Successful $10,000 Online Campaign

I'd like to share with you what was behind the success of my $10,000 Indiegogo online fundraising campaign for Zola Jumped In, a feature film about a girl being intiated into a gang and a faith community.

I was originally leading toward doing the campaign at Kickstarter.com because their funders' credit cards aren't charged unless the goal is reached. But the handful of people I asked told me they preferred Indiegogo's payment options -- PayPal, credit card, or check, vs. Kickstarter's Amazon payments. One potential funder even said that he'd prefer to know when he made the commitment whether or not his credit card was actually going to get charged.

I believe Indiegogo recommended a 60-day campaign, but I decided on just 30 days because I needed to know soon whether I'd have the funds to shoot my film this summer and because I didn't want to be working on the campaign instead of the movie for too long. After getting my video and other materials together for the launch, I mass emailed the 1,500 people on my list.

Indiegogo recommends inviting people at least 7 times to become funders. I didn't want to inundate the people on my list, who are only used to getting my monthly newsletter and one or two other emails during the year. So I sent a reminder approximately weekly, including in my monthly newsletter, making a total of only 4 invitations. Still, with each mailing, a few people opted off the list.

Many people who are on my email list are also in my Mud Puddle Films Facebook group. I messaged all the members 3 times, staggering them in between my email invitations. So I suppose some people got 7 personal invitations after all.

In addition, I posted the project a couple times on the Mud Puddle Films Facebook group page, as well as on my Zola Jumped In Facebook page and my personal Facebook page. Also, whenever I posted an Indiegogo update, it automatically went to my personal Facebook page. So it gets a little complicated trying to stagger the invitations.

Indiegogo has what they call a GoGo factor, which measures the action on your campaign, including how many updates you do. If your GoGo factor is high enough, they'll feature your project on their site. But I didn't want to inundate people, especially the people who already became funders, the people who are most likely to have signed up for my Indiegogo updates. Also, Indiegogo doesn't show you who or even how many people signed up for updates. Eventually, I stopped working to make the mysterious GoGo algorithm happy.

In the end, I'm pretty sure most of the people who contributed did so in response to the several hundred truly personal emails I sent out that I haven't mentioned yet.

The site makes it easy for visitors to share the project with friends via email, Facebook, and Twitter. Quite a few people shared. I know that because the Indiegogo analytics show that quite a few people had 1 person they referred actually visit the site. And a few people had 5-13 people actually visit. However, none of these people contributed.

I believe Indiegogo said that goals of $7,500 or less are most successful. But I decided on a $10,000 goal because I felt that's what I really needed to proceed with the film. After the first three weeks of the campaign, I only had about $2,500. I emailed a handful of people I thought might be able to contribute $1,000 (people I had planned on asking to contribute to a separate offline campaign), and several of them actually did. And a few of those I asked to consider a $1,000 contribution gave $250 or $500. So over the weekend the total contributions shot up to about $7,000. I think this success gave the impetus to other people, who helped us reach the goal just in time. (Indiegogo recommends to start your campaign my emailing your closest family and friends. Perhaps this is so that by the time you start inviting other people to contribute, they'll see that others have already contributed.)

There were 1,784 views of the site, 87 of whom contributed, averaging more than $100/donation. Only 1 person contributed the $1 minimum. Most contributed $25, 50, or 100. One of my reminders suggested that people make a $10 donation, but only a few people chose that amount.

I tried to make my perks fun, but I didn't get much feedback indicating that people were particularly enthused about what they were going to get in return for contributing. A handful chose not to get perks.

Some people said they were sorry they missed the deadline, so I emailed them a link to my website, where they can donate anytime. So I've gotten some donations even since the campaign ended.

I can't quite put my finger on what the value of using a site like Indiegogo is. I suppose I ended up paying them $400 (4% of my $10,000) for providing a website template that is attractive and providing ideas on how to proceed. That doesn't sound like much value for my money, but somehow the whole thing motivated me and others.

Most importantly, actually reaching my goal is quite encouraging and motivating.

Jump In With Us!

Just launched our project with Indiegogo! Check it out:

Jobs Not Jails

Our film class at Homeboy Industries, where we're developing Zola Jumped In, just finished making a commercial encouraging employers to give them a chance.

Great Micro-Funding Sites!

I've been researching two really cool micro-funding sites: www.kickstarter.com and www.indiegogo.com. You put your project up with a catchy little video invitation for donations, fun rewards for donors, and a dollar goal.

The sites take a 5% or so portion of your take, but it should be worth it. It's a fun site and has easy ways for people to share your project on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Kickstarter (but not Indiegogo) has a 90-day-limit, and donors' credit cards are only charged if you make your goal. So that has both drawbacks and benefits.

I'm going to give Kickstarter a shot!

More info to come…

The Table Reading

We had our table reading, and it was very, very good. Okay, it wasn't easy to hear all the suggestions, but I think they were very helpful ones. I'd rather hear these things now than tons of time, energy, and money later, after the film is already made.

The table reading is definitely a great low-budget tool. At no cost, actors I found through Craigslist read the script. They, as well as several screenwriter friends offered their comments after. They filled out a survey, but the discussion was so rich I'm still chewing just on that.

And listening to my own voice -- I sometimes try to take suggestions too literally and thereby sacrifice my own vision. How can their comments help me fulfill my vision and not theirs?

It was very helpful also simply for me to listen to my script being read. I realized -- and this matched some of the comments -- that the scenes of the all-night ritual still don't have the juice that the flashbacks have.

Comment below on your experience of table readings.

Give Your Input On Our Script!

How do you receive feedback on your script? In the past, I've asked people to read the script on their own time, and I'm continuing that practice.

But we're also arranging a couple table readings for the Zola script. Another great tool for the low-budget filmmaker, I think.

The idea is to get filmmakers, people who know gang life, film lovers, etc. to read through the script together and have a conversation about it before I write the ?final draft.

Film Class at Homeboy Industries

We've started our film class at Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the country's largest gang outreach. My hope is that a few cast and crew members for Zola will emerge from the class. But at the very least, all of us involved will learn a lot and have a great time. Also, I think the experience will help me deepen the script's authenticity. I'll certainly share the script with at least some of the students and get their suggestions.

The students are Latinos and African-Americans, mostly teens but some a couple young adults. They really want to learn. At least a couple seem serious about a career in film. One wrote in his survey that he's hoping to get "wisdom" out of the class.

The first week, they interviewed each other on camera. Two of the females took charge in their groups and once they learned how to operate the camera they showed the others! The second week, they each wrote a short scene then shot them in groups. Next week, we'll have an acting exercise which they'll shoot. Also, they'll do 1-minute pitches of their class projects.

-dominic