A Film Fellow's Journey To Crowdfunding
We often get requests from TFI alumni who need us to spread the word about their crowdfunding campaigns. We happily oblige, but this one is extra special as one of our Tribeca Film Fellows®, Christine Carone, has started a campaign on Indiegogo to get her short film, Suncatcher, off the ground. What we took away from her post here is that filmmakers go through the same insecurities, regardless what their age is.
Suncatcher is a story of Jacob, a little boy with the magical ability to store sunlight in jars. Jacob is afraid of the dark, so uses jarred sunlight to help him sleep peacefully at night. At the same time, he is trying to work up the courage to talk to his next door neighbor crush, Dawn. Jacob simply can’t seem to face his fears. When a storm knocks out the power in Jacob’s neighborhood, he secretly uses his to help his neighbors. Jacob only needs to deliver a jar to one more house: Dawn’s house. However, he also only has one jar left, the one he uses at home. Can Jacob learn to face his fear of the dark and talking to his crush in order to help her?
People have asked me how I connect to my film, and for a long time I couldn’t answer. Jacob and I have almost nothing in common. I’ve never been a 10 year old boy, I’ve never been afraid of the dark or of my crushes, and I clearly don’t have any magical abilities. So why am I writing a film featuring a protagonist that is my polar opposite in real life?
Until two weeks before my first shoot date, I couldn’t tell you. Every time I was asked how I related, I would make up a story about how I too was afraid of the dark as a child. But as my first shoot date grew closer, I quickly became panicked.
I was in over my head. I had only half my props, no funding, and cast and crew were sketchy. My parents kept advising me to push back the shoot dates and that it was better to be prepared and do it later than to film earlier with a half-finished shooting script. They told me to ask for help. But that would be a personal failure for me. I had planned to shoot Suncatcher in September, and I had planned to do all the pre-production work by myself.
What kind of filmmaker would that make me if I couldn’t do that?
The folks at Tribeca would think poorly of me. My parents would surely be disappointed. My peers would never want me on their sets again. Right? I began pulling all nighters trying to plan out scenes in time for shooting. I fell asleep in class. I became a general mess.
One day while I was in English class, hating the world and half listening to my teacher explain Hamlet, I realized I couldn’t do this anymore. I had to suck it up and ask for an extension. And the response? “Sure, not a problem! Just as long as you feel comfortable!” I got help. I pushed back my shoot dates. I created an Indiegogo campaign to help get funding for props and actors. And suddenly, my stress vanished. I’m now excited to make my film instead of dreading it!
And suddenly, I saw the connection between Jacob and I. The film is about Jacob ultimately learning that sometimes you have no choice but to face your fears and that once you do, it’s never as bad as you think it’s going to be. After Jacob conquers his fear of the dark, he sees that there’s really nothing terrible about it. There was nothing terrible that came from asking for help, and now my film will be better because of it.
Your money will go towards… --Props for the film --Payment for actors and crew --Transportation --Food on set
