A strange thing happened to me in the early 90's. I was invited to Los Angeles to work on a documentary. While there, I dove into a swimming pool. When I got out of the pool, somehow over a year had passed. I have some vague memories of living in a house with some over-stimulated neo-beat poets, writing a screenplay, having a few meetings, buying a cassette tape of songs from a kid named Beck for $2, and getting very drunk when aforementioned documentary won the 1992 Academy Award for best feature documentary. It may have all been a dream, except I still have that cassette tape, and some of those poets I still count as friends.
A friend from my LA years, Steve Moramarco, just succeeded in raising over $5000 via Kickstarter.
To paraphrase from Wikipedia, Kickstarter is an online platform for funding creative projects, often indie films. The concept is called "Crowdfunding" - using ones social marketing skills, you raise money from the general public. Kickstarter claims no ownership over the projects and turns a profit by claiming 5% of the funds raised. Project owners choose a deadline and a target minimum of funds to raise. If the chosen target is not gathered by the deadline, no funds are collected (this is known as a provision point mechanism). Money pledged by donors is collected using the Amazon Payments system, and projects require a U.S. bank account.
Steve is a wildly creative guy - I knew him in 1990 when he was in a band called "Hill of Beans", though I had the pleasure of playing music with him once. I moved to NYC and years later he moved in across the street from me in Williamsburg. He popped into my life a year or so ago when I heard a Hill of Beans song "Satan, Lend Me a Dollar" close out an episode of "Weeds".
So I found him on Facebook, where I became one of his 827 friends. This was where he began his campaign to raise the money for his film, "The Great Intervention". His posts - and there were several daily - begged, cajoled, and implored his friends to cross his palm with silver. But, and this is a big but, he was charming, funny, and witty all the while. Each facebook post linked to a youtube video that made the point well: The Beatles: "Don't Let Me Down", The Jam: "I Need You", Europe: "The Final Countdown", and, when the target was met, Louis Prima: "Pennies from Heaven", Big Star: "Thank You Friends"... Of course, I kicked in.
The film critic Andre Bazin wrote about genre directors like John Ford and Howard Hawks and called them "genius of the system". Crowdfunding is part of the new system. Ted Hope has offered that directors seeking funding from private sources will need to demonstrate social media skills, and Morrie Warshawski speaks of filmmakers not trying to build an audience, but build a community.
Steve Moramarco is clearly ahead of the curve. I wish him well.
A friend from my LA years, Steve Moramarco, just succeeded in raising over $5000 via Kickstarter.
To paraphrase from Wikipedia, Kickstarter is an online platform for funding creative projects, often indie films. The concept is called "Crowdfunding" - using ones social marketing skills, you raise money from the general public. Kickstarter claims no ownership over the projects and turns a profit by claiming 5% of the funds raised. Project owners choose a deadline and a target minimum of funds to raise. If the chosen target is not gathered by the deadline, no funds are collected (this is known as a provision point mechanism). Money pledged by donors is collected using the Amazon Payments system, and projects require a U.S. bank account.
Steve is a wildly creative guy - I knew him in 1990 when he was in a band called "Hill of Beans", though I had the pleasure of playing music with him once. I moved to NYC and years later he moved in across the street from me in Williamsburg. He popped into my life a year or so ago when I heard a Hill of Beans song "Satan, Lend Me a Dollar" close out an episode of "Weeds".
So I found him on Facebook, where I became one of his 827 friends. This was where he began his campaign to raise the money for his film, "The Great Intervention". His posts - and there were several daily - begged, cajoled, and implored his friends to cross his palm with silver. But, and this is a big but, he was charming, funny, and witty all the while. Each facebook post linked to a youtube video that made the point well: The Beatles: "Don't Let Me Down", The Jam: "I Need You", Europe: "The Final Countdown", and, when the target was met, Louis Prima: "Pennies from Heaven", Big Star: "Thank You Friends"... Of course, I kicked in.
The film critic Andre Bazin wrote about genre directors like John Ford and Howard Hawks and called them "genius of the system". Crowdfunding is part of the new system. Ted Hope has offered that directors seeking funding from private sources will need to demonstrate social media skills, and Morrie Warshawski speaks of filmmakers not trying to build an audience, but build a community.
Steve Moramarco is clearly ahead of the curve. I wish him well.
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