On the morning of its Thursday deadline, a picture book called “A Bitter Place: Stories of Nigerian trafficking to Italy” hadn’t yet reached its $7,500 goal. But in the final few hours, it earned just enough to cross the finish line. A picture book covering much lighter fare, called Love ever after, surpassed its $15,000 amount early on; when the campaign ended Thursday, it had raised over $25,000. The project even garnered a write up on Time’s LightBox blog and a mention in The New York Times. Grow Northwest magazine, which covers local foods, farms, and handmade crafts in Washington State, has until the end of the day Friday for its campaign; luckily, Grow has already made its nut.
Things aren’t looking so hopeful for documentary film project After The Fair: The Legacy of the 1964-65 NY World’s Fair, which still needs almost $5,000 by the end of Friday. Also running out of time Friday evening is a documentary film project about Grammy-nominated artist Joe Budden; the project is still a solid $20,000 from its goal. It’s still worth checking out the page, though, especially for this gem of a sentence in its “about” section: “If you’re expecting the stereotypical music industry documentary about sex, drugs and rock n’ roll this project is just the antithesis… SEX, CIGARETTES and HIP HOP.”
Good luck to the Bushwickians but ... if local businesses are offering perks to donors, why don't enough of them just advertise to keep the site in business? For all the angst over alternate revenue streams, we and the other profitable neighborhood-news sites around the country still find that advertising is it. Never mind the misguided out-of-touch doomsayers who say advertising is dead or dying. There is NO better way for local businesses to reach local people than a well-read local news site.
#1 Posted by Tracy @ WSB, CJR on Tue 13 Mar 2012 at 11:56 AM
In regards to our documentary and the discussions that have occurred as a result we would like to point out that it is not at all our intention to film festival attendees. While we will film at festivals and attendees may be found on camera, we will not be filming any attendees specifically unless they agree prior to filming. We hope to show the side of this culture that is not well known, the business aspects that go into the production of festivals, the set-up and strik of the grounds before and after a festival. The people behind the scenes who slave all year to book musicians, and ensure vendors will be available so their attendees can have a carefree weekend. While we empathize with attendees fear of filming at these events we can assure them that there will be no "getting in your face". We will be filming from a distance and more so behind the scenes than anything else. Our goal is to showcase that the festival community is a optimistic culture with much to offer America in her time of need, not to show people dancing and taking drugs, those are the myths we want to dispel.
Great article by the way, Kickstarter is a wonderful community deserving of the praise they receive.
#2 Posted by UnPlanned Events, CJR on Wed 14 Mar 2012 at 12:56 PM