I want you to get the best start, and every project is different.  Your going to learn so many amazing and actionable tasks for your crowdfunding in this course, and I'm offering a chance for us to meet personally to discuss your project.

UNDERSTAND COMMON ERRORS

In this Video You’ll Learn:

• The Answer to the Question, “Why do 70% of Campaigns Fail?”

• The Top Myths of Crowdfunding

TAKE ACTION

• Do you know who your launch community is?

• Are their names and contact info listed out?

• What is your launch day? (8 weeks from now is a good starting point)

I spent a whole year talking to thousands of past creators and I did a comprehensive analysis on the biggest blind spots for first time project creators. Download the free ebook to get a window into how we do it better.

When you think critically about your project, and invite people to test and play with the idea from the very start, you'll discover way more than if you just tried to "think it out".

WHERE DO DESIGN & INSPIRATION MEET?

Is it possiblilty to have a creative, never-before-seen project AND build for your community's actual needs and desires? Does a Fully Funded project idea simply come as a “muse” of inspiration inside your own head?

I was thrilled for the chance to look into this question for todays lesson, because so many crowdfunding project creators are trying to merge feedback from their community with the “big idea” that they’ve been given from their inner creative self.

There is one specific practice that has helped me develop many campaigns, which gets people interested to become your backers long before launch, and also helps you make a project that brings to life something that your community has never imagined before.

CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS

In today’s lesson you you’ll hear about the one particular thing I do before moving forward with any crowdfunding idea.

This action step is simple, valuable, and it really works to create more backers.

TAKE ACTION

Answer the Following Question in Preparation for Your Campaign:

• Who are you going to talk to about your idea? How will you conduct pre-market research? Are you taking notes about the words other people use to describe your project? What is the most frequent concern?

• What is one unexpected thing you learned from going all the way with your market research discussions?

WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL VIDEO?

Most project creators struggle with taking enough action on their video, while there is still time to plan for a full fledged production. It can be hard to plan and shoot a video if you don’t know where to go or what to do, and it gets even worse if your pressuring yourself to have it on a quick time scale.

My advice:

GIVE YOURSELF 4 WEEKS TO MAKE A GREAT VIDEO, SAVE MONEY GET BETTER QUALITY BY RENTING EQUIPMENT

TODAY'S LESSON

• Make a schedule & arrange the pieces Do all your filming on the same day, in 6-8 hours
• Focus on Inspiration and Energy to Have A Great Crowdfunding Video
• Your Video Needs to Cover 5 main "narrative" points
  • Issue / Pain-point
  • Your Project / Product
  • Project Reactions / Lessons learned from the solution/product?
  • Where are you at right now? What does the future hold?
  • Your Call to action
• Find Background Music (search "popular")  audiojungle.com || premiumbeat.com

GUIDED VIDEO TUTORIAL

View examples from our past projects

THEN

Get the right DIY Equipment

WE USE MORE PRO QUALITY CAMERAS & LENSES AT MY VIDEO PRODUCTION COMPANY,

BUT FOR LOW BUDGET, THE EQUIP BELOW IS A REALLY AMAZING PLACE TO START

Total Rent - $98
Tokina 16mm ($30 for 3 days) - this lens will blow your mind.  Try shooting backlit  (into the light source) for sweet lens flares. Get your wide establishers and action shots.
50mm lens ($10 for 3 days) *this lens changes everything.  Shoot f1.8-f2.8. Get  your closeups, cutaways and detail shots
Glidecam hd 1000 ($27 for 3 days)- use this with the Tokina and the 50 mm
*this takes handheld shots to the top quality (really, it's beyond imaginable how great this stabilizer is).  One of the tools that I use in 80-90% of my shots. Walk slow, even, and practice wide slow pans and follow shots, also great for stabilizing for closeups and or following characters as they move. Moving shots Make a video 10x more dynamic and interesting to watch. Combine this with "stabilize footage" in your editor for extra smooth shots.
Canon t5i camera body ($31 for 3 days).
Great looking camera image. Shoot manual exposure & manual focus (use zoom button to confirm focus),  iso 100-800, f1.8-3.5 (for background blur). Practice "pulling focus" on establishers & closeups

OR Purchase used *I promise you'll use them again:
Used canon t2i camera body   ($100-$200)  *best image per dollar in class
Used 50mm lens ($30-$100) *this lens really does change everything.

nicer shotgun mic w/ internal recording. *whatever mic you use, make sure that it is much closerthan the camera, positioned on a stand over their head, about 12" to 18" from the speakers mouth.  This is the BIGGEST THING to do to always have professional audio.

