10/19/12 1:09 AMLRFF directors turn to funders like Kickstarter | Cover Stories | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art

Page 1 of 3http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/lrff-directors-turn-to-funders-like-kickstarter/Content?oid=2261661&mode=print

LOG INLOG IN / CREATE ACCOUNTCREATE ACCOUNT

MAY 30, 2012

Arkansas Times

NEWS » COVER STORIES

LRFF directors turn to funders likeKickstarter by Kim Lane

Jeff Nichols, en route to the Little Rock Film Festival (LRFF) days afterscreening his new film at Cannes for the second time in as many years,couldn't have made his debut film, "Shotgun Stories," which launchedhim into national acclaim, without financial help from family and friends.His parents supplied most of the small shooting budget and, while hisfinished film sat for months in a film canister deteriorating, Nichols hit upevery friend and family member he came across to help him pay toprocess the film. It's a model of fundraising that's probably as old asfilmmaking.

But glad-handing may be giving way to crowd-funding with the rise of fundraising websites likeKickstarter and Indiegogo that have especially taken hold in the film world. A survey of this year'sLRFF lineup reveals that more than half of the featured films used Kickstarter or Indiegogo for atleast a portion of funding.

The sites provide a platform for would-be filmmakers (or anyone with a creative project in need offunding) to offer a pitch through pictures, video and a mini-essay. Fundraisers name a dollar goal, adeadline and offer tiered gifts to donors based on the size of their donations. For film projects,fundraisers usually put up things like limited-edition DVDs and posters of the film as potential giftsfor donors.

Annie Eastman, the director of "Bay of All Saints," who'll meet with LRFF filmgoers after the Fridayand Saturday screenings of her film, turned to Kickstarter when her documentary was chosen topremier at SXSW. It ultimately won the Audience Award for Best Documentary there. "There are somany big costs that come at the end of a project, like the original score and color correction, audiomix and sound design and other finishing aspects that we need to do to get the film ready for a

click to enlarge

CROWD-FUNDER: MarthaStephens, director of"Pilgrim Song," raised morethan $8,000 on Indiegogo.

10/19/12 1:09 AMLRFF directors turn to funders like Kickstarter | Cover Stories | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art

Page 2 of 3http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/lrff-directors-turn-to-funders-like-kickstarter/Content?oid=2261661&mode=print

festival-type screening."

Crowd-funding through sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo can be particularly helpful fordocumentarians because foundation money is drying up and fewer networks are commissioningfilms than in years past, according to Little Rock Film Festival co-artistic director Brent Renaud, adocumentary filmmaker. "A lot of people want to acquire finished films. It's a little bit cheaper for thenetworks to do that."

Partnering with Kickstarter is simple, according to Eastman, requiring little more than filling out aform, setting a deadline and fundraising goal and requesting approval. Within 48 hours of herrequest, Kickstarter had approved "Bay of All Saints." Eastman exceeded her $10,000 goal before herdeadline, ultimately raising more than $16,000.

Martha Stephens, director of the narrative feature "Pilgrim Song," also screeing at the LRFF turnedto Indiegogo instead of Kickstarter because the former guaranteed that even if she failed to meet hergoal, she would get at least a portion of the money donated towards her film. With Kickstarter, if afundraiser doesn't meet her goal, donors get their money back.

When a donor gives money to a film on Indiegogo, the money is taken out right away. If a directordoes not reach her goal, she gets around 70% of the money donated, and the remaining 30% goes toIndiegogo. Fortunately, Stephens reached her funding goal of $8,440 at the last minute.

Stephens had to rely on crowd-sourcing because she had no other way to fund the movie. "I didn'thave enough clout to find backers or find someone who wanted to invest solely. I come from a prettybasic middle-class family. A lot of filmmakers have well-off parents and there's nepotism involvedand I didn't have any of that," said Stephens.

Her previous film, "Passenger Pigeons," was made from a small budget of $8,000. She made the filmusing money from her savings account and borrowing money from relatives. Without Indiegogo,Stephens would not have been able to produce "Pilgrim Song."

When asked if she thought these grassroots movements were a new trend for filmmakers, Stephenssaid, "I think every filmmaker should be able to make one movie on a Kickstarter or Indiegogo, andthen after that I think they need to find another way to do it," adding that while she has donated tofilms in the past, it is difficult to donate on a regular basis.

"When you're trying to make multiple movies, I think you're asking too much from your friends andyour family. 'Pilgrim Song' will be the only movie I'm going to crowd-source, and I'm going to try tofind investors from here on out. But I think it is important that everyone gets that one time," said

10/19/12 1:09 AMLRFF directors turn to funders like Kickstarter | Cover Stories | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art

Page 3 of 3http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/lrff-directors-turn-to-funders-like-kickstarter/Content?oid=2261661&mode=print

0 TweetTweet Share

« Movies head South | LRFF 2012 schedule »

Stephens, acknowledging that it may be easier for her to make one movie after "Pilgrim Song," butafter that, finding funding will be very difficult. "There's just not a lot of really rich people out therewho want to invest in something that's probably not going to make its money back," said Stephens.

The crowd-funding sites will stay around "as long as there are people around with a vision who wantto raise money," said Eastman. "It is such a democratic platform; you don't have to be born in theright corner of the earth to go on the Internet and attract a bunch of attention to raise money."

The growing popularity of the sites may be self-defeating, though. "Every day, local filmmakers arepopping up on Facebook with a Kickstarter or Indiegogo project," said local filmmaker Levi Agee,who helped program the Little Rock Film Festival.

Like 0 Send