How NOT to Raise Money for an Indy film

an affair

First, make your video embeddable!

OK

So yesterday we had a discussion about how to make the world’s worst political commercial.

(Incidentally, I emailed my comments to Terryl Clark’s campaign office. So far, no response. (I think she’s gonna lose).

In any event – today’s lesson: How NOT to raise money for a feature film.

The screen grab above is from a site called Kickstart.com

It’s a place, as the name suggests, where you can ‘kickstart’ a project – like a feature film

In this case, I found a posting by Chris Hansen, who is trying to raise $20,000 for his film – An Affair

So far he has raised $1550 from 15 backers, which is either friends and family or people who also contributed to Terryl Clark.

In any event, i would play the video for you that Chris uses to raise the money, but as I said, it’s not embeddable. It’s supposed to be, but when I go to grab the code it shows you a mailing address, which means that either Chris doesn’t understand the concept of URL or they don’t want it to go viral. Probably the latter.

So here’s the link to the video.

The pitch starts out OK. (I mean, he could lose the hat)…. but it’s OK.

The problem begins after the first sentence or two.

I want to SEE the movie.

Or at least one small scene.

Tempt me… don’t explain it to me.

Show me.

Chris doesn’t do this.

He just blathers on and on and on…..

(What two ‘strangers’ are doing meeting a a motel, then deciding to have an affair is beyond the point. Normally it happens the other way around…)  In any event…

I keep waiting to see just one scene. What am I supposed to be investing in here anyway?

And it’s not like Chris doesn’t have the actors all lined up.

Soon he cuts to them – also making a pitch (and they’re first pretty inarticulate and second – another stupid hat. What is it with the stupid hats?).

By the time this video is over, Chris has convinced me NOT to invest in the film… Great job!

What he should have done was taken his two actors and shot just a very small scene.

Tempt me!

Seduce me!

Don’t try and talk me into it.

That’s not what film is all about.

This attempt does not work because it does not use the very medium it is all about – the power of storytelling.

My grade: D+

(you need something for making the effort.. but not much).

*And a tip of the hat to Robert Chandler for digging this one up

Michael Rosenblum

For more than 30 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.