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Dear Writer,
Welcome to the 24th issue of Craft & Career.
I am still reading scripts for the Champion contest, so I have turned most of the content for this issue over to two of my friends, Francine and Elizabeth.
Both are using crowdfunding as a way to finance their films -- a feature and a short. I discovered that they had really unique and sometimes contrary ideas about their experience and what does and doesn't work, so I am letting them tell their stories in their own words. Please read both of their perspectives because they have shared very candid insight.
I have about 50 more quarterfinalist scripts to read so I am hoping to be done in a week but come Weekend-at-Bernie's-remake or high water, I will finish by February 2 and give writers three weeks to make plans for the Champion Labs whose final dates will be announced soon.
My three-minute video blog discusses why Enough is not Enough. It's a way to think about your screenwriting growth. There is also an offer at the end to save $50 by pre-ordering my DVD set before February 5.
In the Champion Corner, I share a little secret about a script from the first Champion Competition. I also updated the schedule.
Thanks for reading.
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Winning is just the beginning!
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DEALS FOR ALL ENTRANTS
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EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW.
AND MORE!
video blog
by
Jim Mercurio
It's casual Monday at Champion Screenwriting. Here's a quick three-minute video about a topic that has been on my mind while I approach the end of the book and DVD project. Let me know if you like the video blogs and I will do some more.
 | | Everything You Need to Know. And More! |
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The DVD Production values are much better than this video blog.
Pre-orders should ship in 4-6 weeks.
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CROWDFUNDING:
Perspective #1
Within is a 20-minute fantasy thriller set in LA with dramatic turns and an uplifting twist a la It's a Wonderful Life. ELIZABETH: It's now the beginning of January 2012 and we're two weeks away from the tentative shooting dates. You tried raising the necessary funds to shoot, edit and promote the film via Kickstarter. What happened? ALEX: Not much. (laughs) I learned a lot from this experience though. Here's a great thing I know about Kickstarter now I didn't know a few weeks back when I launched our Within campaign. Kickstarter works in two scenarios, or at least two scenarios I'm aware of. First, you have a film/a project with a semi-known director, or a known TV actor or a celebrity, for which you need to raise a substantial amount of money, let's say $50,000, so you shoot a fun promo for it that entertains the audience, upload it on Kickstarter and you create an enticing variety of pledge opportunities, then you do a ton of promoting in the States and with a bit of luck you'll actually get funded. Does require constant web presence and promotion. I think the best example of that kind of campaign was Jocelyn Towne, who raised over $100,000 on Kickstarter for her feature I Am I, starring Jason Ritter (Parenthood, The Event) and Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory). The second way: you need to shoot a short film or raise enough money to self-publish a book, and instead of raising the entire sum, you divide it in two or three small parts and raise it one by one, hustling your Facebook/Linkedin/family/friends for the funds, sharing at the end of every completed phase what you've accomplished, and thus getting there in two or three steps. I kind of shot myself in the foot by trying to raise the entire sum needed for our short all at once AND during the Holidays. It was a big gamble and it just didn't work. Big lesson learned there. ELIZABETH: Would you recommend Kickstarter to other filmmakers, despite the fact it didn't work out for you?
ALEX: On the contrary. One thing life has taught me is to be quick on my feet, adapt and make the necessary adjustments so I can survive. That's what happens when you've lived in extremely opposite conditions in countries with communist and capitalist regimes all by the time you're 10. Seeing that we're shooting end of January, I reviewed the script, tightened it and cut a couple of key scenes I intend to use in the feature version, changed a location that was going to cost us a lot of money to one we can get for free and thus cut down the budget by more than 25%. And now we're going to refocus everyone's attention to our film's site www.withinthefilm.com to raise the $7,000 we're still missing to shoot the project. Via our site, you can donate either by using a credit card or your PayPal account. After we shoot the film, we'll cut a small trailer and have another campaign, maybe even on Kickstarter again, to raise another $8,000 to edit, sync, score and promote the short. The only thing that bugs me at this point about Kickstarter is, if we're going to do ALL the legwork and have our own site through which we can promote the project and receive payments, why give them 10% at the end (between Amazon and Kickstarter combined)? All of the "likes" we got on our Kickstarter page were from traffic we drove to the site. Kickstarter may or may not bring something to the table for you, but you have to pay them regardless.
