Hi

I wrote a book about making my short film, Yellow Ticket. This email contains a full chapter about crowdfunding.

You can get the entire book together with dozens of great resources for video creators and filmmakers (from companies like Film Editing Pro, Cinecom, Fulltime Filmmaker, and more) as part of the 5DayDeal 2024. It's on only for another 3 days.

Don't miss out on it

🔈 It's a long email so you can click here to listen to it.

— Chapter 3: Crowdfunding

Films are financed in various ways. Sometimes through product placement, private investors, grants, or funds from cultural institutions. Often, all these methods, along with other sources, work together.

However, it's quite challenging for short films because they usually don't generate returns. In my film's case, there's no chance for product placement either. Overall, it's like a black hole; the money invested is unlikely to come back, unless through Hawking radiation. 😉

Due to these reasons, I decided that I needed to launch a crowdfunding campaign.

It wasn't an easy decision because it comes with many consequences. So, what were the pros and cons I considered, and why did I ultimately take this step?

My concerns:

Crowdfunding is "asking for money," often from people we know. This can lead to awkward situations. For instance, even in a very subtle conversation, there's a risk that someone with whom we've built a relationship might feel that we are trying to cash in on it. Especially if it's someone who has the means to support financially. Such individuals are often susceptible to self-interested contacts, and even if our intentions are purely artistic, the relationship may be affected.
Crowdfunding isn't easy. It demands a significant time commitment, both in terms of promoting the campaign and delivering promised rewards.
There's a risk of "not making it." On the platform I chose (more about that in a moment), you need to reach 80% of the set goal to withdraw the funds. Not reaching the goal can affect your project's perception and credibility.
Although one would wish the campaign reached a broad audience organically, in practice, most supporters are acquaintances. This might give the feeling that the money isn't entirely coming from outside but rather from people who would have been willing to help us anyway.

Positive aspects:

The campaign builds awareness of the project long before its creation. For a film, it gathers an audience, people who will want to see the film as soon as it's ready.
Conversations with those who decide to support the project help us better understand the profile of the film's future audience.
Crowdfunding can be done well, and if we manage to gather people willing to financially support our vision once, we can expect easier success with similar projects in the future. Of course, provided we deliver, and the supporters feel they contributed to the success.

For me, the positive aspects outweighed the concerns. Despite the validity of my concerns, I felt like I had nothing to lose by leading the campaign. I decided to treat it as a way of finding the first viewers and engaging them in the project, even if it's just a handful of people.

However, I must admit I wasn't ready for some things. I'll explain that in a moment 🙂

Now, regarding the choice of the platform.

My film is a Polish production but almost all the dialogues are in English. Plus, most of my professional contacts are international.

Therefore, I dismissed Polish platforms and opted for the American platform Seed & Spark, dedicated to film crowdfunding. I thought it would be a good choice. However, now, post-campaign, I see some drawbacks.

Let me start with what I liked about Seed & Spark.

Firstly - launching the campaign. The campaign needs to pass a verification stage and receive dedicated feedback from someone on the Seed & Spark team. Indeed, after filling out all the sections and preparing the video, I received quite detailed instructions on what could be improved.

For example:

I was informed that $25 support is the most frequently chosen amount, especially by people not directly familiar with anyone involved in the project. Hence, it's worth creating a reward for this support level that could potentially expand the campaign's reach as these people will be more willing to share it.

What I did based on this information:

My film is titled YELLOW TICKET. The titular "ticket" is a document required from all prostitutes in 19th-century Russia.

I decided to prepare a template where I could replace the photo and send personalized graphics created from the original yellow ticket to supporters, explaining what it is in Cyrillic on the right side, and 'Film Patron' stamped on the photo page.

Did it work?

A few people said they wanted to have their Yellow Ticket, so in a sense, yes. However, ultimately, no one shared this graphic on their Social Media. I didn't directly ask for it, though. Maybe that was a mistake. Still, somehow, I couldn't manage it.

Additionally, I received other suggestions on how to improve the project description and what should be included in it. Overall, the feedback was very helpful and certainly helped me enhance the project page. This is how the page looked (obviously it’s concluded now).

https://seedandspark.com/fund/yellow-ticket

However, shortly after launching the campaign, a few drawbacks of Seed & Spark surfaced.

Firstly, it turns out that before the campaign ends, any supporter can cancel their donation.

Imagine waking up on the second day to an email that someone had donated $1,500. Joy overwhelmed me. "So, people see in this what I do! Fantastic!"

Especially since it was someone outside our contacts. I was thrilled that a stranger could believe so much in our project.

