KICKSTARTER

UPDATE: Well, it seems that the site is currently under a Beta test with no word when you or I can participate. But hopefully soon we'll find out sooner or later. Also all payments are sent to your Amazon payments account so at this time you must be a U.S. Citizen with a Amazon membership.

For those, like myself, searching for a way to fund your next project should check out Kickstarter; a site for those seeking funding. At this point it's free to sign up and you have 25 days or so to raise the funding with the amount that you seek. If that goal is not met no one donates money and you're back to square one.

Nothing is expected in return for the donations made, however some artists are giving away bonus items for certain donated dollar amounts. For example if someone donates fifty dollars or more on a someone's film project then the filmmaker would send that person a finished DVD of the film for free as a way to say thanks.

I haven't tried it yet, but may do so in the next few days to raise completion money for my short film/music vid project.

Go here for the full details.

INDIE MAVERICK

Over at Microcinemascene there was this article posted about another open-community based investor website called Indie Maverick, a UK based company. But the twist here is that it's aimed at us the indie moviemaker. The premise is that you sign-up and post some details about your film and your projected budget. Then investors sign-up and invest whatever dollar amount they so choose into your film.

When the budget is met, Indie Maverick contacts you to see if you are indeed legit and then they notify the investors and from there you go through some more hoops and loops to get the money needed for your project.

In return Indie Maverick seems like it will try to distro your flick (I am unclear on that point), make a trailer, a limited-edition DVD, and all of that jazz and you get a 70/30 split (70 for you and 30 for the distro/investors) with investors being paid on a timely schedule. Really I am just paraphrasing the whole process. The full details of how to do this can be found here.

Now this is really a cool idea. There is a immense amount of potential to be had here. Yet I am not so sure about the whole Indie Maverick taking your flick to distro, especially for a 70/30 split.

Not only that, but some of the budgets versus the actual project seem unrealistic. In fact alot of these flicks seem to be a bit talky to be. It may be the Arkoff in me, but I would not invest in most of the films I see on the site. What does everyone think about this new site?