ELIZABETH: Well, Kickstarter does bring exposure to your project across the country, far beyond your own contacts. But true, unless you really hit it big on Kickstarter and strike a chord with the general public, you wind up paying 10% for pledges made mainly by your own friends and contacts. If you have a big contact list and a dedicated website for the project, it seems it would be more beneficial to drive friends and family traffic to your own site to save the fee -- 10% can add up to a lot of money. In fact, it might be worth considering raising as many donations as possible through friends and family first, then turn to Kickstarter to bridge the gap with a much smaller goal.
ALEX: That's a great idea, wish I would have thought of that. (laughs) By the way, if we don't raise enough to shoot the film, I will contact all the people who donated via our site and offer a refund.
ELIZABETH: For those not aware of the project, what do you feel they need to know about this film? Why should anyone support it?
ALEX: Because Within is a very unique project. Whether you look at it from a technical standpoint (we'll be shooting a film set in three different dimensions, each dimension having its own visual style) or its positive message, I think it's a film a lot of people will enjoy. I mean, the response to the script has been phenomenal, totally took me by surprise how so many people could relate to it. It also blessed us with some amazing talent, in front of and behind the camera. On one end, Within deals with some heavy issues, but bottom line, it's a film about survival, about the overcoming of some serious personal and social obstacles, and we're going to do it in a very entertaining quick-paced visually enticing way which will leave the audience excited and reinvigorated.
To find out more about Within, the cast & crew, the vision and see various pledge opportunities, please go to the film's site Or visit them at Check out a second perspective on Crowdfunding from another filmmaker below.
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CROWDFUNDING Perspective #2
by
Francine Louise
Why Crowdfunding?
There are two significant reasons to crowdfund. First, you need the money. Second you need an audience. It becomes pure genius to do both at the same time, because in the revolutionary process of crowdfunding, you don't just gain an audience, but you gain loyal, interested, connected fans who feel like they're on a journey with you and they just might tell their friends about how awesome you are, too.
This is the cornerstone of self-distribution and the beginning of creatives finally being in control of their own destiny. Building an audience you can market to directly, who's already been filtered for interest level, is invaluable. My own experience has also showed me, the more people I have interested in my project, whether that be indicated by the number of backers on my crowdfunding site, Facebook fans or Twitter followers, the more I can market to sponsors and get them on board with free products and services in return for free exposure and indirect marketing in and around our film. Businesses love the idea of viral marketing, i.e., aligning their brand with cool content, and it also looks good for us to have so many respected brands giving us stuff for free. The right sponsors can raise your profile. But there is a catch. It's not easy. But it is achievable with the right approach. There are three types of approaches you find projects taking on crowdfunding sites. The first kind just get their friends and family along for the ride and raise the minimum acceptable amount which depends entirely on how much good karma you have with your posse, i.e., have you sent them a x-mas card or called them in the last 12 months to take them out for lunch? The second kind puts a little more focus into the whole process and might put up an informative video, harasses a few more friends, hassles crew and/or associates to send the link to their contact base one or two times, writes a few blog entries, posts a few photos then sits back and crosses their fingers. The best and most successful crowdfunders really put their heart and soul into the effort. Their campaigns are authentic and original. Think visibility, transparency and engaging content. These creators make original and informative videos, really think about value add pledges that people would want, then strategically and methodically put a campaign together that includes inspiring emails, friendly value add reminders, update blogs, motivational meetings, even hiring people whose only focus is the campaign, offering a percentage of funding as payment. If they are really savvy, they hire a transmedia producer whose only responsibility is to get the campaign rolling, developing specific content to increase the BUZZ (FYI: transmedia producer is now a credit you can have on IMDB.) If you start to have complete strangers pledging in triple digits you know you're in the ballpark of a winning campaign. The most difficult and often overlooked aspect of crowdfunding is the time commitment it takes to get any real benefit. If you are like me and you're running the campaign at the same time as you're working on your project, your project is already all-consuming and the last thing you have time to do is crowdfund. My suggestion is, you either do one thing at a time, focus on the campaign first before you begin the project and get the money in the bank, OR hire someone to take it over while you are in the process of getting your