Live from Sundance!

TUESDAY, Jan 25th

Lots of great 6Qs today.  From "google-optimized titles" to "the importance of following your heart and trusting your gut," these Sundance 2010 filmmakers and their teams reveal what it took to get to this remarkable festival and where they're going next.

6Q with Diane Bell & Chris Byrne of Obselidia (Sundance 2010 Dramatic Competition)

(Follow at Obselidia)

00:20   1. What are your goals for Obselidia in general and at Sundance? 

01:30   1b. How'd your Eccles premiere go?

02:15   2. Who's your audience and how are you reaching out to them?

05:20   3. What online tools and tactics have you used?

07:00   4. How did you finance the film?  Anything new you'd try for your next film?

07:35   5. What are your plans for distribution?  Any thoughts on self-distribution?

08:10   6. In addition to IndieGoGo, how can fans follow, fund and support Obselidia?

Interview with the cast of Obselidia: Gaynor Howe, Frank Hoyt Taylor & Micheal Piccirilli

00:10   1.  What's the story of Obselidia?

02:00   2.  Who should see this film?

03:15   3.  What was the shoot like?  Any surprises?

03:45   4.  What brings chemistry?  What was needed to create the magic on set?

05:05   5.  What's the one question no Sundance reporter or film fan has yet asked that you wish they would?  (Frank's special secret at 5:30)

06:00   6.  What's the one thing you want people to know about the team, the film, the production, or your experience?  Any transformational moments?  (Micheal's nugget of advice at 7:00)

Obselidia Trailer

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6Q with Andre Nekrasov (Sundance 2010 World Cinema Documentary Competition)

Andrei Nekrasov, with directing partner Olga Konskaya, returns to Sundance with Russian Lessons - a formidable documentary that energetically delves into the violent and bewildering conflicts in the Caucasus, with Russia pitted against the former Soviet state of Georgia, and involving Georgia’s troubled regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

I spoke with Andrei about Russian Lessons.  He provides insight into how the internet affected the documentation process affecting the film (@ 04:30), discusses his participatory editing process (@ 03:40)  , and advises future filmmakers to not wait to get started - a theme that has rung true in all Sundance 6Qs.  "Just get a camera and go!"

00:00  Intro

01:25   1.  What are you goals for Russian Lessons, and specifically at Sundance?

02:15   2.  Who is your audience and how are you reaching out to them?

04:30   3.  What internet tools and tactics have you used during production and/or to engage your audience?

07:00   4.  How did you finance the film?  (Thoughts on crowdfunding at 9:20)

09:50   5.  What are your plans for distribution?  Any thoughts on self-distribution?

10:40   6.   How can fans follow and fund you?

11:30   7.   (Bonus Question)  Any advice for other filmmakers making their 1st, 3rd or even 10th film?

You can follow Russian Lessons at www.russianlessons.org

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6Q with Team of My Mom Smokes Week

After a loyal son comes home to visit his aging mother, she assigns him some chores; one of them involves a road trip to help satiate her desire for a certain special herb.  

I interviewed the director, producer and lead actor about their experience making, funding, marketing and distributing the Sundance 2010 short entitled My Mom Smokes Weed.

00:00  Intros

00:30   1.  What are you goals for My Mom Smokes Weed, and specifically at Sundance?

01:35   2.  Who is your audience and how are you reaching out to them?

02:30   3.  What internet tools and tactics have you used during production and/or to engage your audience?  (What they tweet about, 3:30; What they should tweet about: 5:15; 

Importance of catchy title: 4:30 & 6:20

)

07:30  4.  How did you finance the film? 

09:30   5.  What are your plans for distribution?  Any thoughts on self-distribution (10:30)?

13:35   6.   How can fans follow and fund you? 

(Apologies for the "uh-hun's")

My Mom Smokes Weed Trailer

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SATURDAY, Jan 22nd

Today I attended the premiere of "To Catch a Dollar" Gayle Ferraro's documentary on Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize Recipient) and his efforts to bring the Grameen Bank to the United States.  I had the fortune of interviewing both afterward.  While Ferraro's medium is film and Yunus' is microfinance - they're united in their passion for changing the world.  Watch for inspiration.

6Q with Gayle Ferraro of To Catch A Dollar (Sundance 2010)

00:45  1. How did you connect with Muhammad Yunus and decide to tell his story?

04:20  2. Who were your partners and how did you work with them?

06:12  3. Talk about your DIY upbringing.

09:00  4. How did you parlay your DIY experience into To Catch a Dollar.

09:55  5.  What is one thing you want people to take-away or do when they finish watching To Catch a Dollar?

