Sep 10, 2012

Report Animators Raise Big Money on Kickstarter

Television show creators Dan Harmon ("Community") and Dino Stamatopoulos ("Moral Orel"), partners in the Los Angeles production company Starburns Industries, were brainstorming ideas to develop for animation when, in 2005 They remembered a play called "Anomalisa" by Charlie Kaufman that was performed in Los Angeles. They envisioned great potential in this project and soon decided to obtain funding from Kaufman to produce an animated film.

The only drawback was that the idea of a 40-minute stop-motion film featured a man crippled by the banality of his existence. In any other country, "Anomalisa" might have been funded by government arts programs, but in the United States it was doomed to stagnate as an idea.

Crowdfunding emerged.

Harmon and Stamatopoulos launched their campaign in early July using the online fundraising site Kickstarter. Their campaign, which ended yesterday afternoon, set a new record for an animation project on a crowdfunding platform, raising more than $406,000, more than double their goal. More surprisingly, this is at least the fifth animation project to raise over $100,000 on Kickstarter this summer.

According to Kickstarter, film is the second most funded category this year, having raised over $42 million through August 31. A breakdown of what percentage of that money went to animation projects has not been disclosed, but it is in the millions of dollars.

The director of the upcoming "Anomalisa" is Duke Johnson, a veteran of Starburns projects such as "Moral Orel" and "Mary Shelley's Frankenhall." Johnson explained to Cartoon Brew how crowdfunding benefits both filmmakers and audiences:

"This particular project is inspired by the idea of pure artistic vision, from script to screen

"This particular project is inspired by the idea of pure artistic vision, from script to screen. In other words, all creative and even technical decisions, such as distribution, are made by a central creative team that has no greater incentive than to make the best possible film from a script they believe in. In doing so, we believe that in the end, people will get what they really want and would not otherwise get"

.

Visual effects veteran Phil Tippett, who owns the esteemed Tippett Studio in Berkeley, California, recently resumed production on a 20-year-old personal film project called "Mad God," which he calls "an anti-studio, anti-corporate, anti-commercial statement. The project was prompted by a group of young employees at his studio who wanted to get away from computers and learn the art of stop-motion animation. To finance the project, Tippett initially auctioned off props from his long career in visual effects, including the AT-AT Imperial Walker from "The Empire Strikes Back" and the Robocop doll from "Robocop 2."

When the money from the auction began to dwindle, Tippett turned to Kickstarter. He tried to raise a modest $40,000 to cover studio space, crew lunches, hard disk storage, lab services, and other minimal expenses. For Tippett, who has run his own studio for decades, he admits that the cost would have been much higher

had he not owned a volunteer crew and a lot of filming equipment.

Tippett raised $124,156, more than three times his goal, and was able to comfortably complete the first chapter of Mad Gods. He says the open-ended nature of the work, which he likens to painting or sculpture rather than filmmaking, leaves open the possibility of an unlimited number of episodes. The narrative allows you to go back and open it up again," he said. It's not bound by a logical timeline. It is not bound by a logical timeline. 0]

In case you missed it, Tippett has already decided on an end title for "Mad Gods. When I Die, That's the End," but interestingly, he also suggests that other artists "after me or alongside me" could take aspects of "Mad Gods" and develop the concept in different directions.

Another veteran animator who has hired Kickstarter is "Ren and Stimpy" creator John Kricfalusi. His conflicts with network executives have been well documented over the years, and when he wanted to revive the idea of a short film based on his character George Riker, he reached out directly to fans.

During the fundraising campaign, he told potential backers on his Kickstarter page, " This is the absolute best way for me to make comics for you all without pesky executives and middlemen exploiters second-guessing every gag and drawing I do." Capitalizing on the anti-corporate sentiment, one of the rewards he offered was "I Made It Happen. I'm wearing this shirt and I'm the official producer of John K.'s Canned Food Without Labels."

