When during the filmmaking process is the right time to crowdfund? You don't want to start your crowdfunding campaign too early or too late. Before you begin to crowdfund you need to have an audience of potential backers and a team of filmmakers who will help you promote your page. Take a look at our pre-launch checklist to see if you're ready! You should also plan ahead and not crowdfund too close to your shoot dates. Your campaign is going take a lot of time and effort so you don't want to have to plan your shoot at the same time. You should keep in mind that from the day your campaign ends it will take another 2 weeks before you receive the funds. How much money should I ask for/is realistic? Take a look at our blog for setting the right target. How long should I crowdfund for? We recommend crowdfunding for around 30 days which should be long enough to get the word out but not too long to over exhaust your audience. Most campaigns get a large amount of funding in the first and last few days but lose momentum in the middle so keeping a campaign running longer than 30 days is usually not beneficial to reaching your goal. What’s the best social media platform for crowdfunding? Statistically speaking Facebook tends to get the most funds for crowdfunding campaigns. That said your best platform will be where the majority of your audience is so go out and find out where that is. Where should I promote my campaign- on personal or project-specific accounts? Both! You want to promote to the audience following your film social media accounts as well as all your family and friends following you on personal accounts. Is there a time of year better or worse for crowdfunding? You certainly do not want to crowdfund between mid November and early February. Towards the end of the year people tend to be preoccupied with Christmas, buying presents and travelling. In January on the other hand people are out of money from Christmas and pre-occupied with their own New Years resolutions. July and August also tend to be quiet months as people are away on holidays, spending a lot of time outside and less in front of their computers where they can support your campaign. What day should I launch my campaign? Weekends along with Mondays are notoriously bad for launching crowdfunding campaigns. You therefore want to launch on a Tuesday at 11am so that you have a strong first 4 days before you hit the first weekend. When you get to your first Saturday you can expect the number of daily backers to start dropping. How do I get my teammates to help with the campaign? Your team is absolutely crucial for reaching your target so you should start by picking a core team that are just as passionate about the project as you are. You want to make sure each team member has a specific and strong incentive for the campaign to be successful. Your job as the campaign manager is to keep them excited and motivated during the entire process. Can I crowdfund multiple times for the same project? ...should I? If you need to crowdfund multiple times for the same film, there are definitely no rules against that! But I would never plan on doing that. Your backers might feel misled if they find out that you knew the first target you set wasn't high enough to make the film from start to finish.
What are some good reward ideas for film campaigns? Here is a full list of reward ideas!
We hope you enjoyed this blog. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions - we'd love to hear from you!
If you are looking for my guidance and advice on film distribution and funding we have a series of courses on funding and distributing your film online which you can browse using the links below:
Feature Film Funding & Distribution Course - 14+ hour of video tutorials will guide you through the entire process of funding and distributing your film. It will go through a variety of methods and strategies including crowdfunding, private investors, product placement, online distribution, cinema released and much much more!
Feature Film Producing Course - 4+ hours of video tutorials teaching you how to fund and distribute a feature film with a budget between 50-500k.
Film Crowdfunding Course - 4+ hour of video tutorial teaching you how to prepare for, launch and market a film crowdfunding campaign.
Online Film Distribution Course - 4+ hours of video tutorials teaching you how to self-distribute a feature film online.
Finally you can also take a look at our upcoming online and in-person London-based events here.
