There is no one way to find funding for your project. Whether it’s donations or investments that you’re after, people still need to know the same thing. Who are you? What is your project/story? What’s your project’s goal? What is the budget? What is the timeline? And, what am I going to gain from this? The answers all vary but this is what makes your story unique and important.
Last year, you may remember, we produced the TACOathon. This was an eight-hour fundraising live stream to raise money for two projects: A Boy’s Life (short film) and Replaced Series (indie TV pilot). I, Allison Vanore (Producer of both projects) and Rob Gokee (Music Composer for Replaced) went head-to-head raising money and eating tacos. Every $50 donated to one of the projects would mean that rep would have to eat a taco. Now this may seem strange, crazy or just plain stupid HOWEVER that day we raised close to $2,500 total for the two projects. That’s more in one day than any other day we were fundraising. Why did this work? It’s because Rob and I have a large, supportive network online and offline, Rob also has a reputation for being taco obsessed and we can stream from our home for 8 hours without much technical support.
What do you need to produce a TACOathon?
Graphics to support the show (Taco Count Photos for Twitter and Facebook)
Chat Room Moderator (Krista Vanore)
Twitter and Facebook Updater (Diane Beck)
A Guest Interview per Hour: Vianessa Castanos, Jamie Fishback, Alicia Ying, Robb Padgett, Heath Vinyard, Sheila Daley, Laurie Records, and Eli Benavidez (all of whom have a large social media presence and network to draw from)
Taco Ingredients prepped and ready to cook
Laptop w/ a built-in camera (and internet connection)
After our show aired we had a few friends and acquaintances try something similar. One of which Rob actually took part in: The Destructathon (raising money for Hollywood Wasteland).
There’s no wrong way or right way to raise money. They key is, be creative, think out of the box and do what your network, friends and family will find entertaining. We knew that our networks would pay money to make Rob eat tons of tacos. And they did.
This month has been huge for our Love in the Time of Monsters team! We’ve got press coming out from everywhere about both Justin Martinez (our Director of Photography) and Rob Gokee (our Music Composer)!
Justin Martinez, part of the Radio Silence production team, directed, shot and created special effects for V/H/S (indie horror film) which just premiered at Sundance to a sold-out, enthusiastic audience at the midnight screening in Park City. Within days they found their film in a bid-war. The outcome was a deal with distributor, Magnolia, for just over $1 Million. Check out what the press is saying about V/H/S:
Rob Gokee was double-nominated and won an IAWTV (International Academy of Web Television) Award for Best Original Music for his score in the series, GOLD: Night of the Zombie King (his other nomination was for SOLO The Series). The IAWTV Awards were held this January 2012 during CES in Las Vegas. Here’s what people are saying about the IAWTV Award winners:
Rob Gokee and Allison Vanore have set out to raise money for original series, Replaced, by Heath Vinyard, and for short film, A Boy’s Life, by Eli Benavidez. Why? Well, why not?! Allison is producing both projects and Rob is composing music for Replaced so it seems only fitting that we’d find some way to bring tacos into the mix to raise money for this great cause. Here’s the run-down:
On the day of the TACOathon, we make note of the IndieGoGo Campaign totals for each project. From the time we begin, 12pm Wednesday, January 12, 2011, for every $50 raised for each project (can be multiple donors), the corresponding rep will eat a taco. The max number of tacos for each project will be 20. Yes, 20 TACOS!!
This exciting event will be broadcast live on U-Stream for 8 whole hours! In order to keep things exciting and fun, we’ve invited familiar faces to join us! Throughout the day you will not only hear from Rob and Allison but interviews with the following people:
FEATURED GUEST: Elias Benavidez, writer/director of A Boy’s Life
FEATURED GUEST: Heath Vinyard, writer/director of Replaced Series
and few other guests that may pop in!
Our goal is to raise $1000 for each project. ALSO, the winning team will get $100 from the losing team. Max prize is $1100! Of course, if we get additional donors we welcome that as well! We hope that by next Wednesday we have raised enough on IndieGoGo that our goals will be reached by the time we end our TACOathon!
In order for your donation to count toward the TACOathon, you must donate between 12pm and 8pm on Wednesday, January 12, 2011. Of course, donations are greatly appreciated and encouraged between now and then as well!
This event is brought to you by Allison Vanore, Rob Gokee, and Diane Beck.
Kristyn Burtt of The Web Files talks with the cast and crew of our show, S.O.L.O. The Series. Check it out (never before seen clips from Episodes 1 – 3)!
Interviewed: Jonathan Nail, Allison Vanore, Rob Gokee, Michele Boyd, Jay Caputo, Amol Shah, Melissa Dalton, PJ Gaynard, Jason Burns
I’m working with Robert de Almeida on short horror film, “Kill Devil Hill” this week. We shot one day exterior woods last weekend with young actor, Aiden Miranda. This weekend we shoot our interior house scenes with our entire cast including Aiden’s older brother, Hunter Miranda, who I’ve worked with on “Junkyard” and “The Price of Silence – PSA” over the past few years.
