My Mission, Billboard

People close to me know that I’ve always been a religious person and that I’ve been on a spiritual journey for years. One night last year my wife felt the urge to go to Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Easton. It has been life altering. I’ve been contemplating what work does God have in store for me. I’ve been praying for months on this and have been feeling the call do something that will help people. I’ve done missionary work in the past, but have been uncertain up until now as to what it is. God has given me the talent to entertain and the passion to tell stories, thus I have decided to give away most of the proceeds of my upcoming project “Billboard” to helping the hungry and the homeless. “Billboard” will become my mission project. Making it as successful as I can, so I can help as many people as possible. My business friends think I’m a little nuts to give away the revenue to the project with the biggest earning potential. I don’t think I’m nuts, just lucky and fortunate enough to have the ability and motivation to help.

Crowdfunding Lessons

I started a crowd funding campaign for Billboard a couple of weeks ago and have had some moderate success thus far. We’ve raised about 10% of our goal. $18,000 to go! For someone who plans everything there have been some flaws in my plan due to things beyond my control and haste.

I wanted to create a campaign that is fun and very telling of the project that I’m creating. I also wanted the campaign to be as beneficial to contributors as possible. I decided to go the route of fiscal sponsorship in hope of getting some people to donate for the tax deduction. After I created the campaign I had to wait and have it vetted by Fractured Atlas. I have no problem with this at all. In fact it makes me sleep a little better. What I was challenged by, was once they vetted everything, they just launched the campaign. http://www.indiegogo.com/billboard I was taken a little off guard. It went live on a Thursday morning and I didn’t have the time in my schedule to push it. I felt I was a bit behind the eight ball and hate playing catch-up. I wanted to launch on a Tuesday, the day that Indiegogo says launching a campaign is the most successful.

The second challenge I had was when I got an email from my friend Mike Hedge, late Friday night. He asked if there was a Paypal option to contribute? I thought there was, but when I climbed out of bed and looked, there wasn’t. WTF? Now I knew most of my tech savvy friends used Paypal and if I didn’t have it, I would be shooting myself in the foot. In my mad dash to get the campaign up, I failed to realize that Fractured Atlas fiscally sponsored projects on Indiegogo can’t use a Paypal payment method. Does the tax deduction benefit outweigh the Paypal payment?

I decided to create another campaign. http://www.indiegogo.com/billboardpaypal I decided I had to promote both campaigns instead of just the one. I realize that this would be cumbersome and affect my gogo factor. The algorithm that Indiegogo uses to promote projects that are trending successful. I have no idea if this was the right decision, only time will tell. I do wonder how it looks in the market place and if I screwed myself by creating two campaigns. Should I lower both of my goals to $10k or should I keep them at $20k? In my video I talk about raising $20k. Aaaaack! What to do.

The interesting thing is both campaigns are at about the same level of funds raised and maybe giving people the option will be good at the end. Now I only wish they had the same expiration date.

Persistence of Vision Takes Sacrifice

I do what it takes to my vision happen. Even if it takes waiting on tables so my family and I can get by so that investors and those who contribute to my crowd funding campaign realize that I’m not living off their dime. It isn’t only me who is sacrificing for my vision, it’s my whole family. Am I that selfish?

I think I’ve been staring at the blinking cursor for minutes now, pondering that thought. Am I that selfish? I’ve been making films for fifteen years now. I’ve never had a break, I’ve never had a big hit. But there is something deep within myself, knowing, feeling, that the project I’m currently working on; http://www.indiegogo.com/billboardpaypal could change that.

I never thought that about InSeachOf. Yes it was successful, it’s been in the top ten all time dramas on Hulu for over four years and I accomplished what I set out to do, people thinking twice before they act. I needed to make InSearchOf, at that time in my life and it was a huge risk to make that movie, some of which I’m still feeling four years later. I almost couldn’t join my church because of it.  Something that I created years ago I’m still sacrificing for. I don’t mind it though, it’s a risk you take by having persistence of vision.

Am I selfish for continuing on my journey to make films? I asked my eldest daughter, “What am I?” Her routine response, “What do you mean?”

I clarify, “What am I? When you describe me to your friends what do you say? You’re my step dad, you make movies…. “

I ask, “Does it bother you that we don’t have certain things?” “No because you and my mom do things you like to do. You help people, you make people happy, you’re both creative.”

“Does it bother you that I work nights?” “A little bit, but you have to.” “Would you like me to get a normal job?” “What’s a normal job? Don’t you work just to make money?”

I love that girl!

I have to focus and do all things necessary to make Billboard an Uncommon Contest for Common People! happen with in the next year. I’m going to need a lot of help and support from friends, the community and strangers to make this film come to life, I know I have my family’s.

Persistence of Vision

I’ve been at this (making films) since 1996, I’ve never had a “break” instead my success has been because of my will to see something succeed. I don’t quit, no matter what. My perseverance and persistence of vision is something that I have become known for. If people come to work with me, they know that the project will get made. Every movie I have ever made has had some kind of success, thank God! There is no such thing as failure. Failure just breeds more opportunities.

Yes I, like so many other creative people, struggle. But this effort to allow for struggle I believe aids in creativity. To be creative, there are so many factors at resistance but this can breed greatness, something I strive for.

When I lived in Israel in the early nineties I had the amazing opportunity to learn with a Rabbi by the name of Motty Berger. He asked me in front of about 100 Talmudic scholars what is the result of struggle? I quickly became nervous thinking what is I said something stupid.

The first thing that popped into my head was a grape vine. I gave the analogy of how grape vines won’t be their best unless they have struggle. Grape vines don’t like lush fertile soil, instead they do better in soil that is less desirable to other crops. They need this struggle to produce sweetness, the vine persists to raise its leaves to the sun. So struggle is engrained in the natural course of a vine’s life, as too is the artist.

I believe that art is also like a muscle, it needs resistance to grow, but it also needs the right nutrients and environment to aid in its growth. Artists need support to be able to create, which betters society as whole by challenging people to think differently, have them see things differently, and to entertain them. It’s the creative mind that propels democracy and society, whether it be in the arts, business or government.