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"Thanks to the success of projects like Diaspora, Designing Obama and The Glif, more and more creatives are looking toward Kickstarter as a way to fund their projects.\nThe site makes it possible for individuals or groups to fund an album, finance a documentary film or publish a quarterly magazine by soliciting backers online. The brilliance of Kickstarter is in its all-or-nothing approach. This creates a huge incentive for project creators to really put a lot of thought into their project and to offer appropriate rewards for pledges. \nWe wanted to find out why so many entrepreneurs are turning to Kickstarter to fund their projects. Kickstarter projects come in all sizes and we spoke with three project creators about the how's and why's of crowdfunding.\nThe Still Funding\n\n\n\n\nChristopher Salmon fell in love with Neil Gaiman's short story, The Price. As a filmmaker, Salmon immediately saw the potential of bringing the story to life, using computer animation. He contacted Gaiman \u2014 and thanks to an incredibly detailed animatic \u2014 received permission to create the film. Gaiman even agreed to provide the voice narration for the project.\nThings were starting to come together, until Salmon ran into a familiar problem for indie filmmakers: Money.\nGetting funding for a short film \u2014 even for something like The Price that has a built-in fan base \u2014 isn't easy. For Salmon, it was important to not only find a way to raise money, but to do so in a way that would let him retain control of his project. That's when he turned to Kickstarter.\nSalmon decided to use the service to raise the $150,000 he needs to turn his animatic into a full-fledged 3D animated short. As of publishing, the filmmaker is less than 32 hours away from his deadline and he needs roughly $20,000 to meet his goal.\nWhen we spoke to Salmon last week and asked him about the project, he told us that it was the all-or-nothing approach of Kickstarter that really interested him. Ambition and belief in the story is what led Salmon to create the intricate animatic that won over Gaiman; that same ambition is what led him to trust that he will reach his goal.\nSalmon spoke to us about the overwhelming feedback he has received from supporters. Interestingly, the film has generated a lot of support and interest from the overreaching film community since the funding push kicked off at the beginning of the month. Pledges have come from all parts of the world and that support \u2014 and trust \u2014 will guide him into making an even better film, according to Salmon. \"I want to make it as good as it can be to show my thanks,\" Salmon said.\nThe plan is for the film to hit the festival circuit as soon as it is complete. \nPledges of $25 or more will receive a digital download of the finished film. Those who choose to donate $50 or more will get a special edition DVD that includes an exclusive interview with Neil Gaiman. Additional pledge levels include other incentives like posters, a Blu-ray edition and signed copies of the film.\nThe Just Funded\n\n\n\n\nTom Durham is another filmmaker who saw Kickstarter as a way to fund his project. Less than two weeks ago, Durham successfully reached the funding goal for his project, 95ers: ECHOES. Durham's goal was to raise $12,000; he ended up raising just more than $17,000 for his project.\nKickstarter turned out to be a crucial part of making 95ers: ECHOES a reality. An ultra-indie sci-fi film about an FBI agent with the power to rewind time, Durham describes the project as \"The Time Machine meets X-Files meets Heroes meets... A Christmas Carol.\"\nDurham has literally put his life into the film. The project has taken more than four years \u2014 though the idea goes back more than a decade \u2014 and most of the funding came from mortgaging his house. He does not recommend that approach.\nAfter almost reaching the finish line, Durham hit a wall. Completely out of money, he was faced with having to wait another year to save up the funds to finish the project properly. Fortunately, a relative told Durham about Kickstarter and he decided to give it a shot.\nDurham tells us, \"Kickstarter understands the artist and understands today's patron, and connects them.\" After the initial round of backers trickled to a stop, the 95ers was featured on the Kickstarter home page. At this point, the project really started to take off. \"Something about our own story, and something about the movie's story, was connecting with people,\" says Durham.\nWith his funding goal complete, the next step is to finish the film. The plan is to have it completed by the end of January so that it can go off to festivals and then TV and DVD. Durham hopes to have the film on SyFy in 2011. \nIncidentally, this is only the first of five planned 95ers films. We imagine that Durham will skip the mortgage next time and go straight to Kickstarter.\nThe Big Success Story\n\n\n\n\nAbout a week and a half ago, we covered a Kickstarter project called the TikTok+LunaTik. TikTok and LunaTik are high quality kits for turning the iPad nano into a multitouch wrist watch. When we first wrote about the project, it had raised nearly $200,000 \u2014 far more than its initial funding goal of $15,000.\nSince then, the project has gone on to raise more than $450,000, making it the most successful project in Kickstarter's history. Oh, and there are still more than two weeks to go before the project ends.\nFor Scott Wilson, the founder of MINIMAL, the Chicago-based design studio where TikTok and LunaTik were engineered, the success has been pretty overwhelming.\nWilson came into Kickstarter with more experience under his belt than the average project creator: his past client list includes a stint at Nike and he has an extensive client list.\nSo why choose Kickstarter? Well, as we mentioned in our earlier piece, Kickstarter is one of the more pure ways that an entrepreneur can fund his or her idea. Wilson didn't want to deal with VCs. He didn't want to compromise his design. He wanted to make his project on his own terms.  That echoes what Salmon told us about his project.\nScott Thomas, who used Kickstarter to fund the Designing Obama book last year, is a friend of Wilson's and encouraged him to give the service a shot. The results, needless to say, have been pretty spectacular.\nIt wasn't until about 6:00 p.m. on the first day that the project started to gain attention. After seeing little activity for most of the day, Wilson was shocked to look at his phone and see the funding notices fly in. When we spoke to Wilson last week, the project had just crossed the $300,000 mark. \nAside from the ability to control his own project, Wilson acknowledges that the potential publicity was also an attractive element. Wilson believes that the story behind the project could be as compelling as the product itself.\nAt this point, Wilson's priority is to just make sure he can get his kits manufactured. Within the first week, he already contacted his manufacturer and doubled-down on his tooling so that the process can get started as soon as possible. Kickstarter backers will be the first priority \u2014 with orders for retailers and others coming after those are fulfilled.\nWilson, like other Kickstarter project creators, updates the project on a regular basis.  He has been using his project's exposure level to help educate other would-be creators and to even promote some other Kickstarter projects.  In the waning hours of the funding push for The Price, profiled above, Wilson sent out a plea via Kickstarter's messaging system to those who back or watch TikTok+LunaTik and recommended that they also pledge to Salmon's project.\nThe Future of Funding\nKickstarter is impressive because it can work on multiple scales. From smaller projects like 95ers: ECHOES to mid-sized projects like The Price to half-million-dollar juggernauts like TikTok+LunaTik, the model for creator-centric funding has tons of potential.\nOf course, not every idea will meet its funding goals. As with anything else, luck \u2014 as well as effort and overall idea quality \u2014 will ultimately play a part in what makes it big and what doesn't. Still, we think Kickstarter represents a new era for funding.\nWhat do you think of Kickstarter? Would you consider using it or a similar service to fund your next endeavor? Let us know!\nMore Social Media Resources from Mashable:\n- 10 Unique iPhone Photography Accessories- How Social Media Is Changing the Way Movies are Promoted- 6 Ways to Score a Job Through Twitter- 4 Social Web Apps for Making and Sharing Your Travel Plans- HOW TO: Use Social Media to Enhance Your Event"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/11/29/kickstarter-in-depth/>