Beg, Borrow and Steal
I’ve never asked anyone for financing for any of my films. That is not to say that I’ve never made money from producing videos, but for my own projects I’ve always self-funded.
JULIAN was the first time that I considered acquiring outside money to complete the production. I thought about how I could do it with what I had but with a new baby and my wife about to get out of the Navy there was no way I could spend thousands, or tens of thousands, on this film. Which ultimately is what it would demand to become what it is now. This is not even calculating the cost of equipment that I already had in my inventory from years and years of earning money then reinvesting it in to gear like lighting, lenses, cameras and mics.
I approached Mike about creating a crowd funding campaign and he assisted me in planning and then filming what would become our IndieGOGO pitch. Watch it HERE.
I was terrified.
It takes a lot of humility and also confidence to ask my entire network and even strangers for a buck to make a film. This happened to also take place at a time when people were significantly struggling financially post pandemic. In MIke’s studio we set up one day and I read my pitch from a teleprompter, telling potential supporters that I was going to create a professional, moving documentary about an American hero, a Marine. I knew once I posted this video and our campaign went live that I had to be all in. NOTHING could stop me from finishing this and it had to be good, no, great. I also knew that my goals may not be met, and if no one contributed that I would still find some way to make it happen.
The campaign went live and I was sharing the link all over my social media. Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok as well as texting and calling around seeing who may be interested. I would only ask that people take a look at the video we made, and then if they wanted they could give something. A dollar or a thousand dollars. It all went a long way over the course of the production.
With a bit of shock and a great deal of gratitude I watch as the notifications came in on my phone. Twenty dollars here, then fifty, soon $500 and $1000 contributions came. It was amazing to see the support that Julian garnered. People whose names I’d never heard were giving generously. Julian shared the link as well and people SHOWED UP. We received almost $10,000.
But the support went beyond the financial.
Julian has impacted so many lives and this campaign really demonstrated that. A gentleman from Jiu Jitsu reached out and told me he was in a band. They offered to let me use their music and even make new music for the film, and we did!
I had a contact at VetTV, a Veteran focused content streaming website, who I reached out to to rent uniforms and props for some of the scenes. They donated them to the project.
I called all around looking for different locations and was able to secure and rent everything we needed for each reenactment and were able to get back in to Mike’s studio for the interviews. Every penny from crowdfunding went in to production and then ultimately a lot more out of my own pocket.
EVERY PENNY WAS WORTH IT.
I made a lot of promises in our IndieGOGO video. I feel like we delivered on all of them, and the feedback I’ve gotten on the film supports this. Please read the reviews on this site to see what I mean.
I can’t wait to share this with you and show you what we were able to do with a small budget and a dedicated team.
Max
