236
Backers
$12,413
pledged of $10,000 goal
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on October 29.Pledge $1 or more
Anyone who donates at least 1 dollar will get an invitation on march 1st 2010 to be one of the founding members of the site and you'll be able to request any film and put on any screening of any film on the site. This could be for a group of friends in your living room or renting out your local cineplex. In the first few months there be a limit of 1 screening per week per user and each user will only be able to have two films selected for download at a time. This is to keep us on budget and not incur massive data transfer expenses. But this is enough to get a screening series off the ground that is dedicated to showing your personal picks of the 100 pioneering films. Lets hope they don't all suck. Haha. But we know we have Four Eyed Monsters, Moonshine, Head Trauma, Abel Raises Cain, We Are The Strange and I'm sure many others that I can personally assure you are definitely worth screening.
97 BACKERs
Pledge $15 or more
OpenIndie.com is being created based on the distribution strategies we implemented with Four Eyed Monsters, so in celebration of this, everyone who has or now makes a donation of 15 dollars will be mailed a Four Eyed Monsters Music CD. (Only to US, Canada or UK addresses due to shipping costs.) For a full track list check out our post on the updates tab of this page. For more information about the CD, check out: http://foureyedmonsters.com/category/music/
20 BACKERs
Pledge $100 or more
Filmmaker profile that works to upload your mailing list into so that all of your fans will hear about any screening that gets put on. Any member of the site will be able to put on a screening of your film. They'll be able to download your film so you don't have to mail DVDs to the hosts. They'll be able to Use OpenIndie.com to give you all the donations collected at the screening. And you'll get a button on your films page that allows people to make a donation. This works regardless of where they saw your film. Think of it like a tip jar for your film. This profile will be live and active for 10 months at the end of which time we'll assess how to move forward and sustain the site. In addition, you'll also get 1 hour of free consulting time with myself, Arin Crumley scheduled during mutual availability at some point during the 10 month period. During this consultation we'll discuss what the goals of your filmmaking are and I'll mentor you in how to best take advantage of various technologies, methodologies and modes of thinking that can bring you more success. Note: If you're not a filmmaker but pledge $100 or more you may donate the 1 hour of consultancy to a filmmaker of your choice. However, you must have your chosen filmmaker contact kieran (at) openindie (dot) com with your name and their details before the Kickstarter campaign ends in order that we can match pledges to filmmakers.
89 BACKERs
Pledge $1,000 or more
If you want to bring more then one film into the mix, you can donate 1000 dollars and bring up to 10 films into openindie and get everything explained above including 10 free hours of consulting.
1 BACKER
Project By
Arin Crumley
NY
Send MessagePutting real life into film, podcasting to extend the narrative, captivating social network audiences, Google mapping the audience demand for a theatrical release and digitally distributing to millions of internet viewers around the world. The pioneering efforts of Arin Crumley haven’t gone un-noticed as Indiewire, MovieMaker, The Wall Street Journal, The Spirit Awards, The Sundance Channel, IFC TV, & many others have jumped into the echo chamber further demonstrating all that new media has to offer.
Today The Wall Street Journal lists Arin among the top 20 new media moguls, and applauds the co-creation of the popular independent film and online video series, Four Eyed Monsters. The film won the Sundance Channel Audience Award and was nominated for two spirit awards. Millions of viewers have engaged across multiple mediums with the project from podcasting, to MySpace to YouTube, facebook & twitter. The community around the film has participated in DIY theatrical screenings around the world and the audience has created material that has been put back into the project. The phenomena of Four Eyed Monsters has also attracted deals to air the film on IFC TV and the Super Channel as well as other foreign distribution interest.
Continuing his exploration into new media Arin also co-founder a research and development project called From Here to Awesome which has been uniting filmmakers to create the future models of collaboration, funding, production and distribution. All of this has lead to the development of many new films including one that was just shot out in the desert at burning man and is set for release in 2010. Keep track of all Arin’s projects and ideas on his blog at arincrumley.com
Harikrishnan Ponnurangam says: Hello, I am a independent film maker. I just came to know about Kickstarter. Openindie is a great concept.I am trying to get my film done and its in the final phase of VFX and color correction. I am strapped at this point and want to raise some funds. I would love to know if someone had a valuable invite for me to start a fundraising project here.
Thank you,
Hari
Annie Berman says: Excited to be part of OpenIndie! Thanks to Arin, Kieran, and Susi/Center for Independent Documentaries-- and of course, to everyone else who contributed. Now, onward and upward! ..
