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MisSpelled: A Fantastical Witchy Web Series!

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:57 am
by lindseymcd
My name is Lindsey McDowell. I am an actress and writer in Los Angeles. I've recently written and produced a web series that is currently in it's kickstarter phase of funding to finish season 1.

MisSpelled is about five girls who mysteriously acquire magical powers and how they well they deal with it and one another. It's funny and dramatic. If you like to watch series online, this is a good one to give a try!

MisSpelled features an all women of color cast as well as a variety of body sizes. So often we clamor for "more diversity" and when projects like this come up that aren't backed by a network they fall by the wayside. Please help us keep MisSpelled alive!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1320123977/misspelled-a-fantastical-witchy-web-series

If you're not privy to sharing or donating please let me know any suggestions you have on our campaign! Anything is much appreciated!

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Re: MisSpelled: A Fantastical Witchy Web Series!

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:48 pm
by Charles
lindseymcd wrote:If you're not privy to sharing or donating please let me know any suggestions you have on our campaign! Anything is much appreciated!


Having watched your project video and looked over your project page, here are some of my thoughts and off-the-cuff impressions:

1. Your video is too long - way too long. It's about twice as long as it probably needs to be. Once I start watching a video, if it retains my interest, then it pretty much ceases to be a consideration, as far as how long that it is.

2. You need to decide if you are presenting a fantastical witchy web series to the public, or if you're creating a quasi-documentary on diversity in film. Your current approach yields a project video that is substantially less interesting than it otherwise probably could be. As is, you end up doing neither successfully.

3. Your video would be far more interesting, if it showed more scenes of the individuals actually acting. Instead, you guys have turned your project video into a talk festival. Plus, you're talking about extraneous stuff. Pitch the fantastical witchy web series, and you will probably get better results.

4. Your project expires in 6 days. You're very unlikely to make your goal, I think, seeing as how you have averaged $350 per day in pledges, to date, which leaves you needing to average over $11,000 per day for each of the remaining day sin your campaign cycle. If you fail to make your goal within the allotted time frame, then simply relaunch the project at a later date. If you fail, then when you relaunch, you will probably find that many who pledged for the current project will re-pledge, and at least some of them will likely increase their pledge on the next go round.

5. Your project image has fie ladies all staring up. No excitement. No action. Not much in the way of facial expressions. The photo was taken outside, which helps you on the lighting end of things, but by and large, your actresses are all just standing there doing nothing. How much visual energy do you think that that generates from a still photo?

6. Your project currently has 330 backers - which is a fairly large crowd from which to draw funding from. Your average pledge per backer is $26, which is not a huge amount. Your project has over three thousand shares, which is a very sizable amount. It's massive, in fact, compared to most Kickstarter projects that I have browsed over the last few months. So, word is clearly getting out, but people are not ponying up enough money. You really might want to look at your pledge levels and rewards. Your current approach simply isn't tempting enough, and consequently, your funding is well below where it should be, with that many backers and that many shares. The problem, it seems to me, isn't so much that you're not getting the word out sufficiently, but rather, that what word that you're getting out isn't obtaining sufficient impact - and by extension, your end results are lacking.

7. The thumbnail image for your project brings the deficiency of your lettering on your project image to light. It's hard to read at reduced level. This makes it all the worst to try and sell people visually, that and the actresses in mime mode. Put some expression in the project image. You're not making good use of the visual assets at your disposal.

8. Kickstarter is a visual medium. Post more photos on your project page. Show us the ladies acting in the series. Spread the mini-video clips out a bit. The lettering isn't impacting as much as it could be, that special font that you're using as visual dividers on your project page. It's because you're simply overlaying the font on top of photos, in the mini video clips and the project image. It needs more of a background to stand out more, to increase visual contrast.

9. The most visually interesting images on your project page are these two:

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Visually, your collective mistakes are having the end effect of gutting your project page of visual interest. You have what I think is a delightful little concept, and yet, your project page is doing an exceptionally poor job of selling the concept. Yes, you have lots of backers, and yes, you have a ton of shares. But, your current funding is what it is.

Look at it this way - what I think is beside the point. Your project is WAY behind on the funding end of things. You tell me - what's wrong? Why isn't your project much further along, with the number of backers and shares that you have?

I think that it lacks visual impact, even though you have populated your project page with numerous different visual elements. Like cooking, your recipe is wrong. It's the wrong visual recipe. It needs major work, major revision.

10. Having more than one video on your project page isn't a bad thing. Your project video is trying to accomplish too much. That ends up making it long and tedious and boring - Yes, I dared to say it. BORING! You don't have to agree with me, but if you want your project funding, I think that you comprehend that something's wrong. Thus, because something is wrong, something needs changing.

