Crowdfunding Stepping up Through Social Films ANOTHER FAMILY and CART
Crowdfunding, a means to collect funds from the public, has been causing waves in the Korean film industry. This format, where artists and social activists short of funds can post their projects on the Internet to raise money from a group of sponsors, has been consistently gaining attention in Korea, especially with the growth of social media. We may be far from the present situation in the U.S. where this type of funding has presented a new production base for film diversity through crowdfunding companies like Kickstarter (
www.kickstarter.com), which supported 16 films from Sundance Film Festival in 2013. However, inspired by
26 Years (2012), which first availed of this type of funding in Korea, and
Another Family, which furthered awareness, more projects are joining the crowdfunding bandwagon.
Crowdfunding started to attract attention with 26 Years, which was released in November 2012. In previous cases there were filmmaker BYUN Young-joo’s documentary Habitual Sadness (1995) on former comfort women for Japanese soldiers which collected production costs through the ‘Buy 100 Feet of Film Movement,’ and A Single Spark (1995), filmmaker PARK Kwang-su’s biographical account of the life of labor activist JEON Tae-il, which managed to secure USD 231,000 through a newspaper ad. At the time, the collective efforts to arrange production costs introduced the expression ‘Production Dureh’ (Dureh is a traditional concept applied to town or village-based cooperatives where farmers collectively cooperate during farming seasons). With the emergence of crowdfunding companies, this concept became fully realized and was highlighted again with 26 Years.
26 Years, directly addressing Korea’s modern history, is a commercial feature that became the center of attention with its politically sensitive subject matter, which was subjected to political pressure from external forces. The film eventually raised production costs of over USD 648,000 through crowdfunding. Another Family, dealing with victims of Samsung’s semiconductor factories, was also financed through crowdfunding and reached theaters this February. Buddhist monk JIYUL’s documentary Following Sand River on the ‘Four River Governmental Project,’ and Project Cheonan Ship, the documentary on the South Korean naval corvette ‘Cheonan’ sinking, also had the opportunity to meet with the public in theaters following crowdfunded distribution cost support.
Korea’s film crowdfunding revolves around three companies: Tumblebug (
www.tumblbug.com), Goodfunding (
www.goodfunding.net) and Funding 21 (
www.funding21.com). Goodfunding was in charge of
Another Family, Tumblebug in charge of
Following Sand River while Funding 21, a sister company of weekly film magazine Cine 21, was in charge of
Project Cheonan Ship and
Cart, which is currently in production. Funding 21 is particularly popular within the film industry due to its focus on film projects. Contents Business Team Manager KIM Jung Sun of Funding 21 explains “
26 Years showed that crowdfunding could become a new viable business tool that will pave the way for a new approach to film production. Accordingly, we launched our operation last June.” He added that “We managed a total of 28 projects and are currently releasing at least one project each week.” From production to distribution, the company is offering funds for the various production stages for all different kinds of films, and is also participating in small-scale film festivals such as the ‘Seoul Independent Documentary Film & Video Festival.’
In addition to independent projects, the company is also reaching out to major mainstream film companies. Their collaboration with noted film production company Myung Films on Cart presented a new approach to crowdfunding in the form of a charity bazaar. They offered special illustrated products such as t-shirts, tumblers, notebooks, eco bags and umbrellas which sponsors could choose from in exchange for sponsorship. This approach, which stepped away from the conventional ‘differential reward system’ defined by sponsorship scale, attracted great responses from the public and enabled the fund to surpass the intended goal of USD 46,000 and collected a sum of USD 74,000. Manager of Myung Films states that “Crowdfunding may have been an unfamiliar concept in the past, but now many films are practicing it. We could have chosen to go the conventional way, but since we were aware of people finding this rather redundant, we had to come up with something fresh. Since the film is based in a supermarket, our marketplace concept seemed to be right on target.” He went on to add, “Not all films are successful but films that can attract participation seem to draw out good responses in the end. In the case of Cart, the fact that it addressed the hardships of non-regular employees, we were successful in raising funds. If we happen to produce films with similar agendas in the future, we are planning to finance them through crowdfunding.”
KIM also gives an analysis of the situation, “There’s a tendency of the public responding faster to films with socially aware or sensitive subject matters such as for The Big Picture, the documentary on former comfort women victims, and Cart, a feature film on non-regular laborers in a supermarket.” Likewise, most of the crowdfunded films that gained considerable public attention have dealt with socially sensitive issues that permeate Korean society. Whether these films reach their financing goal or not, they display an effectiveness when it comes to publicity and marketing. Unfortunately, this also demonstrates the reality of crowdfunding, which still has a base that is pretty shallow.
A low-budget independent filmmaker who opted for partially financing his films through crowdfunding believes that “It is true that crowdfunding helps and poses new possibilities for low-budget independent films, but subject-wise, it has yet to embrace diversity.” In other words, subjects dealing with socially sensitive issues or social rage are more successful than items that are unique or fresh. Those that do not fit the mold are struggling to even reach 10% of their intended goals. The fact of the matter is that the number of films that are falling short is considerable.
