Why have we chosen to ask for donations to fund our movie instead of approaching official bodies and organisations or film studios for funding? It’s simple really!
For starters we get to retain all copyright to the movie. That is one thing that we as independent filmmakers are passionate about, retaining the rights to our own productions. With funding bodies (such as the British Film Institute) they demand a share of the movie’s copyright, not to mention a share of the profits. There’s nothing worse than spending months planning and then making a movie only for the funders to take half of your share of the movie without them actually lifting a finger other than to part with some cash. This isn’t Dragon’s Den, we’d like to keep our movie, thanks.
Secondly, it would be impractical for us to pitch to a film studio without having any prior experience in feature film-making. Thousands of movie scripts are turned away from studios every year, many from seasoned professionals in the moviemaking industry, so getting our movie optioned ahead of Steven Spielberg’s is nigh on impossible.
Thirdly (but by no means least), by choosing the fan-funded route it enables the movie to already have a “cult” following before it’s even released. The movie’s fans (ie. you, we hope) are there right from the very start, even before the script’s ink is dry. If you donate to the project you will feel part of it. You will get the satisfaction of knowing that you have been instrumental in the process of making it happen. By using the fan-funded model it brings the filmmakers and the fans a lot closer together. How many Hollywood film studios would invite their fans to their wrap parties or give them opportunities to spend time on the set during filming? Our guess is none.
Fan-funding is not unique, it’s been proven many times, none more so than AD Lane‘s current movie in-production “INVASION of the NOT QUITE DEAD” [link]. To date AD Lane has raised over £45,000 for his movie purely through donations from over 1,100 generous film-loving people on Twitter. We aim to use the same model that AD Lane has developed. Twitter is an amazing tool that can create a huge community of supporters for a given project. We have received a lot of support from the Twitter community ourselves and we hope that this relationship we have with the fans will reap benefits for us and you alike.
So, if we’ve convinced you enough that fan funding is the way forward, please consider making a donation to our FILM FUND. If you make a donation we will give you some amazing perks as a thank you for believing in us.
