While I'm no expert, I have been a part of a few projects that have successfully crowd funded. As a consumer and supporter of other people's work, we are our own best judge of what should make a great video. The basic point of the crowd-funding video is that you have to have something that inspires people to donate. This sounds like a simple point, but it's amazing how many times I watch fundraising requests that don't inspire me at all. Look, we all know WHY you need money, but show us why WE would like to give you money. 

 Here are examples of a couple awesome crowd funding videos:

1. I am I - Feature Film
2. A Defiant Dude - Documentary Film 

The examples I list above definitely use their videos to show WHY I would want to donate. I am I shows you someone in a short period that seems very enjoyable. Clearly, she has a host of people who believe in her on screen, so perhaps we should too. She makes us laugh, shows enough follow through to make this video, and then leaves it up to us. Simple, yet effective. A Defiant Dude tackles the "us against them" format. He showcases the problem, gets you to believe in it, and boom, we're on our way to paypal. These are basic marketing concepts, but important to use as an artist in this day and age. 

When Jeff Brink and I were shooting the fundraising video for Days Like This, we laid out a bunch of points we wanted to cover and shot a pitch video. After watching it back, it was so clearly a "pitch" video to me and I hated that. It wasn't an example of who were are or what this project was. We scrapped the footage and opted for Jeff to come shoot me in my natural element - cooking dinner. He asked me questions and edited the answers together. What came out was spontaneous and sort of fun. Now, not everyone loved it, because it didn't seem "professional," but I had many people donate for precisely that reason. That being said, the two campaigns above raised significantly more money than I did and probably wouldn't have have had such success with such a simple video.

These are just a couple points that are video related. I will be posting more about content and rewards moving forward. Keep a look out!