Crowdfunding? More like anxietyfunding
So, I had just come back from a four-day expedition to Las Vegas, where I was filming interviews for this documentary (or trying; one fell through) and being interviewed by my alma mater (UNLV, ‘natch). It was Wednesday evening, and I had until 11:59 p.m. Friday to finish building a crowdfunding campaign for Parkway of Broken Dreams on the filmmaking platform Seed&Spark. That was the deadline to submit my project for review and consideration so that it could participate in the upcoming Hometown Heroes rally.
That night, I recorded the “Pj talks to the camera and explains why this film is worth doing and worthy of funding” portion of the pitch video I had to include in the campaign. Right after finishing that–while all the lights and sound were set up in my living room–I recorded a video blog talking about the nerve-wracking experience (despite what you’ve been led to believe, I don’t like going on camera), with the intent of posting it later that week.
Of course, what ended up happening is that I slaved over finishing the campaign build-out, optimizing supporter incentives, tweaking budgets, and perfecting the layout of my story–not quite up to the last minute (I submitted it around 9:30 p.m. on Friday), but close enough. And then I flew out to San Antonio, TX the next morning.
San Antonio was cool, and it was nice to (somewhat) take a break over the extended holiday weekend. But then I had a lot of catch-up to do when I got back to Huntington Beach, so no time to edit that video blog. And then, I got the review email from Seed&Spark. I braced myself for all of the revisions I’d have to make to the campaign, or at least to the pitch video. But no! I was approved. My campaign was good! All I had to do was give a thumbs’ up, and we were off.
That was both a load off my shoulders, and also the start of the next round of anxiety: THIS THING IS REAL. I’ve run a successful crowdfunding campaign before, for the comic book Tales From Lost Vegas. But that was a relatively small dollar amount ($6,000), and a project for a beloved nonprofit with several creators involved and an audience built over three years. And it still just barely crossed the finish line.
The funding goal for Parkway of Broken Dreams‘ campaign is more than double that, and there are aggressive goals beyond the funding (like followers) required to be eligible for the Hometown Heroes additional funding. I keep going back and forth between the nervousness exhibited in the video–which I finally had time to edit and posted literally the same day my campaign was approved–and confidence in the support of the target audience for this film.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the reaction to the announcement of this project has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive. People are truly excited to see this film. Which, I have to assume, might translate into people being excited to help it get made. As noted in the video blog here, the film will get made either way. The funding is a nice-to-have, to make it shine the way it deserves to. (Also, maybe to get myself out of the bit of debt I’ve acquired in the service of this film.)
But the point of crowdfunding for this project is not just to raise money. It’s two-fold:
- To make the audience members stakeholders, so they can feel truly a vital part of its production
- To make me accountable to those stakeholders for producing the best film possible
This does not mean the film will be made by committee. It doesn’t mean my outline or vision gets compromised. It means that it’s production truly becomes a community effort–and that that community is confident enough in my vision to support it in a meaningful way. Plus, I assembled what I think is a pretty cool selection of incentives for supporters via Seed&Spark, rewards that are unique to this project and relevant to the scene documented in the film.
There are only 10 days until the crowdfunding campaign launches. I have a lot of outreach to do before that, and then it’ll be a harrowing month of feverishly trying to not just meet, but to crush, the funding goal. If you’ve read this far and want to be alerted to the launch of the campaign, please join the email list. Once this thing launches on Sept. 17, we’re going to need not just financial support, but followers. Like, lots of followers. We’re gonna go big. Hope you join us for the ride.