Every artist faces the daunting task of scraping together enough money to finance their pet project–be it music, fine art, film, theater, or dance. Choosing the right method of funding relies on many factors, including the type and scope of your project. Financing can come in many forms, from asking close friends and family members for donations or loans to applying for national grants and cash prize awards.
The following three funding models can assist you with financing your life’s passion and next big project.
Crowd funding is the latest trend among artists. The way it works: you pitch your project, create a monetary goal, and then engage social networking to drive friends, family, and others online to donate. There are several crowd funding websites out there, including Kickstarter.com, one of the more popular ones. Although a lot of artists are utilizing it, not everyone is successful at it.
Issa Rae’s campaign is one that proved lucrative. Rae is the creator, director, and star of the Web series The Misadventures of AWKWARD Black Girl (ABG). Within a month, she raised more than $56,000 from nearly 2,000 backers using Kickstarter, surpassing a target goal of $30,000. She used the funds to shoot remaining series episodes (which cost about $5,000 per episode to produce). ABG follows the title character “J†and her friends as she navigates through life, love, and awkward situations.
It was in-kind support and volunteers that enabled Rae to film the first several episodes. At the time she launched her fundraising campaign in July 2011, the Web series averaged 60,000 viewers per episode. She figured if 50% of her viewership donated a dollar each she could get $30,000 in donations offering such perks as ABG wristbands, T-shirts, autographed posters, and digital downloads of the season.
ABG’s cast and crew mobilized viewers through Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to repeatedly urge friends and acquaintances to support the campaign. Word-of-mouth spread through social media and several blog posts. “A lot of the bloggers turned the campaign into somewhat of a movement. By supporting us people would be helping to change the face of media,†says the 26-year-old filmmaker.
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It also helped that Rae had an existing product. “People had already seen the show. They had decided they liked the series. They wanted to see the show continue.†So, Rae and her producer made a strategic move not to release the eighth episode. “We did a cliffhanger and advertised the campaign, basically saying if you want to see more please donate, otherwise we may have to end the series here.†The season finale, episode 12, will be released Jan. 12, 2012. Rae is now looking to monetize the Web series via advertising and sponsorship.
Top 3 crowd funding sites:
-Â Â Â Kickstarter.com
– Â Â Â IndieGoGo.com
– Â Â Â RocketHub.com
Top 3 components of a successful campaign:
1. Have a good pitch, which means engaging video and copy plus perks such as exclusives
or discounts.
2. Be proactive by sending out e-mails, using social media, and targeting influencers in organizations, on YouTube, and in the blogosphere.
3. Have an audience that cares–an inner circle of friends, family, and fans.
Crowd funding sites aren’t free:
-Â Kickstarter.com charges 5% plus a payment processing fee; you must
meet your goal before the money
changes hands.
-Â Â Â IndieGoGo.com charges 4% (9% if you don’t meet your goal) plus a processing fee.
-Â Â Â RocketHub.com charges a flat 8%.
Besides the networking, parties, travel, and goody bags, there are several benefits to playing the film festival circuit. Big name distributors tap big festivals such as Sundance and Cannes for properties. After its world’s premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, writer-director Dee Rees’ film Pariah and a second script were acquired by Focus Features (owned by NBC Universal) for a reported “high six-figures.â€
It’s a project that has come full circle. When Rees’ 2007 film short Pariah
got picked out of thousands of entries to show at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, she figured she would fly to Utah for 10 days, promote the movie, hang out with her crew, and book it back to Brooklyn, New York. But the 34-year-old filmmaker’s coming-of-age drama about a teenage lesbian was so well received that the Sundance Institute (which offers development programs for filmmakers and playwrights) asked about a feature script.(Continued on next page)
Not a problem since Rees had adapted her film short from the first act of a full length script. She raised the initial $10,000 to finance the short using the crowd funding site Kickstarter.com, writing the film while interning on the set of Spike Lee’s movie Inside Man and finishing New York University’s graduate film program. After submitting the feature script for Pariah, Rees was invited to participate in both Sundance Institute’s screenwriting and directing labs. And the film’s producer Nekisa Cooper, 36, was invited to the institute’s inaugural creative producing lab.