Kieran Masterton says: Hi Brendan,
No, no, you're not jumping the gun at all and I do, in fact, have a blog post planned on my (very long) list of things to do which will let filmmakers know how to prepare for the launch of the filmmaker tools. To answer your question, postal codes are gold dust. We really wanna see those postal codes people!!! :) Essentially, the filmmaker tools will eat up postal codes and turn them into prospects for you guys, however, OpenIndie.com will eventually be able to take a town / city / province name and guestimate a geo-location for that user. Don't forget, if you already have email addresses without exact postcodes, these are just as useful, because we when we send out the beta invites to those email addresses they will be prompted to enter their postcode thus giving you one "request" in that area.
Thanks for your enthusiasm mate, we're just as excited to get moving and we'll start to push out advice like this via our blog soon :)
Cheers,
Kieran
Brendan Prost says: As one of the filmmakers super excited to be involved in phase one, I want to make sure that my film is well set up to be a valuable asset to the OpenIndie community. Both for the benefit of the new site itself, and to help make my film as successful as it can be once audiences are able to start hosting screenings.
What steps can I begin to take to make OpenIndie work, for everyone involved, and for my film?
One thing in particular I want to know, as I'm starting to work harder to map the audience's location, is: Is it better/does it matter whether we are collecting postal/zip codes, or city/town and province/state names? So far for my film we've been collecting city and provinces, because it felt less intrusive to people's privacy and thought the information was just as helpful. But if it is important to OpenIndie, we will begin to get postal codes instead.
Sorry if I'm jumping the gun a little bit, I know that building the site is going to take a while, but I am so excited about getting started! Let us know what we can do to help make everything work.
Ingrid Kopp says: So pleased everybody rose to the occasion to get this funded - can't wait to see how it develops. Only sorry I couldn't give more! Here's to the future!
Mike Ambs says: So excited to see this project funded! Can't wait for the site to open up :)
Kieran Masterton says: Thanks Mike, your support means a lot, I've got a huge amount of development ahead of me but after handing in my notice at work today, and thanks to everyone who donated, I now have the freedom to put every hour available to me between now and March 1st into making OpenIndie a reality.
I already eat, sleep and breath OpenIndie and I am incredibly excited to be able to spend my time building something that I believe in and obviously so many other people believe in.
Thanks to everyone for your support and watch this space for updates on my journey building OpenIndie.com
Arin Crumley says: Thanks Mike, Mark, Linda and everyone! We did it!!!!!
mikehedge says: Kieran I respect your efforts and ideas. Have fun over the next few months with the building of something grand!
markmapstone says: Hoo-raa - I'm in for $20. (well it is pay-day after all) I'm predicting $15k by close. I wonder if this has gone out on any cinemas mailing lists? That would hit a few 'fans of change'. Carry on.
Katie Masterton says: So exciting! Well done :)
Linda Nelson says: Looks like you might make $12,000 before the times up. Way to go.
Ben Hicks says: I was getting worried for a while there. Whew, I'm glad so many others feel as passionate towards this as I do.
Erik Reese says: Amazing accomplishment.
Julia Pontecorvo says: You made it! I'm proud to support this project and I can't wait to see how this takes shape in the coming months.
Brandon Hutchinson says: Yay!
Leslie Poston says: As co-founder of Film POP! and someone dedicated to supporting indie films and teaching the filmmakers about new distribution technology and community building, digital marketing, etc, We support this project for helping filmmakers get SEEN. :)
Zak Forsman says: man, what a relief.
Robert Pratten says: Well done! What an amazing push at the end. I got quite exciting. A big credit to you both.
Kieran Masterton says: Thank you so so so much to everyone who donated, it is fantastic that we've reached our goal of $10,000 and with still 30 hours remaining. Everything above any beyond that $10k will go toward paying Kickstarter's 5% fee as well as hosting costs etc. Don't forget there's still 29 hours for people to become a part of this, so whether you have a friend who's a filmmaker or just know people who would love to put on screenings, or love to see you film via OpenIndie please continue to push them to this page.
