“There is, unfortunately, no better time to raise money than when you are shooting a film. When a film is in production, there’s magic in the air. You can feel the energy. It’s the “crack-high”.” – Tom Malloy, Bankroll
First of all, I want to thank again our four cash backers that really made the shoot possible. They get executive producer credits for their support. The shoot could go ahead thanks to Dapo Osinaike, Jesse Gamble, Lisa Bobrowicz and Gavin ap’ Morrygan.
I posted in this blog on Saturday 13th August the need for a cash injection in order to go ahead, and by mid-week I still hadn’t moved on it, and the need was staring me right in the face. It threatened to bring everything to a grinding halt.
Somehow I needed to raise $1000 in 24hrs in addition to the longer term Kickstarter campaign, which is still in preparation and will be launched soon.
I’m not sure why I didn’t get on the fund raising bandwagon before, I think it was partly denial, partly fear (those two factors are tightly integrated), and partly a inner voice that said “wait… it’s gonna be okay”.
There’s something to be said for raising funds during production. Tom Malloy in his fantastic book Bankroll, called it “The Dangerous Approach”, and in many ways I agree.
The pre-requisites are the same as for any form of financing beforehand, you must have a killer product on your hands, you must have a large and influential network, and you must have total and utter confidence in yourself and your team.
You MUST be able to sell yourself.
In the end, YOU are the product you are selling more than your film.
I know this, because I know that in every Kickstarter campaign I have backed, I have backed the film maker, not the film.
I could write a lot about crowd-sourcing funds for a film, I think about it a lot, along with all kinds of more traditional financing avenues. I have witnessed many fantastic Kickstarter campaigns succeed, and I know what they all had in common. I know why 99 out of 100 people that want to raise funds online (I’m referring here to using Twitter as your primary networking and communication foundation) don’t stand a chance.
Most of my film maker friends that I speak to face to face in the “real” world will fail online for one reason, the reason is because I don’t know who they are in the online world. They don’t exist… okay maybe they registered for twitter at some point, but they simply don’t exist in the online arena that matters most… Twitter.
When I try to explain that they need presence… and that means 20 tweets a day, it means constant engagement with others, with influential others… growing a network, actively and strategically selling themselves (carefully and unselfishly) to everyone they come across, I get a glazed expression of confusion as if I’m speaking some foreign language.
Here’s some of my most fundamental thoughts on the matter, and they apply regardless of when or how you raise funds.
1. You should be selling yourself, not your film.
2. Selling yourself requires confidence (not arrogance).
3. Selling yourself requires doing, not just talking. Show what you’re busy with, photos, videos, blogs, utilize facebook and Google+ to showcase your work, your passion, your dedication.
4. Trust and respect is earned not deserved.
5. Building relationships takes time… months, years before you should ask anything from anyone.
6. Honesty and transparency are key.
7. Every tweet, no matter what it is, says something about you, make sure it’s painting the right picture.
8. Be respectful and encouraging to others, take a active interest in others, in their projects.
9. Give yourself away, if you have a niche area of expertise… give it away, become a resource.
10. Humility will get you far with people.
Actually (and I’m giving away a secret here), every principle you need to apply online, and really in all of your real world relationships is in a book written long before the computer or the internet. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” – Dale Carnegie. This book will change your relationships for the better online and offline. Get it. Read it. Read it again.
How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the first bestselling self-help books ever published. Written by Dale Carnegie and first published in 1936, it has sold 15 million copies world-wide. – Wikipedia
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