Funded. On Kickstarter.
I could hardly believe my eyes when the final number rolled in. The voice in my head?
“Is this real? I actually have a budget to work with? Is it all there? All the hard work my team put in means something? Wait, wait… people still believe in artistic, independent short films on Kickstarter, when there are projects to change ecosystems and even lives on there, too?”
It turns out that people still do, in fact, want to support art for art’s sake. People are proud of your artistic endeavors. That’s a beautiful thing. A mind boggling, smile-inducing kind of thing. Life is good. And thankfully I won’t be required to make a t-shirt that says ‘Just fund my f*cking short film, please.’
Am I happy I no longer have to refresh my Kickstarter page every 10 minutes? You bet. If you’ve ever run a Kickstarter campaign, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It takes over your whole life, it nags you like your mom would about cleaning your room, it weighs on you, it teases you with success and scares you with the possibility of failure. Your heart palpitates at the tiniest of donations. You tell your friends they shouldn’t have. You have to sit on the phone with your grandpa who doesn’t trust the Amazon payment system and doesn’t understand why he can’t just send a check. You start wondering why everyone can’t just forego lunch and donate to your project instead. Your body shakes when you get that first $100 contribution. Your baffled at some of the names that do pop up on the backer report. People tell you they are proud of you whom you least expect to hear it from. And when the really big bucks role in? Well, then you just think about Warren Buffet. Or about how you can get to Raymond Tusk levels of wealth in your own life. I digress.
We surpassed our goal and we have family, friends, broke-ass friends, friends of friends, boyfriends, ex-boyfriend’s moms, grandparents, mentors, aunties, acquaintances, long-lost lovers and even strangers to thank for it. Seriously. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
As I sit here meditating on this crazy ride thus far, there’s nobody I’m more proud of than my team. I am humbled by them. I am amazed at how much they take on both personally and professionally. Being surrounded by sincerely caring, good, passionate women reminds me that anything is possible. The countless meetings we had at apartments, bars, basements, clubs. The smiles, the annoyances, the emails, the effort, the mistakes and consequential learnings. And to think that this is only the beginning. The next time someone doubts me, tells me it’ll be impossible or too difficult, I will counter by saying I got a film funded in this economy, in the great city of New York. I can hardly wait for the rest.
x - Myriam