I am watching a Christian movie being resurrected from death, right before my eyes.
It’s saviors appear to be two guys from Nashville and a legion of apostles that have banded together through an incredible crowd-sourcing website called KickStarter.com.
Kick Starter is one of the most powerful online engines to raise capital and community for your indie film, debut album, comic book…whatever creative dream your dying to make. Imagine what you might be able to do for your environmental cause or non-profit?
I was introduced last week to KickStarter while following the travails of writer Donald Miller in making his movie, “Blue Like Jazz,” from his book by the same title. A couple of fans, Jonathan Frazier and Zach Prichard, launched the KickStarter campaign to help raise the final $125,000 Don needs to make his picture.
Like all great stories, this one has a deadline, a point of no return where the good guy gets it unless his community stands up for what is right. Blue Like Jazz can’t be made if they don’t raise the money by October 25, 2010. And the best part is that you can contribute to “Blue Like Jazz,” or any project on KickStarter.com, and you’re money isn’t collected unless the project meets its fund-raising goal by the appointed time.
Save Blue Like Jazz from Save Blue Like Jazz on Vimeo.
Don offered more insight into this remarkable turn-of-events created through KickStarter on his blog:
But that’s not even the coolest part of the story. The coolest part of the story is, just after telling Steve “our fundraising story wasn’t very good,” God orchestrated the best story possible; a miracle, last-minute effort pushed by thousands of people, making this not only a film that says you exist, but a film that makes history. It will be the first crowd-sourced theatrical release of its kind, and if the Kickstarter campaign goes over 200k (and some change), it will be the largest crowd-sourced project ever. It’s the kind of stuff that leads the national news.
KickStarter.com is one of the finest uses of the web (Right behind Pandora.com). Why? Because as of this posting, a movie project that was pretty much dead has been resurrected by the contributions of a thousand or so fans: not by big businesses, a film studio or a publishing house. I can’t think of a more tangible example of “Power to the People” and “Power to the Producer.”
They have 22 days left to raise the final $20K for “Blue Like Jazz.” Even if you don’t donate, it is interesting to see this crowd-sourcing, community-building, capital-generating phenomenon at work.
What’s your creative cause that could use a kick start?
Tags: Blue Like Jazz, Don Miller, Green Marketing, KickStarter.com, Storyline Conference, sustainability
Posted in: Green Marketing, Green Social Media, Sustainable Marketing
Hey Park – thanks so much for your support and helping spread the word!
- Zach + Jonathan -
Happy to help.