What's wrong with the localized Indie world?

Why so many Indies fail not just at home, but also in the crowd funding world.

I am a cinematographer, editor, sometimes even a writer, but most of all a business person. Why do I even state the latter? Probably because without that knowledge, I would be like most indie producers that seem to not have much success with their projects. I emphasize the word "most" as there are some that are very successful. So what makes those "others" successful and the "most" not?

I can answer that and will try to keep it brief and to the point.... but first a little story.

I was recently approached about a project. A musical project, or should I say what I believed to be a music video. This all came via email. My first response was to ask two questions that immediately would tell me how serious, how planned and how organized this project would be:

1. What is the time frame?

2. What is the budget?

Of course I could also have asked; "Who did, or who will do the pre-production as well as the storyboard?"

But I decided to wait with that one until I received a reply to the first two questions. As it turns out, I never needed to ask the third question as the reply to the first two was somewhat as follows:

"It's a 'labor of love' and we want to do it like right away." - Basically two red flags in one simple line of response. "Labor of love" simply put is that there is no budget. "We want to do it like right away." means there is absolutely no planning whatsoever behind it. Because like, that's the way I see it.

I replied very politely and stated the following: "I do not do spec (as in speculative) work for others as this is the same as asking me to be an investor. For me to be an investor, I would need to see a business plan, or at the very least some quality pre-production work so that I can make a judgement call on whether or not I want to invest."

The reply; "No no, we don't want you to invest, but rather just shoot (DP) and edit it."

Need I say more? My time is in their opinion, worth nothing. Oh, and my equipment amortization happens magically without costing me a penny. This is how many of these so-called "Indie" producers see it. But the "real world" is a far cry from how they think it is. 

Here is my further response; "This may be a labor of love for sure, but it is YOUR labor of love, not mine. My standard rates for shooting and editing are a gazillion per hour and half a gazillion per hour respectively. I pay myself that when I do a 'labor of love' for myself. So I ask, do you want to negotiate a discount?"

Of course the sarcasm just had to come in as I knew who I was dealing with and really wanted to once and for all make a point that there is one thing worse than work, and that quite simply is working for free. In reality, this would be worse than working for free as it would mean for me to even spend money on the project. My time, my equipment and my knowledge, which they believe I acquired all for free!

Now let's move on to the crowd funding model. You know Indigogo, Kickstarter and so on. Hmmm, there are so many projects that seem to have the same modus operandi or M.O. No wonder the statistics are what they are. Here are some hard facts from Kickstarter for the year 2012:

Total Projects Launched: 85,995

Total Successful: 35,911

Total Unsuccessful: 46,543

Total % without even getting a penny of the unsuccessful:   ~11% (approx. 5120)

Source: http://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats 

Are the projects not being funded for specific reasons? You bet! They are the same reasons I wouldn't "invest" in the above project. Philanthropy, as is common on the crowd funding sites works the exact same way as any other investment. The difference between being an investor vs. a philanthropist is very simply that the latter doesn't necessarily care about an ROI or "return on investment". But they both look for careful planning, structure and seriousness on any of these projects. 

Bottom Line

If you are venturing into the "project world" of anything from producing an indie to creating the next widget, you MUST treat it like a business venture and take it seriously. An by seriously, I mean you need to be able to prove that you are serious, not just state it or talk about it.

You want to do business, you need to act like a business. Get prepared, plan, document and most of all, be serious and don't use words such as "like" in a sentence as; "It's a 'labor of love' and we want to do it like right away." That in itself makes you sound very un-serious and like, you know, a loooooooser.

Whether you are asking for a favor, help, support, or anything else that may involve time and/or equipment for any project, you are asking for someone to literally invest in you. In such case, the very least you should do is show respect by showing that you are serious and have a plan. Credibility is also a very helpful thing. 

Being Careful in How One Uses Certain Words

Every once in a while one gets the privilege to create from ground up a project. Simply put, you get almost all of the creative control (with a little help of course!).

