Throughout our campaign, we made two videos. The second was definitely better and received better than the first. How so? Well, the first video (2K views) focused on my boyfriend and I and how the treatment of Black men has affected us, directly and indirectly. It was definitely moving in some ways. However, the impact of the issue was not as moving as it could have been had we focused on Black men’s perspectives and experiences. In the second video (10K views), we did just that. The centerpiece of the video was Black men’s experiences and we highlighted actual raw clips from the film.
Looking back at our second video, I see that we could have started the video out with a concrete story from one of the men and created a tension throughout the video to compel them to watch until the end. Both videos are also missing a captivating opening image. As a filmmaker, I think I was separating what a crowdfunding video is from what a narrative film is. However, I’ve realized they are exactly the same thing and it’s even better if your crowdfunding video doesn’t look like a crowdfunding video because people don’t want to be sold to or persuaded. People do a lot to avoid looking weak or out of control. If your crowdfunding video looks more like an art piece, I believe it can be more effective, especially when it comes to getting people to share it. If it doesn’t look like an art piece, the problem you’re addressing and the impact of what you’re creating must must must be extremely compelling.
So, back to our videos. Some of the mistakes I think our videos made include: making the opening too abstract and impersonal, not including a striking image in the opening, making the video too long (Kickstarter showed that only 23% of people finished our video). What did work about our videos was: personal anecdotes, showing the stories of the specific group we are focusing on, sneak peeks of our final product (scenes from the film), creating tension or conflict in the video, and creating a sense of urgency.
Of course, there are a zillion things I could recommend based on what we experienced (including having a videographer and editor specifically for crowdfunding videos), but here are my three of my top tips:
Make it an emotional story. Start in the middle and create an unresolved tension. People love stories, especially when they’re not boring. Start your story at an unconventional point so that people have to engage their brains and enter the story. For example, “There I was standing at the edge of the cliff, with 5 seconds to decide whether or not I would jump.” Do you see how a sentence like that and a corresponding image would immediately have you asking questions and at least thinking, maybe I should see what happens next and how she got here? So think about what story you can tell that makes the case for why your project is necessary. And start your story at a place where the audience must immediately engage.
Make at least the first several seconds of your video captivating, beautiful, unsettling, or confusing. Okay, so you know when you’re on Facebook or Instagram and you rapidly scroll through your feed and see each post for like 1.5 seconds before you decide to keep watching? Well, everyone’s gonna do that to your stuff. So, ideally, your first few seconds should be something really cute, breathtaking, unsettling, unexpected, jolting, shocking, awe-inspiring — something that makes our brains go -ahhhh, oooooo, or whoa. For the most part, according to psychology, things grab our attention when they induce pleasure, surprise, or fear. By far, I think surprise is the most often used by people trying to make viral or highly shared social media videos.
Make your video under 2 minutes, preferably under 90 seconds. Not much to say about this but people have zero attention spans unless the content is insanely amazing or manipulative. I believe people recommend crowdfunding videos be under 2 minutes. I’d say 90 seconds because that’s about the amount of time people watched ours.
That gives you the basis for what you need to start crafting an attention-grabbing video. Go forth! Remember if you an appeal to people’s emotions then it doesn’t matter how crappy your camera is.
for all my six tips on creating a powerful crowdfunding video, read my step-by-step guide on how we raised $18K
To read my beastly step-by-step guide explaining how we crowdfunded $18K with no following or fanbase, click to view this awesomely detailed post I wrote 🙂
a little backstory
It was a chilly January 2018 day in the current dimension when 30-year-old unnecessarily educated Justina, queer artist child of black Panamanian immigrants, learned she had three months until her cushy job would let her go. Stunned that her comfortable safety net had broken, she stared at the email for 60 seconds before she resumed binge-watching Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. Two weeks later, she had a nervous break down. BUT. Finally, she will play. She will create. And hopefully never work again. Oh, and now she has a journal. More on her/me here.
my money journal: crowdfunding edition
This, my money journal, is a reflection on my successes & failures to make money doing what I actually love. I want to share it with you cuz… I bet you’re on this journey too. In the first series of my money journal, I’m sharing my first big success as an artist. At the end of 2016, I was listening to my boyfriend’s song Black Man in America when a vision for a dance film struck me. Five Black men seated at a white table with guns. Don’t worry. It is nuanced. By January 2017, I was storyboarding. By June, my boyfriend was on board, we determined we needed $16,000 to bring it to life, and we launched our crowdfunding campaign. With no fan base and no real fundraising experience. On August 6th, we filmed. I was freaking out. I had opened a credit card just for this project, was $4,000 in debt and owed our cast and crew $7,000 more. I was all in. By August 20th, 400 backers had given a total of $18,000 for Black Man in America to come to life, exceeding our goal. In this crowdfunding series of my money journal, I’m going to share how we did it, because – imagine what you could do with $5K ,$10K, $20K to bring your visions to life. It’s our tiiiiiiiiime. (Shine bright, shine far…)
