Indiegogo
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Should You Stream Your Festival Premiere on VHX?
Good podcast conversation today at TFI Live with Jason Guerrasio speaking with producer Marilyn Ness (E-TEAM) and Indiegogo’s John T. Trigonis about the nascent trend of live streaming features for crowdfunding backers. They discuss the live stream of Steve James’ Life Itself alongside its Sundance premiere. For $25, 1,900 Indiegogo backers took James and his team up on their offer. Trigonis talks about the effort from the Indiegogo point of view, and Ness discusses why she and her team couldn’t do such a release. The conversation expands to include discussion of the types of films that would and would not […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 25, 2014 -
Digital or Bust: The Brooklyn Heights Cinema’s Indiegogo Campaign
The phasing out of film prints by the Hollywood studio system is more than just a nightmare for the cinephile who disdains DCPs: it’s a living hell for the arthouse theater whose projection materials are suddenly obsolete, and its doors, in danger of closing. The Brooklyn Heights Cinema is one of those pleasurable, old timey theaters that still has a matinee ticket price, charm to spare, and just so happens to be dangerously close to becoming past-tense. Owner Kenn Lowy has started an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funds needed to convert his cinema to the digital age. Their prizes […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 27, 2014 -
Indiegogo Partners with VHX and Yekra
Last week, Vimeo announced its partnership with crowdfunding platforms Kickstarter, Seed&Spark and Indiegogo, the latter of which is looking to keep as many options open for its filmmakers as possible. Indiegogo has gone and brokered a deal with the direct-to-fan streaming platforms VHX and Yekra: successful campaigns will receive a sizable discount should they choose to distribute their final product on either site. These initiatives seem to strike at the heart of crowdfunding’s dilemma — that raising funds is only half the battle. Once a film is completed, there’s still the matter of it being seen. This should be relatively easy, […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Jan 22, 2014 -
My Crowdfunding Crash Course: 14 Tips from The Royal Road
After my very successful crowdfunding campaign this summer I’ve been asked repeatedly for tips and advice by numerous other filmmakers. In the spirit of helpful guidance (and to make it easier to deal with as people keep asking me to share this info) here are my tips and guidelines. I did my campaign on Kickstarter but these guidelines are equally applicable on Indiegogo and other platforms. 1) Make sure your description is compelling, as concise as possible and conveys urgency. Click the link to see mine — you can decide whether you think it’s compelling, but in any case it […]
by Jenni Olson on Oct 17, 2013 -
First Do No Harm: Lessons and Questions after a Crowdfunding Campaign
Last week, my production partner and I reached our Indiegogo film crowdfunding goal. We worked a ton, both on and offline, spun our wheels a bit, thought we set our goal too high, figured we might be harassing our friends too much, worried we picked the wrong time to fundraise, and grew concerned that our campaign was too long. But, in the end, we were able to course-correct and come out on top, beating the $15,000 goal by some $700, with the last $7,000 coming in the final four days of the campaign. Like anything that really tests your faith […]
by Sara Kaye Larson on Feb 20, 2013 -
In Pursuit of The Purple Onion
When I was a doorman at San Francisco’s Punchline and Cobbs comedy clubs, I never would’ve thought that three years later, I’d be making my first feature film about a comedian. I went to film school in Poland, from where my parents emigrated. While there, I made several short films, which went on to play at international film festivals in France, Albania, Poland, and the U.S. Before I went to Poland, while working with my father in China, I passed on his proposal to expand his furniture-making empire, as he called it, in order to pursue filmmaking. Eventually, back in […]
by Matt Szymanowski on Dec 29, 2012 -
Delay in Crowdfunding Rules Stalls Independent Film Investment Options
The Jumpstart our Small Business Startups Act (JOBS Act), passed by Congress earlier this year, promised new investment opportunities for filmmakers. For the first time, entrepreneurs of all stripes could raise equity financing — not just donations — via crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo. The law was signed by President Obama on April 5, and the SEC was given 270 days to draft the regulations required for its implementation. But, as Robb Mandelbaum in the New York Times reports today, that deadline is likely to be missed, and some believe it won’t be until 2014 before a filmmaker can sell an […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 27, 2012 -
Crowdfunding: The Unsustainable Truth
You cannot create a film career by crowdfunding. Let me say it again. If you believe that crowdfunding has the potential to reach levels that will allow you to make movies on a consistent basis, movies that can compete with commercial fare or even modestly budgeted union-made films, you are going to be severely disappointed. I’m assuming that a career in film is what you want. But if your only goal is to get a project produced and have it seen by those who attend the hundreds of film festivals in the U.S. or the thousands of festivals that have […]
by Terry Green on Oct 15, 2012 -
Committed to Film
Stereotypes exist for a reason. They exist because they’re usually true, or at least they stem from a truth. For example, when filming in the countryside on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, a stereotypical image would be that of a herd of goats meandering through the set. Cliché? Unrealistic? Yet, this is exactly what happened every morning at 11am sharp while we shot a local feature film earlier this year. The sound man would roll his eyes in frustration, being the first to hear the clinking of their bells, the crew would move their gear out of the way and […]
by Stelana Kliris on Oct 15, 2012 -
Another Web is Possible
Most mobile and wireline users rely on a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) to access the web. Such ISPs include big dogs like AT&T and Verizon, Time Warner and Comcast, as well as small fries like Earthlink and Juno. However, there is a second class of ISP that is little discussed: nonprofit ISP. Nonprofit ISPs involve two different types of providers – municipal or community networks and nonprofit corporations. In 2001, there were only 16 government-run networks in nine states. Today, there are an estimated 150 communities around the country with their own publicly-owned broadband networks. In the face of […]
by David Rosen on Sep 28, 2012
