The ‘Fan’ in financing: workshop on crowdfunding
You’re new to the audiovisual industry, full of ideas and eager to start up a project. You start looking for money. But what if regular financing sources are spent or dried up? Crowdfunding can be an interesting alternative.
This innovative way of financing is used more often in the creative industry and, to be more specific, in the independent audiovisual sector. The basis of crowdfunding is that you already start looking for an audience for your film during the development phase, and that you let them co-finance the production by donating small or larger amounts of money. This immediately offers a chance to eventually turn to the regular financiers (like broadcasters and distributors) with an already existent fanbase. But how to make this all work? Instead of organizing everything by yourself, there’s also the possibility of joining one of the online crowdfunding platforms that appeared during the last few years.
On Friday December 9th, during the International Shortfilmfestival Leuven, MEDIA Desk, VAF, SACD/Scam and IKL will organize a session about this innovative way of film financing. The session is meant to inform Flemish film students as well as established producers and directors about the possibilities and limits of this new mechanism. The session is for the larger spoken in English.
In the morning all interested parties are invited to the presentation of two online platforms and two case studies:
Gregory Vincent is the founder of Sponsume, which is a two-year old online platform that offers creative entrepreneurs a place to pitch their projects and to find cofinanciers.
Pekka Ollula is the community manager for the large-scale European projects ‘Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning’ and ‘Iron Sky’. Both Finnish projects have been financed in large amount by crowdfunding and -investing. Star Wreck, which is a parody of Star Trek, was put online legally and for free. It has already been downloaded 4 million times. The movie got sold to international broadcasters as well, including Canvas (a Flemish broadcaster), and several dvd’s also emerged.
Pieter Goethals is a Flemish freelance director and producer at Creative Genes. He has already collected more than € 30.000 by using crowdfunding campaigns for his short film project “About the boy that ate an oak chair”, which is currently in development. Through crowdfunding, he wants to apply for tax shelter and pay back investments. His project can be found on Indiegogo.
Bart Becks is the CEO of Sonicangel, a crowdfunding platform for young musical talents. He’s also the head of the recently founded FilmAngel.tv for audiovisual works.
In the afternoon, producers, filmmakers and film students who currently have a project in development, have the opportunity to a one-on-one conversation with Gregory Vincent, Pekka Ollula or Bart Becks. These one-on-ones will last approximately 30 minutes each and are meant to introduce your film project, as well as to discuss the specific possibilities of crowdfunding with the experts. To be eligible for a one-on-one, it is necessary to e-mail an A4-sized page with information about your project, which includes: a description of the current development phase, a synopsis and a financing strategy.
PRACTICAL DETAILS
Friday, December 9th
10am-1pm: Presentations (at Cinema ZED)
2-5pm: one-on-ones of 30 minutes each (Festivalcafe)
Cost
Participation fee €10 (students pay €5), payment is at the door. Cash only.
Registration
Registration is mandatory. Send an e-mail to Dorien Vandenabeele: stage.vorming@vaf.be. Pay attention: deadline for registrating for the one-on-ones is Wednesday, December 7th at 12pm.
For who?
The presentations can be joined by directors, producers, film students and every other person with an interest in film production. The one-on-ones are meant for directors, producers and students who currently have a film project in development (animation, documentary, fiction or experimental film).
Links
www.sponsume.com
Star Wreck – official site
Iron Sky – financing
Iron Sky – teaser
www.wreckamovie.com
FilmAngel.TV
Questions and info
Direct further questions to Dorien Vandenabeele.
