Indiegogo Go!

It's been just over a week since I last blogged and it seems like an age. We had a lot to do in order to be ready to kick off the Indiegogo.com fundraising campaign last Tuesday, including getting a website up as the one being built for us wasn't quite ready and in addition to that, creating the online community site for our backers and putting content on there ready for them to enjoy when they logged in. This is something we wanted all our backers to have, a space to engage with the project and network with us and each other. It's a hub where people can also ask us questions about what we're doing so if they want to see something specific

We also needed to finalise the Indiegogo.com pitch video and so Luqman, Damien and myself were looking over clips and footage to get the right tone and pace and make sure it would be appealing, informative and also show a bit about Damien and his personality. I was really pleased with the result which I think shows the true atmosphere on Damien's sets of seriousness of filmmaking craft from exceptional crew members mixed with relaxed fun and efficiency.

We launched the campaign on time and it felt like a rollercoaster week as we went through the process of putting word out there and waiting to see if we'd made the project appealing enough for people to want to become a backer of the work and which would prove to be the popular perks.

In the first three days we raised $1,412. It's been an amazing start thanks to some really stellar support from our backers who have gotten behind the project with gusto! We can't thank people enough as every dollar will make a difference to the film and our cast & crew who are working so hard on this project to give everyone the very best quality of film we can. We've got a long way to go, and nothing quite prepares you for the highs of seeing the figure rise and the anticipation of quiet days like today when nothing happens at all. However it's been spectacular so far and I have confidence we've got a project happening that people will be hugely proud they got behind. In fact it's my job to make sure of that and I intend to do so. *:O)

As well as the funding support we've also had some great support in getting word out about the project. Filmmaker and author of the Guerilla Film Maker's Handbook, Chris Jones is a backer and invited me to do a guest blog on his site to talk about crowd funding the project and the things we've been doing around the project to make it special and make the experience a good one for everyone involved. Also Mubi.com have invited us to add some video about our work in thier production journals and they've been speaking to me about documenting more of our behind the scenes work on their site in the near future. More about that when it's up and going.

Today, as I mentioned, has been quiet so far on the funding front but lots is going on still with more behind the scenes footage being edited by Luqman which I've been providing notes for and plans getting underway for the next production meeting as our thoughts turn towards the pre-production of the actual film. We want to begin early to allow for holidays etc. and gather our Clowning Around HoD's to plan ahead and begin thinking more solidly about locations etc. Since the photo shoot I think the whole team has been energised by how well we worked together and how great it's been to create something from nothing, before we'd done any fundraising at all. The funds Indiegogo.com provides will help us to expand that into the greater amounts of costumes, make-up, logistics, transport, equipment, travel, feeding people etc. we need for the film production proper and we're a good step in the right direction to getting the funds to get that happening but there's still a long way to go. I feel rather like a salmon swimming upstream at the moment but when we get to the top we get to create something amazing and that is worth the work. And you know what.. the water feels great! Jump in with us!