The Dos and Don ts of Crowdfunding Rewards for Filmmakers

The rewards you offer your backers should be awesome for them and low-stress for you. Here are 10 tips to consider before you pass the hat - so you can focus on making your movie, not mailing postcards.

By all accounts, the launch of a Veronica Mars film project on Kickstarter last week has been a swift, staggering and somewhat dizzying success. The proposed feature-length adaptation of Rob Thomas cult-darling TV series rocketed past its crowdfunding goal of $2 million in a roughly 11 hours, and had reached $3.6 million by Monday afternoon. While its circumstances as a preexisting fan favorite and major-studio property make Mars an obvious outlier in the mostly independent realm of creators on Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Seed&Spark and other crowdfunding sites, its success calls attention to one of the oft-overlooked elements of those sites many runaway hits: How to deliver "rewards" promised to hundreds or thousands of backers for their donations.

I wrote about this last week as it pertains to Thomas and Veronica Mars, whose delivery of t-shirts, DVDs and Blu-rays, signed posters and more has the infrastructure of an international entertainment conglomerate to fall back on. (Thomas, who made it sound as though he was on his own in his initial Kickstarter pitch, has since acknowledged that Warner Bros. has his back on fulfilling the demand.) Most other filmmakers whove considered or tried crowdfunding do not share Thomas luxury, and the temptation of all those crowdfunded dollar signs -- more than $100 million to date for independent film on Kickstarter alone -- can sometimes overshadow the stress and complications that accompany such a windfall.

From conception to shipping, rewards can and should be awesome. Before you go passing the hat, consider a few dos and donts that will help maintain your -- and your backers -- focus squarely on your creative effort:

DO

Budget money and time: Not only for the film, which goes without saying, but also for the combined costs of producing and shipping your promised rewards. If you intend to send postcard updates and/or thank-yous, then how much will postcards and stamps cost? Moreover, how long will it take you to write and address the postcards? And those are just self-contained units; rewards like t-shirts, stickers, posters and other merchandise require their own quality control and delivery methods. Cut, combine and streamline rewards however you can.

Budget for the best-case-scenario: Good news! Youve funded your project with $40,000, double your original $20,000 goal. Bad news! Now, in addition to making a movie, you have to deliver two or even three times the expected goodies. One of your most popular rewards packages included a Blu-ray copy, and now youre responsible for authoring, manufacturing, packaging and shipping 600 (or more) Blu-rays of your film -- which hasnt even been made yet, let alone arranged distribution -- to eager backers by an estimated deadline six months away. A guy like Rob Thomas can kick this up the ladder to the Hollywood conglomerate that owns his property. You cannot. Presumptuous as it sounds, anticipate everything for which you might be on the hook when the crowdfunding dust settles, and double it when hammering out your awards structure. And if you dont use the allocated resources for the rewards, then guess what? More money for your project.

Set a best-case-scenario deadline: Backers of hugely successful projects are known for their flexibility, but only because too often, production delays mean they dont have any choice. In crowdfunding as in life, creators owe backers realistic timelines. For me, the most frustrating element of the Veronica Mars project is its absurd one-year window to fund, produce and deliver a major motion picture and all of its ancillary backer rewards. This sets a horrible example for a funding model historically plagued with late, fluid or altogether elusive delivery dates. Furthermore, this all compounds your stress exponentially and unnecessarily. Dont be That Project. Think youll need 12 months? Give yourself 18. Think youll need 18? Give yourself 24.

Offer Rewards of Real Value: I know, I know: How do you know anything is of value until your project funds? Thats part of the trick, but really, if your project is valuable enough for you to attempt to make, then it logically follows that its parts connote an inherent value of their own. Scripts, props, on-camera appearances you name it. In any case, as alluded to above, make sure that the value proposition favors you.

For dramatic features, it costs nothing to factor in personalized character names, walk-ons or cameos. (Just make sure you stipulate to any interested backers that they are responsible for travel.) For documentaries, you can send those aforementioned postcards from the road, offer work-in-progress screenings, or arrange a Skype or FaceTime group meeting with you and a subject. The makers of the buzzy indie doc Bronycon offered to interview two $5,000 backers in their film, while the makers of the "Victorian ghost story puppet film" The Mill at Calders End will hand off some of the movies puppets after production. Director Jennifer Fox offered artwork, jewelry and even a Tibetan chest to backers of her film My Reincarnation. If any of this sounds unduly mercenary, then crowdfunding -- hell, filmmaking -- might be the wrong place for you.

Nail a $25 reward: The $25 pledge is generally regarded as the most popular on Kickstarter, Indiegogo and most other crowdfunding sites. Its a modest, low-risk commitment for a backer whos intrigued enough to eventually want to watch your project but not intrigued enough to bid on a speaking part or some

LINK:	http://www.tribecafilm.com/future-of-film/crowdfunding-rewards...
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