KickstarterForum.org

So my new project, a horror film called Strangers Within, has a pretty solid kickstarter campaign; Twice weekly content, staff-picked, constant plugs online, a good number of backers and a not too ambitious goal.

Anyone got any tips as to how I can help get the word out some more? We've got 2 weeks left to raise at least £1000 and it's looking unlikely! Thanks in advance.

http://www.strangerswithin.co.uk

You've already reached your funding goal. But, you want another thousand pounds within two weeks, huh?

BUT.......You don't even have the project page linked to your Facebook page for the project? Uh, OK. That makes exactly no sense, at all. Crowd-funding requires a crowd, right? Yet, you don't connect the Facebook link. Facebook is what? The world's LARGEST social network - or, to put it another way, a rather sizable crowd.

Just scrolling down your page, many of the images are more of an exercise in blur, than an exercise in horror.

While browisng your project page, I took note of the following:

Our biggest challenge is going to be the fire sequence at the climax of the film. If we do not raise enough budget needed to, realistically, pull it off we will still shoot the rest of the film and source additional completion funding for that scene.


You might want to take some cues from Alfred Hitchcock, to address that particular dilemma.

Personally, I think that your project image sucks. That image will be your main point of entry for most people. The better that image, the more compelling that it is, the more likely that people will be to click on it.

Thanks for the heads up there Charles, lots of helpful comments.

How do you mean an exercise in blur please? And also what sort of Hitchcock inspired cue would you be referring to?

Thanks again.

By blur, I mean the project image, all of the visual dividers, the image placeholders fro all of the videos (which I haven't even watched - as none of them visually tempt me to click on them), and all of the concept art images.

As far as my Hitchcock quip is concerned, Hitchcock was a true master of the suspense in film format. He wasn't a master of gore. Hell, he didn't need it. Your fire dilemma strikes me as a concern about special effects for fire. Obviously, you don't want to actually burn the cast alive.

You've already announced that there will be a fire sequence at the climax of the film. So much for suspense, huh?

Obviously, I have no idea about the specifics of what you have in mind. But, I do know that suspense works very well for horror films - if they bother to include it, when they make them.

In horror, what you don't see can have a strong of an impact as what you do see. Fire is fire. You can show flames. Obviously, you want them to look realistic, rather than cheesy (unless you're making a cheesy film, intentionally, to begin with). But, the horror doesn't emanate from the fire, but from the experience.

Fire burns quickly. The experience of being burned alive doesn't have to, though, if that's what you have in mind. Smoke indicates fire. Smoke obscures, even fire, itself. What you can't see behind that fire, that you know is there, requires you to turn to your imagination to fill in the gaps.

Even copious amounts of fire makes for a poor substitute for good acting.

And, for crying out loud, when you post in forums where a signature option is available and you are using it, make sure that the URL address that you are posting is click-able. Copying and pasting isn't as quick and effortless as just clicking on a link.

Yeah we actually have the fire all covered, it's an extremely minimal part of the film but we just knew from the get go it would be the most costly. The additional money we are raising is going on production/costume design, promotion, location hire and food.

There is a good amount of suspense in the film also, as the launch video details in the first 30 seconds, the film isn't about gore, psychotic serial killers or creepy demons - the tension and terror comes from the developing characters and their unpredictable motives and the unnerving sense of not really being able to trust anyone.

So, yeah, the fire is a tiny detail and the characters/plot/acting is the sell of the film.

Appreciate your comment about the videos, though.

Can you create and list an estimate of the budget covering different things you need to complete your goals?

Break it up into smaller pieces/categories that add up 3000?

Great idea, Mark's on it now!

mboix wrote:Can you create and list an estimate of the budget covering different things you need to complete your goals?

Break it up into smaller pieces/categories that add up 3000?

Apologies for the double post but all done! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/20 ... ature-film

How's that?

I personally think that it helps to make it more tangible, more real.

I hope this helps the audience to understand the need for 3000 pounds and that it's not some random number!