Internet Savvy Indie Filmmakers use Web to finance film

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- From the bastion of cybergeeks in the mid-90s to the creation of a new global community today, the Internet has changed the way we shop, socialize, follow the news, and even voice our worldviews.

For independent filmmakers Adam Hatley and Glenn Hopper, the Internet has been a boon – allowing them to reach out to an audience that they otherwise might have never found. With an aggressive Internet marketing campaign, Starbox Pictures has raised $26,000 to finance their film, and help spread the word to thousands of Internet movie fans before even starting production of their movie.

Starbox Pictures has raised nearly half of their production budget through an aggressive Internet marketing campaign that features a fundraising site, half a dozen blogs and MySpace sites, a CafePress store, a public message board, a week-long campaign on a popular daily deal Web site, and banner advertising on sites around the globe.

From the formation of their production company, Starbox Pictures, last year to pre-production of the duo's first feature length film, “Suicide Squad,” the pair knew the Internet would be a pivotal part of their marketing and fundraising campaigns.

“Our film is based on relationships that formed on the Internet, so it made sense to use this medium as a tool to promote our efforts,” Hatley said. “But even if our film was about rabid bears in the wilds of Siberia, we'd have still gone to the Internet as our first source for spreading the word,” he added.

“We've spent so much time and effort developing a strong Web presence,” Hopper said. “You see all the models like Blair Witch or Alex Tew (of www.milliondollarhomepage.com), and you realize that you can do things on the Internet that you'd have never been able to do even ten years ago.”

The greatest struggle for independent filmmakers is finding financial backing for their projects, but Hopper is quick to note that the vast majority of funds raised to finance Suicide Squad have come from the Internet.

“Adam and I don't have deep pockets ourselves, and financing an independent film project is a difficult pitch, even to family members,” Hopper said. “But through some creative marketing efforts, we've been able to reach a huge audience, and attract a significant number of investors in our project.”

Starbox Pictures' fundraising campaign has garnered the indie filmmakers a great deal of attention and press. The filmmakers' campaign was recently covered in a Wall Street Journal article, and throughout the blogosphere on marketing and film sites.

One recent marketing campaign helped Hatley and Hopper secure a new co-executive producer, who invested $10,000 in the project after several weeks of negotiation exclusively through e-mail.
“I still haven't talked to him in person or on the phone,” said Hopper. “He was completely comfortable handling everything via e-mail.”

The investor, who has asked to remain a silent partner until the film's release, learned about the project and the investment opportunity through an advertising campaign on www.onedealoneday.com, a popular Internet deal site. Hopper said they also locked two other Associate Producers through the campaign as well.

Hopper said the Web sites are just one facet of their campaign. “We've tried all sorts of viral marketing, from getting our links and ads posted on blogs and MySpace sites to creating humorous chain letters to help spread the word about their film.

“We knew we had to get out on the Web early. There is so much crossover from the Internet to movies, that we knew we had to start our campaign as soon as the project got off the ground. The Web was something that wasn't going to be an afterthought for us – it was going to be fully integrated into everything we did,”said Hopper

While the script for Suicide Squad was still in draft form, Hatley and Hopper put up a fundraising Web site at www.boxofstars.com. The duo wanted to offer sponsors a unique way to promote their own Web sites, while helping finance the pair's film.

“We wanted to create an active, animated site that was visually appealing and would catch on with potential supporters,” Hopper said. “And we wanted something that people could easily associate with our production company.”

Starbox Pictures' wide reaching Internet campaign has multiple benefits, says Hopper. “For now, it's helping us raise money to finance our project, but once we come out of production in May of this year, we'll already have a base of supporters to help us market our finished product.”

As the filmmakers' Web site trends toward 10,000 unique visitors per month, and investors continue to pour in, it appears the team's strategy is working.