miptv 17-19 april 2023 palais des festivals, cannes

Documentary Business

Peter Hamilton Consultants, Inc

Funding a Documentary

funding a documentaryFunding a Documentary? Learn the secrets of a Kickstarter documentary campaign from a DocumentaryTelevision.com case study.

  • How do you plan a campaign for funding a documentary?

  • And execute a documentary funding effort?

  • How much tax-free cash can a doc earn from a Kickstarter crowdfunding effort?

The Plimpton! Kickstarter Case Study is based on several conversations and email exchanges with co-producer -directors Tom Bean and Luke Poling. This is a 3-part crowdfunding case study and tutorial:

  1. The Backstory about the film and Kickstarter.
  2. How Tom and Luke designed their Kickstarter campaign.
  3. This week: Ten Takeaways / Results.

The Plimpton! Kickstarter Crowdfunding Case Study includes links to the producers’ sizzle reel, their Kickstarter page, valuable documentary funding metrics and more. It’s a valuable primer on funding a documentary.

Crowd-funding is earning a lot of attention as a financial strategy for documentarians and independent filmmakers.

  • Kickstarter is the leading brand amongst the emerging field of documentary crowdfunders.
  • Its monthly ‘pledges’ rocketed from zero in April ’09 to more than $9 million in April 11!

But does crowd-funding work?  And how does it work? We chose to shed some light on this fast-changing niche by writing up a Case Study on a stylish feature documentary about the legendary American adventurer and writer George Plimpton.

About Peter Hamilton, DocumentaryTelevision.com

Peter Hamilton publishes DocumentaryTelevision.com, a TV industry newsletter on how to produce a documentary TV special and reality television series. His expertise is unscripted TV, the documentary budgetfunding a documentaryselling a documentary, and how to make a documentary.

Buy exclusive studies on documentaries and reality television funding here.