May 25, 2012

Just Crowdfund the $&*# Movie!: Reaching the Midway Point

by Jayce Bartok | Published October 18, 2011

Welcome to Just Crowdfund the $&*# Movie!, where indie moviemaker Jayce Bartok talks about the dos and don’ts of crowdfunding from the trenches of his own crowdfunding campaign. Have a question for Jayce about his movie, Tiny Dancer, or just crowdfunding in general? Ask away at .

TIffany and I have reached the halfway point of our IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign for Tiny Dancer. With 21 days left to reach our $9,000 goal, we are crawling, hand over fist, to the $4,500 mark. To be exact, we’ve raised $4,025 so far. It feels like we’re wading through quicksand. Every day that goes by without us getting through another letter of the alphabet in our list of contacts (check out my post from two weeks ago for more information on our work-intensive outreach strategy) costs us money. We’re currently stuck on L, overwhelmed with all the Larrys, Leos and Lisas. It seems like you have to man your computer and smartphone constantly, generating tweets, posting updates, emailing people… if you stop moving for a moment, everything grinds to a halt.

Today I’m out on the set of a friend’s film, A Song Still Inside, which is directed by Gregory Collins and stars the editor of Tiny Dancer, Rodrigo Lopresti. They are making the film, in which I play a supporting role, for well under $75,000. The more I think about it, the more that seems like the way to go. Reaching our total goal of $250,000 for Tiny Dancer seems more and more impossible, especially since we are having trouble hitting our crowdfunding goal of $9,000!

I remember that, when we were editing the Tiny Dancer trailer, Rodrigo had paint splotches taped to his apartment wall, and we would compare the blues to the grays to the tans, commenting on what would read better on camera. Rodrigo was literally repainting and redesigning his apartment as the key location for A Song Still Inside. This is what it takes. Not waiting for your money, but making do with what you have.

But how do you “make do” when people keep saying, “Congrats on finishing your film, I saw the amazing party you had for it on Facebook!” or, “Hey, you are going to finish the film, right?” I guess you have to take stock of what you do have, and make it work (damn you, Tim Gunn).

So what do we have? An amazing cast and crew, a script that can really move people, a loyal fanbase and pool of supporters and hopefully $20,000 in the bank once our campaign is over. Can we make Tiny Dancer for $20,000? No. But it’s going to get us somewhere.

Jayce Bartok is an actor and moviemaker who runs Vinyl Foote Productions from Brooklyn with his wife Tiffany. Currently, you can see him on USA’s “White Collar” and in the upcoming feature film Predisposed, opposite Melissa Leo. Follow The Independent Collective at twitter.com/ticnyc to stay updated on the Tiny Dancer crowdfunding campaign.

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Comment by Timo on 10/18/11 at 12:13 pm: Great blog post, and so true! We’ve been through this slog once before, but it was so worth it once we started getting into festivals, then winning a couple awards, and finding distribution. ...so we’re back at it again with http://www.indiegogo.com/Death-vs-Robot