This is a precursor to a post I’m writing on how to figure out the true cost of a Kickstarter Project (using my recently posted project as an experiment).

I was curious to see what funding levels got the most response, so I’d know which area to put the most attention on and make it attractive to funders.

So I looked at about 30 successfully funded film projects on Kickstarter and noted how many backers they got for each level they offered¹.

This is the data graphed out. It’s kind of what I expected, but I think there’s a few little surprises.

• Clearly $25 is the most popular level. This is usually the “Get a DVD” level. But it’s nice to see that the graph curves, and it doesn’t just start high and go straight down.
• However, after $25 it doesn’t just go down. More people give $100 than they do $50.
• While most of the projects with a high level didn’t get any backers, as you can see it never goes to zero (Long Tail at work), even at $10,000.
• The numbers displayed above are the most commonly used amounts for levels.

This is by no means all encompassing, but I think it’s a pretty clearly defined pattern that you’ll find in most Kickstarter film projects.

Here’s the same data shown as a pie chart:

You can use this data to figure out how many backers you’ll need at each level to fund your project.

If your budget is $7500, and 13% of your backers will give you $50, then you’ll need 22 backers to give $50. Of course if you get 1 large donor, then that shifts everything. (Budget $ / Reward Level $ * Percentage in Decimal Form = # of Backers Needed)

Clarification: A lot of this ties into the next post on true costs, because an estimated number of backers you’ll get for each level is handy to know to plan for how many rewards you’ll need to supply.

Stay tuned on how this comes in handy for figuring out the true cost of a Kickstarter project.

1. This isn’t 100% accurate because if you multiply the number of backers for each level and add them up, lots of times the numbers wouldn’t work. I’m assuming this is because people donated a different amount, maybe a little more than a certain level, so they would still qualify for those rewards but not show up as a backer for that level. Or they donated and chose not to receive a reward. ↩

Related posts:

1. How to Figure the True Cost of a Kickstarter Project
2. Kickstarter and Flattr
3. My Kickstarter Experience: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Filming a documentary in a robot workshop has its advantages, like a wide assortment of available tools and constant motivation to build something of your own. So I decided to take on the DIY dolly – the one with skateboard wheels on PVC pipe track – and join the club of all the other low budget filmmakers that have tackled this project.

One day and two cut fingers later, my dolly is done and works surprisingly well. I filmed a few robot battles with it today (in addition to getting some shots with a robot battle camera, which is a separate story). The plans I used were largely based on these sketches from a Videomaker magazine article.

The project definitely cost more than the listed $39 (about double that, excluding all the wrong stuff I bought), but being that the sketch is dated 1996, there’s some inflation at play.

Here’s how mine came out:

I plan to do a PDF of the instructions of what I did with a detailed parts list, since there’s a lot of guessing required in all the plans I found online. I’m also going to add a removable T handle on one end for easier pushing/pulling.

If you don’t want to wait for the PDF (which might be a good idea), here are some notes I have on the plan I linked to above.

• A lot of the design depends on the wheels you buy. I opted for the cheapest skateboard wheels I could get ($10 for 4 at Target, so $40 total). My thought was the fatter the better (as opposed to slim roller blade wheels) so there’s more surface contact with the pipe, and therefore more contact to smooth over bumps. However, the Target wheels required some adjustment to how they were mounted to the aluminum angle than was in the sketches.
• I opted for 1.5″ PVC pipe. I think most plans are 1″ or 1.25″. My thought was the thicker the pipe, the more likely it is to stay straight and be more solid. I’m happy with this choice, however again I had to modify the plans and extend the distance of the wheels from the angle so they would touch the track more.
• The plans say to leave the screw connecting the wheels to the board loose, so the dolly can self correct to the track. I think it should be the other way around, and make the wheels firm so the track corrects to the dolly. I tried both and I like the latter, so the wheels are locked.
• It’s manageable to be used by one person, but the thing I like about this design is it’s strong enough to have an operator stand on it and be pushed (unlike a clever Ikea dolly that’s been making the rounds).
• In the picture you see I have a box of junk and motor on the dolly. I found the more weight on, the better the dolly runs (out of 16 wheels, about 10 make contact, so it needs a little boost). An operator on the platform would of course help.

