Kickstarter could change the way film financing works

Kickstarter has become a huge force for good in the film industry thanks to its clever website giving creative people a shot at raising money and promoting their projects.

With socially active filmmakers using the web to promote their films and gather support it makes perfect sense to look at crowdsourcing as a way to raise financing. But how significant is this, and is it changing the way film financing works?

For many independent filmmakers, film financing is the most difficult, arduous and dreaded task, but sites like kickstarter provide a way to structure a project and promote it to raise money thanks to its merit. With the use of a trailer / concept storyboard, filmmakers and others are beginning to gauge how to gather support and present coherent ideas.

The Linotype documentary feature, one of many listed on Kickstarter, reached its funding goal of $20,000 dollars thanks to the site. While this is just one example, you can see from this introduction how filmmakers are now able to gather financing themselves with the power of the web.

In Europe, the main sources of film financing of indie shorts come from Government organizations, or soft money sources, as they are referred to. With crowdsourcing comes an added finance-raising model that could be adapted for bigger projects.

For independent features, raising even 100K is a huge task, and to convince private equity investors, friends, family and others is a real stretch when you don’t have a showreel or a reputation. So how do you get one?

Using the crowdsourcing model, people can target one portion of their film budget to raise initial funds, that could prove market interest, and convince an investor to put their money towards its completion. Crowdfunding is still relatively new, but what it proves is the audience's engagement with a project. If you can get 100% or more of your funding on Kickstarter, that sends out a very positive message about the quality of the production and it's crew. This also helps filmmakers establish a fan base before the film is even made so there are more than just financial rewards for doing so.

Do you have a project on kickstarter or other similar websites?

Check out their website here : kickstarter.com