Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Project Launch: Goodbye Promise on Kickstarter



I know some of you have been anticipating my foray into the world of Crowd Funding. Well, that time is now here! I can't help but think of the analogy that Lance Weiler used on this past week's Film Courage radio show about being on the end of a diving board and diving into risk. He wasn't referring to a Kickstarter campaign but I believe the reference is appropriate in this case.

I have officially jumped off the diving board. Though as of right now, I cannot say whether I am going to hit pavement or be welcomed by a pool of bliss.

In my days leading up to our launch I found myself over analyzing every detail. This campaign means so much to me for where I am right now with my career. I have more eyeballs watching me than ever before. Though it is welcome and necessary, it also adds a new layer of pressure.

My original plan was to launch a 45 day Kickstarter campaign, which would land us right around an end date of April 15th. My thinking was that we could use the tax deadline for additional promotion. In the end, I agreed with Karen and a few others that folks will be too engrossed with their state of affairs and taxes. So we added 7 extra days to the campaign. For those of you getting a refund this year....

We are now a few days into our campaign and the early support has been thrilling. In our first two days online we attracted 12 backers. We are now up to 15 backers and we are almost 5% funded. Our end goal is to raise at least $15,000 by April 22nd, 2010.

For those of you not aware, reaching 25% in a Kickstarter campaign is a critical benchmark. Of all of the projects that Kickstarter has had in it's brief history, those projects which can reach the 25% mark have a 90% chance of success. So the sooner we can reach $3750, the more confident I will be. There is no contribution that is too small. That is why the lowest contribution amount is $1. If that is all you have to contribute, we do not take that lightly. You would be just as important to us as every other backer. Most indie filmmakers could make a living if everyone contributed just $1 for their work.

As promised amongst the incentives we have listed for the campaign... I would like to take this opportunity to thank these individuals for their pioneering support of Goodbye Promise and our vision. I cannot tell you how much it means that each of you would be so generous with your contributions and that you have shown your support in these early stages. I thank Gary King, Paul Borgonia, Sheri Candler, Roger Richards, Kiowa & Jamin Winans, Greg Goldman, Andrea Shreeman, Len Cordova, Brian Durkin, Phillip Calderone, Bill Houskeeper, Janet Caliri, Nicholas James Murphy, ai loon, & Susan Williamson.

I am hoping that many of you will help us with this campaign by helping to spread the word any way you can. Person to person, on the phone, email, facebook, twitter, etc. Help us meet our end goal so that true independent film can have another hero. We need more examples, we need more heroes. And for those who support me, I want you to know that a successful campaign here puts me in a position to begin laying the groundwork for my next feature film which I would love to shoot this year. It is a pure comedy that is going to be bananas.

For those of you who have yet to stop by our Kickstarter Campaign page for Goodbye Pomise, here is the link. Please click on the video so that you can witness the 'Inspirational Teaser Trailer' to the film.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1231856438/goodbye-promise-an-exploratory-feature-film

I look forward to sharing updates on our progress in the upcoming weeks. We are going to begin rolling out video interviews with members of the cast and crew involved in the project very soon. If you have any ideas or suggestions on outlets or ways we can get the word out on our project, please send them my way.

4 comments:

JBMovies said...

Great post David. Looking forward to see how all this plays out. I know the people who have had a sucessful kickstarter campaign were people with a great number of supporters right off in the begining to get the ball rolling. You're in a great position.

Ben Goldstein said...

Good luck with your project, and with kickstarter. I'll be using kickstarter very soon to fund the printing of an album I'm working on right now.

MT said...

good luck, and welcome!

MT said...

Hi Ben Goldstein! Fancy seeing you here!