Crowdfunding with a Capital C: It’s Future in Hollywood

Why give money to a nobody when you can help James Franco?

“I can’t even imagine how it must feel for unknown filmmakers to not get the money they deserve. It has got to be frustrating. Backers should support the ideas being created, and not the creators themselves,” Chinyere Fidel pointed out. “But at the same time, as someone who is donating money, sometimes it’s easier to trust a familiar face over a stranger’s.”

Contrary to this belief, these high-profile projects have actually brought tens of thousands of new backers onto CFPs. Kickstarter estimated that Braff’s Wish I Was Here and the Veronica Mars movie campaigns generated an “extra four hundred thousand dollars in pledges for other projects.” According to Kickstarted, a documentary film about crowdfunding which ironically is also being funded by Kickstarter, “the pie is getting bigger” and there is “more money for all.”

The main reason why crowdfunding has been so successful is that it proves to be an innovative method of obtaining funds where, in showbiz, modestly budgeted films are finding it progressively difficult to get studio support.

Generally, it is a challenge to raise enough capital. This is, after all, a competitive business. But it’s more of a struggle for beginners and unknowns because Hollywood mostly produces pictures will similar themes, plots and values.

There’s the defeating the “bad guy” storylines (James Bond, Star Wars, Jurassic Park), the rags to riches (Les Misérables, Slumdog Millionaire), the quest (The Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Rings), the voyage and return (Finding Nemo, Alice in Wonderland), the comedy and redemption storylines. These may be mundane and typical tropes, but Hollywood producers know these will appeal to a mass audience.

As Spike Lee said in response to his Kickstarter campaign for his upcoming project, “With the current climate in the Hollywood studio system, it’s not an encouraging look for independent film makers. I’m not hating, just stating the facts. Superheroes, comic books, 3D special EFX, blowing up the planet nine times and flying through the air while transforming is not my thang. To me it’s not just that these films are being made, but it seems like these are the only films getting made. To the studios it seems like every film must be a home run on a global scale, a tent pole enterprise, able to spin off sequel after sequel after sequel after sequel after sequel.”

Investing in an unheard-of creative idea is risky, and in an industry where money is coveted and cherished above all else, producers will rarely take a chance, unknowns rarely get their “big breaks” from them.

Fortunately, crowdfunding provides an outlet for them, an opening into Hollywood. Crowdfunding gives them a chance, albeit a small one, of becoming a Hollywood A-lister.

CFPs are also a means of generating social capital which is equal to, if not more important than, the financial help. Never before have we had the opportunity to test an idea in front of so many people prior to its production. When the idea does take off, a community to support its progress will already have been established. For particular films, crowdfunding has been a way to judge if there is enough interest in actually producing them. And backers love becoming a part of the process.

“I would love being a part of the process because I would be contributing to a project that I’m passionate and intrigued about,” argued Fidel. “I’d be excited to see a project get off the ground, one I helped get off the ground. Wouldn’t you feel important?”

Like Fidel, backers want to feel as though they contributed to something potentially huge, or at least reap the rewards given when they donate money.