10:55  6.  Any advice for rising filmmakers of today?

Interview with Muhammad Yunus

00:00  1. How you connected with Gayle Ferraro, director of To Catch a Dollar

02:30  2. Why you agreed to do the film?

03:12  3.  What is one thing you hope people will do after they see To Catch a Dollar?

To Catch a Dollar Trailer

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FRIDAY, JAN 21st

To start us off, here's a short interview I just did with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as he headed into the premiere of Hesher.  (It's just wrapping up now.)  He talks about his new online crowdsourcing venture - hitRECord.org.  Filmmakers, he wants your stuff!

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THURSDAY, JAN 20th

IndieGoGo's bundled up and ready to talk DIWO, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing and all that good stuff with the filmmakers, industry execs and fans making the 2010 Sundance Film Festival happen.

We'll be posting footage here.  So make sure to check back often to get the latest.  You can find last year's Sundance re-cap here.

Cheers!

GoGoDanae

6Q with Brad Barnes of Homewrecker (Sundance 2010, NEXT Series)

Fun interview with Brad Barnes - Co-director of Homewrecker, which was one of Sundance's NEXT selections this year at the 2010 Festival.  Homewrecker was also part of YouTube's latest initiative - which enabled fans to rent Homewrecker on YouTube during the festival.  Great option if you couldn't make it to Park City!

Watch this interview if you want to be entertained, learn about a new distribution experiment, and hear from the creator of the film deemed by one critic as the "Best Date Movie of Sundance 2010."

00:00   Intros

00:24   1.  Goals for Homewrecker at Sundance?

01:35   2.  Plans for distribution?  Self-distribution?

02:25   3.  Who are your fans?  Any surprises?  (2:45: Homewrecker deemed "Best Date Movie at Sundance") 

03:45   4.  How are you using the internet to get the word out?

05:00   5.  Anything new and interesting you did with financing?  (6:00 What they might do next time.)

06:45   6.  Where can fans fund and follow you?

Homewrecker Trailer

6Q with Team of My Mom Smokes Weed (Sundance Film Festival 2010)

After a loyal son comes home to visit his aging mother, she assigns him some chores; one of them involves a road trip to help satiate her desire for a certain special herb.  

I got a chance to catch up with the masterminds behind My Mom Smokes Weed.   Watch to hear the director, producer and lead actor talk about their experience making, funding, marketing and distributing this 2010 Sundance selection.   Prepare for funny :)

00:00  Intros

00:30   1.  What are you goals for My Mom Smokes Weed, and specifically at Sundance?

01:35   2.  Who is your audience and how are you reaching out to them?

02:30   3.  What internet tools and tactics have you used during production and/or to engage your audience? (What they tweet about, 3:30; What they should tweet about: 5:15; importance of a catchy title: 4:30 & 6:20) 

07:30  4.  How did you finance the film? 

09:30   5.  What are your plans for distribution?  Any thoughts on self-distribution (10:30)?

13:35   6.   How can fans follow and fund you? 

(Apologies for the "uh-hun's!")

My Mom Smokes Weed Trailer

6Q with Andrei Nekrasov of Russian Lessons (Sundance 2010, World Cinema Documentary Competition)

Andrei Nekrasov, with directing partner Olga Konskaya, returns to Sundance with Russian Lessons - a formidable documentary that energetically delves into the violent and bewildering conflicts in the Caucasus, with Russia pitted against the former Soviet state of Georgia, and involving Georgia’s troubled regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

I spoke with Andrei about Russian Lessons.  He provides insight into how the internet affected the documentation process affecting the film (@ 04:30), discusses his participatory editing process (@ 03:40)  , and advises future filmmakers to not wait to get started - a theme that has rung true in all Sundance 6Qs.  "Just get a camera and go!"

00:00  Intro

01:25   1.  What are you goals for Russian Lessons, and specifically at Sundance?

02:15   2.  Who is your audience and how are you reaching out to them?

04:30   3.  What internet tools and tactics have you used during production and/or to engage your audience?

07:00   4.  How did you finance the film?  (Thoughts on crowdfunding at 9:20)

09:50   5.  What are your plans for distribution?  Any thoughts on self-distribution?

10:40   6.   How can fans follow and fund you?

11:30   7.   (Bonus Question)  Any advice for other filmmakers making their 1st, 3rd or even 10th film?

You can follow Russian Lessons at http://www.russianlessons.org

6Q with Diane Bell & Chris Byrne of Obselidia (Sundance 2010 Dramatic Competition)

Obselidia was selected for the Dramatic Competition for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.  We caught the directors, producers and cast in Park City... a wonderfully lively bunch who came together to make a heart-felt movie that moves audiences young and old.

