May 25, 2012

Just Crowdfund the $&# Movie!: What the $&# Is Next?

by Jayce Bartok | Published November 14, 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 spent the past week enjoying the success of our IndieGoGo campaign and fielding questions about what our next step is going to be in our odyssey to get Tiny Dancer into production. I’ve found myself saying the following sentence over and over again: “Well, what’s next? We are going to take the $20,000 we’ve raised and leverage that into $100,000.” It seems to make sense until I really think about it. Then I get scared. I don’t know where I picked up the word “leverage"… maybe from the TV show of the same name starring Timothy Hutton, ‘cause I sure don’t know what it means.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that we are going to take what we’ve raised and get the rest by doing these five things:

Rewriting. Rebudgeting. Reaching out to an executive producer. Reaching out to a star. Getting a substantial grant.

OK. There. I said it. Sure sounds like some leveraging to me!

But seriously, Tiffany and I have decided to back away from fundraising for a hot minute. We’re feeling like we have overturned every stone (and the stones’ stones), and to continue doing the same now would be insulting and ludicrous. Instead, we want to give ourselves a little creative pause to regroup and hit the laptop again, fundraising free.

Our plan is to embark on a rewrite of Tiny Dancer, tailoring the film to everything we’ve learned from our test shoot and what we now feel we can make the film for: $125,000. Our goal for finishing this is January, 2012.

Next, we want to reach out to producers we know who are friendly to Tiny Dancer and who have expressed interest in funding in small investments. But now (shhh, don’t tell them), we want to see if we can interest them in coming on as an executive producer for a larger investment, with the caveat that we are now going to try and attach a “name” for one of the lead roles.

Initially, we didn’t want to have to be married to this idea of finding a star. But I now feel that with some footage to show, some money raised and said executive producer in place, we might have a shot at getting a New York-based star of stage and screen who has a few available days this summer and a desire to be in a film where they can fulfill their lifelong dream of… dancing. Oh, the things we think up!

Lastly, throughout this process, we are going to aggressively apply for grants, this time with our footage and partial funding already in place. I actually found myself entering a finishing funds contest sponsored by Canon yesterday. I don’t think I’ve ever entered anything that quickly in my life. I kept writing over and over again: “This award will allow us to finish our film! We have everything in place! Are you listening to me?! We need this!”

I hope I didn’t come on too strongly.

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 Tom on 11/18/11 at 12:34 am: I love the fact that we can help people fund projects with small amounts. No more having to go to the 1% to get a project funded. The 99% can make it happen. I just ran across another site that I like cal http://www.funderthunder.com