I’ll post some video of the dolly in action when I get my main Mac back.

I call this an induction type project because once you see it’s doable, it definitely gets you thinking about other things you can build. The only problem I’ve come across with most plans online (mainly a jib, as that’d be the next thing I want to tackle) is their designed for small camcorders, not medium sized cameras.

I’ll see if I can rectify that.

Post Script – In trying to find the plans I used above, I came across a nice list of some DIY projects I hadn’t seen before on Film School Rigs and Mounts. Interesting projects include a car roof mount and Mini DV Underwater Housing.

Related posts:

1. How to be a Key Grip
2. Behavior Patterns of Kickstarter Funders
3. 91 Set-Ups in 3 Days

Want to control your digital SLR camera from your iPhone (or Touch)? When I was taking pictures of grilled cheese sandwiches, there was a bit of downtime between the grillin’, so I figured out how to work this totally awesome magic, all for less than $4.

(While writing this and researching links, I realized OnOne has their own dedicated tethered shooting app. However, their app is $20 while the one I describe below is only $4. And before you say there’s a $2 Lite version, you can do so much more with Keymote)

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Digital camera¹
• Laptop or computer (Mac) with USB cable for tethering
• Tethering software for your camera (links and free workarounds for Nikon users below)
• iPhone or iPod Touch
• Keymote iPhone App and their free receiver software installed on your computer

First is to get your camera and laptop setup to shoot tethered. Scott Kelby and Joe McNally have great posts on their personal setups and if you want more details on tethering you should check them out.

However, what they leave out is a free tethering option for us Nikon shooters. Canon users have a free ride with the EOS Capture Utility. The Nikon option is Camera Control Pro 2, but it’s $160.

If you don’t want all the bells and whistles and just want to be able to operate your camera from your computer, there’s Sofortbild, a free Mac tethered shooting app. Actually, it’s quiet amazing for free. You can control all your settings, have images displayed full screen, setup time lapse, and probably do 90% of the things you’d want to do in Camera Control, but for none of the cost.

So you’ve got your free tethering setup, now you need to make the magic happen with your iPhone. Keymote is an app that once linked with your computer it let’s you save sets of keyboard shortcuts to specific groups. There’s a bunch of preset program specific ones you can download, such as Front Row, Hulu, Finder, Final Cut Pro, or, in our case, you can create a new one, such as this:

The iPhone and Mac connect via a wireless network. Don’t worry, you don’t actually need to be in a hot spot. You can just create a network with your Mac and join it through your iPhone.

It’s pretty simple from here. With Sofortbild and Keymote launched and the two paired, just press away and watch everything go to work.

This worked out really well with the food when I had to position something and snap a picture before it all toppled over. Other uses I can think of are working with kids, getting a better connection with subjects and models, and anything else where timing or ruining the moment is at risk by running back behind your camera.

And as I said, Keymote will work with anything that uses keyboard shortcuts. So it’s been really nice to sit back on the couch and watch some cuts in Final Cut, and even be able to mark clips and subclip raw footage.

1. This post is specifically geared toward Nikon and Canon shooters, but as far as I can tell, as long as you can tether your camera (that goes for point and shoot too) and you can control it from your computer via keyboard shortcuts, then this should work. ↩

Related posts:

1. InqScribe – Best Transcribing Software
2. Useful Final Cut Pro Shortcuts
3. Grilled Food Photography

I’m in Sarasota right now, on what I believe is my first paying video job. It’s operating a HI-POD, basically a 30 foot pole with a camera on top, for filming a soccer tournament. I’ve seen more soccer matches in that past two days than I’ve seen in my life, and there’s still two more to go.