(Follow at Obselidia)

00:20   1. What are your goals for Obselidia in general and at Sundance? 

01:30   1b. How'd your Eccles premiere go?

02:15   2. Who's your audience and how are you reaching out to them?

05:20   3. What online tools and tactics have you used?

07:00   4. How did you finance the film?  Anything new you'd try for your next film?

07:35   5. What are your plans for distribution?  Any thoughts on self-distribution?

08:10   6. In addition to IndieGoGo, how can fans follow, fund and support Obselidia?

Interview with the cast of Obselidia: Gaynor Howe, Frank Hoyt Taylor & Micheal Piccirilli

00:10   1.  What's the story of Obselidia?

02:00   2.  Who should see this film?

03:15   3.  What was the shoot like?  Any surprises?

03:45   4.  What brings chemistry?  What was needed to create the magic on set?

05:05   5.  What's the one question no Sundance reporter or film fan has yet asked that you wish they would?  (Frank's special secret at 5:30)

06:00   6.  What's the one thing you want people to know about the team, the film, the production, or your experience?  Any transformational moments?  (Micheal's nugget of advice at 7:00)

Obselidia Trailer

Sundance interview with Director, Diane Bell

Obselidia on IndieGoGo

You're Invited: Celebrate Sundance 2010 with IndieGoGo, IndieFlix & AFCI

How To Get Your Project Featured on IndieGoGo

Hi Folks,

The goal of the FEATURED sections on Home & Projects is to showcase projects embracing DIWO and achieving success.  Thus projects are featured based on the following factors:

• Quality of its pitch page*
• Funding traction
• Frequency and quality of updates
• Level of DIWO Activity** 

*Pitch page: includes both video & text pitch, quality & creativity of perks, specificity and transparency of the funding goal & use of funds.  See: Keys to Crowdfunding Success on IndieGoGo.

**DIWO Activity: how active you and your fans are in sharing your project via the share tools

Let us know if you have any questions.  If you feel your project matches the criteria above and has been missed, please contact us!

Hope to see your project featured soon!

Cheers

The IndieGoGo Team

New GoGoWidgets... including ones for Facebook Fan Pages

Check out IndieGoGo new GoGoWidgets for all projects.

To grab a project's GoGoWidget...

...Go to the Project's Home.  Click on the Grab A Widget icon in the SHARE WITH FRIENDS box.

Select the widget of your choice.  Flavors include:

1. Website/blog
2. Email
3. Facebook

 

5 Benefits of Crowdfunding

Last week I commented about the benefits of crowdfunding in one of the interesting discussions happening over on Lance Weiler's Filmmaker Summit Forum. The key take-away is that money is just one of the benefits... crowdfunding brings much more.

So if you're wondering if crowdfunding is right for your project, read on, and let me know if you have any questions. If there are other benefits, I'm missing, please share! Always happy to add more.

Benefits of Crowdfunding

1. Money (that's obvious). Enough said. 2. Marketing (In a recent conversation with GoGoSlava, Ted Hope called this "the Power of $1") When someone validates your idea by putting money down, they've also just become a fan... and perhaps an evangelizing one too. Thus a great way to market your project is to ask for funds... similar to how asking for favors is a great networking technique. In the world of twitter, facebook, digg, etc. it's now super easy for fans to turn into promoters with the click of a few buttons. 3. Market traction (using data to show you have a audience). We know of filmmakers using IndieGoGo to show other interested parties (e.g. investors and distributors) that they have a growing audience. So crowdfunding a percentage of your project's cost can help attract funds from other more traditional sources looking to minimize risk. 4. Monetization "outside the copyright." By offering perks like personalized or limited experiences and items (e.g. signed copies of your book or film, special access, invites to a party or event, etc.) that can't be offered once the film is complete, crowdfunding enables you to monetize the experiences around the film, and not just the film itself. 5. Mojo (I'm just calling this Mojo because I liked the "M" trend). What I mean by this is that crowdfunding allows anyone to be a patron. Patronage is no longer just for the rich. Kevin Kelly names "Patronage" as one of the 6 Generatives that will help creators make money in an age where anything copyable is free. You can't copy the feeling of knowing your support made something happen. That's special, and at our core people really do like to make a difference when we can. Crowdfunding gives everyone that opportunity.

