From what I’ve seen, a good campaign combines a mixture of a catchy title, sub heading and premise along with good rewards!
The films I most wanted to back had interesting concepts and a chance to see the final film if you donate a certain amount. I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t have that as a reward option, I’d you’re interested enough to consider funding it, you’d want to see the finished project without having to pay extra!
I’ve also noticed that quite a few people mention ‘lack of audience’ as a risk. This seems counterproductive to me so I would pick something else as a risk or reword it, like in a job interview when they ask for your weaknesses and you say I’m a perfectionist or I get anxious sometimes because I care so much about doing a good job!
Letters To Finland.
A short film about the end of the world.
42 backers, £1,000 out of £1420. 9 days to go.
The tagline caught my eye straight away and the more I read the more I liked the sound of the project. Sya includes her backstory which helps investors to connect with the premise and her as a person. She gives just enough details of the film to attract interest and intrigue as to what might happen and mentions subjects very relatable to the moment, such as loneliness.
I was personally slightly put off by her mentioning graduating from Yale as I automatically connect Yale to having money in my head, however I expect film backers would assume she must be a great writer to have graduated from somewhere so prestigious.
This project was in post production so it is low risk for investors and mostly a way to test the waters of industry interest. The rewards are good too, they offer to share the film with you and there’s a premier invite too.
Samsara.
A comedy action short film about a real estate agent who teams up with an unlikely ally to stop her soulmate taking over her body.
2 backers, £1 of £785. 27 days left.
While I assume the low amount of backers for this one is partially because it is more recently added, I also feel that the tagline is rather clunky and seeing as it was in the comedy section, I would have made it much shorter and snappier. I.e. A real estate agent teams up with an unlikely ally to stop her soulmate taking over her body.
There are only two paragraphs, possibly to keep it short and snappy but neither actually mentions the film narrative! The first paragraph is all technical budget information and the second is a much more interesting explanation of his company being LGBT and his aims. This paragraph made the project much more endearing and I think it should have been first. Ideally I would have liked a little more backstory.
This is the first project I noticed that had put ‘lack of audience’ under risks. I personally don’t think this is a good idea as it could be read as ‘lack of interest’ The only rewards were credits and if it ends up with 100 backers each paying a tenner this seems a tad pointless.
The pentagon: A short film by Derry Felton.
Creating a short film using webcams, phones and cameras to try and be creative during this strange time.
3 backers, £31 of £900. 24 days left.
The first thing I noticed about this campaign was that he put his name in the title which seems like only something a famous director or a narcissist would do! Maybe he was told it was a good idea, but I would disagree. I do like the part in his first paragraph where he says that paying the actors is his top priority, as an ex-actress I appreciate this a lot.
The premise is fairly clearly summarized in one sentence within the pitch but I feel that maybe that could have been the tagline. Also while I like the premise at no point does it explain the title, which is why it caught my attention in the first place as I thought it would be a political film, which it isn’t.
I do think it being directed on Skype is fascinating but unfortunately this project doesn’t grip me enough to find out how it goes. Once again the only rewards are credits ( I just think if you contribute enough you should be able to see the finished film for free.) and this is the second person to mention a ‘lack of audience’ which makes me wonder if there’s a good reason for putting this, although I cannot think of one.
