CinemaTech
[ Digital cinema, democratization, and other trends remaking the movies ]

AD: Fans, Friends & Followers

Monday, April 13, 2009

Great article on fan-funding

The Boston Globe ran this great piece about how musicians are funding tours and albums with help from their fans. The headline is "Musicians and fans join together to get albums made."

Some solid ideas for film and video folks in here...and it's all very much in tune with the Fans, Friends & Followers approach. (They even include a few quotes from Jill Sobule, who is in the book.)

Wanted to share one great quote from a "benefactor" who supported folk musician Ellis Paul:

    Karen Zundel, a librarian in Pennsylvania who's been a devoted Ellis Paul fan for 12 years, says she even saved up for her contribution because it held more importance than your typical splurge. "The arts are what sustain us and bring individuals and communities together and help us to connect with our innermost beings," Zundel says. "A new car won't do that. When you buy a new car or a new outfit, you get that little thrill that lasts very temporarily, and then it's gone. But I think art really sustains me. It lasts."

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5 Comments:

  • This comment has been removed by the author.

    By Blogger Dylan Pank, at 1:04 PM  

  • I seem to remember British film director Nick Love announcing something like this after his film The Business was released, appealing directly to fans to finance the next film. The subsequent film, Outlaw has about 40 "executive producers" listed on IMDB, most of whom have never produced another film, before or since.

    By Blogger Dylan Pank, at 1:07 PM  

  • Hi Scott,

    As an avid follower of your blog I wanted to comment on your story and say that crowdfunding and fractional ownership in media will be here to stay, as it appears that there are now a number of companies taking this very seriously.

    Our site is called www.biracy.com and we are attempting to make one film with the crowd during our Beta and then open our engine and model up to other producers and filmmakers to use our site after we prove concept.

    We are in preregistration at the moment and would welcome your feedback on the site once go live with our private beta.

    thanks for doing what you do as I have been introduced to some great people through this blog and will continue to be an avid reader

    dave
    founder
    www.biracy.com

    By Blogger David Geertz, at 5:36 PM  

  • Scott,

    this is a very important trend that is developing, especially in the doc world. With paypal options and non profit status, the ability for niche films and topics with global fan base.

    will be interesting to see what the first feature film (narrative) is that gets a major traditional pick up that was funded via internet / crowd / fan options.

    Thanks
    Jon Scheide

    By Blogger Unknown, at 1:50 AM  

  • Our current project is a combination of tax credits and lots of small investors from our local community. It is a legal clusterf*ck, but seems to be working. We have 35 investors so far for the $650k we have raised to date.

    By Blogger GB, at 2:39 AM  

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