Kricfalusi easily exceeded his goal of $110,000 needed to produce an 8- to 10-minute short film. He notes that this budget was only half of what it cost him to produce the "Ren and Stimpy" short at his former studio, Spümcø. This cost reduction is largely due to Krikfalusi's rethinking of the production pipeline. He no longer ships animation overseas, instead producing it in his home studio with Toon Boom software and a small crew of artists.

The Star Burns, Tippett, and Krikfalusi projects are not based on series currently in production, and their creators' reputations have helped them reach their funding goals. However, two other Kickstarter animation campaigns that recently closed with six-figure pledge totals are based on series currently in production: the creators of the Animusic DVD series are producing the third installment of a series combining computer animation and electronic music The campaign has raised $223,137 to produce the third installment of the series, which combines computer animation and electronic music. Meanwhile, the popular flash animation series "Dick Figures," produced by Six Point Harness and distributed online by Mondo Media, surpassed its $250,000 goal, reaching $313,412.

Dick Figures creators Ed Skudder and Zack Keller asked fans to donate so they could produce a film version of their animated series. Their fundraising campaign benefited from Mondo Media's 1.1 million YouTube subscribers, says Aaron Simpson, Mondo Media's vice president of animation business development. The company embedded ads from their Kickstarter campaign in their YouTube videos, which garnered about half of the Kickstarter funding.

Simpson is quick to point out that having a popular online animated series does not guarantee a successful crowdfunding campaign. Last year, Mondo Media ran a campaign for the well-established "Happy Tree Friends" that raised only 10% of its goal. The company learned a lot from this early failure. These include the importance of offering rewards around the project itself (HD film downloads, film soundtracks, behind-the-scenes making-of). Secondary rewards (T-shirts, posters) are good, but Simpson says that many supporters are more interested in items directly related to the project itself.

Simpson notes the importance of "making something really, really special" in relation to existing products. The producers of "Dick Figures" not only asked their audience for funds to produce an additional short film of the same length, they also asked their audience to help them produce the film. Another important part of their strategy was to create an online space where fans could continue to financially support the project after the initial Kickstarter campaign had ended.

All of the Kickstarter projects discussed here have benefited from the attachment of well-known creators and established animation properties. It would be unreasonable to expect an independent or moderately successful filmmaker to raise a similar six-figure sum. But that does not diminish the achievements of these campaigns. Even a well-known filmmaker such as the one featured in this article would have struggled to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from fans just a few years ago.

This summer, crowdfunding finally emerged as a viable alternative to the traditional animation financing model, and there are enough people using platforms like Kickstarter to support the production of professional-quality animated films by prominent filmmakers. There are enough people using platforms like Kickstarter to support the production of professional-quality animated films by prominent filmmakers. Now that filmmakers and fans can connect directly without having to rely on a third party, the possibilities are truly endless. For animation, this may herald a new era of more innovative and unique projects.

"Anomalisa" by Starburns Industries Target amount: $200,000 Length of film project: approx. 40 min. Animation production cost per minute: $5,000 Amount raised: $406,237 Supporters: 5,770 Average pledge: $70.41

Mad God by Phil Tippett Target Amount: $40,000 Length of film: approx. 12 min. Cost per minute of animation: $3,333 Amount raised: $124,156 Supporters: 2,523 Average pledge: $49.21

"Canned Food Without Labels" by John Kricfalusi Target Amount: $110,000 Length of film: Approximately 8-10 minutes Animation production cost per minute: $11,000-13,750 Amount raised: $136,724 Supporters: 3,562 Average Pledge: $38.38

Film by Dick Figure Six Point Harness Target Amount: $250,000 Length of film: 30 min. Animation Production Cost Per Minute: $8,333 Amount raised: $313,412 Supporters 5,616 Average Pledge: $55.81

Animusic 3 by Animusic Target Amount: $200,000 Film Project Length: approx. 40 minutes (based on previous Animusic release) Animation production cost per minute: $5,000 Amount raised: $223,137 Backers: 3,284 Average pledge: $67.95