Elizabeth Radshaw, Hot Docs Industry Programs director 36 Got a great idea for a production, but no interest from traditional financing sources such as broadcasters, government agencies or distributors? Well, you may still be in luck, becauseanewgenerationof onlineplatforms has emerged around the world to help the creative community overcome its money problems. Crowdfunding is its name, and it has emerged as an alternative-funding vehicle, driven by huge success stories on platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo in the U.S. Crowdfunding is a web-based participatory process that allows a producer to post an online pitch for financial contributions. The pitch goes straight to the inboxes of targeted offices and homes, bypassing traditional avenues and cutting out middlemen. Key to the process is social networking and its ability to harness the power of online communities to extend publicity and financing opportunities. As of April 2012, 450 active crowdfunding platforms existed internationally, mostly in North America and Western Europe. One example worth looking at is Slated, a New York City-based company that connects filmmakers and potential financiers online. In its one-year operation, it has registered 4,000 members who each pay $500 a month. The platform differs from crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, in that Slated solely introduces filmmakers to equity investors (who meet the Securities and Exchange Commission requirements). Plus, each film project listed on Slated must have a director, a producer, a writer and principal cast to be considered. Reacting to a growing demand for information by the Canadian creative community, the Canadian Media Fund (CMF) recently launched a new website dedicated to crowdfunding that is a benefit not just to Canadians, but also to the production industry worldwide. The CMF site features a directory listing some 50 crowdfunding platforms accessible to Canadians — platforms that are most relevant to creative content projects. It also sheds light on the Canadian regulatory and legal situation relating to crowdfunding, as well as facts and statistics on the phenomenon, plus a list of best practices. Aimed at the Canadian industry, it is nevertheless of great value to the creative community worldwide, particularly because it includes case studies of recent successful crowdfunded projects, such as The Age of Stupid, the project of Franny Armstrong and U.K.-based Spanner Films. Doc Ignite is one of the sites listed by the CMF. It is a crowdfunding service operated by Hot Docs, Canada’s International Documentary Film Festival. With six campaigns under its belt, Doc Ignite is different from other crowdfunding services in one main aspect: It works with a single doc-in-progress at a time, to really focus on the project, so that projects do not compete with each other and can benefit from the services of a dedicated publicist. Doc Ignite solicits independent Canadian projects that best represent the Hot Docs family of work. Projects are selected by a committee, and there is a lead up time of three months to assist the producer build up a carefully planned, strategic campaign, get the social media in place, prepare the outreach and get the actual pitch itself out to potential online contributors. The success of the campaign comes from the collective excitement the project generates. Toronto producer Charlotte Engel of Rock Yenta Productions, observed that projects with a builtin fan base or with a built-in community around a cause are the most likely to succeed. ElizabethRadshaw,HotDocsIndustryPrograms director, agreed that social issues attract attention because of their altruistic nature, but she said ultimately the most important component is the relationship between the creator and the audience, no matter what the subject. JocelyneClarke, aproducer atMontreal’s Pleiades Inc., had a different take on audience relations. Her project, Granny Power, is about older women who formed a highly original protest group, singing for social justice, peace and the environment. The main characters in Granny Power are between 65 and 80 years old and the project hit a bump in the road because its potential funding target was not necessarily tech or social media savvy. The project was originally with Indiegogo, but in addition to the audience issue, Pleiades found that keeping the campaign vital and alive took a huge amount of manpower and outreachwork every single day, and it was more than the company was able to sustain. Pleiades has since looked elsewhere for financing. Different crowdfunding models exist, and some models are better suited to the creative content industries than others. Doc Ignite, for instance, is donation-based, and offers incentives such as DVDs or in-kind contributions (e.g., editing facilities, access to footage and other sorts of assistance) as rewards for participating. Participants have no expectation of repayment, gain or ownership incentives. Rewards depend on the level of the contribution—C$250 might garner a DVD. The lending model is another type, where contributors expect a repayment of their contribution in some form. Another is the investment model, which sees contributors purchasing securities of some sort. All models, however, bring with them legal and financial implications of which the producer must be cognizant, including issues such as tax and regulatory effects, chain of title, etc. Crowdfunding campaigns provide advantages for producers beyond financial gain, ranging from advance marketing insights into the potential for the project, to getting creative feedback. At Montreal-based Cuban Hat, the non-profit organization founded by Diego Briceno and Giulia Frati, instead of cash, winners get a “hat” full of helpful services, ranging fromaconsultationwitha mediaexecutive,toafreeconferenceaccreditation, or a host of other in-kind contributions. Cuban Hat solicits submissions from around the world, and a selection panel narrows them down to 15, then online voting selects the top five. These are pitched live at a documentary venue or trade event, and the winner gets voted on in-situ. This November, Cuban Hat is organizing its own pitching event in Montreal. Secret Trail 5 is a Doc Ignite success story. The producers, Amar Wala and Noah Bingham, first tried traditional funding sources, but hit the recession of 2008-2009 and couldn’t raise a broadcast license, so they built their own crowdfunding website and raised $27,000. Then Doc Ignite, with its strong support system and access to a huge audience base, helped them find the rest. The project deals with the human aspect of the war on terror in Canada, and the pitch, a call to Canadians to debate this issue, hit an emotional chord. In just threeweeks of a five-week campaign, almost C$18,000 was raised from 147 contributors. Amar Wala’s caveat: don’t expect to raise your entire production budget through crowdfunding, and do expect to work on it full-time in the key pitch period. Secret Trial 5 is currently in postproduction. Another Canadian success story — this one on Kickstarter — is Indie Game: The Movie. It was one of the first feature films to be posted on Kickstarter, and was funded in part by two successful crowdfunding campaigns. It premiered at the Sundance FilmFestival in 2012, where it won the Best Editing Award in World Documentary Cinema and was optioned by Scott Rudin. While one-off documentaries from independent filmmakers seem to be the most common crowdfunding projects, actor-director Zach Braff’s campaign—again on Kickstarter— for a sequel to his filmGarden State, reportedly raised over $3.1 million, well beyond the $2 million requested. The highly anticipated Kickstarter campaign to fund a Veronica Mars movie shattered a few crowdfunding records. The campaign, pegged at a C$2 million goal, ended up raking in nearly C$5.5 million as of press time, with over 86,000 backers. With success stories like these, crowdfunding has become a major player in the production universe and it’s growing exponentially. By Isme Bennie Asking For Production Money Gets Interactive, Fun October 2013 Canadian Report
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