Crowdfunding Your Student Film
By: Pozible Team
Tags: Students, Film, Funding, Crowdfunding, Filmmaking

We get a lot of student films through our virtual doors here at Pozi HQ and we absolutely love them!

Majority of the time crowdfunding will be part of their coursework as it provides some fantastic ‘real world’ experience and a great first taste of what it can take to produce a film. Other times, the drive tends to be boosting a film’s budget to make the best first film possible whether this be for grades or a portfolio.

We’ve had a look back at the campaigns from the last couple of years to see what works and what doesn’t when it comes to crowdfunding student film.

Roll ‘em!

Modesty Matters

One of the most common threads we see with student films is the lower campaign target. Whilst more professional feature films and shorts tend to aim for the $10k + range, student films tend to float around the $3-$5k range.

The main reason for this tends to be simply that student films aren’t normally made on the same scale as these larger films. It’s also a huge help that the universities tend to help out with equipment and software that brings the cost of a film down a considerable amount.

It’s also important to consider the size of the audience. As students tend to be just starting out in the industry, networks tend to be a little more restricted can really affect what makes a reasonable target. If you’re a little unsure of how to set a reasonable target, we’ve outlined some great tips and tricks for setting a realistic target in this post.

Pitch Videos Matter

We’re not above being a broken record when it comes to how important a pitch video is for your campaign — perhaps more so for a student film. With the amount of student film campaigns out there, it’s important to show people why they should support your campaign and not someone else’s.

The above pitch video from ‘The End, The Beginning’ is one that sticks with us when we think of student films. Not only is it well produced, it’s also well thought out, poignant and makes us laugh every time — all indicative of a great campaign!

Pitch videos are important for film campaigns as a whole as it’s kind of expected that if someone can produce a film, they can produce a pitch video. It’s also a really great way to show the style and quality of the creator’s film.

Cast & Crew Profiles Matter

In any campaign it’s important to have images and profiles of the people involved to add some legitimacy and create that connection with supporters — for student films these tend to be taken up a notch.

The above image is a great example of the type of profiles that tend to be well, profiled on student campaigns. Photos like this are great because they tend to be super easy to make and are a fantastic way of getting more personality across. Having a bunch of images like this is also great to use as social media collateral if you ever run out of things to post.

Under the images, it is common to write a quick little blurb about the person detailing their experience to show that they do in fact know what they’re on about.

Promotion Matters

As we’ve touched on briefly, student films often have a smaller target as the networks tend to be a bit more restricted — but that certainly doesn’t mean promotion isn’t a huge part of the campaign.

Student Film ‘Stringybark’ had raised around $5,000 when the Sydney Morning Herald picked up their story. Overnight they saw an influx of $15,000 worth of pledges, smashing their original $15k target with a closing amount of $31,450 raised.

Now, I’m not saying that all campaigns will be picked up by an outlet the size of the Sydney Morning Herald but it’s definitely worth hitting up local papers, film based publications and Facebook groups to reach people outside of your existing network. If you’re filming at a local cafe, why not ask if you can put a tip jar at the register to add to the campaign or host a film trivia night with all funds going towards the campaign — you can really think outside of the box when it comes to promoting your campaign.

(Any excuse to use this gif)

Student Films Matter

Student films are so important for so many reasons.

From the creator’s side, it’s such a great introduction into the creative funding skills it often takes to bring a film to life. It’s also a crash course in pitching and marketing a film in addition to learning how to expand your network. A number of graduate student films also go onto be entered into film festivals around the country which is an incredible stepping stone in a film career.

From the supporter’s side, it’s great to get behind student films as these creators are the future of our industry. The more successful student film, the brighter our film industry is looking. Supporting student films is also a great way to be exposed to really unique stories and filming techniques.

It’s a win-win situation really.