Amp out the visual impact of the project page. Don't worry about making the project page too long to scroll down.

11. Your project is a 30 days project. Yet, you want seventy-five thousand bucks. If you relaunch it, then opt for the maximum amount of time possible. If you relaunch it, you will start with a degree of momentum that you didn't have, when you started, previously. Your project can clearly interest people. It has 330 backers. It can clearly raise thousands of dollars in pledges. You've raised almost nine thousand dollars, thus far, on this go round. Yet, you need a LOT more. So, do yourself a favor, and give yourself more time, the next time around - assuming that you guys and gals are interested in making a second attempt at it.

12. The most disappointing thing to me, personally, is that after watching the project video, I end up feeling as though I've barely seen any of what is actually at stake, entertainment-wise. Make a new project video that is entertaining. This one isn't.

Good luck with your project!

Re: MisSpelled: A Fantastical Witchy Web Series!

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:27 pm
by Charles
One other thing that I wanted to stress is that you should pay special attention to the Updates and Comments numbers at the top of your project page.

For a project with 330 backers and over three thousand shares, those numbers are puny and meager. Encourage your current supporters to use the comments section. It can make a difference.

Both of those sections are indicators of life in a given project. For your project, neither section currently shows much in the way of life, with just 2 updates and 8 comments, currently.

Re: MisSpelled: A Fantastical Witchy Web Series!

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:35 pm
by Charles
Also, I had to dig something up, in order to find it, and it took me a bit.

But, you might want to read this article, if you haven't, already:

http://blog.kicktraq.com/kicktraq-hotlist-heroes-vs-villains/

Re: MisSpelled: A Fantastical Witchy Web Series!

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:36 pm
by lindseymcd
Thank you so much for your feedback!

Really helpful if we decide to do this again in the future. We really hope to! Re-srtructuring our page and reward levels are going to be crucial. Even on tumblr we have over 15K reblogs and shares and people trying to get word out about our series but no one is "ponying up" as you say!

Definitely need better prizes and more of what is at stake entertainment wise. Wanted to include that in the first go round but I wasn't sure what it meant. It seemed so weird to talk about how an audience is going to 'be at stake' if WE don't meet the goal. Any advice on that?

Re: MisSpelled: A Fantastical Witchy Web Series!

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:26 pm
by Golden Beard
Great project! I like the rewards in a "bag" that's cool ;) !

Re: MisSpelled: A Fantastical Witchy Web Series!

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:30 pm
by Charles
lindseymcd wrote:Thank you so much for your feedback!

Really helpful if we decide to do this again in the future. We really hope to! Re-srtructuring our page and reward levels are going to be crucial. Even on tumblr we have over 15K reblogs and shares and people trying to get word out about our series but no one is "ponying up" as you say!


In fairness, from my perspective, your project video didn't give them much to pony up for. Go back and watch it, and time how much time was displayed with the actresses engaged in the craft of their profession (acting). The one special effects scene with the smoke was OK, until the glowing object came across as cheesy looking. But, by and large, you presented people the visual equivalent of an empty bag of candy.

lindseymcd wrote:Definitely need better prizes and more of what is at stake entertainment wise. Wanted to include that in the first go round but I wasn't sure what it meant. It seemed so weird to talk about how an audience is going to 'be at stake' if WE don't meet the goal. Any advice on that?


Typically, I don't tend to care about the rewards, so I don't focus a lot of my feedback on them. If you haven't done so, yet, read this thread:

confessions-of-a-serial-crowdfunder-t3237.html

Then, ask Magnus for advice on your pledge levels and rewards. He's on a winning streak, right now, so he clearly knows something (a good bit, actually).

As far as an audience being at stake, it is. To me, the solution lies in amping up the visual interest and presenting the acting squarely on the plate, rather than guilt people into pledging or browbeating them with threats of the audience being lost by default, if the project doesn't get funded.

Positive tends to net you more than negative, all things considered. That may sound odd, coming from me, since much of what I post in this forum tends to be criticism. The criticism is toward a greater goal, however, which is to hopefully provide project creators with some degree of insight into how to get their projects funded.

Re: MisSpelled: A Fantastical Witchy Web Series!

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:40 pm
by lindseymcd
Lol not negative at all. A lot to think about!

A lot of the fantasy genre stuff in our category is more LOTR type adventure and looks visually stunning. While ours is a cross between Pretty Little Liars (which does great in its on right on their network) and Supernatural. I feel like special effects wise so far we've only had enough $$ to fill an empty bag of m&ms haha. But so much more could be done for our KS video next time around.

All good criticism! Will read up on Magnus!