Two months ago on the podcast, I interviewed the Sundance Film Festival's Joe Beyer about his passion project: Rex Ranch. As Sundance's Director of Digital Initiatives, Joe has been involved in the waging of more Kickstarter campaigns than anyone I know. But when he finally took on a crowdfunding campaign of his own, he went bigger. Way bigger.
Find out what has happened with Rex Ranch since then.
After highlighting their favorite projects of 2013, Kickstarter follows up with a review of the 20 projects that have a presence at the Sundance Film Festival. (Interestingly, not all of them are films.)
One of the best things about crowdfunding films is that little thrill that happens when a project you back makes it into a big festival. Two of the projects I backed (Blue Ruin and Drunktown's Finest) are playing in Park City this week. I had little to do with that success other than giving a few dollars to each, but it's a nice feeling regardless.
Kickstarter just posted this clever sub-section of their site that highlights some of the more remarkable Kickstarter-related moments and campaigns from the last twelve months. Stick with it to see the DeLorean Hovercraft and the human-powered helicopter.
Asking for money is an awkward thing. When the answer is "yes" it's great, but when it has to be "no," well, even saying "that's OK" gracefully can add to the uneasiness.
To avoid this, when I ask friends for contributions to a Kickstarter campaign (as I have been doing every day for the last two weeks), I make it clear that I'm only asking for a dollar. That's it. If they want to give more, great. We have some great rewards that anyone anywhere who loves film festivals will enjoy. But really, one dollar will make me really happy. Giddy even. A $1 request makes it really easy for the askee to say yes (almost everyone can pitch in a buck) and that $1 pledge carries way, way more weight than a simple tweet or a like.
Here's why.
Episode #15, in which Chris Holland talks crowdfunding with Joseph Beyer, Director of Digital Initiatives for the Sundance Film Festival & Institute. As one of the founders of Sundance's Artist Services program, Beyer has worked with Kickstarter on the successful funding of more than 90 crowdfunding campaigns, raising more than 2.8 million dollars since 2011. Joe now faces his biggest challenge in his first personal crowdfunding campaign — and because of the nature of the project, he can't use Kickstarter as his platform. Tune in for an informative and personal look at the technical, strategic, and emotional aspects of fundraising online.
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