Has anyone here "crowdfunded" something?

[Os Cangaceiros]

A couple months ago I donated 20 dollars for a horror film that a teenage horror fan wants to make. The project actually made it's goal of 20,000 dollars, that's what the budget will be. It'll probably be a terrible film but it's cool to get updates on the entire production process of the film.

There was a crowdfunded effort to translate a bunch of Amadeo Bordiga's books recently, I contemplated donating to that one but ultimately didn't.

[The Feral Underclass]

I've been fortunate enough to have most of my films funded by the state or I've just shot them guerilla, but I do have some experience with crowd-funding and most of the time the vast bulk of donations comes from pre-existing contributors, friends and family members.

Depending on what you want to do, I would always go the guerilla route, but that method is really only useful if you're making an arthouse film. If you need big action sequences, horror make-up or special FX, obviously that is going to require money, unless you have connections.

I do think that crowdfunding is a great way to navigate the bullshit of film financing, but I question how sustainable it is. There are obviously thousands of projects that don't get any donations.

[Os Cangaceiros]

^yeah, this particular film I referred to ended up with something like 400 backers, I think?

It helps that there's a pretty loyal fan base around a genre like horror, and if you can appeal to their interests and get the message out on the usual outlets, there's a pretty good chance that you'll get a fair amount of people to throw some of their disposable income at you, even if it's just 10 bucks or something.

[The Feral Underclass]

Yeah, I think genre films like that, especially ones that come our of a particular fan forum, are always going to have more success.

I wish the person luck though. The crowdfunded, independent horror film market is pretty flooded to be honest. When was the last original horror film actually made? Most good horror films nowadays are self-aware pastiches or overblown caricatures of old horror tropes. Cabin in the Woods and the Evil Dead remake for example.

If you've got no other option but to be pedestrian, then at least make sure there's either humour, satire or lots of gore...Or all three.

[The Feral Underclass]

Alternatively, just be completely insane...

iwsqFR5bh6Q

[ed miliband]

i was gonna donate to that one to buy the video of rob ford smoking crack but didn't in the end, probably for the best.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/us-news-blog/2013/jul/18/gawker-donates-rob-ford-video-toronto

[Os Cangaceiros]

Hahaha, that's hilarious, I hadn't heard of that story before now. "Crackstarter" :lol:

[argeiphontes]

I'd like to crowdfund the endownment for a Collective Future Foundation that would provide venture capital to startup worker collectives/cooperatives and serve as an umbrella group for social transformation. But I don't foresee a lot of far leftists buying in. :crying:

[The Feral Underclass]

I'd like to crowdfund the endownment for a Collective Future Foundation that would provide venture capital to startup worker collectives/cooperatives

Why?...

[ed miliband]

Organisation: Socialist Party USA, IOPS

that's why.

[blake 3:17]

Yep. Pretty frequently when I was receiving a living wage.

[Sasha]

It has been the stable tactic of the movement here for decades, benefit events and "share/bond" systems where you donate X (often a bigger amount) and every year so many people get drawn out of ab hat and get the choice wheter they want their investment back, we have been buying whole buildings and bookshops like that.
Also lots of legalized squats who paid of their morgetage loan money to new inniatives.
Internet just made the whole process easier but crowdfunding is in itself of course nothing new.

[The Feral Underclass]

For financing films, it's pretty new.

[Sasha]

surpises me, here a lot of documentaries about the movement and certain causes where already financed by the scene it self way back in the 70's

[The Feral Underclass]

Interesting. I don't know anything about the film financing strategies of Dutch communist documentary makers in the 1970's, but I do know that efforts to re-orientate mainstream film financing away from industry/governmental bodies into a DIY ethic is a very new thing. If you compare film financing now to how it was even three years ago, the landscape is fundamentally different.

I can only really speak to my experience of the UK film industry, mind you.

[Art Vandelay]

Hahaha, that's hilarious, I hadn't heard of that story before now. "Crackstarter" :lol:

Oh man its been all over the news here lately, although its died down for a bit. Such a funny story, I don't know much about Ford, since I'm not from Ontario, but I just wanted the video to come out and be true, just cause it would be funny if the mayor of one of Canada's largest cities has been a crackhead. :lol:

[Sasha]

i was gonna donate to that one to buy the video of rob ford smoking crack but didn't in the end, probably for the best.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/us-news-blog/2013/jul/18/gawker-donates-rob-ford-video-toronto


Hahaha, that's hilarious, I hadn't heard of that story before now. "Crackstarter" :lol:

The cops got their hands on the tape and the major is refusing to resign so it will be in the public domain soon enough: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/31/rob-ford-toronto-crack-video-found-police