Kickstarter: It takes BALLS!!
Managing a Kickstarter campaign is not for the faint of heart. It takes planning, time, creativity and commitment. And did I mention balls? I can honestly say I found it an extremely nerve wracking process. First of all, you are asking people to believe in an idea...your idea, which is swirling around in your head, but you haven't actually created yet. You're hoping you can describe it in a compelling way so that people that you've never met, and many of whom you never will meet will think it's original, funny, moving, inventive, badass, or just plain worthy. Secondly, you are asking for money, which is never easy. It basically works like this...Please give me money to do this cool, creative thing that I want to do, and if you support it, I'll send you a little treat. In our case, since we aren't making shoes or purses or inventing anything new, we can only give out thank you's on our website, links to the show, chats with the actors, a walk on part etc. During the 30 days of the campaign, you have to email, call, tweet, post on Facebook, boost your posts, tag all your friends and relatives, beg them to tag all their friends and relatives, repost, retweet, send out pictures and updates and more updates and thank yous and...you get the idea. I learned more about Social Media than I ever thought possible, and just to be clear, I still feel like I know nothing! Also, unlike some other crowd funding platforms, on Kickstarter it's all or nothing. So every moment of every day you are checking to see if anyone has "ponied up" and every 'ding' or beep or buzz on your cell phone grabs your attention, especially in the middle of the night when there is nothing to do but lie in bed, staring at the ceiling, and spending the money you hope is coming your way! But...the great news is, if you reach your goal, which we did, you get to do your project! Which we did! A huge thank you to all our Kickstarter supporters for helping us to reach and surpass our goal! We were able to shoot Season Two of CANOOKS....now called THOSE DAMN CANADIANS!