Cheers,

GoGoDanae

GoGoSlava LIVE! on Film Snobbery - Watch Now

Happening: Jan 12 - 7:30 pm PST

6Q with Stephen Eyer and Daneen Akers of Seventh-Gay Adventists

Stephen Eyer and Daneen Akers have been hard a work engaging their fans and mobilizing them into funders for Seventh-Gay Adventists.

They've raised over $8,000 of their $10,000 goal, with which they've funded their entire first round of production and research through their IndieGoGo contributions.

Seventh-Gay Adventists is fiscally sponsored by San Francisco Film Society.  Through our partnership - all SFFS projects can offer tax deductions to their contributors on IndieGoGo. Exciting stuff!

Check out Stephen and Daneen's 6Q below to learn their DIWO story.

Q1: Tell us about Seventh-Gay Adventists.  What was your inspiration for the project?

SE: Seventh-Gay Adventists is a documentary about gay and lesbian members of the Seventh-day Adventist church, a conservative worldwide denomination. At its heart the film is about our need for belonging and community and the challenges of having two core identities in conflict. 

The log line is, “A film about love, sex, and eternal life”, and, although it’s obviously a bit irreverent, I do think that it really sums up the challenge. How does someone reconcile who they are with what they were raised to believe God requires? How much bigger a conflict can you get?

DA: Most people know that being a gay Christian isn’t easy, but being a gay Adventist is especially difficult because Adventism, to most, is more than a belief system; it’s also a close-knit community with unique cultural habits. Besides worshipping on Saturdays instead of Sundays, most Adventists are also vegetarian and abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and often even caffeine and jewelry. For someone who grew up immersed in the church, the culture and DNA of Adventism is almost like an ethnicity.

For all its apparent peculiarities, Adventism does not deviate from the Christian mainstream in its condemnation of homosexuality. Like almost every other Protestant denomination, the Adventist church teaches that the only way for gays to live within God’s will is to abstain from any intimate relationship. The approach taught is, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”

SE: LGBT Adventists face a gut-wrenching decision. They must choose between the church they were raised to believe is God's true church and their innate desire for an intimate, loving relationship. We wanted to explore how people were trying to work through these really big questions.

DA: We got interested in this project for two reasons. First, we were both raised Adventist and come from a long line of Adventist teachers and preachers. When we started this project, I was pregnant with our first child (our now 1-year-old daughter, Lily). We’d realized that we had no idea how we were going to raise her from a spiritual and religious perspective. What we’d been raised with wasn’t all bad. But it wasn’t all good either!

This was also when California was in the midst of the Prop 8 fight over same-sex marriage. At the time we’d been living in San Francisco for five years and had starting going to a progressive, accepting church (www.secondwindsf.org) where we’d become close friends with several same-sex couples. We helped start a group that reached out to conservative religious voters to try to get them to consider voting “no” on Prop 8. When Prop 8 passed, we were deeply disappointed but motivated to do more. Since we’d already produced and directed one feature (about my mom’s struggle with a chronic pain condition, www.LivingwithFM.com), it seemed like a film was the logical next step. 

 

Q2: What are your goals for the film?  What impact do you want it to make?

SE: You mean besides radical and revolutionary change?

DA: We hope this film can help create more empathy and compassion. We’re deep believers in the power of story to change hearts and minds. We were deeply disappointed when Prop 8 passed and we saw our friends get stripped of their rights. Our daughter was born a month later, and we just really felt like there was so much more to be done so that she would be raised in a world that was more fair and just. We also felt like religion had been the white elephant in the room that nobody really wanted to talk about at the No on 8 phone banks and such. It’s going to have to become a part of the conversation for lasting change to happen.

 

SE: We felt like a film could do so much more to achieve the sort of lasting change that happens when you engage in someone else’s story, even briefly. When you spend time listening, really listening to someone’s story, you can’t go back. You have entered into someone else’s life for a brief while, and it changes you.

 

DA: There’s also needed empathy from those who don’t know or understand the conservative Christian mindset. I understand there are some fundamentalists who deserve the criticism and derision (Exhibit A: Uganda and the Evangelical right-wing that is exporting hate), but most of the conservative Adventists that we know, including many of our family members, don’t deserve the stereotype. Many people want to be loving. And I think they want to know that they can support gay rights without turning their backs on their faith. Of course this has happened in the past with the anti-slavery movement, women’s suffrage, and civil rights, to name a few, and I think this is slowly happening with gay rights as our cultural norms change. 

 

SE: If our film could be a small part of that change, we’d be completely satisfied.

 

 

Q3: Who needs to see this film and who do you want to see this film? How are you identifying, reaching and building your audiences?  

