Why My IndieGoGo Failed

Hard lesson learned. Know what the hell your doing before you start your campaign to raise funds for a project. This was the first time I was seriously hoping to raise some funds through IndieGoGo . I had done previous campaigns but they were nothing more than a photo brief description and a button so people could donate, but this campaign was going to be different. We had an awesome promo video planned; I KNEW this would be huge and people would flock from all over to donate to a project with such as an awesome video. That’s all people really want, entertainment. Right?

Our promo video was going to set us apart. No talking heads telling you why this project was going to be so amazing, no slideshows, no begging for money. With the stunts we had planned people were going to notice that we had something different. 

We shot the video, which included a full body-burn and a stunt car drifting up behind me as I spoke and sliding to a stop a foot and a half away. Everything went smoothly. It worked great, the response to the video was fantastic, but somehow, the donations didn’t come in, besides friends and family. We may have shot something that set us apart from the normal, but something was missing.

I contacted Lucas McNelly (http://www.lucasmcnelly.com) who runs Kickstarter and IndieGoGo campaigns for a living. Unfortunately, I contacted him after I had started my campaign which severely limited the amount of game planning we could do, and it made it a lot harder for me to implement any plan due to time constraints. If I had brought him on before I launched it and we had developed a proper game plan and prepared media ahead of time, our updates would've been simple button pushes to release the content and that's it. Have a plan BEFORE you launch your campaign, and have media already done for content updates so your not scrambling like I was to rush ANYTHING out.

We managed to get a couple video interviews, but only with crew, unfortunately no actors. We had some behind the scenes stunts videos, and quite a few decent perks for donators.  The promo video got shared around repeatedly on Facebook with moderate success. Our fan base for the Citizen Page grew, as did the video views. If only those people would send $5 our way to help us out...

The biggest feedback I received from people that watched the video was obviously I have talented individuals on board, which was the point of the video. We may look young, but when you throw in stunts like we had people start to believe that you are actually serious and have some credibility to what your doing. But…what was the project actually about?

A paragraph blurb about the concept and our two agents was all we had on the campaign. What was the storyline? Why should we care about these characters?

People liked what they saw, but beyond that we had given them nothing about our two Agents to make them feel something for them.  TV show advertisements do a good job of getting you interested in a character without even knowing, ie: a female police officer arguing with an rude superior. We’ve all been there, it gives you just enough to care about that female without even having seen the show, starting to become invested in them because we can relate.

One of my biggest faults was not having actors locked down earlier. We are in the final stages of casting, but having this done a month or two ago would’ve given me time to talk to the actors and have them explain why they are excited about the project and how they see themselves developing themselves to become a believable character on screen. Lesson learned, lock your actors down early, and get them involved. They have fans and people that want to see them succeed, and with the support of their friends and family you’ve automatically doubled your free exposure in the social media world.

Another thing I didn’t do in my video was make people feel needed. I briefly talked about how you can become a corporate sponsor or just be a friend and donate, but I never made the viewers feel like they were NEEDED or IMPORTANT. I was giving them an opportunity to help, but not making the viewer feel like I couldn’t do this without them and that they were valuable. Don’t make this mistake.

From the start I wish I had someone running the campaign besides me. I am not a social media person, I don’t have a lot of time on my hands, and this really hurt my campaign. I tried to update it as often as possible, thanking sponsors and creating a video or two here and there. These videos really were shot as targets of opportunity during stunt rehearsals. So again I had some exciting content that people liked, and while the videos were decent we still hadn’t given them anything to care about besides the fact we had a good stunts team.  I should’ve had some concept art done earlier, but when you have no money, it’s a difficult process to get material from people. Storyboards illustrating my vision would have helped, but in the film world everyone is so busy it can be hard to get anything locked down.

If I have another campaign after this, I know what needs to be done. Pre-plan my campaign with someone who knows what they are doing, or have Lucas McNelly run the whole thing for me. With a better understanding of what I need to target and how to get people interested, I would’ve done things a lot differently. Not having a lot of time to campaign I rushed into it to get it open and online. I should’ve set up a timeline for content updates. Another helpful step would be booking a couple hours with actors and crew to interview in a single day, ask questions, and then trickle these updates out throughout the campaign. Having art and storyboards done a lot earlier would’ve given me easy, visual content to get people excited about. 

In the end, I learned a lot from this campaign. I’m disappointed with the results but know that I will take this valuable feedback and lessons into the next one.  The pilot episode of “Citizen” is going to be fantastic. I might just make budget if I become a hermit for the next 4 weeks, but not having any leeway in terms of funding means I’m stressed up until then, and any curveballs thrown my way will have to be dealt with accordingly. Plan your campaign better, get the funds you need and then some , and you won’t become another victim of a failed campaign due to lack of management and a clear direction.

To check out our campaign before it ends, please visit http://www.savethecitizens.com
Matthew Campbell is a Writer/Director/Producer currently living in North Vancouver, but is actually a small-town boy at heart.

