To all the fans and supporters of CLOUD MAKING MACHINE,
after 90 days of crowdfunding we reached our funding goal and came one step closer to the final realisation of CLOUD MAKING MACHINE.
We like to thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts – but we do not only want to thank those who funded us, a big thank you also goes out to the people who helped promoting and spreading the word about this project. There was a lot of transition in the last days.
For us this was the first crowdfunding campaign and so this was kind of an experiment, too.
What happened so far
After trying to do things the traditional way for another documentary project by showing up at film funding institutes and editorial offices of TV stations and a year of waiting without any success it came quiet clear: we can do it in another way.
We already have film material from the initial ''Impulse'' dance and theatre project and now we will go on without the traditional financing model.
The perspectives and stories we were faced with in the initial reception center (Erstaufnahmeinrichtung EAE) made us believe that telling them is important.
But realizing this completely on our own is quite difficult. We need support, we need a crowd.
From Do-It-Yourself to Do-It-Together
So, what do we need for a good funding campaign? Interesting texts, good photos, a trailer for the campaign, short sequences of the raw material, social media presences, creative ideas, something new every week and good portion of endurance. The Startnext profile was initiated and the first 50 fans were quickly gained. That was encouraging.
We are unsure if we really will obtain the 5000 € we set as our goal because our film won't
make people feel comfortable, but refugees are becoming a topic more and more in the media.
The first contributions show up, the campaign makes a good start and we feel strange about getting donations from our community, setting up a facebook page with no cute cat pics but a lot of calls for support. Additionally there is the creeping need of reloading and reopening all the sites and presences around the carefully placed e-mail account window on the desktop. And all out of a sudden: summer is here.
The lean period after the initial boost
The eviction of the Oranienplatz protest camp in 2014 showed us even more that the perspective of the refugees is not presented enough throughout the media and how important it is to get this into focus.
After three weeks all wells went dry. Posting texts, photos and teaser snippets on a regular basis has no effect any more, it is somehow full of worms. A gleam of hope comes through a big article in ''Neues Deutschland'', an interview with culture portal kubinaut.de / crowdfunding-berlin.com and one damn lovely, handwritten letter from a reader with the question for our bank account number so that she can support us. She had no internet, she told, but really wants to support us.
The end of the campaign is near
At the and of the campaign we are 2000 € behind our goal and ALEX TV invites us to their show ''Raum für Notitzen'', FluxFM does a feature about us shortly after that.
We are happy, because this gives us the opportunity to have a critical view on how the refugee topic regularly is reported about. Our network gets bigger, but our campaign only has one day to go.
Extension of the campaing
We are allowed to extend our campaign for another 30 days, we like the reports about our film. Some supporters do not want to register at Startnext but want to help us, we find different ways to make it happen for them. Furthermore the trailer for the self organized Refugee Club finally gets aired after we shot in February 2014.
And now, right before it ends, there will be a short interview in the Taz.
We did it
Finally and again finaaaally.
Crowdfunding is not just collecting money, a good part of it all is PR and networking. But financing a project this way makes it even more interesting.
We do not only work in our offices on a film of which we do not know if enough people will find it worth supporting, instead we get in contact with a lot of people who share our approach. This is what gives us the strength and confidence to work on.
Thank you!