“We gave them grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 to move the project forward during the development, pre-production, and post-production phases,†says Michelle Satter, founding director of the Sundance Institute’s feature film program. “We made a deep commitment to go through every stage of Pariah‘s development.†Overall, Cooper estimates that grants accounted for 17% of the film’s financing, not including an in-kind donation of Kodak film stock.
Empowered with feedback and assorted filmmaking strategies, Cooper and Rees further sought private investors for Pariah, filmed on location in Brooklyn for 18 days in late December 2009. Cooper wrote a business plan and formed an L.L.C., and obtained a fiscal sponsor, Women Make Movies, that served as the film’s 501(c)3 pass-through for grants received; with a total of nine investors, including individuals and companies, they received 67% in private equity backing and 16% in distributor advance. While the duo had
investors, they also had voluminous expenses. Cooper says financing was a “constant cash flow exercise where I was chasing the budget.†She sought three no-interest cash flow loans ($10,000 and less) from friends of the project throughout the course of production and drew up e-mail agreements with terms to repay those loans.Pariah opens in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco on Dec. 28, and other cities in January 2012. Cooper and Rees are currently developing a third film and are negotiating an offer to develop a one-hour scripted TV show with a cable network. Rees is also developing a TV show with HBO.
Top 3 film festivals:
-Â Â Â Sundance Film Festival
– Â Â Â American Black Film Festival
-Â Â Â Cannes Film Festival
Film festivals aren’t the only game in town; there are festivals for musicians, playwrights, and other artists that offer the same benefits. Check with local arts organizations.
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Top 3 reasons for playing the festival circuit:
1. Get your work viewed by a broader audience.
2. Build critical buzz through word-of-mouth and press reviews.
3. Draw the attention of potential
investors or distributors.
Award-winning documentarian Byron Hurt has received grants and prizes to make his films. Currently Hurt is finishing up Soul Food Junkies, a project he chose after he saw his father plagued by health challenges and obesity. That experience led him to question soul food as a culinary tradition.
Before tackling the topic of food, Hurt made three other films, including I Am a Man: Black Masculinity in America, and Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats &Rhymes, a documentary that tackles issues of masculinity, sexism, violence, and homophobia in hip-hop culture, which appeared at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and on PBS’s Independent Lens series.
To get Soul Food Junkies launched, Hurt did a modest amount of crowd funding. He embarked on his own online fundraising campaign. The goal was to get people to donate $1 each.
He was able to accept tax-deductible donations through a fiscal sponsor, Third World Newsreel. His fundraising efforts netted a little more than $1,600. “I reached out to my personal contacts, friends, and colleagues, sending an e-mail or two, asking them to donate as much as they could.†He also received $1,000 from the Aepoch Fund, an experimental foundation.Hurt then approached the Independent Television Service’s (ITVS) Commissioning Fund and submitted a treatment that delineated how he would shape his narrative, and what it would look like on the screen. The fund gave him $25,000 to research his subject. He used the money to buy books and connect with soul food historians, cooks, restaurateurs, and people in the food justice movement. He also shot footage for a trailer that would convince ITVS that an hour-long program on the subject would be worthy of their investment.
Hurt resubmitted a longer version of his trailer and treatment, securing grants from ITVS, for more than $200,000. He used that as leverage to get an additional $100,000 from the Ford Foundation. “The vast majority of those funds went into staffing and crew, administrative costs, and editing,†he says.
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The 42-year-old filmmaker admits that the process can be rough. “It’s hard to break through; only 2% to 3% or less of those who apply to ITVS get funded. When I did Beyond Beats & Rhymes, I actually got rejected by the PBS folks twice.†He went through two years and several rewrites of his proposal. “You have to keep at it,†adds Hurt.Â
There are various grants, fellowships, and awards available to musicians, performing artists, writers, filmmakers, and visual artists. The Foundation Center
is a great starting point.
3 Leading Grant Organizations:
-Â National Endowment for the Arts
-Â PEN American Center
-Â New York Foundation for the Arts
–Additional reporting by Carolyn M. Brown