crowdfunding for quicksand

[DarthMau]

For years, a couple of friends and I have the idea of ​​making our own videos quicksand; but we have no money to shoot these, we have studied many funding possibilities, including the popular "crowdfunding".

The Crowdfunding is a system of financing projects through donations from individuals interested in these projects and in return the filmmakers offer rewards to donors.

The purpose of this survey is to find out if you would like to participate in crowdfunding for us to perform our own scenes. The projects will be introduced in crowdfunding's manage websites.

I hope to support us in this first step for our rising company. Thank you.

[dlodoski]

I'm not going to vote because I think that in cases like this, the prospective producer needs to outline his intentions and capabilities.

Something like "We have a this kind of location, and so and so models/personalities (need not be well known, but pictures would be good) have agreed to work with us. The main theme we will be exploring is......."

This would be a much more viable research attempt, IMO.

[LeilaHazlett]

The problem with crowd-funding is you already have to have a fan base for it to work. People often assume crowd-funding is a scam regardless of who is doing it but even more so if that person doesn't already have a solid reputation as someone who can deliver the product that they are promising.

Just think about it from a contributor's point of view. I donate $100 to your campaign and in exchange you say you're going to send me one of your videos. But if your campaign doesn't reach it's goal then you don't end up making any videos and your contributors don't get what they were promised.

[Fred588]

I can only answer for my own Studio. For all practical purposes, we already do this through what is called a custom and/or partial custom scene.

[Nessie]

I would suggest that you have a very solid plan before you proceed, and be ready to explain it. You'll have to get people to believe that you can pull it off and that you won't just take the money and run.

It honestly isn't that expensive to produce. The big expenses are your camera and your model(s). But after that, all you need is a location and your car. If you're a sinker yourself, the location part may well be solved.

Money is a factor, but not the deciding factor in whether you will produce.

It is because producing quicksand video really and truly is a lot of hard work and many parts of this will absolutely not feed your fetish. Your fetish may only be fed after you are done, and can relax, and watch what you created.

Because too many people often say they'll do this and they may even mean it...but then nothing happens...your job is to get the investors to believe in you.

Nessie

[Fred588]

Nessie has some very good points. I would like to add one more that is a bit indirect as a response to your original questions but a very important one for any new company. However you finance a startup company, don't actually go into business under capitalized. Figure you need enough to 1) not be permanently or personally harmed even if your initial business volume is zero, 2) to stay in business for several years without altering your business plan and without depending on profit (or even the absence of lass) to keep going, and 3) to do it right. I have known more than a dozen people who failed to follow this rule (in other kinds of businesses) and not one of them make it.

[nachtjaeger]

What Fred588 said. No offense, but I have occasionally joked about QS producers "dealing just enough to support their own habit." I believe I am correct in saying that all the producers on this forum has a "day job" that pays their bills, and does QS film as a hobby.

Fred is right on "normal" businesses also. I really want to quit my current gig with its good salary and full benefits and do something I enjoy. But every time I "run the numbers" it comes up short. Unless I have the startup capital in hand, they don't work- payments on business loans would eat up any profits during the start up period and then some.

Nessie has some very good points. I would like to add one more that is a bit indirect as a response to your original questions but a very important one for any new company. However you finance a startup company, don't actually go into business under capitalized. Figure you need enough to 1) not be permanently or personally harmed even if your initial business volume is zero, 2) to stay in business for several years without altering your business plan and without depending on profit (or even the absence of lass) to keep going, and 3) to do it right. I have known more than a dozen people who failed to follow this rule (in other kinds of businesses) and not one of them make it.

[Viridian]

I can only answer for my own Studio. For all practical purposes, we already do this through what is called a custom and/or partial custom scene.

From what I understand of how this operates, a custom scene is one that is directly financed by an individual, or a few individuals, and gives said individual an element of input into the scene. This is quite different from crowdfunding.

A more realistic example in our context would be if I, Viridian, were to propose not just a quicksand scene, but a quicksand MOVIE. Given the costs of recruiting and training actors (not just models), logistics, location, professional post-production, etc, I hope to create a 30-minute film that explores the terror and psychology of a quicksand serial killer. The estimated budget for this independent project is $8000. Of course, there would be the tiered rewards - signed DVDs, behind-the-scenes footage and photos, exclusive interviews, a private sinking session with one of the actors, etc.

Now, would I contribute to something like this? Yeah, I would. But, as others have mentioned, you need a much stronger plan of action and a significant amount of work already prepared to convince people to fund you. Otherwise, the idea will dry up like a creek in a drought - with no quicksand underneath.

[marshmouse]

From what I understand of how this operates, a custom scene is one that is directly financed by an individual, or a few individuals, and gives said individual an element of input into the scene.

I hope "directly financed" means more than just "an element" of input into the scene.

As far as I know (and I know very little) all scenes end up belonging to the producer - custom or otherwise - and become part of their sales inventory. So personally financed never means personal ownership.

I'd like to be wrong about this.

[dlodoski]

From what I understand of how this operates, a custom scene is one that is directly financed by an individual, or a few individuals, and gives said individual an element of input into the scene.

I hope "directly financed" means more than just "an element" of input into the scene.

As far as I know (and I know very little) all scenes end up belonging to the producer - custom or otherwise - and become part of their sales inventory. So personally financed never means personal ownership.

I'd like to be wrong about this.

I think it's important to bear in mind the difference between fixed costs, and the cost of a particular scene. Be assured that even 0.5% of the investment I have in infrastructure would bring a custom request to a screeching halt. And that wouldn't include the cost of the scene itself. So, if someone wants to 'own' a scene shot at Camp MPV, they would have to pay for part of Camp MPV as well. Just saying.