Sundance Institute educational platform (Co//ab) has hosted a free webinar about film crowdfunding strategies with Kickstarter. Fortunately, the webinar was recorded and available to everyone online on the Sundance Co//ab website. Read more below. 

Sundance Co//ab: Educational platform for storytellers

Sundance Co//ab is an online stage launched by Sundance Institute that was created for those who can’t attend live environment events and programs. The goal of this platform is to educate filmmakers regarding the path of their short films. Most importantly, Sundance Co//ab offers a wealth of resources on all aspects of filmmaking, to provide a unique platform to learn, share, and connect with other like­minded creators worldwide. Read our articles regarding this initiative. As we’ve reported here previously, due to the COVID-19 social distancing and lockdown regulations, Sundance Co//ab has announced free access for all Sundance Co//ab Member Q&As and Master Classes. All you have to do is choose your masterclass, register free and participate in the live event. Furthermore, all sessions are being recorded so you can watch them later on as well. One of the most intriguing topics is crowd-funding your film, or in simple words, how to get money for your film. Let’s overview this interesting webinar.

Film Crowdfunding Strategies with Kickstarter

The webinar focuses on how to launch a successful film crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. The main topics are:

1. Learn best-practices for launching a successful film crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.
2. Explore two case studies to reveal what’s worked and what hasn’t when building a Kickstarter campaign.
3. Preparation, presentation and personalize your pitch.
4. Creating your project’s video.
5. How to work with rewards and incentives.
6. Campaign’s timeline and how to choose your funding goal.

The educators of this webinar are well experienced with using the Kickstarter platform as a fundraising machine: Liz Cook Mowe and Elise McCave which both are Senior Directors of Film at Kickstarter.

You’ll learn tips on how to prep, present yourself, and personalize your pitch. You’ll get advice on how to create your project video, work with rewards and incentives, how long to run your campaign and how to choose your funding goal

Sundance Co//ab team

Facts

Let’s start with some interesting facts regarding Kickstarter Film: There are more than 27,000 successful film projects and more than $400 million are pledged from 4.6 million backers. Furthermore, there are 16 Oscar nominees and three wins.

Questions must be asked before launching Kickstarter’s Film campaign

1. What is your film about?
2. Who is working on it?
3. Why are you the right person/people to make it?
4. What is urgent or relevant about this story at this moment in time?
5. What stage of the filmmaking process are you at, and what is your anticipated timeline for completing it?
6. What will the Kickstarter funds help pay for?

The project’s structure:

This is a basic template of how a Kickstarter Film campaign should look like: 

1. Description: Title, short description, self-introduction + team (Introduce your actors and crew)
2. Basic reel: Share a trailer or a scene about the story behind what you’re making. 
3. Describe what you’re making: The format, the location, or the equipment you’ll use to shoot it.
4. Include images of rewards– The most common Film rewards include things like: Access to your final film, access to your previous films, a PDF of your screenplay, a shout-out in the film’s credits: Backers like to know what they’re getting!

Watch the webinar

The webinar goals are to advise you on how to create your project video, work with rewards and incentives, how long to run your campaign and how to choose your funding goal. The Co//ab team ensures that you’ll leave with the skills, ideas, and inspiration to launch, and successfully fund, your own campaign. Click here for the webinar. Watch it and enjoy. The webinar’s duration is 1.5 hours session which constitutes a vital piece of education before launching a Kickstarter campaign to your film.