Assessed blog 5- Crowdfunding in the category of Film & Video in 2014

Crowdfunding in its broadest definition is: ‘an alternative method of raising finance for business, project or idea’ (Adams, 2012). With more specific definition, in reflection to the major websites, crowd funding focuses on presenting the idea –whether it is a single project, business or concept – in the profile format required by the website, and after choosing a limited time frame and amount. The individual or company has to try and raise the set target fund using social networking and spreading the pitch page to various unknown individuals across the internet. The goal of each profile is to find the financial amount (and if possible more) within the timeframe set for them.

When a profile reaches its financial target, the website will charge the fee of 3-5% from their successful earnings, and the project will go ahead with fulfilling its set out goal. Crowdfunding criteria varies for each project and website, however, for creative projects, these are the main principles on the major websites. Focusing on Kickstarter – the biggest current funding platform – and Indiegogo – one of its closest competitors – both websites request both a financial target and time limit in which the target must be met. The main difference that is seen in crowd funding can be summarized where “instead of raising the money from a very small group of sophisticated investors, the idea of crowd funding is to obtain it from a large audience (the “crowd”), where will provide a very small amount.” (Thomas Lambert, 2010). One of the main advantages with crowd funding is the fact that all money earned through the profile is established as donations and don’t need to be paid back.

Renowned Oscar filmmaker David Fincher, who is a man has financed features such as Fight Club and The Social Network, and launched a campaign on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter for his new production of the cult comic book adaptation of The Goon, requesting members to donate money towards developing a story reel for the film on the internet. By the end of 11th of November, the project raised the staggering amount of $441,900, all of the money will not be paid back or replaced anywhere other the initial goal of the project. The success of the film via using crowdfunding is one of a recent examples of how renowned filmmakers turning their backs on traditional studio funding via crowdfunding sources to create completely independent features. The world of crowdfunding has only existed for just over a decade, but its effects on the independent film market are being recognized all over the world.

The following tables will demonstrate the latest results about the category of Film & Video in 2014.

 Table 1 total funded projects in all categories and in film & video

Table 2 successful funded project in all categories and in film & video

Table 3 unsuccessful funded project in all categories and in film & video

Source from:  https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats?ref=footer

The information provided demonstrates that not only is film/video the largest category for launched projects, but also the largest amount of both successful and (even more) unsuccessful projects. It can be sympathized that the film industry is what can be called an ‘expensive game’, however appears to be a vast contrast on how a small-scale and large-scale project operates.

There is no denial that the use of crowd funding in the film industry has drastically grown in interest and practise over the short time it has existed. In relation to Kickstarter, Journalist Sarah Hughes of the Independent states in a recent article that: “Since its conception in 2009 the site… [Kickstarter] has become the poster child for a new artist-led method of production and distribution with over $86million (£53m) raised for various film and video projects to date.” Over the past few years, an array of film projects have risen into high levels of success on various crowd funding platforms, particularly in Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

Despite of the success of crowdfunding, there are still many Problems with the Independent Crowdifunding, according to Sørensen (2012), "It is not only the material capital, but very much also the cultural capital that a project is able to accumulate which determines whether a film receives funding in the first place and, subsequently, reaches a significant audience,"

Hence, in order to make sure the funds are enough and stable, multi-sources of financing of a project may be the method with lower risk compare with only crowdfunding method.

Sources:

Adams, G.-K. (2012). What is crowdfunding? Retrieved 14^th Mar. 2014, from http://www.startups.co.uk/what-is-crowdfunding.html

Sørensen, I. E. (2012). Crowdsourcing and outsourcing: the impact of online funding and distribution on the documentary film industry in the UK. Media, Culture & Society, 34(6), 726-743.

Lambert, T., & Schwienbacher, A. (2010). An empirical analysis of crowdfunding. Social Science Resea