CROWDFUNDING / FINANCING

"Crowdfunding is not about money ... It's about community."

~ Anonymous

A curation of articles, podcasts, videos, and courses to help with your crowdfunding and financing efforts.

Back to Members Portal

What Kind of Financing Do You Need?

Crowdfunding  •  Investors  •  Loans

DOWNLOADS

A collection of FREE forms, templates, and questionnaires:

Crowdfunding Checklist

Launching crowdfunding campaigns prematurely continues to be the single biggest reason why projects fail. Krowdster offers a simple checklist to help you succeed.

Go to Website

Pre-Launch Guide

IndieGoGo offers a comprehensive pre-launch guide to help you succeed at your crowdfunding campaign.

Go to Website

Step-By-Step Guide

Little Might (dot) com has put together a Step-By-Step guide to launching a successful crowdfunding campaign on KickStarter.

Go to Website

Business and Legal Affairs Checklist

If you want to dive into the world of serious film financing, then this Business and Legal Affairs Checklist from Film Finance Attorney, John W. Cones, can be very helpful.

Download PDF

BOOKS

A collection of books on film financing and crowdfunding. (*These are affiliate links)

Filmmakers and Financing: Business Plans for Independents

Presented by the American Film Market (AFM), Louise Levison gives you easy-to-use steps for writing an investor-winning business plan for a feature film.

Buy on Amazon

Bankroll

Bankroll is written for actors/producers and writer/producers to get their feature films made. It has many creative approaches and guidance by a successful Hollywood producer who has raised over $20 million dollars.

Buy on Amazon

The Art of Film Funding

The Art of Film Funding is written for documentaries, shorts, and feature producers for funding via grants, individual investments/donations, online crowdfunding, and distribution through streaming video.

Buy on Amazon

Crowdfunding for Filmmakers

Crowdfunding for Filmmakers offers practical information, tips, and tactics for launching a successful film campaign by detailing traditional models of fundraising, utilizing today’s technological and social innovations, and augmenting each step with an added personal touch.

Buy on Amazon

PLATFORMS

A collection of platforms to help with your crowdfunding efforts.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter was originally created as a way to help filmmakers get initial seed money for their films.  Thus the name, Kickstarter.

Go to Website

IndieGoGo

IndieGoGo was one of the first crowdfunding platforms to offer flexible fundraising.  Where Kickstarter was all or nothing, IndieGoGo allowed filmmakers to keep whatever money was raised.

Go to Website

Seed and Spark

Seed and Spark has a high rate of successful campaigns being met.  They focus heavily on education to make sure you have a successful campaign.

Go to Website

Slated

Slated takes a different approach to the film financing problem, by bringing people and projects together in hopes of matching you with the best team and investors.

Go to Website

PODCASTS

A collection of podcasts and podcast episodes that cover different aspects of crowdfunding and the film financing process.

Tips For A Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

In this Film Marketing Friday, we’ll talk with Jeremy Brunson, one of the producers for the film, Rosetta: Audio/Visual, as he shares with us how they were able to succeed with their crowdfunding campaign.

Go to Podcast

What is the Wedding Registry Approach to Crowdfunding?

In this episode of the Film Trooper podcast, I interview the Founder & CEO of Seed & Spark, Emily Best.  Seed & Spark is much more than just a crowdfunding platform, it’s designed to be an ecosystem for independent filmmakers to build sustainable careers outside of the Hollywood system.

Go to Podcast

Angel Investors for Filmmakers

In this episode, I explore how a meeting with an Angel Investor might go for a filmmaker seeking investment funds with the Founder of the Producer Foundry, Ben Yennie.

Go to Podcast

Crowdfunding Your Finishing Funds

In this session, I explore strategies for building a crowdfunding campaign with guest filmmaker and fellow podcaster, Jamie Francis.

Go to Podcast

The Art of Film Funding

Based on her best-selling book, Carole Dean hosts a weekly show exploring alternative financing concepts for docs and features, from idea to distribution.

Listen to Podcast

Indie Film Academy

Jason Buff over at the Indie Film Academy has organized a series of film financing podcasts that are worth listening in on.

Go to Website

Indie Film Hustle

Alex Ferrari over at Indie Film Hustle is constantly adding amazing episodes that are invaluable for any filmmaker.  Be sure to check out his episodes on crowdfunding and film financing.

Listen with iTunes

Groovy Guide to Crowdfunding

On the Groovy Guide to Crowdfunding Films, they explore crowdfunding successes and failures, and see if together they can crack the code to successfully crowdfunding your next film or web series!

Listen on iTunes

VIDEOS

A collection of videos that will help with your crowdfunding and film financing efforts.

Film Courage put together a 2-hour video compilation of some notable leaders talking about crowdfunding for your film.

The Film Finance Guide is a comprehensive support system from Tom Malloy and Jason Brubaker for directors, producers and virtually anyone that wants to create film finance.

Film Courage has given us another free video series on film financing and raising money for a movie.

The SAG Foundation's LifeRaft program is hosting a bicoastal producing series dedicated to providing actors with the tools and inspiration needed to make their dream project a reality.

Darius Britt discusses his Kickstarter campaign, tips for filmmakers and crowdfunding facts, lessons learned, and what to expect when running a fundraiser for a film. He discusses the 90.9.1 rule of social media and its effect on fundraising.

IndieGoGo's, John T. Trigonis, joins Film Courage to share the 6 big mistakes that filmmakers commit when crowdfunding.

Film Courage partnered with Emily Best, CEO of Seed and Spark, to share a master class in crowdfunding.

Paula Bernstein, in association with Craft Truck, held a Google Hangout Session with the 3 top crowdfunding platforms for filmmakers.

COURSES

A collection of online courses that you can take right now to help you succeed at crowdfunding and film financing. (*Affiliate links)

Course Description

This course covers the foundation and advanced hacks to pull off a six figure crowdfunding raise.

All lessons are taught via screen share and video. I literally show you all the tools I've used, include templates and scripts, and reveal a goldmine of secrets.

You can rip through the course in a day if you watch it end to end but I suggest doing it over the course of 3 to give the material time to digest.

The course can be broken down to 3 main objectives.
1. Research and Prelaunch
2. Building phase of pulling together content and creating digital assets
3. Launch- game time baby!

You should take this course if you don't want to waste weeks of your life trying to figure out what works. I've used this process on dozens of campaigns and others have used this same process (coached by me) to crowdfund their own ideas and products.

WERNER HERZOG - Teaches Filmmaking

When the legendary director Werner Herzog was 19, he stole a camera and made his first movie. 70 films and 50 awards later, Werner is teaching documentary and feature filmmaking. You’ll learn storytelling, cinematography, locations, SELF-FINANCING, documentary interview techniques, and how to bring your ideas to life. By the end, you’ll make uncompromising films.

 

  • 26 hours of video lessons (including learning how to finance your film)
  • 37-page workbook
  • Office hours for select students

 

Film School $90,000   •   MASTERCLASS $90

Didn't find what you were looking for?

Let me know ...

*AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE:

In most cases, I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend within any of my blog posts, video blogs, and audio podcasts.

What does this mean?

If you purchase items through my links I will earn a commission.  You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.  This is the way a lot of bloggers make little bits of money.

So, if you feel inclined to purchase any of the goods or services that I provide links to, then you can say to yourself, "Hey, I know that by using this affiliate link when making my purchase, it'll help Scott out."

This helps me to continue to offer you lots of free stuff.  🙂   Thank you, in advance for your support!