Introduction
This post is a different sort of “behind the scenes” write-up. It relates to the bureaucratic methods that indie filmmakers have to cultivate, as we work without the aid of a studio system or support staff.
When crowdfunding, much like when fundraising for a charity, you want to be sure to thank and publicly-acknowledge your supporters. And, for Uncle Sam, you want to have an accurate accounting of revenue for tax purposes.
It starts off simple enough – receive a contribution, and record it somehow, whether on paper or in a spreadsheet, and then create a list of supporters and post it to a web site.
But soon, that manual process becomes quite unwieldy! Every source of contributions may have its own reporting system and separate records. In the case of the Organ Grinder documentary, contributions have come in via Indiegogo, PayPal fundraising link, the web site’s shop (which could be credit card or PayPal), cash from a vendor table set up at an event, personal checks, Venmo, and Meta Pay. (To the one and only one person who used Meta Pay – thank you for your contribution!)
Of course, this is the kind of problem a filmmaker wants to have – much better than the alternative of no funds coming in! But it does, paradoxically, take time away from making the actual movie.
On top of that, supporters have contributed equipment such as hard drives, memory cards, and camera batteries from the Amazon Wish List, while others have contributed frequent flyer miles, lodging, and services, all of which have a value. Some supporters have contributed multiple times, in multiple ways, with multiple payment methods, making it necessary to keep track of not only how much has been received, but how much from each contributor.
Next, there is the complication that some specific fundraising campaigns also require payments to others. For example, a portion of the net proceeds from sales of the “At the Organ Grinder 3 1/2 Volume Collection” CD Set goes to benefit the American Theatre Organ Society’s youth programs. These sales and their related expenses need to be tracked separately.
Lastly, what seems like simple criteria for acknowledging supporters becomes complicated. Supporters are listed in tiers on the credits, depending on how much has been given, but also listed separately in certain categories for specific fundraising campaigns, such as the aforementioned CD sets. Some supporters have asked to be anonymous, and thus must be omitted from the public list, or to have their own name listed differently. Others have designated different people to be listed – a spouse, as a gift to a friend, or in-memoriam. (As of this writing, there are 91 individual supporters, plus a half-dozen designees.)
I came to realize that as more contributions come in (thank you, everyone!), the amount of time spent manually tracking and calculating everything would grow exponentially, spiraling out of control. And, the risk of error – not tallying a particular supporter’s total correctly, or worse, accidentally omitting them altogether from the credits, is high.
The Project
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), I am a computer programmer. Or, as the kids say these days, a “coder”. Last weekend, I embarked on two tasks:
1. Create a centralized database containing every contribution, tracking the supporter, the amount, the type (cash, merchandise purchase, equipment contributions, services, etc.), whether it is anonymous, any designees to name, and the preferred way to display the supporter’s name in the credits. Its basic structure looks like this:
Creating the database and entering all of the transactions took time, but was a straightforward process. Then came the fun, but difficult task:
2. Create a program which tallies up all of the entries, and determines where to display someone’s name in the credits, as well as producing a report that I can use for accounting purposes. A portion of the source code is shown here:
It’s written in a language called PHP. Computer-language snobs may sneer at PHP coders, but it gets the job done. More importantly, it can run on the web server, right along side the WordPress content management system which runs this web site.
This allows the program to generate the credits listing and automatically display it on the site. The program also tallies the latest crowdfunding total and percent of the funding goal, which is displayed in a banner slideshow at the top of the site. That’s two more tasks I no longer have to do manually.
The program works based on a set of rules. For example, one rule that is if someone purchased the special CD set, regardless of how much they may have contributed later, they will always get a mention under the CDs, as those benefit the ATOS and it’s something to be proud of, as well as that supporter being listed in their appropriate tier based on total contributions. The same goes for people who gave wish-list items – the value of those items counts toward the appropriate tier in the credits just like cash, but the supporter also gets listed in the “Hurdy Gurdy Shop” category. (A side effect of this is that some people are listed twice in the credits, but I think it’s important to acknowledge these special categories.)
If a new tier is added, or a new special promotion, I just have to code the new rules into the program and the entire list is updated accordingly.
Now, whenever I receive a contribution, from any source and via any method, I simply enter it into the database and the rest is taken care of in a split-second, instead of taking 15 minutes to an hour the old way.
And, when the final film is edited, I can have my program output the credits formatted neatly for the editing software titling plugins that I use.
The Results
Going through this process already fixed a number of errors that had gone unnoticed. Nine people who should’ve been listed under the CD sets were previously missed, because of the way Indiegogo transactions were recorded (although these people were listed in their correct overall tier), and one who gave a contribution manually was missed as well.
More importantly, many people moved up into higher tiers, such as rising from “Associate Producer” to “Co-Executive Producer”, based on multiple contributions over time, which have added up. And, nobody has gone down a tier – that much was done correctly since the beginning, at least.
Perhaps now that people see their names move up in the tiers, there may be some incentive to contribute more, to reach that next tier? Although specific dollar amounts are not listed publicly, if you are a repeat contributor and would like to know how far you are from the next tier up, please use the Contact Us form and I’ll let you know the total – it’s very easy for me to look up now.
Please have a look at the new, automatically-generated Crowdfunding Credits page – I believe everything is correct now, but let me know if your name should be shown differently, and especially let me know if you don’t see your name, or if you should be in a higher tier.
Thanks for taking the time to read up on this nerdy side-project. It was fun to dust off the old programmer hat and write something completely new and useful.
Now, back to filmmaking!
– Bob Richardson
You can help support the project by purchasing from the Crowdfunding Shop.
