All Or Nothing Funding
It’s a simple idea. If you try to raise £5000, but you only manage £100, those who did invest won’t lose out, and you won’t be left trying to make a film on a fraction of the budget. Of course, it’s a double-edged sword – if you raise £4999, you still get nothing. At least if it all goes wrong, you don’t have to shell out.

Better Than Nothing Funding
This is the alternative. You keep everything you raise, but you pay a financial penalty for not reaching your target, and you still have to fulfill your obligations to funders.

The Cost Of Crowdfunding
There’s usually a payment handling fee of 3-5%. Additionally, there’s a funding fee which varies from site to site.

Is it legal?
I’ve wrestled unsuccessfully with this one, and inquiries to the Financial Standards Authority have met with silence. I suspect there’s a big folder at the FSA where all crowdfunding questions are kept until they’ve worked out an answer! What I do know is this: in the UK, accepting funding from more than five(or so) investors requires your company to be registered and approved by the FSA. However, there are exemptions, such as an Appointed Representative handling things. It may be that crowdfunding websites have this status, but I don’t know. There’s also the possibility of a loophole, as such funding could be seen as payment for goods or services (see “investment” below). The jury’s out on this one.

Timescale
It’s fairly universal in terms of timescale – The project can be active for between 1 and 90 days, although the recommended period is around 50-60.

Ownership
All these sites assert that they are merely facilitators, and don’t take any of your intellectual property.

Incentives
In order to get people to fund your film, you need to give them a sweetener. This should vary depending on the amount of funding given, from something as small as an mp3, digital stills, to something as big as even a part in the film!

Advertising
The sites are unanimous in their emphasis on advertising. Crowdfunding only works if people find out about your project, and as such, you need to make it eyecatching and easy to find. They recommend videos, photos, soundbites, making full use of social media links, and so on. It’s a full time job, too. You need to keep the momentum going for the full length of the project – if interest wanes, so will funding.

kickstarter.com
This is perhaps the most well known creative crowdfunding site. It uses All-or-nothing, and if you’re successful there’s a 5% fee. Unfortunately, they use Amazon Payments, and as a result you need US residency to be able to create a new project, so unless you have an American partner or bank account, kickstarter isn’t practical.

indiegogo.com
This has the benefit of being international, although there are extra fees involved – a $25 flat fee for international credit card transactions. Furthermore, as a better-than-nothing site, there’s a 4% fee if you reach your target, or a 9% fee if you don’t.

rockethub.com
Rockethub is a better-than-nothing sourcer, with  a 4%/8% fee and a fixed handling fee of 4%. There’s also a “launchpad” section, in which creatives can enter submissions for specific opportunities (like a small-scale mofilms.com).

pozible.co.uk
Pozible is an Australian all-or-nothing crowdfunder with a specific UK portal. It charges a 7.5% fee (5% if you’ve previously been successful).

crowdfunder.co.uk
Crowdfunder is a UK All-or-nothing crowdfunder, part of business investors Crowdcube. It charges 5%.

Conclusions
There you have it. It might be illegal, you might have to make your film for a tenner, or not at all, and it’s a long slog. On the other hand, it’s definitely easier than getting Harvey Weinstein’s ear…

I’m sure everyone knows about the film-making triangle (it’s in the Guerilla Film Maker’s Handbook, after all) which dictates that of the three qualities “Good”, “Fast”, and “Cheap”, you can only ever have two.  A case in point is a short I made a couple of years ago called “Milky Thursday”. I needed some CGI work doing for it, but I was on a deadline, and having no funds, I couldn’t entice a CGI artist to work on it for me. As a result, I had to do it all myself (in a hurry), and it looks terrible. One thing I’d like to say about this triangle, however, is that it indirectly leads to one of the most controversial topics in low-budget film-making today – that of paying your crew.  Going back to Milky Thursday again, The budget was about £300, because that’s what I spent on fuel, costumes, props and consumables (fuel was the biggest cost). However, that doesn’t count the donations I received in terms of time and expertise from the cast and crew. If I had been able to pay them the going rate, I would have been looking at upwards of £1000. Obviously this would have been the ideal situation, but for practical reasons it couldn’t happen – film making was always a province of the rich elite, and to pay your crew the going rate it still is.

Obviously, this places me in the position of not paying cast or crew for shorts, which lies at odds with several campaigns, but that’s not to say I disagree with them. There are several examples of films that have been made cheaply where it’s clear that the producers have exploited their crews in order to use  more expensive equipment, or avoided paying expenses, or kept any profits for themselves, and this cannot be condoned. However, when it’s a collective who have made the film, the rules are and should be different. If a film maker can generate a community spirit for the film – if the cast and crew want to be involved in the film for its own sake – then this should be perfectly acceptable. Obviously, it’s beholden upon the producers to make sure that any wealth is shared fairly amongst its collaborators.

I fall into this second category, as pretty much all of my films have been made for buttons and string. Once you have people excited about your project, it’s not difficult to get the best from them without waving a chequebook under their nose. There are, however, some important guidelines:

1. Expenses. If you can offer expenses, do so, even if it’s only a token payment. Some may refuse any money (if they’re passionate about the project, for example), but this is the exception rather than the rule.
2. Food. An army marches on its stomach, a film crew doubly so. There’s nothing worse than working on a project without any catering – you get tired and hungry, and you don’t want to be there the next day. What’s amazing is that this is the easiest and cheapest perk to provide, and the most often overlooked.
3. DVD.  If you’ve offered someone a DVD at the end, provide it. There are several people I won’t work for again, as they can’t even extend this courtesy. You know who you are…
4. Professionalism. This is key. Your cast and crew may be working for free, but this does not mean that they’re amateurs. Treat them and the project with the respect they deserve.

Follow these, and you won’t go far wrong.

Almost There concerns a man trapped within an escape pod when his ship is hit by an asteroid. “There will be several model shots, which are likely to be CGI. I’m confident that we can find an artist who’s up to the unique challenges involved.”

Almost There stars Patrick Lally, and is due for release in the Autumn. For more information, contact almostthere@curtinparloe.co.uk