how some established entertainment industry participants may view this emerging and disruptive technology.

Let me be clear, any funding or crypto payment mechanisms we propose, develop or implement will not violate any law, securities or otherwise. Nor will we put any participant at risk and will be transparent. Compliance is a priority for all legitimate projects in this space and ours will be no exception. Anyone contemplating anything related to investments or the use of alternate currencies definitely needs competent legal support.

Funding pain-points are proving to be good conversation starters on Stage32 and Im pleased you have joined that conversation.

We enter the WEB3 era - decentralized applications, users control their identity and programmable money is native and flows across borders effortlessly and inexpensively.

Shadow Dragu-Mihai wrote,

"First, block chain technology is used to secure a transaction. Transactional security is not an issue in film finance. Never has been, never will be. So the key strength of blockchain is not applicable to film finance."

Response:

Yes, blockchain does secure transactions. If Im understanding your point here you are saying transactional security is not an issue. But we see it differently. The types of transactions we refer to are many and range from blockchain based automated payments / residuals to smart-contracts that are written to commit screenplays or assign intellectual property to filmmakers/producers. These transactions, and the many more that arise during the development, financing, production and distribution of any film project, are executed, recorded and secured by blockchain. The entertainment industry is built on transactions. Contracts, agreements, assignments, licensing, releases, trademarks, copyrights, are a few of the "transactions" that will be recorded and managed on a private blockchain made available to a select few. Specific to film finance, and aside from our plan to introduce tokenization as a form of funding and payments, a blockchain based chain-of-title is one example of how blockchain can establish the veracity of proprietary rights which is crucial to film finance.

With respect to our ideas around tokenization.

Shadow Dragu-Mihai wrote,

"That is, essentially a crowd-funding solution with all the inherent challenges of crowd-funding PLUS the challenges of getting people to accept a crypto-coin as a legitimate vehicle and how to exchange money for that, etc. Not to mention the question of whether or not there is any public pool of investors just waiting to invest in film. Seems there never has been. Crypto-technology doesn't solve that fundamental issue and may even make it harder since public perception of crypto is not flattering."

Response:

You are correct that there are elements of crowdfunding in tokenization. But, among the many benefits of tokenization, we see it as a way to attract a new pool of investors. One example is token divisibility means unaccredited investors can purchase smaller percentages of the asset. I will expand on this topic in a future post and it will be clear in visuals we are preparing for our website. It seems to me your view of crypto is not positive and that may spill over to the players in the industry and I can understand why if you have not been keeping pace with industry developments. We are well past the ICO scams of 2017 and many of the popular cryptocurrencies (there are now almost 6,000 different listed coins and more unlisted) operate in clear view of regulators and some are underpinning financial instruments on Wall St. and other financial centres. One recent development (July 2020) is that The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which is an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury, now allows USA banks to be crypto custodians. Meaning they can hold bitcoin and other crypto for clients. Public perception of crypto has vastly improved and regular media coverage by financial reporters continues to contribute to positivity in the space. It's not my role to convert you or others who feel the space is a scam or who anticipate bitcoin or ethereum will fail. They wont, and the SEC would be remiss to change their view of ethereum.

Shadow Dragu-Mihai wrote,

" Every so often, since the beginning of bitcoin, someone has decided this was a great solution, and tried to use it, and never, to my knowledge, succeeded."

Response:

Somebody said this.... “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat..."

First, again to be clear, our project is not based on bitcoin - a public crypto and public blockchain - which happens to be a very different technology than the permissioned/private blockchain we are building alongside an public ethereum ERC20 based token.

Shadow Dragu-Mihai wrote,

" As far as a "tokenized asset" being "legal" - as a lawyer I will tell you flat that my opinion is the nature of a tokenized asset is a security. Period. So creating a funding scheme using a crypto token is at best skirting securities laws, and then only if you have gone through extensive legal maneuvers to take those transactions outside the jurisdiction of the SEC. Those maneuvers in themselves should raise red flags for investors."

Response:

Im sorry if we were not clear in the original post. There was never any mention of taking any sort of "legal maneuver" to skirt security laws. In fact, in the US there are legal ways to create "funding scheme" that would fit well within the entertainment industry. And, depending on the type of token used and the jurisdiction (we are global), there are a number of avenues available. One example of a completely legal and SEC compliant token is a the security token and STO's (Security Token Offerings). In the USA under a two tiered Regulation A+ (REG A+) up to $20M can be raised from nonaccredited investors in the Tier-1 and reporting requirements are light. The second Tier-2 is $50M but reporting is strict and it's accredited and nonaccredited investors.

Although this funding/seeding component is important, I dont want to lose sight of the overall benefits of our blockchain project.

Here's a very high level overview of our project ecosystem, for this purpose we'll call a blockchain for a film production a "Circle". We are still developing this so dont get tripped up in the conceptualization.

