I am watching you crowd funding venture with great interest and I find your email updates on the digital world very helpful. I will be making a small donation to your film. One thing though – why did you ask for $115,000? I know this is the minimum you probably need to even get the project started but it seems quite a high risk strategy for a first venture into crowd funding? I think many people’s reservations about feature films made outside the mainstream is that they will never be seen as the marketing budgets to get a film noticed are huge and the competition for people’s time, given the huge amount of quality films out there both domestic and foreign, makes it seem unlikely that any low budget film will get an audience. Perhaps what might be helpful is if you addressed this issue in your appeal for funds. Perhaps talk about all the new ways people can access a movie on the net, going for niche markets ( sports, basketball etc.) rather than hoping your film will compete in the mainstream market place ( which it might – but it will be hard) I really admire your approach to building a user group for your newsletters and asking them for backing but perhaps you need to focus on the back end – what is going to happen to this film once it is made? I shot a feature in the Himalayas in 2008 for $7,000. It has now finished 3 years of post production and I am about to embark on the hard slog of getting it noticed. I am going for niche – people who want to see a film about this region perhaps before they go and visit – we believe the audience to be significant but getting revenue from download equally challenging. I think the internet is the way for people to access the film but getting on itunes seems increasingly difficult. Here’s a link to the trailer all being one stating the film was going out last year which colour grading and sound mix issues prevented. If you succeed in reaching your target great – but if not – try asking for less and see what happens. You will still get to make a film, all be it a slightly different one. Best of luck – here’s the link to our film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAdYFy28XLs