A Site for People who love Indy Films
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Don Tingle
Jul 10, 2010, 10:45:58 AM7/10/10
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Hello film fans, friends and Film Co-op members,
Maybe you've heard of it (in which case, please feel free to ignore this message), but I have been watching a website called Kickstarter.
Kickstarter is a unique opportunity for artists and supporters to meet. (and of course, I am in no way affiliated with it nor will I benefit in any way by your consideration of it).
The basics - many artists need to raise a little money to fund a project - supplies, production costs, etc. Some people are willing to give a little money to help with funding the arts. For some people they may only be able to give a few dollars while others can be more generous, but everyone wants to help.Lots of people are willing to pledge a little money if they know that their pledge will not be collected if there are not enough donors to fund the whole project. That's where Kickstarter comes in. Artists register their project with Kickstarter and identify a goal - how much money they need from outside sources to complete their project and a date by which the money is needed. They also identify what the money will be used for.
Contributors pledge a little or a lot. If not enough money is pledged by the end date, Nobody gets charged. If enough money is pledged, then Kickstart will bill you through Amazon Payments. That's right, if you have an Amazon account (or want one - and you should) then you can pledge and you will not be charged unless the goal is reached. And the artists usually offer something in return (listing donors names in publicity materials to promote the artwork, or in the case of films, usually a copy of the script of movie in DVD, etc.)
Kickstarter has a dozen categories of creative projects and probably thousands of good ideas needing a little funding to reach fruition.
Here's an example. Four years ago, while teaching our Film Co-op workshop on movie making at the Tupelo Film Festival, I met a young lady from Oxford Mississippi named Melanie Addington. She is one of the organizers of the Oxford Film Festival and supports, through extensive volunteer work, Indy Filmmaking and regional film festivals all over the south. She volunteers her time to bring an amazing film festival to life. Three days of independant films, short and feature length, all assembled and run by a small group of dedicated volunteers. Melanie is also a writer and has teamed up with Award Winning Indy Movie Maker Thomas Phillips (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1701136/), to bring her most recent screenplay to the screen.(Thomas Phillips Awards include: Best Feature Film - Winnipeg International Film Festival, Best Ensemble Cast - Wine Country Film Festival, Best Feature Nominee - Oxford Film Festival, Best Cinematography - World Independent Film Expo, Official Selection - Memphis International Film Festival)
They have signed movie and tv starts willing to work on this ultra low budget feature. These include veteran character actor Johny McPhail (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0574159/), and Lance Nichols (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0629634/), (from HBOs critically praised "Treme" , Benjamin Button, ER and Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant. Director Thomas Phillips has some serious credits to his name and is known for keeping a tight budget and producing quality films. That and a great script are what attrack name brand talent to join a project like this.
They seek to raise only $7500 of the estimated $15,000 cash (and dozens of thousands in donated services) to make their movie "Where I Begin". RIght now they have around $5400 pledged and need to raise the rest by this coming Thursday. I have pledged a little and hope many others will as well. Here's the Kickstarter page. You can examine their page or look for any other project you might be willing to help.
Thanks for you time and consideration. I hope you will join me in helping sponsor the arts in any way you can. Kickstarter provides a great service to help us do so.
Sincerely,
Don
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