Questions which we are asked :

We are making a video for our Crowdfunding campaign through Crowd Funding portal , but we have limited funds. We are  wondering ;

• How can we test our video and concept ?
• Is video important in CrowdFunding ? And why ?
• What video does for CrowdFunidng
• The best practices for making a high quality video ?
• How to make video for free or very cheap?
• What is the best strategy?
• What is the best practices ?

Present Your Ideas and story the best way possible

Considering that you are presenting your ideas to tens, thousands or million potential investors , clearly you need to present your idea the best way possible  considering your budget .

The number of pledges, donation and awed  that you receive is entirely dependent on how well you pitch  and deliver your story and concept. Though you may have a great idea, if it is not presented  the best way well, it will not make an impression and build the trust you need on the audience.

You can use various tools such as videos, picture sequences or animated slideshows, whiteboard presentation even Prezi  to pitch your concept.

The main goal has produced a very compelling and engaging video ( and not enough budget  may be a  slideshow) to appeal to the broadest  to the largest spectrum of crowd possible.

Do you know YouTube  is the 2nd largest search engine  and  Do you know why ? The reality is you and people like watching than reading . In CrowdFunding Planning we advocate  making the best video you can, “show them, don’t tell them “  

Your video does not have to be Hollywood quality but its story better be as good . Hire professionals  taping  and editing your idea and story proposed wire frame of the invention, its value/utility and who you are and the passion you have for your invention.

Budget for 2 to 3 minutes of video . This means ( at 3 minutes ) you  can display 800 pictures and communicate 510 words .

In CrowdFunding video is the best way to communicate your content . You would have heard the old saying, the medium is the message

Before you start thinking about the video content

Very Clearly answer the following question, even ask  your Friends knowing about your campaign  do the same. Remember you can not say ‘everybody “, you can not be a tenet for everyone , you do not have the budget to tailor make your message for everybody

1. Who is your audience?

2. Why are you communicating?

3. What is your message?

4. What is your urgency?

5. How much money do you have?

Your answers will likely point to the type of video you need to produce.

CrowdFunding  video is best kept short , sharp and even funny

Remember the audience and viewers can and will ;

1. Easily spot weak content and production

2. Easy to find, download and watch

3. Loss of  attention.

4. Like Honesty ,  illusion of spontaneity.

The secret:

One of the best kept secret in CrowdFunding  is the  CrowdFunding  campaign  for movie  and film projects  . As you see, it is the highest and most successful CrowdFunding  project categories among the other projects and campaigns

The reason is simple, filmmakers own the camera, lights , editing and know how to make a compelling story  better than others, then their success is higher.

What is a roll of project video in CrowdFunding:

In crowdFunding reward and donation based there is no business plan or bank manager or VC to award or approve the fund .  Crowd is the investor / donor .

You see why the word “crowd” comes first in CrowdFunding. The crowd wants to know you , your product, service, your perks and also above all, they want to trust you .

Your interface with them is through  campaign web page ( The content ) , Your video ( Pitch, business plan, story , idea, your personality ,......  ).

You know picture is Worth a Thousand Words, Then a Video Worth a Million . Then, in three minutes project video you can deliver  more than;

• 510 words

• 4320  frames ( 1440 frames per minute )

• 800 pictures ( human visual system, can process 10 to 12 separate images per second)

Video  is one the most important and powerful ways to influence the investors / donors. An effective video could deliver :

• Short pitch ( twitter length )

• Main Pitch ( the elevator message ), and;

• The Long pitch  ( the business plan )

• Past and future

• Facts and fictions

• Emotions’

• Values and more

Just imagine you are making a business pitch to thousands or million of  investors. Do you want to be in a shark tank ( Tv program )   delivering your business pitch to sharks ( few people )  or in the Ocean ( internet )  delivering your pitch to thousands or millions ?

Then you need to get creative, learn  and come up with a budget .

Low budget

If you  have less than a thousand dollar budget , then  you need to be the  producer . Think of your video as a story. All good stories contain certain elements. When creating your story keep in mind the 5 W's; Who, What, When, Where, and Why. This will help you fill in the main body of your story. Additionally, there are some general terms that you should be familiar with; protagonist, antagonist, plot, setting, turning point, dialog, introduction, conclusion, narration, and points of view.

There are two main styles of laying out your story:

• a storyboard

• a script.

They each have their pros and cons. Continue on to find which one best suits your needs or use a combination

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65_3bq_0eSY

The storyboard and script methods should be used in conjunction with one another. Creating a storyboard allows you to refine and examine the overall story-line. Once completed turn the storyboard in to a script. The final script will provide the detail required for the actual shooting. It will also allow the talent to view and rehearse their lines

You  can  use an a HD webcam , and editing and mixing  software  such as :

• OneTrueMedia.com http://www.onetruemedia.com/ (upload pictures and video clips)

