Crowdfunding Campaigns for Independent Film

Course details

Crowdfunding allows you to find funding for films and other creative projects from people all over the world. But there are many types of crowdfunding, many platforms to choose, and many pitfalls that can trip up even the most well-deserving campaigns. Learn strategies to successfully plan, design, and execute your own crowdfunding campaign. Filmmaker Kelley Slagle leads you through best practices, shares practical advice and personal insights, and highlights success stories that will help you to meet your crowdfunding goals, whether you use Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or another platform. She covers topics like reaching your audience before the campaign even starts, making a campaign budget, designing a campaign video and visuals, choosing and creating rewards, and following through after your campaign ends.

Learning objectives
Why crowdfund?
Recommended crowdfunding platforms
Finding and researching your audience
Planning your campaign
Breaking down your film budget
Creating a campaign video
Offering rewards and perks
Running your campaign
Following through and keeping contributors happy

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Welcome
02 - My crowdfunding campaigns

1. Crowdfunding Today

03 - What is crowdfunding
04 - Why crowdfund
05 - Types of crowdfunding
06 - Recommended crowdfunding platforms
07 - Continuous crowdfunding platforms
08 - An equity crowdfunding platform

2. Campaign Planning

09 - Before you decide to crowdfund
10 - Finding and researching your audience
11 - Enlisting help
12 - Campaign length and multiple campaigns

3. Breaking Down Your Budget

13 - The importance of a complete film budget
14 - What should your funding goal be

4. Creating a Campaign Video

15 - The importance of your pitch video
16 - Creating a proof of concept and finding a hook
17 - Production values and length
18 - Video Case Study - The Broken Continent
19 - Video Case Study - Of Dice and Men

5. Crafting Your Campaign Page

20 - Compelling visuals
21 - Campaign content guidelines
22 - Campaign transparency and building trust

6. Rewards and Perks

23 - Perk guidelines
24 - Digital rewards
25 - Physical rewards
26 - Experiences and other perks
27 - Designing and pricing your perk levels

7. Running Your Campaign

28 - Kicking it off and closing it out
29 - Using social media and other market outlets
30 - The importance of updates
31 - The dreaded lull

8. Following Through

32 - Perk fulfillment strategies
33 - Keeping your contributors happy

Conclusion

34 - Wrap up and further resources