The weather hasn’t been too friendly. Friday we were shut down due to lightning (because, you know, with a 30 foot pole you kind of turn into a lightning rod), so we packed everything up, hung out under cover as the storm skated by without a drop falling on a field, and then went back out and resumed. About a half hour later I hear rain falling. I turn and see a wall of rain heading towards me, like something from a cartoon. It came, drenched us, then passed. Only in Florida.

In between the rain trying to make up its mind, I thought I was safe from the sun with the cloudy, moody weather.

Wrong. I got destroyed. I am so, so burnt. My shirt on Saturday was a little shorter than the one from Friday, so you could clearly see the line where I go from mild white to golden crispy. I lost count of all lame jokes I got, mainly from referees. However, the joke was on them when they came out to the field and one says, “Oh shoot, we forgot the balls.”

Plus the crazy, screaming coaches and fathers are bringing back suppressed memories from my embarrassing sports attempts in childhood. While the most they’ve done is yell at each other, filming a fight like this from an aerial view would mix things up a bit.

So while I’m here, baking and trying to get vegetarian lunches, a project from my documentary has gone viral. It’s a Typewriter program. Basically I came across an interesting quote from Will Self on how he liked the restrictions of a typewriter and the fear of knowing there was no going back – if you wanted to make a change you’d have to rewrite the whole thing.

So I had someone make a simple text editor that couldn’t delete or copy and paste.

Well, it only takes one mention from a big site to get things going, and that came from Lifehacker. It’s very exciting when something catches on and the idea of the program seems to have resonated with a lot of people, which is very cool.

And tonight I just saw I got a mention in The Guardian, however they wrongly attributed Will Self’s quote to me. While I do remember playing with my mom’s typewriter at work, I never used it for any real writing. Plus her’s actually had a backspace.

Next thing I’m hoping to go viral is an interview I did with Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter. Here it is, please pass it on:

Related posts:

1. Mr. Newspaper, You Let Me Down (But Thanks for Mentioning Me)

While doing some film book browsing on Amazon, I caught the release of The Hollywood Assistants Handbook and ordered myself a copy. It wasn’t long before everyone in school was reading a copy. After all, we’re filled with FHPPs (that’s Future Hollywood Power Players for you film muggles).

If you want to work in the entertainment industry, especially the business side, this should be in the top 5 books to read. It’s quick, entertaining, and pretty informative. Like everything you read, you’ll need to filter out the eyebrow raisers from the head-nodders, but this has more good tips than bad. Here are 5 to get you going on your path to a HPP.

1. 10-20-10 Rule – One popular entry level job is a Script Reader, where you read through the piles of scripts producers receive and decide if it’s worth their time to read. I’ve always wondered how anyone could go through piles of scripts (most of which are terrible) and no go insane. Here’s how. Read the first 10 pages, skim for 20, and read the last 10. Brilliant.
2. Write thank you letters after you interview, and especially after someone does something for you. No email, a handwritten note.
3. You’re not curing cancer. If a job nightmare occurs, just repeat that to yourself.
4. If you get some crazy request from your boss, the hotel concierge is your friend. Just tell them your boss is a guest and hand over the task.
5. Intentionally mess up. Yes, screw something up. Nothing big or disastrous. Why? To move up. You want to be a little forgetful or undependable so you don’t become indispensable to your boss, because then you’re stuck forever. Your boss will want you to move on to bigger and better things so they can replace you.

Like I said, not everything in the book might be a great idea. I’m even cautious of some of the things I mentioned above. But it’s definitely worth a read.

Related posts:

1. Being Hollywood and Fake Interviews
2. Screenwriting – Biblio Film School
3. Hollywood Parties and Last Stop 174

Imagine this – you stop by a big studio, maybe to try to get a few minutes with an exec to pitch your next idea. As you get back on the elevator to leave (with the no scheduled meeting), the door opens to reveal the Head of the Studio already riding down. “Great Zeus, this is it, this is where my career starts.”

