Kickstarter Encourages Private Donations for Indie Movies

Cinematical has an interesting article today about Kickstarter, a unique Brooklyn-based organization created to help fund independent film projects. From the article:

It works like this. Let’s say I need $5,000 to make my documentary about the life of Charles Nelson Reilly. I launch a Kickstarter campaign, ask for pledges, and set a deadline by which the $5,000 needs to be accumulated. People can donate as little or as much money as they want, using a credit card and Amazon’s secure payment system. (Amazon and Kickstarter are buddies.) But here’s the twist: The donors’ credit cards aren’t actually charged until the deadline arrives — and even then only if we’ve reached $5,000 in pledges. If we haven’t, nobody pays anything, and that’s the end of it, except for my sadness over not being able to bring Mr. Nelson Reilly’s life to the big screen.

Traditionally, those who help finance a film project are in it for some sort of payback, either in the form of financial returns, an Executive Producer credit or at the very least, recognition among their peers for spotting and backing good material. What makes Kickstarter unique is that it hinges upon the goodwill of private, non-industry-affiliated donors who are in it simply for the altruism.

Is it a good model for this economic climate, though? Few people have pocket money to throw towards someone else’s vanity project; on the other hand, $5.00 here and there is negligible. And, as the quote above points out, unless the project reaches a minimum amount of $5,000 in pledges, the donors are never charged. You can think of it as eBay, except instead of bidding on a “Lord of the Rings” Limited Edition Arwen sculpture, you’re bidding on the right to be a part of what might be the next “Blair Witch Project.”