Today, Danae Ringelmann, the co-founder of Indiegogo, said the popular crowdfunding platform is expanding in Canada. We met with two successful Canadian TV and Film campaigners, to hear more about their experience using crowdfunding.
Indiegogo now allows payments in Canadian funds with credit cards. That means campaigners keep more of the money they raise and lose none in currency conversion. In Canada, Indiegogo has grown since 2008 and over the last year active campaigns increased by 213 %, with the top cities being Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary.
Sex After Kids: Jeremy Lalonde & Jennifer Liao
Two producers launched a campaign and in 45 days they raised over $60,000. They recommend a shorter campaign duration, betwee 30-45 days maximum, because the most active donation times are at the beginning and end of the campaign. Although it’s a challenge to keep the momentum going, campaigners must engage pretty intensively with fans, to do outreach and build an audience and donors for the project. It’s important to have the donors in mind before the campaign starts, and know there’s an audience for it. Celebrities in the film or TV production you’re trying to fund, who can campaign on your behalf, are invaluable.
Todd and the Book of Pure Evil: Andrew Rosen & Craig Wallace
After two successful seasons on the SPACE channel, their show was cancelled abruptly, as they had already started developing their third season. They had a large fan base, and didn’t want to let them down. The series had a few cliff hangers that they wanted to wrap up, and they were eager to finish the project they had started. So, with their large fan-base in mind (4000+ on twitter; and 22,000+ on facebook), they decided to launch a crowd-funding campaign to see if their audience would be willing to pay for a 1-hour special, for broadcast. They have a broadcast partner, but not all of the money required to finish it. They anticipate making their budget very lean, and hiring freelance animators, instead of an animation studio (as that’s more expensive). They held a contest and 20 bands entered, to get additional music for their soundtrack. In total, they raised over $100,000 from crowdfunding and they’re now on the way to producing the show.
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What do you think? Is crowdfunding something you’d ever try for full or partial funding for your film, tv or webseries?
Have you donated to any crowdfunded TV, film or webseries?
– Amanda @ KensingtonTV . com (social media lead)