Another point is that there is no clear-cut definition of crowdfunding sponsorship. In a society where the concept of sponsorship is weak, there seems to be a hefty number of sponsors misunderstanding ‘rewards’ such as invitations or end credit listings provided as tokens of gratitude as products for buying and selling.
Nevertheless, despite such shortcomings, it seems that crowdfunding will continue to expand within the local film industry. Particularly in the case of low-budget independent films, this type of financing will step up as a significant marketing tool. Auteur films including LEESONG Hee-il’s Night Flight and KIM Kyung-mook’s This Is Our End are enjoying marketing benefits by sharing the production process with the audiences through crowdfunding. To borrow the words of KIM “We do not determine the success or failure of a project by the scale of sponsorship,” it seems to be true that when the time comes, crowdfunding will definitely become a new gateway for film diversity.
By SONG Soon-jin
Crowdfunding, a means to collect funds from the public, has been causing waves in the Korean film industry. This format, where artists and social activists short of funds can post their projects on the Internet to raise money from a group of sponsors, has been consistently gaining attention in Korea, especially with the growth of social media. We may be far from the present situation in the U.S. where this type of funding has presented a new production base for film diversity through crowdfunding companies like Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com), which supported 16 films from Sundance Film Festival in 2013. However, inspired by 26 Years (2012), which first availed of this type of funding in Korea, and Another Family, which furthered awareness, more projects are joining the crowdfunding bandwagon.
Crowdfunding started to attract attention with 26 Years, which was released in November 2012. In previous cases there were filmmaker BYUN Young-joo’s documentary Habitual Sadness (1995) on former comfort women for Japanese soldiers which collected production costs through the ‘Buy 100 Feet of Film Movement,’ and A Single Spark (1995), filmmaker PARK Kwang-su’s biographical account of the life of labor activist JEON Tae-il, which managed to secure USD 231,000 through a newspaper ad. At the time, the collective efforts to arrange production costs introduced the expression ‘Production Dureh’ (Dureh is a traditional concept applied to town or village-based cooperatives where farmers collectively cooperate during farming seasons). With the emergence of crowdfunding companies, this concept became fully realized and was highlighted again with 26 Years.26 Years, directly addressing Korea’s modern history, is a commercial feature that became the center of attention with its politically sensitive subject matter, which was subjected to political pressure from external forces. The film eventually raised production costs of over USD 648,000 through crowdfunding. Another Family, dealing with victims of Samsung’s semiconductor factories, was also financed through crowdfunding and reached theaters this February. Buddhist monk JIYUL’s documentary Following Sand River on the ‘Four River Governmental Project,’ and Project Cheonan Ship, the documentary on the South Korean naval corvette ‘Cheonan’ sinking, also had the opportunity to meet with the public in theaters following crowdfunded distribution cost support.Korea’s film crowdfunding revolves around three companies: Tumblebug (www.tumblbug.com), Goodfunding (www.goodfunding.net) and Funding 21 (www.funding21.com). Goodfunding was in charge of Another Family, Tumblebug in charge of Following Sand River while Funding 21, a sister company of weekly film magazine Cine 21, was in charge of Project Cheonan Ship and Cart, which is currently in production. Funding 21 is particularly popular within the film industry due to its focus on film projects. Contents Business Team Manager KIM Jung Sun of Funding 21 explains “26 Years showed that crowdfunding could become a new viable business tool that will pave the way for a new approach to film production. Accordingly, we launched our operation last June.” He added that “We managed a total of 28 projects and are currently releasing at least one project each week.” From production to distribution, the company is offering funds for the various production stages for all different kinds of films, and is also participating in small-scale film festivals such as the ‘Seoul Independent Documentary Film & Video Festival.’
A low-budget independent filmmaker who opted for partially financing his films through crowdfunding believes that “It is true that crowdfunding helps and poses new possibilities for low-budget independent films, but subject-wise, it has yet to embrace diversity.” In other words, subjects dealing with socially sensitive issues or social rage are more successful than items that are unique or fresh. Those that do not fit the mold are struggling to even reach 10% of their intended goals. The fact of the matter is that the number of films that are falling short is considerable.Another point is that there is no clear-cut definition of crowdfunding sponsorship. In a society where the concept of sponsorship is weak, there seems to be a hefty number of sponsors misunderstanding ‘rewards’ such as invitations or end credit listings provided as tokens of gratitude as products for buying and selling.Nevertheless, despite such shortcomings, it seems that crowdfunding will continue to expand within the local film industry. Particularly in the case of low-budget independent films, this type of financing will step up as a significant marketing tool. Auteur films including LEESONG Hee-il’s Night Flight and KIM Kyung-mook’s This Is Our End are enjoying marketing benefits by sharing the production process with the audiences through crowdfunding. To borrow the words of KIM “We do not determine the success or failure of a project by the scale of sponsorship,” it seems to be true that when the time comes, crowdfunding will definitely become a new gateway for film diversity.By SONG Soon-jin