Plan Your Story & Production Day

Now lay out your message, your shots, your cast, & your locations

COPY & PASTE THE FOLLOWING FRAMEWORK TO GO BIG:

- - -

YOUR PROJECT NAME -

Campaign Video Production Document

Project Creator Interview Main Points (this is what you'll talk over during your interview, don't worry about an exact script, just have a long and natural 25 min interview and choose the right sentences during editing)

COMMON ISSUE / PAIN POINT:

Who are the people you serve?  What are their needs?

YOUR SOLUTION / PROJECT:

WHAT USERS LEARN FROM YOUR SOLUTION:

YOUR BACKGROUND:

THE FUTURE YOU ARE CREATING:

CALL TO ACTION:

-Schedule filming day for -Contact potential actress, look for availability

-Find male extra

-Practice speaking over “interview main points”

Written Video Story:

-"Somebody walks up and....then they discover X...and then someone (the founder or X) introduces us...to why they are having such an emotional reaction to the project..."
 

Detailed List of Visuals to be filmed on your production day:

-shot / environment / characters / their interactions
-someone playing with the project / experiencing your solution
-"day-in-the-life" documentary shots, 
- walking / entering and exiting the location
-an epic vista

Visuals to be sourced externally:

-advanced search "creative commons attribution" on ###a href="http://vimeo.com/">vimeo and get FREE CONTENT for commercial use in your video (so long as you link back in the FAQ section)

Our Production Day:

August____  (Choose and schedule production day) -

Suburban House, etc, etc

{production start. Location 1 address: }

10:30 AM: Arrive and setup location for interview

11 AM: Main Voiceover / Project creator interview

12:30 PM:
{transfer to location 2, drive time: location 2 address:} 

1 PM: Additional Visuals scene 1

2 PM: Additional visuals scene 2

3PM: Additional visuals scene 3
{transfer to location 2, drive time: location 2 address:} 

4 PM: Additional visuals scene 4

THE ESSENTIAL PLAN

By now you should have all you need to create a project that sells, with and evidence based marketing approach and a video that feels inspiring.

In this video, I’m going to remind you of the most essential part of crowdfunding, the part that most project creators forget in the mayhem of designing their sales and marketing content: good old fashioned team building.

TODAY'S LESSON

• The Secret Ingredient To Get Yourself Rolling on Launch Day
• What is “Early Adopter Syndrome"? It's when someone feels queasy about joining when there is too much information at once - start gradually, like a normal human converation, ask for advice, and when your "back me" request comes online, they will feel more invested.  Also, if you score 35% funding on your launch day, then "normal" people will feel okay joining - but if you are less funded than that, people view your project as a fail.  That's why it's so key to get verbal confirmations ahead of time.
• The Communication Strategy we use at StartMotionMedia for a Successful Launch every time.

ACTION STEP

Begin Planning your Pre-Launch

LIST OUT THE PEOPLE YOU THINK WILL CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR PROJECT. ARE THESE PEOPLE ALREADY IN THE KNOW? IF NOT, ITS TIME NOW TO REACH OUT AND ENGAGE THEM WITH EMAIL.

With one month to go before your launch date, you can send out the following message to each targeted donor, one at at time.  "We're giving you a preview to our project, it's super important to have your advice before we launch". If the reply, ask for a verbal confirmation if they'll become a backer on the launch day.  Have conversations with people and show off your project early. It's a life saver.

FIND MORE PERSONAL WAYS THAN :BCC OR YOUR NEWSLETTER PROVIDER TO CONNECT WITH YOUR FRIENDS

Can you send personal one-to-one emails or facebook messges to the people that matter most?

Are the above steps working for priming your initial funding? Give them a shot and find out.

There are so many more items for crowdfunding than I could possibly fit into a 5 module course.  I compiled all the remaining knowledge into a free research article.  I hope you enjoy it!