On June 14, DGA members received information on how they can take advantage of exciting new alternatives to traditional film financing when the Eastern Diversity Steering Committee hosted the seminar, Crowdfunding My Film: How to Do It & How to Do It Successfully. Presented in the boardroom of the Guild's New York offices, this event covered fresh approaches to raising funds, finding investors, and explored the various platforms and avenues to financing a film.
EDSC Co-Chair Jason Hightower, welcomed the attendees and introduced the panelists: Director Jono Oliver, Seed & Spark’s Director of Crowdfunding and Community Manager Erica Anderson, Fenton Communications Social Media Consultant Eric Eddings, Passion First Founder Rich Guay, and IncubateNYC Co-Founder Brian Shields who began an exploration of this subject in a conversation moderated by EDSC Member/2nd AD Eddie Griffith.
The first of part of the seminar, Erica Anderson and Rich Guay answered the questions “What is Crowdfunding?” and “What are the avenues of Crowdfunding?” Next Director Jono Oliver revealed the strategy he used to finance his feature Home; and Eric Eddings and Brian Shields explored creative ways of engaging the social world and gauged the overall effectiveness of both commonly used and out of the box strategies. All of the panelists participated in the section asked if social media masses and the individual investors could co-fund a project; looked at what strategies might appeal to both, and discussed the things a Director can do to incite passion and confidence to the masses about their film. They also all discussed the reasons why investors and crowdfunders might find more interest in a DGA signatory project and explained the DGA contracts suited for independently funded projects such as the Experimental Agreement and the Low Budget Agreement. The final portion of the seminar was dedicated to an open forum where the attendees were able to pick the brains of the panelists in a Q&A session.
ABOUT THE EDSC
The Eastern Diversity Steering Committee represents the concerns of Guild members of African, Asian, Native American, Arab-Middle Eastern or Latino descent. The EDSC is committed to improving the employment opportunities, working conditions and the skills of ethnically diverse Guild members. The Committee's current Co-Chairs are Jason Hightower, Rebecca Strickland and Joyce Thomas. For more information about the EDSC, click here to visit their web page.