The Stunts of "Citizen"

Yesterday, we finally had a chance to get over to Gibsons, BC with our stunts team to see how feasible some of our ambitious stunts were going to work.

 Leif Havdale (IMDB is back as our stunts co-ordinator once again after having a good experience working on "To Save One's Self" (IMDB) together. With a truckload of stunt pads, boxes, and an experienced stunt performer Curtis Braconnier (IMDB), we caught an early morning ferry to jam as much in the 4 hour window of opportunity we had. First off, Leif and Curtis run through the pieces of the fight scene we are doing at one of our largest set pieces, a staircase leading up to a 2nd story patio.

 The scene starts with Agent Travis being pursued by the dark agents. Forced up these tight stairs, he takes out the agent right behind him and tosses him over the railing. With some tight choreography and critical timing, we want to show the agent going over the railing and have our camera follow our actor as he peeks over the railing, revealing the bare ground the agent has landed on.

Here's where it get's complicated. We can't actually make our poor agent fall 10 feet onto the hard ground, so to do this he needs to land on a stuntpad, giving us MAYBE a 3 second window to pull the stunt pads out before the camera peers over the ledge. We have talked about just using an insert of him landing and one of him coming over towards camera, but if we can get him going over in one-shot, pull the stunt pad out in time and then show him on the ground, I think it's going to add a certain element to the fight scene that people aren't expecting.

We filmed the fight scene as the stunt performers go through it so we could see how it cuts. I think it works pretty darn good for a rehearsal.

The next stunt is where it gets a bit more difficult. Agent Travis does a 16 foot drop over the diner patio...and we follow it with the camera. Our problem here isn't the fact that were doing it without a crane or wires. It's trying to hide the stunt pads when we actually shoot. We believe we have a solution by building a garden on the pads bed to hide the shifting perspective, or use some fake turf and blend it in to the backyard with grass clippings. Honestly, both of them work. We actually have a video of our test jump from the weekend, but we're holding off on showing it to people.

Here's some photos in the meantime. Please enjoy, and be sure to share the link!

Leif Havdale setting up the mats.	Our 1st AD (Neil Allan) helping Curtis and Leif out.
Jumping with the camera.	More jumping.

On that note, the stunt rehearsal was a blast. We have a couple more stunts and sequences we didn't have time to rehearse but these two being the more complex we all walked away extremely happy with how well it all went.

A web-series eh?

I think that's the biggest response I get when I'm telling people that I'm trying to make a kick-ass web-series unlike anything out there. Not everybody gets it, but there's no denying that digital web-based media is the wave of the future. Web-series like Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca3Y8Ws3plI) and Mortal Kombat:Legacy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s6UiEuCYXA) are just small steps towards the future. It's not as easy for people to sit down and dedicate the time to watch TV and movies as much as they used to. Everything moves so quickly that entertaining yourself in short time spans is the norm. Look at YouTube, look at shows like Robot Chicken. 45 minutes is a lot of time when you don't have a lot, and 2 and a half hours is even longer. 10 minutes is a good length of time to sit down and tell a part of a story. Web series have been on the rise for years, but when you have Joel Silver producing a web-series , you know it's the right time for them to explode. I want a piece of that.

A web-series is a new venture for me. It's a bit of a risk considering the costs associated with producing something like "Citizen" to Hollywood standards. Without risks there aren't any chances of reward. I'm fortunate to have film professionals on board that believe in my concept and artistic abilities. The pressure is definitely on to make this series a success, and hopefully reward these talented people for all of the time and energy they've donated to making successful products with me.
We have a fantastic pilot episode that is going to blow people away, I have no doubt about that. Some of our stunts are top-notch, and what were going to do with them cinematically will be a step beyond what viewers could ever have expected from us. Once we shoot the pilot episode, we are hoping to apply for grants, and raise funds from fans to continue to shoot. The concept is definitely marketable, and I have no doubt people are going to be very interested in the series once they see the pilot.

So why not a TV show? 42 minutes is a LOT of time and money to invest with no financial backing or producers on board. It's a huge risk. Our concept could easily be turned into a TV show if someone picks up the idea. If I can't hook viewers within the 10 minute pilot episode, then I definitely wouldn't hook them with a 42 minute pilot episode. Shooting in smaller blocks allows us to release episodes on a smaller time-line compared to full TV length episodes and budget. Fingers crossed the first episode will knock all your socks off and we will continue to develop the scripts and finish off the 8 episode season.

Finally, thanks for taking the time to check out this blog. I'm hoping to update it every couple days and go through various elements of "Citizen", the crowd-funding campaign, and problems and issues I will be dealing with as we near our shoot in late August. Hopefully we can get our crew on-board as well and get thoughts and ideas from various team members. Please Tweet, Share, and Facebook this blog and our on-going campaign. Let's spread the word.

For more information and to check out our campaign, please visit http://www.savethecitizens.com