- Crowd Funding -
Case Study: Save Blue Like Jazz
The author of the bestselling novel Blue Like Jazz, Don Miller, announced on his blog that the film adaptation he had spent four years working on was dead. However, the funding had been lost, it means the movie can not finish. A week later, two fans of the book, Jonathan Frazier and Zach Prichard, decided to take things into their own hands. They convinced Miller and director Steve Taylor to let them launch a Kickstarter project to raise $125,000 , which is the minimum needed to complete the film, titiled Save Blue Like Jazz.
According to introduction of Save Blue Like Jazz from Kickstarter,
"Save Blue Like Jazz, the project launched on September 24th, 2010. After three days they had a measly $300. On September 29th Miller blogged about the effort, and the internet woke up. Within a week the project had astonishingly raised its full $125,000 — Blue Like Jazz was saved. In the two and a half weeks since, the project has gone on to double that total. It ends at midnight tonight, and it’s rapidly closing in on an astonishing $300,000 — the largest amount raised in Kickstarter’s history, and the largest crowdfunding total ever for a US film. Not bad for two fans with a crazy idea.” ( Strickler, 2010)
How to judge its successful funding? It appears the key point was that it was a project with millions of fans of the book already built at the beginning. In the past fans have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying billboards, full-page ads, and other public pronouncements to save their favorite shows. However, this time fans did a funding campaign, which create a new model for fans to support their favorite project. Jonathan Frazier and Zach Prichard, created a grassroots save-the-film campaign by launching Savebluelikejazz.com. From the news of it during the promotion period, one of the film's backers agreed to match the amount raised if it got to $125,000. That backer will match the $346,000. That gives the filmmakers an extra $450,000 that will be used for extra shooting days. The total budget of the film is under $5 million. These donors won't get their money back, but there were other incentives. Totally, it reveals a phenomenon, fans know what they want to see, fans know what they want to exist. Blue Like Jazz spectacularly demonstrates that they can. ( Strickler, 2010)
Secondly, Kickstarter provided a really useful platform to help promote this compaign. “We’re honored and grateful to Kickstarter for providing fans of ‘Blue Like Jazz’ a way to directly fund a movie they want to see,” comments the film’s director, Steve Taylor, who was quoted in Variety’s feature discussing crowdfunding. “Our movie was dead for lack of money, despite five years of effort to bring it to the screen. Now we’re here in Portland filming the final scenes this week, thanks to thousands of backers from across the country and around the world. We wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for Kickstarter and the extraordinary efforts of the two fans that led the campaign – Zach Prichard and Jonathan Frazier.” (Nashville, 2011)
Furthermore, the director, Taylor, personally made “thank you” call to around 100 of the donors, and was logging phone time between shots. (Strickler, 2010) In the campaign website, it also shows the thank you letter to the people who donate the project. Moreover, many donors will receive "associate producer" credit. It can be said filmmakers said the donors saved the movie.
The movie started shoot last October, every fans of it are looking forward.
According to introduction of Save Blue Like Jazz from Kickstarter,
"Save Blue Like Jazz, the project launched on September 24th, 2010. After three days they had a measly $300. On September 29th Miller blogged about the effort, and the internet woke up. Within a week the project had astonishingly raised its full $125,000 — Blue Like Jazz was saved. In the two and a half weeks since, the project has gone on to double that total. It ends at midnight tonight, and it’s rapidly closing in on an astonishing $300,000 — the largest amount raised in Kickstarter’s history, and the largest crowdfunding total ever for a US film. Not bad for two fans with a crazy idea.” ( Strickler, 2010)
How to judge its successful funding? It appears the key point was that it was a project with millions of fans of the book already built at the beginning. In the past fans have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying billboards, full-page ads, and other public pronouncements to save their favorite shows. However, this time fans did a funding campaign, which create a new model for fans to support their favorite project. Jonathan Frazier and Zach Prichard, created a grassroots save-the-film campaign by launching Savebluelikejazz.com. From the news of it during the promotion period, one of the film's backers agreed to match the amount raised if it got to $125,000. That backer will match the $346,000. That gives the filmmakers an extra $450,000 that will be used for extra shooting days. The total budget of the film is under $5 million. These donors won't get their money back, but there were other incentives. Totally, it reveals a phenomenon, fans know what they want to see, fans know what they want to exist. Blue Like Jazz spectacularly demonstrates that they can. ( Strickler, 2010)
Secondly, Kickstarter provided a really useful platform to help promote this compaign. “We’re honored and grateful to Kickstarter for providing fans of ‘Blue Like Jazz’ a way to directly fund a movie they want to see,” comments the film’s director, Steve Taylor, who was quoted in Variety’s feature discussing crowdfunding. “Our movie was dead for lack of money, despite five years of effort to bring it to the screen. Now we’re here in Portland filming the final scenes this week, thanks to thousands of backers from across the country and around the world. We wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for Kickstarter and the extraordinary efforts of the two fans that led the campaign – Zach Prichard and Jonathan Frazier.” (Nashville, 2011)
Furthermore, the director, Taylor, personally made “thank you” call to around 100 of the donors, and was logging phone time between shots. (Strickler, 2010) In the campaign website, it also shows the thank you letter to the people who donate the project. Moreover, many donors will receive "associate producer" credit. It can be said filmmakers said the donors saved the movie.
The movie started shoot last October, every fans of it are looking forward.