In order to figure out how much they needed to raise, Producer Vicki de Mey said they broke down the script and made a budget and schedule for the film. “From that it was a matter of defining what each department needs to ensure our project is successful during all phases of production process. With the hard cost details in mind, we were then able to confirm our final fundraising goal.” Chance adds, “Blunt honesty is how we determined what our donation perks would include. We talked about this very directly and learned what each of us would be willing to contribute if we were a friend, family member, fellow filmmaker, or complete stranger to the Project Arbiter production. With that in mind, we determined the incentives based on a margin of return from the donation while always keeping in mind the ‘cool’ factor for each item.” Perks include Project Arbiter dog tags, a digital download of the film all the way to dinner with the team and an Executive Producer credit.
The team suggests thinking of your IndieGoGo campaign as your “closer.” “Your social media outlets, your face-to-face interactions, your ending tagline/URL on your movie trailer all need to drive the message and direction to your fundraising final destination to enable your production to secure the funds it needs to be successful. We went one step further, we created a donation page on the Project Arbiter movie website that breaks down the production’s donation ranks, how the funds are being used, and it provides an animated fuel gauge to show our progress. When the user has learned about the details, they can make the decision to click on the ‘engage’ button to travel to IndieGoGo and make a donation,” said Chance.
“This being our first time using a crowd funding community site, the most interesting and truly enjoyable part of this marketing process has been indentifying within ourselves, each of the core Project Arbiter team members, what makes us want to learn more and ultimately make that decision to support the independent filmmaking cause and donate. To do that, we have learned that you must have a holistic approach to your marketing strategy that starts with establishing your brand and core message and it continues to the multi-faceted engine of the internet. At this ‘spider web’ level of understanding the internet and its power of influence, you can touch one demographic with social media like a trailer on Vimeo or YouTube, write about your production’s success on your website’s blog, and become a thought leader by contributing to forums regarding tech specs and lessons learned. All these facets trigger and play upon one another if you link and connect them together correctly. The overall marketing engine runs at its peak performance if you ultimately realize all those facets can drive to the final destination of IndieGoGo to help you obtain your funding goals and your film dreams.”
The Pig Farmer cartoon sketch.
Another short film much different than Arbiter that is using the platform to raise $5,000 for sound effects, music and transfer expenses is the animation THE PIG FARMER by Nick Cross. It didn’t take much convincing for Cross to choose IndieGoGo. “Other animation artists have been using the site and it was working well for them. I didn't really compare all of the other sites, IndieGoGo seemed very user-friendly and had a nice clean layout which appeals to me, so I went with them.”
“After my last couple of films which were quite long, I wanted to do a shorter, simpler film. I thought of what the simplest possible scenario that exists, historically, in animation - the barnyard cartoon. After that, I just started sketching ideas until the story for The Pig Farmer developed. As with all of my films, they are produced in my spare time and I do all of the work myself, therefore the budget is really quite low,” said Cross.
