May 25, 2012

Just Crowdfund the $&# Movie!: The Tiny Dancer* IndieGoGo Campaign is Live!

by Jayce Bartok | Published September 13, 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 .

We’ve launched our IndieGoGo campaign for Tiny Dancer (www.indiegogo.com/finishingtinydancer). There is an ever-present groan in my stomach. So far we’ve raised $500 (well, $450) toward our $9,000 goal. I get status reports from my wife, Tiffany, that read something like this: “You need to step it up! Sixteen views of the IndieGoGo page have come from my Facebook and only two from yours. What are you doing?!”

In the end, we decided to go the not-for-profit route, combining our 501 (c)(3) status with IndieGoGo so as not to incur taxes on what we’ve raised. We decided on our goal of $9,000 in a rather arbitrary way. It’s not $10,000. And nine is a lucky number, isn’t it?

“Wait, isn’t your budget $250,000?,” you might be thinking. “Why are you only trying to raise $9,000?” Well, if you’ve been reading my blog, you know that this Monday we’re holding our huge fundraising event. We’ll be sharing our hard work from the past year in the form of 20 minutes of Tiny Dancer, which we’ll screen for patrons of the arts and the tastemakers of NYC. Our IndieGoGo campaign is one component of our master plan. It serves as an online alternative to our event, a PR tool and, maybe, a sort-of fallback.

Worst-case scenario: We only raise $9,000. Heck, we’d still be able to shoot for three more days!

This whole undertaking is the biggest gamble Tiffany and I have taken since the birth of our son. It’s nerve-wracking and exhilarating. We’re working on finishing details as diverse as wrapping post-production on our promo piece with the post-production house Charlex (thanks John Zawisha!), hiring bartenders, processing last-minute donations for our silent auction and sending out even more invites. Hell, I think I’m even going to write a speech. Today’s moviemaker has to be a part-time party planner, a part-time advertising exec and a full-time self-promoter.

In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m thinking of people to email the IndieGoGo link to, in hopes of breaking the $500 barrier before the day is out. Also on my mind is inventing hilarious, witty, un-sales pitchy status alerts for Tiny Dancer’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/tinydancerfilm) that can help drum up clicks and donations. Where am I on my rewrite? Good question. Page ten. Help! In spite of the lack of time I’ve had to actually create, I feel truly inspired to keep on keeping on. This amazing process, which began with our shoot in the spring and has already lasted through the summer, makes me long to be a working moviemaker, one who is constantly in motion developing, shooting, editing or polishing a film.

Because the Tiny Dancer fundraising event is this Monday, I will be taking next week off from my blog in order to decompress. I’ll be back the following week with a complete report on how the party went.

Please send good wishes our way. Visit our campaign at www.indiegogo.com/finishingtinydancer, and use Facebook, Twitter, e-mail or even smoke signals to help spread the word.

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.

SHARE THIS STORY

COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT

Comment by Steven P. on 9/13/11 at 9:38 pm: Good luck with your campaign! I’ve backed a few projects on RocketHub.com - but haven’t used IndieGoGo yet. Seems like the whole concept is blowing up.