Spike Lee can start celebrating. He just surpassed a $1.25 million goal on Kickstarter for his new film, which as of now is still shrouded in a bit of mystery. It’s about love and it’s about blood, but in the words of Lee “The reason I have not disclosed more info on the story is because: It’s a THRILLER.”
The remarkable bit is the level of success Lee has had with big-time donations of $1,000 or more. Over 100 people have given more than $1,000 to the campaign. At the time of writing, those 103 people have accounted for over $500,000 in funding. Consider that the project has a total of over 5,500 backers. 1.8% of his backers have accounted for almost 40% of his cash.
Should celebrities use crowdfunding? I present a half million reasons to say Yes.
What will the largest donors (the 35 people who gave $10,000) be getting in return? Assuming Lee can deliver on his rewards, they’ll receive one of a host of cool rewards including crew badges for the set of the film, limited-edition art, signed memorabilia and more. One lucky backer is going to get one of four X American flags used in the opening credits of Malcolm X. The others belong to people like Lee himself and Denzel Washington.
I’m an Indie Filmmaker and I will always be an Indie Filmmaker. Indie Filmmakers are always in search of financing because their work, their vision sometimes does not coincide with Studio Pictures. But I do put my own money in my films. I self-financed RED HOOK SUMMER. My fee for MALCOLM X was put back into the budget. The truth is I’ve been doing KICKSTARTER before there was KICKSTARTER, there was no Internet. Social Media was writing letters, making phone calls, beating the bushes. I’m now using TECHNOLOGY with what I’ve been doing.
Spike Lee has become an unlikely ambassador for crowdfunding while executing this campaign, and his dust-ups with the likes of Trish Regan and others will be added to the annals of crowdfunding. He’s done a nice job making his case.
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