Type | Video on demand, crowdfunding |
---|---|
Founded | 2012 |
Headquarters | United States |
Seed&Spark is a film-centric crowdfunding and SVOD platform launched in 2012.
Seed&Spark is a crowdsourced film & TV studio where creators can build audiences through crowdfunding and audiences can watch movies & shows through on-demand streaming. Distribution contracts are non-exclusive to Seed&Spark, with a caveat that a movie or show on the Seed&Spark must not be distributed free elsewhere online. [1]
Unlike other crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, Seed&Spark is purpose-built for film & TV, and its crowdfunding page acts like a registry system, showing potential backers a budget determined by exactly what "WishList" items are needed and at what cost. The platform also allows backers to contribute cash or loan specific items to the project. [2] Seed&Spark takes a 5% fee from successfully funded projects, lower than other crowdfunding platforms, and allows campaign supporters to cover the filmmakers' fees. Seed&Spark currently holds a 75% success rate [3] for its crowdfunding campaigns, nearly twice that of Kickstarter, [4] and an average raise of $14,700 per project.
Founder Emily Best created the prototype for Seed&Spark with Caroline Von Kuhn and Liam Brady [5] while raising funds for their feature film Like the Water in 2010. Through the platform, the film was able to raise $23,000 in 30 days. The public site launched on December 1, 2012 [6] with 11 distributed films and 15 crowdfunding campaigns.
Seed&Spark raised more than $300,000 in its first 6 months. [7] Originally based in Brooklyn, New York, [8] Seed&Spark relocated to Los Angeles in 2014.
Best was the recipient in 2013 of $10,000 grant for Seed&Spark from SoftBank Capital and Lerer Ventures, [9] given via the New York Observer blog Betabeat's competition series The Pitch. Lerer principal Steve Schlafman explained that Best "proved to us that her product is working and solves a real problem that she experienced first hand." [10] In August 2014, Seed&Spark closed a million dollar seed round led by Wadsworth Family investment fund Manitou Ventures. [11]
Film Threat is an online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. It first appeared as a photocopied zine in 1985, created by Wayne State University students Chris Gore and André Seewood. In 1997, Film Threat was converted to a solely online resource.
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of February 2023, Kickstarter has received $7 billion in pledges from 21.7 million backers to fund 233,626 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, board games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects.
Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows people to solicit funds for an idea, charity, or start-up business. Indiegogo charges a 5% fee on contributions. This charge is in addition to Stripe credit card processing charges of 3% + $0.30 per transaction. Fifteen million people visit the site each month.
Video game development has typically been funded by large publishing companies or are alternatively paid for mostly by the developers themselves as independent titles. Other funding may come from government incentives or from private funding.
FundRazr is a free crowdfunding and online fundraising platform released in 2009. FundRazr operates internationally in 35+ counties with the largest markets being United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. It allows users to run a wide-range of crowdfunding campaigns by creating fundraising pages and sharing it via social media, messaging apps, email and more to raise money for over 100 types of causes such as nonprofit, medical care, education, community help, poverty alleviation, arts, memorials, and animal rescue causes. FundRazr also works with more than 4000 nonprofits, charities and social enterprises with an advanced fundraising toolset for free. The digital fundraising platform provides 8 different campaign types. They include microproject fundraising, peer-to-peer campaigns, wishlist campaigns, recurring donations, branded sponsorship campaigns, DIY projects, sweepstake campaigns, and storefront campaigns.
Experiment, formerly called Microryza, is a US website for crowdfunding science-based research projects. Researchers can post their research projects to solicit pledges. Experiment works on the all-or-nothing funding model. The backers are only charged if the research projects reach their funding target during a set time frame. In February 2014, the site changed its name from Microryza to Experiment.com.
VHX was a digital distribution platform targeting independent filmmakers. The platform allows artists to sell content directly from their own website, providing design, social media integration, search engine optimization, and analytics tools. In May 2016, VHX was acquired by Vimeo.
Bohemian Guitars is an Atlanta-based guitar manufacturer that makes custom electric guitars, basses, and ukuleles using unconventional materials.
Emily Best is a film producer and entrepreneur known as founder and CEO of crowdfunding platform Seed&Spark and producer of the 2010 film Like the Water.
Nisha Pahuja is an independent Canadian filmmaker, born in New Delhi and raised in Toronto, Ontario. This writer/artist/director was introduced to film through studying English literature, working in social services and through working as a documentary researcher. She is currently a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellow. Nisha's first full-length film debut was in 2003 in Bollywood Bound, and more recently she produced a film The World Before Her (2012) which explored the diverse lifestyles of women competing to become Miss India and juxtaposing it with Hindu Nationalists fighting for their beliefs.
Sun Belt Express is a 2014 American independent comedy-drama film, written by Evan Buxbaum, Chance Mullen, and Gregorio Castro, and directed by Evan Buxbaum. Starring Tate Donovan, Rachael Harris, Ana de la Reguera, India Ennenga, Miguel Sandoval, and Stephen Lang, the project had its world premiere on June 11, 2014, at the Champs-Elysees Film Festival.
Fig was a crowdfunding platform for video games. It launched in August 2015. Unlike traditional crowdfunding approaches like Kickstarter, where individuals can back a project to receive rewards, Fig used a mixed model that includes individual backing and the opportunity for uncredited investors to invest as to obtain a share of future revenues for successful projects. At the end of 2017, four projects had begun generating returns, returning 245% to Fig investors.
Elisabeth Holm is an American film producer and screenwriter. She produced the 2014 film Obvious Child and was formerly the film program director at Kickstarter.
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over US$34 billion was raised worldwide by crowdfunding.
Dying to do Letterman is a 2011 documentary film, directed by Joke Fincioen and Biagio Messina, and produced under their Joke Productions banner. The documentary follows the journey of Steve Mazan, a stand up comedian with the lifelong dream of performing a comedy routine on the Late Show with David Letterman.
In the filmmaking industry, a pitch trailer, also known as a concept trailer or proof of concept trailer, is a movie trailer produced independently by the filmmaker for the sole purpose of illustrating the concept, style and theme of a feature film. Pitch trailers can be used by film directors, producers or executive producers during the film's planning, crowdfunding or fundraising phase. They are often self-financed and are structured and edited to appear like an ordinary feature film trailer. Pitch trailers are most commonly presented to financiers as a part of the film's pitch. Sometimes, these trailers are used for casting purposes and marketing purposes as well.
Piko Interactive LLC is an American video game publisher based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in early 2013 by Eli Galindo, the company focuses on physical re-releases of games from older video game consoles and digitally released ports to newer systems.
#Adulting is an American comedy-drama web series created by and starring Ben Baur and Thandi Tolmay. It follows two friends, Max and Faye, who are nearing 30 and have yet to put their lives in order.
Hell's Half Mile Film & Music Festival is an annual independent film and music film festival held each September in Bay City, Michigan. The four-day festival includes feature and short film screenings and live music events.
Rendezvous is an American suspense-thriller short film, written, directed, and produced by Seth Kozak. The film follows the journey of Catalina Wright, played by Katarina Morhacova, as she encounters fatal arrangements made by her politician husband.