As Joseph says, this is only the beginning, we have even more planned for phase 2, but before then, I have a hell of a lot of development work ahead of me :) I've made a great start during evenings and weekends but nothing compares to dedicated yourself full time to a project, and so, to answer Joseph's question:
A beta version, well I can't promise a beta before March 1st 2010, HOWEVER, for all you OpenIndie filmmakers out there we will have a set of filmmaker tools ready for Christmas. Those tools will allow you to add information about your film, title, poster, trailer etc. to the OpenIndie database and upload any list of names, email addresses and postcodes that you may have already collected from your fans. Those fans will then later be invited to become beta users of OpenIndie.com. To keep you entertained during that time I will also be writing a production blog over at http://blog.openindie.com which will include screencasts of development progress for all you geeks out there :)
Thanks again everyone, this is fantastic, I'm totally moved by your generosity and belief in this project. Now my hard work begins!
Kieran Masterton
OpenIndie Co-Founder
Joseph Hung says: ETA of Beta version?
David Krupicz says: Right on, I just checked in to see how it was going today and I see that we did it. Awesome, so there's obviously some call for indie distribution, ;) now it'll be interesting to see where they take this project.
Joseph Hung says: CONGRATULATIONS! We did it. Pat ourselves on the backs. But no self hugs yet. This is only the beginning everyone...there's a long rocky road ahead of us, and the existing paradigm of the film industry looms over it like a dark storm. Let's keep the momentum that we've got going and put the word out there! Time for phase 2!
CHRISTOPHE LEPAGE says: Thank you to Arin and Kieran for putting together this wonderful groundbreaking project which gives Hope to all the newcomers like me to the Film world. I cannot wait to see Everyone's movies and hope one day soon to show you mine. Let's make ART.
Jill Wisoff says: Hi everyone. I'm one of these first 100 filmmakers signing up in support of a first good idea I've seen in a couple of years; Arin's call to self empowerment for indie filmmakers by group effort. Kudos. Letting you all know my film CREATING KARMA is going into its second theater Nov 13-19 (we just had our LA Theatrical Premiere Oct 16) and while its wild to be an indie moving on after two years on the fest circuit and entering this other world, the reality is we are little fish in these places where studio films with huge promotional monies, compete over screening space. It's essential that as a group we empower ourselves to create demand by announcing our presence and availability of our titles by offering alternatives for a public that so often wants to see our films but we can't point to a venue to screen them easily; addressing this issue could create a flow of monies and compensation into the indie community for our work to continue as self-empowered artists in these trying economic times. Hollywood will always have its place but there's room for content out there if we provide the alternative to the traditional theatrical venue with this thought provoking and do-able framework.
Arin Crumley says: Susi Walsh, glad to have you on board. And I'm into coming to Boston. Check http://arincrumley.com/travel and you can see where I'm loosely anticipating being in the next few months and feel free to propose some dates.
To those who have upgraded from 100 to 200, that is great, even better is getting another awesome filmmaker on board. So talk to your friends. Give them the pep talks they need to part ways with this money.
The point is this, we are funding and building this together. We could let corporations fund the tools we need, but then we wouldn't really get what we need. So we have to all work together to build this so we can reap the rewards once it works.
Arin
Kieran Masterton says: Kathryn, Joseph, and Taylor - thanks for your support folks :)
Taylor Toole says: Let's do this!
mowcrew.com
Joseph Hung says: excitement is ensuing
Kathryn Gronsbell says: Philly's students are getting behind filmmakers on this one. Hope my contribution helps!
We're rooting for you guys... http://www.gpsff.com/blog/
Kieran Masterton says: Fantastic to have you on board Jeremy!
Jeremy Hyler says: Finally got to work a shoot this weekend and push 100 dollars into this!
Kieran Masterton says: Justin & Mike,
Thank you both so much for your support, I'm really starting to get excited now; we're so close. Keep the donations coming folks, they are much appreciated!
Kieran
Co-Founder OpenIndie
Mike Merell says: Just kicked in another $100. and challenging the other filmmakers to do so as well.
In the overall scope of what I've already spent to make 'Desert Vows' this is definitely worth $200.
Rise to the challenge.
Mike Merell
www.desertvows.com
http://desertvows.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Desert-Vows-the-movie/105229409018...
http://twitter.com/DesertVows
Justin D. Hilliard & Striped Socks says: ...to all you filmmakers who have already donated...please repost & push all your friends, family, & fellow filmmakers to at least give a dollar...
We need to stop being pessimistic & apathetic...whether you buy into the concept 100% or not...at least give a dollar towards innovative thought, hard work, & progress...nothing is guaranteed...but original ideas need to be nurtured & explored! Even if you think this will fail...give at least a dollar to give it a shot to do so...it's easy to give your opinion & do nothing...do something...support INNOVATION & potentially a REVOLUTION!