project done. To do both yourself simultaneously will often end up in a helpless sigh or a vacant stare at your $500 grand total. If you want money and awareness raised, you need to put in a stoic effort. I have learned about crowdfunding through personal experience with my first feature film production Lorem Ipsum. The first time on Kickstarter, I took approach number one. We spent about five hours on it in total, didn't reach our target and so didn't receive any of the meager funds raised from my friends. This time, I've opted to use IndieGoGo, as they have a flexi-payment option where even if you don't reach the target set, you can still withdraw whatever has been pledged in the time set, although you do get charged a higher percentage fee. Why should people invest in your project? I am an Australian filmmaker, living in Sydney and currently shooting my first feature film as writer/director. We are embracing the ethos of a true independent by raising all our backing so far from family, friends, sponsors and fans who believe in the story, its message and its creators. The story is metaphysical, but still grounded in reality with a style that's genre-less, art-house, hypnotic and experimental. I've played with structure, theme, design and sound to create a cinematic experience which not only deals with story and symbology but also plays with trance to deliver its message on more than one level. We have attached some very established local talent in all departments, including actors, camera, design and marketing. We have also managed to enroll sponsors in all areas, including Panavision, Fox and even our American sponsor Microvision with the use of their Pico projectors. Doing things this way has helped us build incredible contacts and a network of interested and supportive film professionals who are all invested in seeing our project some to see the light of day. Many of my US colleagues and filmmaker friends think we're fortunate here in Australia to have government funding available for our films. But my experience has been that government grants are as challenging to procure as crowd or private funding and are far more limiting. In my opinion it doesn't' provide a film with anywhere near the advantages of a powerful crowdfunding campaign. With crowd and private funding I have creative control, I own my film, I've raised awareness and loyalty indirectly and I can distribute it in whichever way I see fit, on whatever platform. Please check out our Lorem Ipsum IndieGoGo campaign. On this second go round, I believe our promo video is much better quality and represents the project in an engaging way. My improved efforts have included printed business card size promo cards to hand out to people we meet, and emailing more people more often. But, as you know, the hardest thing is to take your own advice... we wish we had more energy to put into the campaign. Check out our link and take up a pledge. I'd love to be able to include more interesting and imaginative people in our database to receive our updates, news and art-house goodies.
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Jim's Script Analysis Services
TESTIMONIAL FROM MOST RECENT CLIENT
After working with Jim for a brief time, the one word that pops into my head is - "WOW!" I've worked with and spoken to many of the top script consultants in LA, but Jim is truly the BEST OF THE BEST! This is how I would like compare Jim to the other top notch script consultants in LA: The Normal Script Consultant Approach - Find everything wrong with your script, then tell you everything that you MUST take out because it just won't work... period.. Any solutions? Nope... but you can always work on it more, then pay me for another service. Jim's Approach - Find everything that isn't currently working (in a non-criticizing, non-judgmental way) then use creativity, originality, and knowledge to try to find a way to solve the problem and make it work. If a scene, subplot, etc. just isn't working, Jim will offer a solution. Bottom line, Jim evaluates screenplays from an entirely different approach than all the rest. He's the Master when it comes to character development and using the "Sequences Approach" to properly structure a screenplay. Jim is also funny and extremely easy to talk to. My only regret - I wish I would've found Jim five years ago when I started screenwriting. It would've saved me a lot of money and a lot of time.
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THE CHAMPION CORNER
FUN LITTLE SECRET
In the 2009 Champion Competition, I sent the five final scripts for the low budget horror award to two reader/judges. It really came down to the same two scripts for both readers and their comments echoed each other's: One script had slightly better execution but one of them had a better concept. I reread them and I concurred and awarded the prize to the one that we agreed had better execution.
A while later I was talking with my friend who was the judge and with whom I had made another movie and I made an offhand remark about the runner-up script. I quipped that "We could go make that for like $15k." I don't want to get too new-agey or "the secret" about this but that comment sparked an idea and... 25 months, a few thousand hours each by me and my friend, one director's cut that played several international fests, one new cut that is ready to hit the market and, well let's just say, a lot more than $15k LATER, a 2009 entrant of the Champion Screenwriting Competition had his script turned into a feature film.
