"5 Sobering Realities of Crowd-Funding" by Princeton Holt

Film Courage just hosted a great article with our CEO Princeton Holt that got really great feedback and lots of views! Film Courage has already asked Holt to return for a new article soon. Congrats to him and thanks to Film Courage!



5 Sobering Realities of Crowd Funding

Film school was the first time in my life that I was early for school – early to every class, and the first to raise my hand to answer questions. NYFA at the time taught us how to “make do” with what we already have. That’s the strongest impression they left me. The technical stuff was just a prerequisite. But they taught us HOW to get films made. We had to get them made one way or another. So that’s what I did.

I directed a short film called Phish in 2005, where I met some of the people that form the core of my company, One Way or Another Productions. When the film was done, I wrote a comedic script about “the one that got away” called The Butterfly Chasers.

Everywhere I walked or drove in the city would remind me of this girl, so to finally move on, I wrote this character Diana Lee based on her. Writing the character with her in mind, II attached the great Rochelle Aytes (White Chicks, Madea’s Family Reunion, Desperate Housewives), since at the time she was looking for something different than what she was getting in Hollywood. She wanted to be funny, smart, etc, and this girl, and consequently this character Diana, is just that. Afterwards, I created the other 8 or 9 characters purely out of my imagination. I had a bunch of actors I wanted to work with, and simply wrote parts for them. I deliberately wanted to work with a lot of actors on this one. It’s an ensemble cast, multiple storyline film, heavily influenced by Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives as well as some of Ed Burns’ work. I gorging on a diet of Altman’s Short Cuts and The Player during this time.

I was convinced that this would be my first feature film. I was able to raise a little bit of the budget but for the most part investors were not too confident that I could deliver, or even actually finish a feature length film simply because nothing I had done previously indicated it.

So I decided instead to write and direct another feature film, Cookies & Cream, on a shoestring budget. Working with a close-knit team, we made a ton of films. Within a few years, we had a nice collection of titles - character driven indies that were critically well-received, and even found distribution.

Our company was strong, and our successes seemed to reawaken the financing in the first film, The Butterfly Chasers. Some more investors came to the table, and we are now closer than we have ever been.

But here is the deal. As I am now about 10,000 feet in the air, about to cross over from Nevada into the California state line, I am going to just lay it all out here, publicly, what’s going on with The Butterfly Chasers.

Like it or not, this is not a one-man show. It never has been. From the beginning, I partnered with Rochelle as producing partner as well as her director. Which means we are making most decisions together. She has helped me compile a much stronger script and form her character with more precision. She encourages me to give her as much as she gives me, to shape this film into the best production that we can make it.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

- Lena