Kieran Masterton says: I really must remember to use the correct account when posting... apologies folks! :)
Kieran
Arin Crumley says: Hi Susi,
Thank you so so much for your fantastically generous donation and we very much look forward to working with you too!! It's undoubtedly more practical for Arin to attend an event in the Boston area because he's on your side of the Atlantic :) However, I'm sure I'll find myself stateside during 2010 and would love to attend one of your events given the opportunity.
Kieran
Co-Founder OpenIndie
Susi Walsh says: Arin and Kieran,
We at the Center for Independent Documentary look forward to working with you on this "experiment"! Hope to be able to host you for a meeting in the Boston area soon at one of our Filmmakers Workshops or other event.
Kieran Masterton says: Hi Chris,
Interesting question, and one that Arin and I have discussed quite recently actually. In phase one of OpenIndie, meaning the version that goes live for private beta on the 1st of March 2009 (subject to this campaign funding), short films will be treated in almost exactly in the same manner as feature length films. Therefore, the decision to screen a collection of OpenIndie shorts will be entirely in the hands of the user. However, we will be encouraging users, via various methods, to think about screening the shorts in conjunction with a feature, or to put together a group of shorts for exhibition and to give back to all the filmmakers involved. In terms of what to screen, OpenIndie is currently focussed upon that decision lying with the user, rather than filmmakers suggesting other films.
We are very conscious that many sites who offer, "if you liked this, you might also like this"-style recommendation engines suffer from the "heap effect", meaning that we don't want to just heap films together and detract too much from the film you're interested in. However, we do think that some cross-pollination between films is a good thing. So, in phase two, we do have plans to allow the grouping of shorts into one screening (in the way you mentioned) and possibly the inclusion of an unobtrusive suggestion system.
These are all issues that we will be looking to the first 100 filmmakers to help steer the direction the site will take.
Hope that makes sense, and thanks for your interest in OpenIndie :)
Kieran
OpenIndie Co-Founder
Kieran Masterton says: Hi David,
I think what you're saying is very valid and these are all thoughts that I know have crossed my mind and I'm sure have crossed Arin's both during his own self-distribution of FEM and while watching the response to our Kickstarter campaign.
In the case of the 10 days to go, only 50% of the way funded issue, you're right there is a fantastic movement behind what we're trying to do with OpenIndie. What I have learnt from Lance Weiler's recent interview with Yancey Strickler, founder of Kickstarter, is that projects tend to receive lots of funding at the beginning and end of their campaign. So, I guess we'll see what the last few days holds for OpenIndie. I am confident and sincerely hope that we reach our goal and can get this off the ground sooner rather than later so that filmmakers can benefit from the site. We're certainly going to do everything we can to ensure success.
Equally, I'm am delighted and amazingly encouraged that 47 filmmakers and 56 indie film fans have already put their hands in their pockets to help make this site a reality. I think, as Zak Forsman said in his recent blog for Filmmaker Magazine, that there is most definitely a groundswell in this arena and a sense that it is time for a solution. Whether that is OpenIndie or another similar solution only time will tell, but I agree that the Internet holds the key.
Kieran
OpenIndie Co-Founder
Chris Perry says: Hi OI team - after reading the OpenIndie FAQ I saw that short filmmakers are invited to contribute, but I wasn't sure how you two envision short films being requested and then ultimately shown through the OpenIndie model. Will there be some programming step supported, so that shorts can be lumped together into a feature-length program and audiences get their money's worth? If so, who will do that? The filmmakers, audiences, or venues?
Thanks!
David Krupicz says: 10 Days to go, and 50% of the way to the $10,000 goal, eh? I'm not going to be a pessimist here or anything, because with 98 backers there's obviously a community of people who think that indie distribution has a future. It's a slow uphill battle (as I've discovered trying to promote my own film Archon Defender....) and there's a lot of factors to overcome:
Signal to noise: How to stand out in an ocean of indie content producers (I think that talent, and quality, as well as devotion to artistic principles will enable this)
Short attention spans: When I was a kid, people were lined up around the block fort the first Star Wars movies, for months. Nowadays, a 'hit' film is in the spotlight for 2 weeks max, and then forgotten. Remember the movie adaptation of 'Watchmen' ? the 'biggest cinematic experience' in forever... Yeah, thought you might remember that, it wasn't that long ago. This year, even, if I recall. Point being: attention spans are getting short, but then again whatever you put online stays online forever, so there's always a supply of new fans who haven't discovered your work yet.