But unfortunately, this support was false. For the reasons mentioned in point 2, this person wanted to attract my attention. Well, they succeeded. However, the fact that anyone can cancel their donation before the end creates uncertainty for creators. And it makes one suspicious - more on that in a moment 😄
I started receiving offers for marketing services very quickly. Often, under the guise of wanting to support or, as in the first point, under support that had no substance.

Yes, that $1,500 disappeared after a few days. Seed & Spark removed that person from the platform for trying to scam multiple filmmakers. Supposedly, spamming is a problem for all crowdfunding platforms. However, I don't have experience with other platforms to confirm this.
Seed & Spark doesn't charge a commission from creators. They operate on tips received from project supporters. Unfortunately, this is also a downside.

They add this tip automatically after selecting the support amount. So, for example, if someone wants to support a project with $100, after clicking on the ‘Donate’ button, they see they're donating $120. This tip can be decreased even to $0, but many people don't see this option and don’t understand why they are being charged more.

Since I've supported two other projects on Seed & Spark, I knew about this situation. Personally, I reduced it to 10% in both cases. However, not everyone knows that they have to click 'Other' and manually enter the tip amount.
The platform also allows the following projects. It can be done for free. You just need to register. Unfortunately, on the mobile version, registration doesn't work using Facebook or Google. Thus, many people give up on registration, missing out on this free way of supporting creators.

Despite these shortcomings, I still feel that choosing Seed & Spark wasn't necessarily bad. I say this from the perspective of a successful campaign's conclusion, but I genuinely feel that despite many drawbacks, the huge advantage is that this platform is dedicated to film projects. You won't find unrelated fundraisers on it.

So, what about finding supporters?

Seed & Spark suggested writing to people beforehand and asking them to commit to specific amounts. All to reach 30% of the campaign goal in the first few days.

This advice intends that if visitors see "momentum" in the campaign, they'll be more willing to support it.

However, I ignored this advice. While I think it's fundamental, I couldn't bring myself to implement it. I didn't want to directly ask anyone for a commitment.

However, I acknowledge the possibility that I should have somehow secured support from a few people beforehand. Perhaps it was a mistake on my part. In hindsight, I definitely would have wanted more to happen during the first few days of our campaign.

After the first day, we had only 1% of the goal achieved. After 5 days, and the canceled false support, we had only 6%.

Not great. But slowly, we gained momentum.

Although it seemed like emails I wrote personally to my contacts weren't yielding results, many of these people simply postponed their actions. I understand that - we're all busy.

I'll also add that all my emails were written in a non-pressuring manner.

I build relationships not to create uncomfortable situations where someone feels I'm expecting something from them. And honestly, I'm cautious not to have those expectations. I wrote to people about the campaign but mentioned that if they simply told one person about my project, they'd already helped me. I didn't set any bars. I wanted those who believe in the project and, at the same time, have the means to afford it, to support it.

I tried to simply be a director talking about his project. Playing for the long-term game. It wasn't a one-goal match for me. If it goes well, in a few years, I'll have more scripts and films under my belt so I can’t compromise my integrity just to get results here and now.

However, for a long time, I struggled to attract the attention of people with whom I didn't have a built relationship; you could say, strangers. It was a massive challenge, and for a long time during the campaign, I felt that I was failing utterly.

Little did I know... 😄

Just when half of the campaign was behind us, a few donations appeared from people I didn't know. One of these people increased their donation the closer the campaign was to its end. I was very suspicious here because I feared it was again not genuine support. However, two hours before the end, I received an email from that person, and my heart was filled with joy. Not only because their support turned out to be genuine, but primarily because this person genuinely believed in our project.

When the clock struck the end, we exceeded the fundraising goal by 37%.

The undeniable success of the campaign wasn't just the financial support we received, but also the support of people who shared our project and meant a lot to me. Like Simon Smith - the editor of series such as Chernobyl and Andor.

I'll add that the entire crowdfunding process was quite emotional for me. This project means a lot to me, and the fear that something might not work out overwhelmed me sometimes.

The campaign ended successfully, but from the start, I knew the budget we needed was even larger. Despite a successful crowdfunding campaign, we faced the daunting task of securing an additional $15,000 to achieve our vision without compromise. This financial hurdle meant exploring further sponsorship opportunities, a testament to the ongoing challenges of independent filmmaking.

To cut the story short, one S&S supporter decided to donate even more after the campaign concluded and I paid the remaining sum out of my pocket.

Remember - the 5DayDeal event ends on June 13.

Choose Your Bundle 👉

Take care!
- Piotr

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