I thought I would share my thoughts after our first week of funding via our IndieGoGo campaign. I think it is important to say first off that I have never really understood the concept of an ‘online community’.
Sure, I am on Facebook, but only really talk to friends who I know and meet up with and let people who know me what’s going on in my everyday life so people know I still exist and never use it for professional purposes really and rarely make friends with people I haven’t met. However, even just this small time we have been campaigning for “Clowning Around” I am starting to see what Leilani was referring to when she spoke of the strength and support of it.
When we first discussed promoting “Clowning Around” via IndieGoGo I knew this would be a big challenge as it is dependent on getting yourself and your project out there for all sundry to see and networking has never been my forte, in fact at most networking events I usually shrink into the corner and wait for people to come and talk to me (hardly the best tactic...).
But as I am so keen to make this film in the right way and the idea of collaborating with more likeminded people really appealed to me, thought this was the best thing to do and over the past 2 months have been making video and writing blogs for people to see as much as they can about the ongoing process of making a low budget short. I am learning as I go and (I hope) as you see more videos they will be a lot more polished and engaging.
I have been watching the campaign like a hawk since it started on the 19th July, doing my best to thank our backers, post about our campaign, add video as well as see what works and doesn’t. On our first day we got a great start of $346 and the following day another $300, with the last two days of the week heralding $200 and $646 respectively to take us into the weekend on a fantastic total of $1292. As I go back to full-time work (I am started a new job at FA TV for Endemol Sport yesterday and had some time off before) my time will not be as free, but I am determined whenever I can to continue to engage and interact with people to keep the campaign running to this high standard.
I have been genuinely overhelmed not just with the support of our backers, but also people on Twitter who have been talking about the project and encouraging others to support, which has resulted in filmmakers Chris Jones, Joe James Barrett, Daniel Florencio, Stephen Hanks, Greg Wakeman, Andy Carslaw, Graham Inman, Jason Fairley, Alan Campbell, Meddy Ford,, Ben Jacobsen, , Peter Spencer, Susan Williamson, Elsa O’Toole, screenwriters Jared Kelly, Alistair Canlin and Guy McDouall, actors Robin Forbes and Andrew Elias contributing to our campaign. I feel the need to say particular thanks to @CharmedLifeFilm @robertshutter @ThreeTuxedos @JellyMash Films @RumbleGum @remiepurtil and @pitchandroll who have been retweeting and promoting the campaign all week as well.
The three most significant contributions were from Spencer Hickson, a musician from Manchester and friend of actor Matthew Jure, Sharon Guest, who is the Head of Production at North One Television and contributed everyone’s leaving present as I departed there this week and filmmaker Mike Baxter who had been following the project since our script redrafts on www.ottfilmsco.uk. Both Spencer and Sharon are now Associate Producers on the project, with Mike as producer and getting the email showing me their contributions gave me such a lift about how much we can get and reward the hard work everyone involved is putting into it.
As I embark further on my career as a filmmaker, one thing that occurs to me is how consistently surprised I am by the support you get from strangers. You kind of expect the instant support of your friends and family. I know you shouldn’t and should try hard to convince them to part with their cash as you should do any other, but you do. But this unexpected support from the community around the world left me truly overwhelmed.
Sometimes its the tiniest things that make my day and make it all worth while and forgetting the amount of money backers have put in and emotional ties I have to people have supported us, my highlight of the week came from a complete stranger in 18 year old Filmmaker Joe James Barrett (@joejamesbarrett) who runs the Screen Stockport festival who after I replied to thank him for his initial Tweet in publiciizing the film, responded “Don’t you worry, I will make sure we get this film made”.
Thankyou mate, you really made my day.
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