I hate asking for money. Hate it. If things with indie films were more sure and the market was on more steady ground I wouldn't have a problem asking an investor for funds. Let's face it, having a better business person involved with the movie, someone who keeps his or her eye on the bottom line, isn't entirely a bad thing. It might cost some creative control, but if you're doing this as a business, or even a self-sustaining art form, somebody has to buy the movies when they're all done.
But, like I said, those issues aside, an indie film with a very low budget is a gamble. At best it has a long investment life before it pays off and this economy makes it difficult to ask people to wait 5 or 6 years before they see a return. Would I like to make some middle class investors who believe in me rich? Absolutely! Am I willing to risk losing their money instead if the masses suddenly grow weary of tentacle probing monsters? No.
A decade or so ago it was very fashionable for young filmmakers to max out their credit cards to make their dream project. Being married, owning a house and hurtling toward the beginning of the middle of my life the last thing I want is credit card debt. Heck I don't even like car payments. So, gambling it all on cards that will charge me and mine up to 20% when the bills start piling up is not an option.
There is a new fad though and I've been avoiding it like a plague. Online begging. Call it pledges, contributions or pre-sales, but what it comes down to is me asking people, some I hardly know and some friends who get guitled into it, for money for perks they may or may not want in order to help me make the movie I want to make. Sounds glamorous, right? It doesn't feel glamorous either, BUT I realized something. By avoiding these fundraising opportunities I was punishing my casts and crews as well.
Asking people to work for little or no money to get the projects done is just as difficult for me to do, but sometimes easier to accomplish because actors love to act and artists want to work. I'd like to think a few people who are successful now kept with it because of my little projects. Some probably even learned something from the more experienced people like Debbie Rochon, Joel D. Wynkoop, Mike Christopher and others who have been kind enough to grace my sets. That doesn't change the fact that through fundraising pages like Indiegogo I may be able to give these dedicated people more to work with. Not just a more fair day rate for their time, but a movie more like what we want to make instead of just what we can make.
So, I started up a page and we got our first contribution. On the page our budget looks fairly large for one of my flicks. Twenty Thousand Dollars. Just typing it out or saying it aloud gives me a shiver. It could take care of having car payments for one thing, but that's not the issue here. $10,000 would be almost 10x what I spent on my last feature. You read that right. We had to shoot in 4 days to keep hotel, travel and food costs down. We shot Debbie Rochon's scenes for both movies in one visit so that I wouldn't have to fly her into FL twice. These are limitations I'd love to work without sometime. And even though our goal is $20,000 the reason I reference $10,000 is the cost of collecting the money. The page gets a cut, Paypal takes a share, the perks cost money and there is shipping. By the time we're done, I'm figuring we'll net about half what we raise. The rest will be out of pocket.
Because the money is being raised for THIS movie I won't be pulling any of the stuff commonly seen by first time budget makers, like calling a computer, camera and lights part of my budget. Most of that stuff gets used for HFP clients and web shows anyway, so I have it. I even built the 3D rig and purchased 2 special cameras out of pocket already. As much as possible the things paid for from the net funds from the fundraising page for "Alien Vengeance 3D" will appear on screen. Flights and food probably won't make in front of the camera, but the people consuming them will.
That's right, "Alien Vengeance III: The Invasion" is being shot in 3D and represents the first movie I am trying to raise funds for using an indiegogo page. I had raised some money for "Alien Vengeance" and "AV II" on kickstarter but dropped that campaign short of my goal and finished the movies out of pocket.
There are some cool perks there including an exclusive. I'll be adding more, so keep checking if you don't find anything you like. Those who support indie film, but are artists themselves and can't contribute financially, please, still consider spreading the work to sci-fi, horror and indie film fans everywhere.
I'll let you all know how it goes. I have to go edit the final part of Debbie Rochon's CGM interview now.
But, like I said, those issues aside, an indie film with a very low budget is a gamble. At best it has a long investment life before it pays off and this economy makes it difficult to ask people to wait 5 or 6 years before they see a return. Would I like to make some middle class investors who believe in me rich? Absolutely! Am I willing to risk losing their money instead if the masses suddenly grow weary of tentacle probing monsters? No.
A decade or so ago it was very fashionable for young filmmakers to max out their credit cards to make their dream project. Being married, owning a house and hurtling toward the beginning of the middle of my life the last thing I want is credit card debt. Heck I don't even like car payments. So, gambling it all on cards that will charge me and mine up to 20% when the bills start piling up is not an option.
There is a new fad though and I've been avoiding it like a plague. Online begging. Call it pledges, contributions or pre-sales, but what it comes down to is me asking people, some I hardly know and some friends who get guitled into it, for money for perks they may or may not want in order to help me make the movie I want to make. Sounds glamorous, right? It doesn't feel glamorous either, BUT I realized something. By avoiding these fundraising opportunities I was punishing my casts and crews as well.
So, I started up a page and we got our first contribution. On the page our budget looks fairly large for one of my flicks. Twenty Thousand Dollars. Just typing it out or saying it aloud gives me a shiver. It could take care of having car payments for one thing, but that's not the issue here. $10,000 would be almost 10x what I spent on my last feature. You read that right. We had to shoot in 4 days to keep hotel, travel and food costs down. We shot Debbie Rochon's scenes for both movies in one visit so that I wouldn't have to fly her into FL twice. These are limitations I'd love to work without sometime. And even though our goal is $20,000 the reason I reference $10,000 is the cost of collecting the money. The page gets a cut, Paypal takes a share, the perks cost money and there is shipping. By the time we're done, I'm figuring we'll net about half what we raise. The rest will be out of pocket.
Because the money is being raised for THIS movie I won't be pulling any of the stuff commonly seen by first time budget makers, like calling a computer, camera and lights part of my budget. Most of that stuff gets used for HFP clients and web shows anyway, so I have it. I even built the 3D rig and purchased 2 special cameras out of pocket already. As much as possible the things paid for from the net funds from the fundraising page for "Alien Vengeance 3D" will appear on screen. Flights and food probably won't make in front of the camera, but the people consuming them will.
That's right, "Alien Vengeance III: The Invasion" is being shot in 3D and represents the first movie I am trying to raise funds for using an indiegogo page. I had raised some money for "Alien Vengeance" and "AV II" on kickstarter but dropped that campaign short of my goal and finished the movies out of pocket.
There are some cool perks there including an exclusive. I'll be adding more, so keep checking if you don't find anything you like. Those who support indie film, but are artists themselves and can't contribute financially, please, still consider spreading the work to sci-fi, horror and indie film fans everywhere.
I'll let you all know how it goes. I have to go edit the final part of Debbie Rochon's CGM interview now.
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