Crowdfunding Industry Rolls Out the Red Carpet to Hollywood and Indies with First Crowdfunding Film Festival in California

Crowdfunding Film Festival Set to Roll Out the Red Carpet to Hollywood and Independent Filmmakers to Promote Revolutionary New Public Equity Crowdfunding Finance Tool

By Robert Hoskins

The First Annual International CrowdFunding Film Festival will be held October 2-6, 2013 in San Francisco. The film fest will bring together artists, filmmakers, entertainment and video game creators to showcase their craft, network and  raise money through the new crowdfunding finance tool. The film festival has plans to collaborate with film schools in New York, London and Paris.

Crowdfunding Film Festival Set to Roll Out the Red Carpet to Hollywood and Independent Filmmakers to Promote Revolutionary New Public Equity Crowdfunding Finance Tool

Film students from universities all around the country are increasingly looking to crowdfunding to find backing for their projects. With over countless films successfully funded through crowdfunding portals such as Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, Hollywood is now paying close attention to all this movement.

Director/Writer Rob Thomas has raised over $5.7 million for his movie “Veronica Mars” while Zach Braff’s feature “Wish I Was Here” has raised $2.6 million in donations. San Francisco State Student Sterling Cook keen on exploring crowdfunding of finance for production projects.

“I see in these directors, writers, and cinematographers, the same core passion for innovation. They are not only artists but more importantly, entrepreneurs – they are seeking to touch the world and make a difference through their films. We know of their struggle to find financial backing and I believe crowdfunding will be the answer,” stated the ICFFF’s organizer Sydney Armani.

A film production involves collaboration between dozens of creative groups and getting all the individual pieces to fit together is similar to managing a business. Crowdfunding is changing the production landscape and the movie industry is currently experiencing a real game changer

Ted Hope, advocate of America’s Independent Cinema Movement and Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society, provides deeper insight into the current state of the film industry in his blog post “Why I Left New York for the San Francisco Film Festival.”

He said, “Our entertainment economy and the art it supports, was built upon the concepts of scarcity and control, but today’s reality is one of super-abundance and access – the exact opposite. To survive and flourish, today’s artists/entrepreneurs–and those who support them–must all embrace practices that extend beyond the core skills of development, production, and post-production of their art and reach beyond the attention and practice of marketing and distribution.” The meaning behind Hope’s words echoes the exact spirit and foundation that is the core of Silicon Valley’s passion for entrepreneurship and reflects the same spirit represented by the film festival.

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Start A Cure Donation-Based Crowdfunding Platform Launched to Streamline Cancer Research Donations

Upset at the Amount of Donations Actually Donated to Cancer Research, Start A Cure Lauches World’s First Crowdfunding Site Directed Entirely to Cancer Research Funding

By Robert Hoskins

Start A Cure is the world’s first patient focused research crowdfunding platform to be entirely directed at cancer. Start A Cure launched with a call to action to a small portion of our cancer researcher contacts to upload projects for funding beginning on June 1, 2013 for beta testing. Start A Cure is the crowdfunding for cancer research project created by the national patient advocacy nonprofit, Malecare, which is one of America’s largest men’s cancer support and advocacy national nonprofit corporations.

Upset at the Amount of Donations Actually Donated to Cancer Research, Start A Cure Lauches World’s First Crowdfunding Site Directed Entirely to Research Funding

Listening to its large cancer survivor community, Malecare learned about the large untapped pool of potential donors who want more control over where their money goes. Right or wrong, these potential donors are cynical about the way research projects are selected by government agencies and foundations for funding. They would rather choose specific projects to fund and have the opportunity to connect directly with the scientists guiding those projects. Many are also unhappy about the small percentage of donated dollars that researchers receive from government and charitable foundations. Malecare and its all-volunteer cancer survivor leadership decided to act. The emergence of crowdfunding websites, like Kickstarter and Indiegogo and pro bono finance sites such as Kiva provoked an opportunity to create a new kind of platform that both informs and empowers cancer patients and their family, friends and allies to directing their funding dollars towards research that can have meaning in their lives. Start A Cure instantly received support from the cancer researcher community. Dozens of cancer project managers from leading institutions and academic centers like Harvard, John’s Hopkins, UCLA and MD Anderson requested that their research be part of Start A Cure’s launch. By posting text and video of individual researchers and their current projects, Start A Cure raises both funds and awareness for cancer research. Donors search and browse through a menu of current research projects and choose to donate funds to projects that resonate in their own lives. By creating an efficient web based distribution system, Start A Cure is able to distribute 92% of funds raised directly to researchers, far more than any other cancer research funding scheme. Start A Cure also helps inspire students and provides hope to our cancer survivor community, by highlighting the people working night and day to develop better treatments and cures; helping us all live happier and longer lives. Projects include those that have already received foundation, government and other grants, along with projects seeking proof of concept funding. Start A Cure will quickly become the fundraising platform for all tumor types. Start A Cure is entirely complementary and supportive of the existing fundraising foundations and modalities and will only grow our cancer research capacities, worldwide.

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