I'm here with Christian Strevy, he's a film maker. And who's used Kickstarter to raise money for his films. And Christian, talk about a little bit what he's done. So he what the project was? >> So the project was my thesis project at Temple University Film School. And it is a series of short films Called Gunner Jackson. >> And what was Gunner Jackson about? >> So he is a self-proclaimed conspiracy realist and inventor, on sort of his daily quest to find out how he's being surveilled by the US Government. >> And so, how did you decide to use Kickstarter crowdfunding to raise money? >> Right, so we got a little bit of money from grants and a little bit of money from my school, but then we needed a whole other large amount of money, right, to make it. And so, we looked at Indiegogo, we looked at Kickstarter. We looked at just trying to privately do it. But I really liked the all or nothing idea. I liked like if we don't get it, we just don't get that money at all. And I think that that further incentivizes backers to do it. Because it's not like, they can just give $100 and, okay, they have made a little bit of their money, that project's fine. If you're $100 short, you're not going to make it. So I feel like that was further incentivizing. If feel like it's kind of like the Coke versus Pepsi. Kickstarter's the Coke, right? [LAUGH] >> So you went with the name brand. >> Yeah. >> Good, all right. >> I feel like what's what I did. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And so, what works to going in to make sure this is going to be successful when you launch? >> We did, we looked at a lot of projects on Kickstarter, we looked at a lot of short films >> We tried to examine what parts of a successful campaign that we liked, what part of successful and unsuccessful campaigns that we didn't like. And just tried to really craft what would be good rewards, what are really appropriate awards for the project. Like just giving someone a link. Didn't feel like super monetarily valuable. So like giving physical things, giving sort of swag >> And what sort of swag did you give away? >> So we did a t-shirt that we like hand screen printed. We did koozies, we did like a tattoo, so the main character has a tattoo on his wrist. >> Right. >> So we sent out like a little pack of three tattoos for that was like the $15 level >> And how much of the money came from sort of friends, family, people you knew, and how much from outside? >> Most of it came from friends and family. We had at the $500 level was like you could be an executive producer, which I just kind of threw on at the last second, thinking nobody would really do that. And we had a couple friends and families select the tier, and then we had this guy from Los Angeles that did it and I've never heard from him since but he, I guess wanted that executive producer- >> And does he have it? >> He does have the credits, he's in the credits, it's just I've never heard from him since then >> Excellent, and so what have you done since the campaign then? >> So, that was two years ago, we spent the whole two years making the movie. We shot maybe two months after and then the editing process is humongously time-consuming. So we shot for two weeks and then have been editing for two years. And we got the first episode, and some film festivals. And then I'm trying to ge the other episodes into film festival, and try to figure out exactly what we're going to do after we're finished completely. >> The film is interesting because everyone can presumably get to see the film after it's done. So how do you keep your backers happy? And feeling like they´re special, and that this has been work that I´m doing for you and it´s long journey. >> One thing that we did was make sure to get the swag awards out as soon as we could. We did all the producing of those ourselves, and to make sure that those got to the backers. And now as most of the backers were pretty satisfied with that, and then just have been cleared through updates that here's the timeline in which will release the actual video, here's where you'll be able see it, here's what festivals, you'll be able to come too and see it on the big screen, that sort of thing. >> So, there's some hassle involved in raising money on Kickstarter which is now you've got all these backers, right, for a film. Is that made up for by the advantages? Besides the money were there other advantages to having that many people back you as opposed to sort of looking for friends and family to just give you $9,000 or whatever. >> Right. Yeah, I definitely feel like it's our first audience. We have something like 125, 130 backers. And it was like those are, that's our core audience. And I was really happy to have them. And at no time have I felt hassled by having those backers.I felt like they're a community that I can bounce ideas off of and that are excited about the project and that I can go to ideas. >> Right, and is there any advice you'd give someone with a film project that can raise money on Kickstarter? >> Yeah I think it's a way more work than it seems like it's going to be. It's way more than just having a video, and just having a set of rewards. It's a lot of asking people for money. And anything that you can do to make yourself more comfortable with that process I think is very useful, and I think just overpreparing in the lead up time to the project. >> What did you do to prepare that way? [INAUDIBLE] >> Just researching what we thought worked with other projects, honing the script of the video. Trying to have an idea for a video that we hadn't quite seen in some other projects. And trying to integrate the character, from the movie into the project was a big point of the video. Also the video, for a film project, the video I feel like is even more important because that's what you're making in the end. So, if your video for the Kickstarter isn't good, then how can we trust that the video that you're making as the end product will be good. >> And so, would you recommend other filmmakers consider Kickstarter? >> Absolutely! Totally. I think it was incredibly vital. It also helped us hone ideas for the actual project, and for the story, and for the script. If this little aspect doesn't work for Kickstarter, maybe we need to reconsider that for the actual project. >> Great. Thank you very much. >> Thank you.