• Animoto http://animoto.com

• Voice Thread http://voicethread.com

• PhotoStory 3 http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

• PhotoStory 3 Tutorials http://www.jakesonline.org/photostory.htm

• Slide Story http://www.slidestory.com/

• One True Media http://www.onetruemedia.com/

• Slideroll http://www.slideroll.com/

• xtimeline http://xtimeline.com/

• VUVOX http://www.vuvox.com/

• VUVOX Collage http://www.vuvox.com/collage

• Mixercast http://www.mixercast.com/

• Zude http://en.gnomz.com/

• ComicsSketch http://www.mainada.net/comics

• Toondoo http://www.toondo.com

• glogster http://www.glogster.com/

• Kerpoof http://www.kerpoof.com/

• Blabberize http://www.blabberize.com/

• Splashcast http://web.splashcast.net/

• eyespot http://eyespot.com/

• JayCut http://jaycut.com/

• Empressr http://www.empressr.com/

• Slideshare / Slidecasts http://www.slideshare.net

• Zoho Show http://show.zoho.com/

• MyPlick http://myplick.com/

• Google Presenter http://docs.google.com

• WebSlides http://slides.diigo.com/

• Slideboom http://www.slideboom.com/

• 280 slides http://280slides.com

• flowgram http://www.flowgram.com/

• Kronomy http://www.kronomy.com/

Project Video , script  and Crowd Funding Success

You know by now  how important video is to increase conversion in online sales, but the exact same is true of crowdfunding. According to Kickstarter, “projects with videos succeed at a much higher rate than those without (50% vs. 30%). Crowdfunding pitches with video content raise 112% more than pitches without videos.

There are no rules when it comes to video, which is part of what makes it intimidating to some people. If you’re looking to get some ideas  you can watch  these twelve videos .

Those videos are interesting and some even amazing  – and a big part of why their campaigns were successful – but your video can be as simple as you sit in front of a web camera and telling your story.

On the other hand, some campaigns call for a professionally produced video. Pebble’s video  and Jumpshot clearly have extremely high production values, but don’t let that intimidate you. What makes their video effective isn’t  only the quality of its production; it’s the quality of its message that really matters.

Watch it below and then I’ll walk you through why it works so well.

Project Video best practices:

• Make a compelling story format that engages the viewer

• Visually appealing and entertaining

• The message that really matters

• Filmmaking is about storytelling,

• Filmmaking is visual storytelling

• Be Smiling, Specific, Psyched, and Sympathetic

• BE HUMAN - Have the founders speak or be involved in the video

• The team is speaking about the product

• Founder telling story with pictures of her holding cards with text

• Founder telling story with pictures and music:

• Tell  who you are.

• Tell the story behind your project.

• Where'd you get the idea?

• Showcase the product and service and how it is used

• What stage is it at now?

• How are you feeling about it?

• Come out and ask for people's support

• Explaining why you need it and what you'll do with their money.

• Talk about how awesome your rewards are, using any images you can.

• Explain that if you don't reach your goal, you'll get nothing, and everyone will be sad.

• Thank everyone!

• Good audio is essential.

• Cameras work better with LOTS of light

• Edit it right

• Make it short 1 minutes to 3 minutes max

• Depending on your project, build  humor or action shots

• Build trust, build trust and build trust in your video content, action and delivery

• If the project has a facility make sure to showcase it in the video

• The audio is as important as video

• Editing is more important than audio and video

Getting technical

Step 1: Choosing a Camera

Choosing a camera is the first step on your way to making videos that you can share on Vimeo. There is a lot of options to choose from including camcorders, simple point and shoot cameras, and nowadays cell phones with built in video cameras. Where do you even start? Check out the video below for a quick run down of your various movie making options.

http://vimeo.com/17853047

Step 2: Shooting Basics

So you bought yourself a camera or maybe you borrowed one from a friend, cool! Um, but how do you use it to make videos that look good? Shooting video well is a skill that takes time to develop but with a few simple tips you'll find yourself on the path to movie magic. Take a peek at the video below for an introduction to those tips.

http://vimeo.com/17853099

Step 3: Editing Basics

Editing video clips together can be really fun, especially once you master a few basic features in your editing program. With a bit of patience and experimentation you'll be producing smoothly edited videos in no time. For an overview of what you can do with a standard editing program watch the video below.

http://vimeo.com/staff/video-editing-basics

Step 4: Recommended setting

• H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 format

• 640x480 (SD) or 1280x720 (HD) for 4:3 & 16:9 aspect ratios.

• The frame rate should be the same as the original video

• Sampling rate: 44.1KHz for MP3/AAC audio

• Your source video needs to be ideally high resolution. For instance: MOV or AVI file, NTSC 720x480, HDV 1080i, 720p or VGA 640x480.

• It's very important that you keep an aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9, otherwise the quality of your video will be degraded. Flash 7 codec performs best when the frame width and height use multiples of 16. This is optimized for video playback.

• If you want to fit the player perfectly, encode at these 16:9 resolutions:

• 1080p: 1920x1080

• 720p: 1280x720

• 480p: 854x480

• 360p: 640x360

• 240p: 426x240

Step 4: Watch some of these

How to videos:  

http://www.howcast.com/guides/12-Filmmaking-101

Examples

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-thepersonally-controlled-do-it-all-distr

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/4equalsides/the-squareproject

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1700799373/cocina-verdebringing-healthy-vegetarian-food-to-a

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ftfsnowcones/fresher-thanfresh-snow-cones

Extremely funny and successful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdWZ8WVv6qk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CyD3R_glXY

1. Comedy is drama in disguise: you need conflict in your plot to create good comedy.

2. Be original, but don't be afraid to parody or to borrow concepts.

3. If you need to get your brainstorm going, think of an absurd "what if" and run with it. Awkward social situations make great comedy fodder.

4. Pick an issue or a facet of society, and mock it in an astute or absurd way.