Echoes of Silence - GoFundMe Campaign

A few weeks ago I had an idea regarding acquiring funding for the film, Echoes of Silence. That thought stemmed from how expensive this production was turning out to be. With each scene comes a set of costs - regarding expenses, props, costumes etc. On top of that, the mass amount of festival entries we were hoping for weren't cheap either. I remember a time when some ex students started their own crowd funding campaign which was successful, in which they raised over £10,000 for their film, which was a fan film. We weren't likely to get half the amount they did because we didn't have pop culture characters gratuitously slapped on the film to promote it. I did however, look into what makes a crowd funding campaign successful, and what websites you can use. I set the bar at £500 which we would try and raise through persistence and sharing amongst family and friends. The crew of 7 already agreed to chip in £20 each - which already takes us to £140. 

The first and most popular website is 'JustGiving' this page is aimed more toward charity work, rather than the creative/entertainment sector. JustGiving will provide you with a lot of emotional stories or events in peoples lives, which includes people campaigning for funding. Fortunately a lot of these campaigns are successful due to the popularity and wide spread influence of JustGiving. The aim of the site is for you to set a reasonable goal - or an amount which will get you what is needed. You then promote the page through social media (which is the most important aspect of any online fundraising site) and if you meet your target, you get the money. JustGiving take 5% of the final fee.

The next site I looked at was GoFundMe. From the off this seemed like the most suitable option, as it is geared toward a vast array of people who are campaigning for funding for all kinds of things. GoFundMe take half of what JustGiving take at 2.5% the final fee. This may be down to the fact that GoFundMe is less established than JustGiving, however it is still a trusted source used by millions of people around the world. I have first hand experience of setting up a GoFundMe page, as I set up one annually for my mother who runs a marathon for a charity of her choice. GoFundMe has always been a reliable site for doing so. Due to this, and seeing the success people have had through GoFundMe, it feels like the best choice for what it is we're trying to achieve. 

After I had decided on an amount and the website we were going to use I began the process of creating something that would help sell us as a crew, and the film a whole. I tend to look at passing campaigns that look for funding and I make a mental note of what they're doing right or wrong, and whether or not they're close to their targets. Going back to the reference I made earlier about past students campaign for their fan film, theirs was an extremely easy project to sell. They went to the internet and targeted the fans of what it was they were making a film about; batman. The post was inevitably shared with excitement amongst the community of fans, and the campaign eventually came to fruition. Our project is a concept that stands on its own, an entirely hypothetical and fictional universe and set of characters. Because we had nothing which people would blindly invest in, I felt it best that we offered some demonstration of our skills. I then came up with the idea that we shouldn't just have a 'GoFundMe page' with a lot of text and information, and that we should provide a video which we ourselves would produce. The video must demonstrate; 

• A confident and articulate group of individuals 
• The ability to demonstrate our skills in chosen areas 
• Give a brief overview/synopsis of the film
• Outline and identify the cost of the production
• Request funds of our audience

I predicted that if our promotional video for our GoFundMe campaign displayed all of these things, we would sufficiently raise the funds within 28 days. Once I had the concept of the video figured out, I went away and wrote a script. In the script I elaborated on the job role of the individual, which would allow them to clearly articulate that information to the audience. I then thought it would be a good idea to cut out of the dialogue occasionally and into shots of each individual working - e.g. directing, camerawork, sound-operating, editing. This is a great window for us to demonstrate our skill through visuals. It also prevents the stale nature of sitting and talking to the camera from occurring.