 

DA: We want to reach an audience both within the Adventist church and beyond who is willing to engage in a meaningful conversation about religion and homosexuality. This topic has become extremely contentious recently, and the Adventist church makes an interesting case study for the broader political and cultural conflict between religion and sexuality.

 

SE: We’re really in the beginning stages of this project still, but we’ve turned to a few resources so far to start identifying our audiences. One group that has been extremely helpful is SDA Kinship, a support group for current and former Adventists who are also gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. It’s through them that we’ve met the majority of our subjects. We set up a story booth at their annual convention this past summer and started meeting potential film subjects (and supporters) there.  We knew after the convention that we needed to get out and talk to more people about this issue.

 

DA: We actually just returned from a three-month, 11,000 mile production road trip around the U.S. for the film. We spent the entire fall on the road pulling a small travel trailer behind our car visiting major Adventist population centers and setting up more story booths. We did this with our nine-month-old daughter, Lily, along for the fun. I was pretty nervous at first about going on the road for three months with a baby--I had no idea how she would do, and we didn’t have money to bring along a babysitter. But the timing was right (we were in-between apartments, so we could go on the road without paying rent), and we just really felt like we needed to get momentum going on the project. 

 

SE: Whenever Daneen started to worry about what someone would think about us showing up with a camera and a baby, I’d remind her that nobody else was signing up to tell this story! And Lily did really well. She’s a total extrovert, and she just loved meeting new people. Along the way people hosted us, babysat for us, sent us on our way with homemade goodies and encouragement, and they continued to give to the project. We’ve had one individual and one group make significant contributions (offline), but all of the online fundraising has been through individuals, many through $25 donations here and there. 

 

DA: On our recent research/production trip, we had quite a few conversations both on and off-camera with thought leaders, and we’ve really been slowly building our audiences from the ground level. We often laugh about the fact that we’re making a film about two topics people try to avoid talking about--sex and religion. So we’ve been trying to meet key individuals who can support the project in person first.

 

We’re just beginning to start having conversations with other groups who might be interested in this project (like the religious arm of the HRC), so we feel like there is still a lot of work to be done in this area.

 

Q4. What role does the Internet and social media play in your DIWO (Do-It-With-Others) efforts?

 

SE: Building an audience is one of the most important things an independent filmmaker can do these days.  The question is how to get others involved and engaged with your project.  We all know there are 350 million people on Facebook, but how many of those are interested in seeing your work?

 

We wanted to find out ourselves and thought that building up a fan page for our film from the very beginning would be a good idea.  Luckily, one of the great tools on FB is how easy they make it to do target advertising.  So we created a new page for the film and started advertising to people who we thought would be interested in the topic.  We didn’t have a big budget, but spent a few dollars a day for a few weeks to see what kind of results we would get.  Before we knew it we had over 1,000 fans.

 

Now the trick is to build relationships with those fans because right now there are many people on there whom we don’t even know.  We hope to do this by providing regular meaningful content, exclusive behind-the-scenes information, and personal interactions.  And yes, we will occasionally ask for contributions and point people to our IndieGoGo page to make it easy for them to give (but, we’re trying to be careful not to overdo it).  People give to someone they know and something they care about.  So we’re trying to do both -- make sure our fans get to know us a little bit better through our posts and provide helpful information about the project and the issues our film covers.

 

Q5.  What tactics did you use for financing?  How has IndieGoGo worked out for you?

 

SE: We knew when we started this project that we wanted to bring other people in to help finance the project, rather than do it all on our own like we had on our previous film.  I think we’d been hesitant before to get others involved because we were so green, and we didn’t want to risk any one else’s money while we tried to figure it out.  After finishing the film and winning a couple of small awards we had more confidence in ourselves and in audiences to find and fund these smaller, independent films this time around.

 

IndieGoGo and our fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society, teamed up to offer an online way for supporters to make tax-deductible donations. The timing was perfect—I had just been looking around for a way to do this when I got the email announcing the new partnership.

 

DA: The Facebook integration with IndieGoGo has also been really helpful. We realize that we have a lot more work to do to really take advantage of social media—three months on a production trip with a nine-month old meant that we were barely managing to post status updates on the film’s Facebook page—but so far it’s been extremely helpful. We funded our entire first round of production and research through our IndieGoGo contributions.

 

Q6: What is next on your radar? And where can folks follow your efforts?

 

DA: Next up is a pitch trailer. We still have a lot of filming to do as we continue to follow our main subjects. That will mean more fundraising. I’m making Stephen promise that next time we’ll raise money for a babysitter!

 

SE: The main website for the film is http://www.sgamovie.com where you can sign-up for our newsletter, become a fan on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.  Thanks!