So you get on, and before the doors can even close you go into your well rehearsed 30-second elevator pitch.

The Studio Head grins and nods to be polite, tells you to talk to his secretary (whom you just did), and leaves. No six figure deal, no let’s have lunch. Why? Because you were the same as every other schmuck that pitches to him 20 times a day.

We’re required to have an elevator pitch at Director’s Prep. We’re also supposed to have a 5-minute pitch, which I think is absolutely ridiculous. 5 minutes for a 7 minute film? You can see the teachers glaze over as they sit through it.

The elevator pitch is a little more reasonable, but I’m glad to finally see someone take a stand against it, namely Stephanie Palmer, a former Studio Exec and author of Good in a Room. Here’s an excerpt from an interview with her on tompeters.com:

Tom Peters has espoused the elevator pitch as one of the supporting columns of Wow Projects. The goal of the elevator pitch being, if you get into an elevator on the first floor with your boss and you’re trying to sell an idea, you want to sell it by the time you get to the 35th floor. You say the elevator pitch is a myth. Why is that?

SP: I think the term “elevator pitch” incorrectly implies that it’s appropriate to pitch in an elevator. Communicating quickly and concisely is important, but you should never pitch when you don’t have time to continue the conversation. A moment’s access with someone who doesn’t know you is not an opportunity. Your first interaction with someone sets the stage for the relationship to come. You shouldn’t start pitching your idea to someone before they know who you are enough to care about what you’re saying in the first place.

High-level buyers are pitched all the time. They know when they are hearing something that’s been repeated to dozens of other people. If you haven’t taken the time to build rapport and customize your pitch to that person’s specific needs, it’s a sign that you’re an amateur. Every buyer is unique, and your pitch should reflect that.

I think there’s three things to take here:

• Communicate quickly and concisely. I’m a fan of one sentence synopses. I think anything after that and you lose the person. Read Made to Stick (here’s a post on their blog on pitches).
• Use your first interaction to get to know the person. Find out who they are, what they like. The goal is to get to know them as a person, and find similarities between their likes and your project.
• Customize the pitch. If they like cars, heighten the race car subplot of your film. People buy what they like, so customize it and adapt it for their likes. You’ll also come off as more natural and less of an automaton.

Photo by Marco Wessel

Related posts:

1. Pitching Story Ideas
2. From Presentation Zen to Filmmaking Zen
3. I Shoot in Three Days. Don’t Panic.

Producing is like being the Chief Happiness Officer on set. It’s all about keeping the crew happy and the set flowing smoothly. After producing two films, my view is the 1AD works on a micro level, creating a detailed set-up schedule and working shot to shot, while the producer does the macro tasks of getting locations, cast, vehicles, food, and making sure people are happy and things run smoothly.

As I’ve said before, the way to win the crew is with good food and craft services. You also have to be flexible and listen to comments.

The second day of production was cold and rainy. I had a coffee maker (and had already made three pots), but the number one request was hot chocolate. So I sent the 2AD out to pick up some hot chocolate packets, cups, and marshmallows.

I believe the original reaction from the crew was disbelief, thinking this was some evil prank. But they were in no position to doubt, and once convinced there was no foul play, the hot chocolate quickly disappeared.

Another good morale booster is mobile craft services in the late afternoon. About three hours after lunch ended, I’d assemble a small spread on a pancake and take it around to the crew, Jeeves style. Timing is everything — they said I’d appear just when they were starting to get some late afternoon munchies.

You also don’t have to break your budget to get good food, or stoop to those ‘low-price’ places. The secret is Publix’s buy one-get-one-free. Just look for those signs and you’ll have plenty of food and variety, a happy crew, and money to spare.

Related posts:

1. Craft Services – The Morale Booster
2. The Glamour of Producing
3. A Busy January

It’s been a busy morning, but the action on my part has finally calmed down, leaving time for a little on-set reporting.

Today is day one of ‘The Groom is Becoming a Tree,’ which, as you might have guessed, is about a groom becoming a tree.

