A friend of mine has been recommending that I watch Indie Game for a while. I finally had a chance to see it recently. What a great documentary. Interesting story. Beautifully told. Full of people that I cared for and wanted to succeed.
Before we move on, watch the trailer:
If you haven’t seen Indie Game go watch it online here. It’s also on Netflix instant watch. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Comparisons to the Indie Film Process
While watching the film, I kept drawing comparisons to the indie filmmaking process. There were so many similarities to the making of an indie game and the making of an indie film. I kept thinking, “I know how you feel, my friend.”
It as as if these guys were also telling my story — the years of my life spent as a weird, reclusive woman dedicated to finishing Abandoned Allies. The folks in the film seemed to know same self-torture, perfectionism, dedication, and discipline that comes with making an indie film. Ohmygosh, it was like they were telling my story.
Folks interested in making indie films should watch Indie Game. There are people at every stage of indie filmmaking trying to figure it out for themselves. I highly recommend that you take a break from your own project and enjoy watching this doc. It’ll give you a little peace of mind and make you feel less alone in the creative process.
Indie Film Case Study
While the film itself was fabulous, I now find myself drooling over the details of the production. How much did it cost? How long did it take? How was it funded?
Huge thanks to Brian Crawford (@BCwritr) for recommending the film and sending me the link to the case study about how it was made. I’m getting answers to those film-geek questions of mine and really enjoying it.
For starters, I love that this was “one of the first feature films to be born on Kickstarter” as their website states. The filmmakers broke up the fundraising into two separate campaigns. Each campaign was successfully funded.
Their first Kickstarter campaign was successfully funded in July 2010. The fundraising goal was $15,000 and they exceeded it by about $8,000. They raised more than $23,000 with help from nearly 300 backers. They had six awards categories.
The second campaign for Indie Game, aka: the final push, was successfully funded one year after their first campaign. In the description, they mention having a solid rough cut so the final Kickstarter campaign was to cover the finishing costs of the feature film. They had a goal of $35,000 but managed to raise more than $71,000 with help from nearly 1,600 backers. They had nine rewards categories
As most of you know, I’ve been obsessing over crowd funding strategies for quite some time now. I know some folks split up the campaigns into starting and finishing funds. It makes sense. This is, however, the first time I’ve seen any of the filmmakers write down, specifically, how they did it in an in-depth case study. I’m still pouring over / processing the details.
More to come. Share other doc recommendations and crowd funding case studies if you’ve got ’em. I’m really fascinated. Thanks, again, to Brian (@BCwritr) for the recommendation.
PS: The film also has ties to North Carolina, which makes me doubly-happy. One of the guys in the film was living in Asheville, N.C., while they were shooting. That’s where I’m going on my honeymoon! Soooooo, yeah, I pretty much loved that.