Each "Circle" is a "permissioned blockchain", that would be a the tech layer - ecosystem - on top of a new LLC for each production. This private Circle, would be commissioned by the founders/producers and they would select and invite all the necessary "participants". The participants would include every person and organization that touches the production. They include the producers, actors, extras, writers, directors, assistants, camera operators, hairdressers, makeup, set constructors, electricians, lawyers, law firms, accounting, auditors, investors, bankers, regulators, union reps, and so on.

The Circle blockchain could be redeployed for subsequent film productions by the same producer. In simple terms it could be overlayed onto a new LLC with some of the same participants - ie. lawyers, accountants, writers, or all of the same participants, or all new participants. This results in a streamlined and cost-effective roll-out with certain costs eliminated as each new production is developed.

The founders/producers of each production would use a token within the Circle to pay each participant. Each participant could have their own unique token or accept any token. Tokens can stay inside the ecosystem or offramped to a AML/KYC'd exchange for local FIAT / USD or used to exchange for a USD denominated stablecoin. Other cryptocurrencies could be swapped out on DEX's (decentralized exchanges) for other tokens. Other tokens could also be another participants tokens.

Here are some benefits to using blockchain in the entertainment industry

- Business Continuity

As a production moves through its life-cycle, the responsibility to maintain obligations, record keeping, distribution of revenues and payments and other commitments will remain for years. The transparent and trustless nature of blockchain will provide a solid foundation for any person or organization tasked with overseeing business continuity.

- Payments / Residuals

Blockchain can facilitate auto-payments using smart contracts. Residual payments are costly to administer and cryptocurrency can be used to execute payments as small as pennies. Oracles will be used to trigger payments based on smart contracts.

- Micro Investments and Profit Sharing

Cryptocurrency has democratized finance. It's now possible for any person, anywhere, to invest as little as a dollar. Imagine a camera operator or set builder who opts to reinvest a portion of their income in exchange for a small cut of the profits. Imagine if they did it on every production they worked on.

-Contracts

Agreements, contracts, assignments of IP, etc will all fit nicely into a chain-of-title and will reduce risk and insurance overhead .

- Networking

Each of the participants in a Circle can develop a trusted relationship with other participants. For example, a production accountant has the option of making themselves known (privacy release) to any other participant - say a business manager - who may want to use their accounting services on another production. Because identity verification is part of the Circle implementation, that accounting person or firm can reuse that identity generated to join other Circles.

Thanks again for your interest and please stay tuned as we continue to develop this sizable project.

Let me know if you have any questions Ill help out as best I can.

Brett

Possibly the enormous amount of reading, filing, phone calls and legwork. It kind of goes against my motto of "spend time making films, not trying to get films made"

I'm Indie film maker had a hard time finding producers. And I am engineer as well. Currently I'm trying to setup a chat channel on telegram app where I'm trying to build a connection of Independent film makers and producers.

I had that thought of blockchain, more so a new platform for screening scripts and letting producers be able to fund as well as filmmakers be able to screen their films without being stolen their films and streamed on torrent site or even not being paid. I have a different concept behind the channel goals.

But so far in preliminary stage. Producers mostly have to be sharp to see the difference between what works and interests them. Some wants to do a specific films just for money, some money+craft of cinema, some are purely cinema. And each producers for each are different categories I feel.

So it's hard to bring everyone in same platform without making sure what they are aiming for so that the association of filmmakers and producers be proper and funds go in right direction as well done justice. And I think it doesn't require blockchain too. It's just that internet is making film making more accessible from home. So for Indie filmmakers it's only festivals and screenings. So to bring back audience to old school style theaters and helping everyone to make a good business needs a better idea, framework.

GOOD LUCK

check out Seed and Spark if you haven't already. They are a crowdfunding tool specifically for film. They also have videos you can watch for free with tips about crowdfunding. Even if you do not use them as your platform the tips can be helpful

Thanks, Jessica. I've been holding on to my email notice from you until I had time for it. I have an email list of about 4000 interested in the genre of my proposed TV series. Also, I have a couple thousand followers on FB, though they aren't all notified I posted anything. I need to raise funds to build the town for the shooting site. If the public likes it, it will continue for 8-10 years, so needs to be built right. I'm going to build it out Ihttps://comeflywithme-tv.com/anthony-jones/ I have access to 320 acres out in the desert my city is letting me use. I don't have a final price tag yet but m hoping for around $20,000 unless the building code requires we put in bathrooms and dig a well. Now, to check out your site.

John T. Trigonis I just ordered both books. I've watched some of your videos so I know It'll be worth my time. Thanks.

RB has a book on the subject!

Very true, Dave. Hopefully, you made a decent profit on your documentary. The important thing is to build a track record of responsibility with OPM (other people's money - Ha!) so that investors are eager to be involved in your projects.