Since this takes place before a wedding, the actors needed tuxedos for three of the characters. I managed to borrow some jackets from Goodwill, and found shirts and cummerbunds at Burlington Coat Factory.

The only problem was there were some last minute actor changes, and I was left with one large and two medium shirts for two large actors.

Actor One, who said he was actually an extra large, got the large and it fit well enough.

Actor Two’s medium shirt wouldn’t button. In the spirit of watching Project Runway last night, and to honor my new favorite phrase, I made it work.

But probably not how Tim or Heidi would have done it. Since this is movie magic, all that needs to look good is what is seen. So to get those extra few inches, I cut the back of the shirt in half and fastened it with some safety pins.

This little magic trick worked and once the jacket was on, no one was able to tell that the groom is wearing a franken-shirt.

Related posts:

1. A Busy January

I just finished designing the DVD for Cubicles to give out to the crew and interviewees. A lot of people liked the design and asked what was needed, so here’s a guide I wrote up.

Maxell DVD-R Printable
50 for $14.99
Get these while they’re still on sale. When first putting the DVD label on my cheapo CompUSA disc, I found (and I assume this happens to most labels) that the print on the disk shows through the label. These DVDs are the only completely blank DVDs I was able to find. If you don’t go for these, make sure yours are a solid color on the back and make sure it’s -R.

Memorex Expert DVD Labelmaker Kit
138 Labels and Applicator for $19.99
If you’ve never bought a label maker kit before that comes with an applicator then you need to get one. This is a one time expense that will save you loads of headaches. Don’t try applying a DVD label by eye, you’ll die. Really. The applicator is a spring loaded device that perfectly aligns the DVD and label. Down the line all you’ll have to buy are just the labels. Plus they all come with some type of formatting software to make life easier.
A bonus tip – when applying the label they tell you to push down on the inner plastic edge of the disc to avoid getting fingerprints everywhere. This way sucks – you’ll get a lot of air bubbles. Instead put one of those clear plastic DVDs that come in a spindle or an AOL disc on top of the DVD so you can put more pressure on the disc and get a good seal.

CompUSA DVD Storage Case
10 for $7.99
These are the large cases most DVDs come in. I overpaid for my cases at Staples. CompUSA seems to have the cheapest.

Memorex DVD Case Inserts
25 for $13.99
To finish everything off you’ll need to print your DVD cover on some fancy paper. These sheets are perforated to tear apart and fit perfectly in your DVD case, with some more perforations to bend at the spine. Photoshop helps to make some cool designs, but this also comes with its own design and print software.

I’m sure with some online hunting you can find better prices. Using the above prices it’s $1.80 per disc, which is a small price to pay to thank your cast and crew.

Related posts:

1. The Magic of the Ikea Big Blue Bag

These are a few of the books we’re required/recommended to get. Hopefully I’ll be able to go into more detail about each one in the future.

We were recommended to buy this book last year for Filmmaking I, and now both Filmmaking III and Advanced Cinematography are recommending it. I have it, but haven’t read it cover to cover yet. The photos are a bit dated, but the information is still the same. Every sentence makes a useful point, so it’s a lot to take in, but for $20 this is a great film book.

This is the Cinematographer’s Bible. At $90, it’s a bit pricey, but I might get it because I know I’ll be referring to it in the future.

Reflections is required for our Cinematography class. Each chapter covers a different aspect of cinematography, written by a different cinematographer with lots of diagrams, examples, and illustrations. I’m glad I’m finally being forced to buy it.

I’ve never heard of this book before today. It’s our other required book for Cinematography. I believe it covers filters and manipulating the negative.

This is not required, but I got this for Christmas last year. It’s an amazing reference and even has some good chapters about basic lighting.

Some of these books are bundled together at a lower price at The ASC Store.

Related posts:

1. Cinematography – Biblio Film School
2. Screenwriting – Biblio Film School
3. The Filmmaking Process