Why was it a secret until now? Hmmm. I guess for two reasons.
The main reason was that the film's concept implied an obvious marketing campaign a la Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch with an "is it real?" factor that required that the details and the origin of the movie remain a secret. All of the crew was under a strict NDA and, comically, up till a year after the shoot, most of them didn't know the real title of the movie they worked on. An intuitive sense of the organic marketing angle might have even been a subconscious contribution to the writer's decision to submit the script under an alias; however, the main reason was because the movie was, in the words of the Lucky Charms Elf, "magically malicious." It is a dark script which led the writer to protect his Clark Kent persona in the real world and let an alter-ego pseudonym remain as the writing credit.
The other part of the secret was that I directed the movie. I was under the aforementioned NDA which took the choice to discuss it out of my hands. (The marketing strategy has changed so the secrecy veil has been partially lifted.) However, I was a bit confused about how to announce the news. I have been too busy to be neurotic over the past few years, but I have some Woody-Allen-characterish tendencies. My wife, friends and Rhona (life coach at the time) played therapist for me as I tried to get them to validate my worst fears that there was a conflict of interest in my being attached to an entrant's script.
However, they helped me reframe things pretty quickly:
- I told the writer I would be glad to send it to all of the contest's contacts and encouraged him to use its runner-up status to promote it.
- The writer wasn't a rube (thanks for that word, Hannibal Lecter) who was over his head in dealing with my producer friend. He is, in fact, a New York City-based attorney. My only role in the negotiation between the writer and producer was to suggest two additional deal points that would protect the writer. I was not a partner in the company that purchased the script. I became a work-for-hire, too.
- We were putting thousands of hours of our lives into an endeavor for essentially no pay and we pulled in tens of thousands of dollars in favors and barter. Heck, my dad took off from work, moved to Detroit for a month and cooked three meals a day for 40 people per day.
- My University of Michigan connection may have contributed to the several thousand hours of unpaid intern help we got from UM students. It was also POSSIBLY an influence in getting the state to give us up to $50,000 in incentives to shoot there.
I am still in arena with the film. We are making last-minute tweaks to the new score and are finalizing and implementing the marketing approach. I am fortunate to have this quandary of having to struggle to find time to write about filmmaking (book, blogs, newsletter) because I am actively engaged in making films. I will work with the producer to see what he, the writer and I are allowed to share with you but, truth be told, I don't even have the perspective yet to tell you what the essence is of the story about the process. Consider this foreshadowing for columns, blogs, reports and even Facebook discussions in the upcoming issues where I will try to turn my discoveries about indie filmmaking into helpful insight for you.
UPDATED CHAMPION SCHEDULE
February 2 - At the latest, this is when we will announce the top 20 features and Top 10 TV scripts. We will try have semifinalists for the other categories soon after that.
We will then announce the dates for the Champion Lab. An estimate would be February 22-25.
Entrants who wish to attend will have until February 5 to sign up at steep discounts of up to $200.
Late February - We will have a dinner in Hollywood where we will give away the cash prizes. Will intersect with the lab session(s).
Late February - We will begin to distribute the $20,000 in non-cash goodies to the winners and (some) semifinalists. For example, here is the list of prizes a top 20 feature writer wins.
- A seat in the Champion Screenwriting Lab
- 10 pitches from VirtualPitchFest.com
- A year-long membership to itsonthegrid.com
- Proofreading sample and Logline/Query help from Reader Ready
- Two career coaching sessions with Rhona Berens, Ph.D.
- One logline listing in an issue of InkTip Magazine
- Script and/or synopsis to be read by several production Companies
February or March - We will do the scene class and begin coaching for the Pitch winner. Some scene entrants will also get an offer to have their scene(s) and/or their rewrites used in a book, eBook or DVD.
Stay tuned to the blog and our Facebook Page for updates.
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The Champion Screenwriting Blog
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Crowdfunding
Visit Francine and Ellizabeth: -Francine on IndieGogo |
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