Despite this, I think that independent discovery is the way of the future, and that quality and talent will rise to the top, especially with the turkey farm that is the hollywood movie machine. The internet is the key to this, and social networking sites, and the inter-linking of social networking in a fashion that the OpenIndie project represents.
Kieran Masterton says: Jake, thanks for your support! Can't wait to see No Sanctuary on the site.
Kieran Masterton says: Hey Ryan :)
Ok, interesting question and perfectly legitimate. To be clear, OpenIndie's user-base, meaning users who can perform actions like discover, request and screen films on OpenIndie.com, will come from a number of sources. Primarily these users will be generated from the list of names / email addresses that the 100 filmmakers upload before the site launches on March 1st. So, if each filmmaker imports an average of 500 fans who then become users that's 50,000 users who we already know are interested in indie film. Likewise, if that average is 1,000 fans, we're looking at 100,000 users or an average import of 10,000 fans equals 1,000,000 users!!! Obviously, not all of the imported fans will respond to the email invite we send them so numbers will be slightly reduced.
Secondly, we have the users who donated between $1 and $99 on Kickstarter, we always expected this to be a fairly limited number compared to those invited by the filmmakers but thought that a beta invite and access to exclusive updates would be a nice reward for those who aren't filmmakers but want to donate.
Finally, once we have an idea of numbers from the filmmaker imports, we will look at giving limited numbers of the active users a few invites of their own, so that they can invite their friends. Similar to what, say, Google Wave are currently doing. We want to ensure that we get the numbers right so that you and your fellow filmmakers get the best possible response but also we keep the load on our infrastructure to a manageable level. Once we see how the servers respond under load, we will assess how many invites to give out to those active users. The hope is that those limited invites will create excitement and demand for access amongst indie film fans and access will spread organically.
I hope that makes sense,
Kieran
Ryan Wehner says: Hello!
I had a question concerning the number of backers ive noticed supporting OpenIndie. As of right now we have 45 - $100 backers and 47 - $1 backers. Assuming this means, there are 45 filmmakers with films, and only 47 people supporting the site in order to watch/screen them? Obviously we (the filmmakers) are excited, energized and thrilled at the opportunity to be apart of the evolution of indie cinema distribution .... but do we think our audiences will be equally excited?
Do you think excitement will change once the site is up and running with films ready to be screened?
Will there continue to be a $1 sign up fee for everyone?
Regardless, I have no doubt OpenIndie will be a success. 100 passionate filmmakers thriving on each others good energy and brilliant ideas. Sharing and combining audiences that LOVE indie film and many that have patiently awaited the opportunity to see films they've followed for so long! I know I am proud to be apart of the change, and pumped to have OUR film 'THE STEVIE WONDERSHOW' as 1 of the first 100 films!
Thanks!
Ryan Wehner
http://www.steviewondershow.com
Jake Stetler says: Excited to be connected to the OpenIndie project! My donation just put us over the halfway mark. I am in post production with my feature film, "No Sanctuary". I was at DIY DAYS in Philadelphia in August. Love the spirit of this cutting edge filmmaking community.
Jake Stetler
http://www.nosanctuarymovie.com/
Kieran Masterton says: Hi JB Movies,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you I have been traveling all day and this has been the first chance I have had to address my inbox and OpenIndie questions. Arin and I are the founders of OpenIndie which is a subsidiary of Arin's Co Create Inc. which is an S-Corp. So, to answer your question no, we're not a 501-C but if you wish to donate $100 and become one of our first 100 filmmakers you could consider that expense as a distribution cost for you film.
Hope that makes sense,
Kieran Masterton
Co-Founder OpenIndie
JB Movies says: I'm going to ask a simple question: is this a LLC or a 501-C? I only ask because you ask for donations.
Zak Forsman says: ...Zak & Jill went up the hill....
Arin Crumley says: Zak & Jill,
There were some very inspiring interactions I had one on one with filmmakers at the forum this weekend. It's true, there is a real shift towards community and learning all the benefits of what happens when filmmakers really unite in the common goal to bring stories to the surface for society to learn more about it's self. Whether it's a social doc or a personal exploration or a sic fi or horror, all of the genres share in common the same goal of landing the message with the audience that wants that message. To see us now past 1/3 of our funding goal with still 16 days to go has me very confident that if we all keep blogging, tweeting and even getting on the phone with other filmmakers then we'll really see this happen.
Arin