Chiming in here as a bit of an expert on the topic of crowdfunding. First, yes, it does work. How much did you set your initial target? I tried Google searching the project on both Indiegogo and Kickstarter and nothing came up, so part of the issue might have been the title and use of keywords. But typically, folks make the same mistakes, which I recommend you watch me spout off about in this video: https://goo.gl/HkTSxe –– goal's set too high, they have less-than-creative rewards, and they haven't taken the time to build an audience prior to "asking them for money." Remedy these, and you'll do much better. And a word about PR for crowdfunding: it's a hard game in 2018, and will only get harder in 2019. You need a bigger story than "awesome film crowdfunding" –– otherwise, no one's picking it up. But more than that, you need this baby to be over 30% funded before any PR will have any impact.

I'm happy to help out with some advice, if you like, prior to the launch of another crowdfunding campaign, if you choose to go that route. Just let me know and I can send you my consulting rates and we can go from there. And I would recommend you give a read to my book, as well: https://goo.gl/xZmls4 Hope this helps a bit, Dave!

Thank you all. I am not interested in Loans at the moment, certainly not for a short as they are not going to make a profit if anything at all. Barry Sobel Thank you for the offer. John T. Trigonis Thank you - the campaign is long gone now, and I had a professional PR company working on it for me, but they proved incapable of handling it correctly. I am not in a position to pay fees at the moment, as I am trying to raise funds to make the award winning short (screenplay) above, before I move onto a Feature Film. I just shot one Short (written and directed by me) and now eager to make The Journey (above) asap for some major festivals approaching. I have almost all locations secured for the new short, just need some funds to pay the crew and cast. Thank you all for the feedback.

Your short should not exceed $2000. You ready should focus on making it without raising funds. It is difficult to raise much larger funds because people are making features for $ 10K and up. Also ready don't want to burn out your network asking for such a smaller project. Once you ask money the 1st time , it is less than likely they will give money the second time.

Sorry Rachel I disagree, people who give once are likely to give again maybe 6 months to a year later for the same or a different project if it has been successful as that builds a following.

Thank you for the information Jane Sanger. I can assist with my ebook Funding for Internship and Scholarship Programs resources.

Thank you. How does that work?

My book can make or save you as much as you need. I can also assist as a SME (Subject Matter Expert).

Hi jane. what do you need help with, that I can assist you? cornell

Hi Cornell sorry I never saw this. We just need a little more money to complete the longer sizzle/teaser about £5,000. Already got £25,000 and started making the teaser. If you can help I can show you the footage stills already taken and various other stuff. Please email me info@luminofilms.co.uk

Remember, pre-sales are based on your track record.

American Film Market 2020 is next month. Buy a pass and chat with Sales Agents.

Great idea, Dan. Do you have to pre-register a time to talk to them?

Cinando

See Stage 32 Blog.

Congrats on making it to the final stage! Will you be crowdfunding after that?

Yes ma I will

Congratulations!

thank you so much Kay your awesome. I have 3 pitch meetings coming up soon i have paid for and will keep you posted.

YAY! Have fun, Chastity Singletary! Actually, if you're looking for peer feedback on your pitch, you could also do a free month of the Writer's Room where we host a weekly Pitch Practice Session (Thursdays at 7pm PST). Feel free to DM me and I'll send you the link so you can join us during your prep!

Practice makes perfect. Def recommend practicing your pitch any time the opportunity presents itself. Best wishes to you Chastity!

Thanks Lesa Babb

Good luck with your pitches.

After I discussed with my financial institution, I was simply advised to provide my account details to my would-be sponsors along with the swift code which currently is the easiest..Still sad that the gofund and kickstarter didn't work.. Thanks..

Account Number:0222167724

Account Name:Afekhiku Henry

Bank:GTBANK,Nigeria

Swift Code:GTBINGLA

Thanks to some of you that has been supporting me with donations.. I'm really grateful.. Please keep the donation coming.. God bless you all..

I'm already there, I just need the Dollar Bin film and your predictions are fulfilled!

Congratulations! Is crowdfunding your focus?

Access to Kickstarter and Gofundme from Nigeria has been verified.

Caveat emptor.

Definitely reach out to our Director of Script Services, Jason Mirch, who is excellent at matching projects with potential executives: J.Mirch@stage32.com

Thank you Karen! Sorry for the slow reply! Hope you are well.

No worries, Conrad! How goes fundraising? I've also recently learned that there are a TON of grants you can apply for as a non-profit producing documentaries.

Hi Karen, we've raised a little over $13k so we have a long way to go. We've applied for several grants and continue to look for more grant opportunities, as well as interested investors.

We've partnered with the film Collaborative as our fiscal sponsor. They are a 501c3 non-profit.

Here is a resource Documentary.org.

Hi, Aaron. Fundraising campaigns are considered promotion and are placed or moved to “Your Stage.” Please see the description at the top. You can also post all your promotional campaign videos, posters, links, etc, on your profile page. “Financing/Crowdfunding,” like all other Lounge craft and business forums, is for topic discussion. Best to you!

YEP! What Beth Fox Heisinger said LOL! We definitely want you to promote your projects, so post on the Your Stage Lounge and check back often! https://www.stage32.com/lounge/promotion

Thanks! I've just posted on Your Stage. :)