Here was the challenge:

Create a "crowd funding" (money raising promotional) video production for the purpose of raising funds for a non-profit organization's project. The project goal - to raise a significant amount of funds to pay for a full sized (8 ft. plus) memorial statue of the "Buffalo Soldiers". The name of the project would be "For Duty, Honor and Country".

After a few revisions of a script (the narration), we came to a great starting point as this script also became the "story board" for the entire project. We were careful not to step on anyone's toes and to keep it real! This was probably one of the more challenging parts as there were several places where we could have done more harm than good.

As the story goes, this was about the "Buffalo Soldiers" that helped win the west. Their battles ensued over time with famous (and originally I used the term "infamous") and historically well known Native Americans know as Geronimo and Cochise. As you can see, we changed the term "infamous" in the final as this was not well received by certain parties. Fully understandable for many reasons. The point: Just one word could possibly offend. This was the challenge. Making sure that we stayed on track and also, due to the nature of the subject, kept our "noses" clean.

For me, this was a lesson in history. It is always interesting to learn new things, particularly when it comes to history. Or should I say the "real history" of events that unfortunately many school and history books simply glaze over and in many cases even tell the wrong story.

Obviously and most importantly in my mind was to treat this project with respect all around. It was important for me to ask the questions (the old elephant in the room scenario) on just how to phrase things so as to not offend any party. "What"; I asked; "is the correct term for the soldiers in that era?" What is the correct way to define the race in any era for that matter? Was it "Colored Troops?" as was used in many movies. Was it African-American? Negro? Black? I got all the correct answers from my collaborators, the current men and retired military of the non-profit known as the 10th Cav Troop B. Foundation, who also happened to be the client.

In a nutshell, this was quite simply "a really cool and fun project".  I learned a lot about some of the unspoken history as well as got to know some really interesting (and extremely pleasant) people that have and know quite a bit about this history. Now that isn't too bad for a Swiss-American Caucasian fellow. :)

Flying my camera with a bicycle wheel... really.

Quite a while ago I posted about my DIY rig to "fly" my camera as well as stabilize while flying. A good friend of mine snapped some shots of me while doing the "flying" at the April Fools Fest at the Sculpture Resource Center in Tucson, AZ. I was "flying" my Canon T2i along with a Audio Technica shotgun mic covered with a nice "dead cat". Someone once asked me how difficult it was to get that "dead cat". I told them; "I don't really know. I never killed a cat."

So here are a few shots of yours truly shooting with my modified aluminum rim, or simply a bicycle wheel extremely modified for my purpose. But hey it works...

Photos by Ron McCoy - Ron McCoy Photography - Tucson, AZ

Some sample shots from this event while using my recycled bicycle wheel rig.

the 20th Annual Arizona International Film Festival is now playing, and here is just one review....

UPDATE: You can see this movie again as it is being screened for a second time on Sunday, April 10, 6:30pm at The Screening Room in Tucson, AZ - woohoo!

So this last Saturday I went to go have a look at a film that was made right here in Tucson, by a resident native of Tucson , Jon Proudstar, that featured several of my friends as everything from cast to crew. In simple words: It was a real delight! Now I could sit here and talk about the film itself, but that is not the point of this writing. I will not review the film, but more the idea that such a film can be made, by an independent and for less than 3K, as in 3 grand as in bucks! This should really be encouraging for many of you independent filmmakers out there.

The point is quite simple. I was more entertained by this indie than I have been by many multi-million dollar flicks. It's that simple!

It just goes to show that there are plenty of opportunities for anyone that is serious about creating a masterpiece. You just need to make use of the some of the resources available. The resources are not always about money, but even more so about people. This may sound a bit biased as I am now a board member of this organization, but IFASA (Independent Film Association of Southern Arizona) (clicking on the link will open a new window for you.) offers up just about anything and everything you could be looking for when it comes to productions. From people with various knowledge and expertise, to ideas and collaborators on your next project.

And if you work hard, stay tuned, be diligent, be persistent and most of all be creative, even you could end up have an entry in a film fest such as the 20th Annual Arizona International Film Festival. (clicking on the link will open a new window for you.) But don't take my word for it, take it from someone like Jon that has now done it: