Starting a Kickstarter campaign?

[Simalacrum]

I don't think many people will be knowledgable about this subject, but I might as well try

Basically, my father is starting a Kickstarter campaign for a TV documentary on the topic of the artistic history of silhouettes. We're hoping to raise £15,000, and are pulling out all the stops for the project: its a full-on thing, with a professional film crew and everything. We've set up a website [http://www.silhouettesecrets.co.uk] and FaceBook page [https://www.facebook.com/silhouettesecrets], Kickstarter has already given us the green light on the project, and we're set to launch on Monday. Hurray!

Thing is though, I'm rather concerned regarding how we're going to get publicity on the project. We've obviously gone through our personal contacts, and my father has an email list with several thousand individuals that he's accumulated over the years, but I feel like theres been a slight underestimation on how much support we'll receive on the project? after all, most people on Kickstarter are young and often gamers, while this project is aimed towards an older and artistically inclined market.

So, while I don't think I'll get much advise from here, I was wondering what people here felt? How can we get a successful online campaign kicking off? Unfortunately I don't think we'll exactly go viral like Mighty No.9, but then again our aims aren't as high either. What could we do to reach the kind of market we're looking for?

EDIT: Just in case this gives a better idea for the kind of style and marketing we're going for (and what audience we're looking for), heres the video we're going to use to promote the Kickstarter page:

[vimeo=73028649]

 

[Albino Boo]

To be honest, I think kickstarter is the wrong place to go. What I would do is pitch the idea to sky arts rather than channel 4. I would do a bit of digging and find photographs of the commissioning editors make silhouettes of them and send them in with to grab the attention and create a talking point. Sky in general are trying to increase their UK made content and Sky arts has two 24/7 HD channels to fill. I think you would stand a better chance of getting a one off documentary shown there without a celebrity attached.

Please don't take this personally but the voice over sections on the promo sounds a little stilted and probably won't help the cause. The piece to camera sections felt professional and comfortable, perhaps try getting an acting coach for an afternoon to help make the voiceover sound more natural.

 

[Simalacrum]

To be honest, I think kickstarter is the wrong place to go. What I would do is pitch the idea to sky arts rather than channel 4. I would do a bit of digging and find photographs of the commissioning editors make silhouettes of them and send them in with to grab the attention and create a talking point. Sky in general are trying to increase their UK made content and Sky arts has two 24/7 HD channels to fill. I think you would stand a better chance of getting a one off documentary shown there without a celebrity attached.

Please don't take this personally but the voice over sections on the promo sound a little stilted and probably won't help the cause. The piece to camera sections felt professional and comfortable, perhaps try getting an acting coach for an afternoon to help make the voiceover sound natural.

Thanks for the advice!

Problem is, neither Sky Arts nor Channel 4 would actually fund the project: TV channels generally buy pre-made documentaries and other films, meaning that we need a finished product to give them? hence Kickstarter. We will be proposing the film to multiple channels (especially if the Channel 4 deal falls through; TV is nothing if not fickle!) and also be showing it at film festivals, so which channel to propose it to isn't really on the agenda right now.

I'll notify my father about the voice acting; however, unfortunately for the proposal video we have, its far too late to change it now. We've no choice but to go on full steam ahead on that front. Really, its marketing after the project has gone live that I'm concerned about, particularly upon online and social media awareness for the campaign.

 

[Albino Boo]

You could lurk on the broadsheet newspapers and if anything about kickstarter comes up pounce like a ninja and add a link in the comments section. Willard Foxton, one of the telegraph's tech blogger, did a bit on how kickstarter has been take over by millionaires http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/willardfoxton2/100010334/kickstarter-is-it-now-just-a-way-for-millionaires-to-finance-their-vanity-projects/ . You could try and hit him up over twitter to do a compare and contrast piece.

I would also use your Dads skills to get one of the twitterati to retweet a link to your campaign. Send instagrams of silhouette of them being made to the your target and see what happens. Stephen Fry is always up for good ego boost, I would try him. Kirstie Allsopp also springs to mind but she is more crafts based, something quirky might appeal to her.

You could try and snag a spot at the National Portrait gallery's lunchtime lectures to do something on the topic and do a plug at the same time. I would also send your old man out with paper with your kickstarter address on it and scissors and hit the tourists hotspots. Prepare a 10 minute spiel and randomly pick on tourists and do a silhouette, in the age of smart phones you are going to get some tweets and facebook noise from that.