Kickstarter Banjos

 One of the benefits of social media is a platform called KickStarter which describes itself as a way to fund creative projects.   I have chosen to put my dough in a couple of projects over the last couple of years.

The one I am most excited about at this point is the one above that you see called the Porchlight Sessions - which will be a new movie about the evolution of Bluegrass.  This morning I got an update from Anna Schwabber - who is the brains behind the project - that the movie is now being put together.  Her co-producer is Chris Cloyd.  Anna was a USC Global Scholar and Chris did an MFA at USC's School of Cinematic Arts.   You can keep up with the film at their website.   What is most interesting about this project is that (as you can see by the poster on the side) the two film makers have enlisted the collaboration of a wide range of musicians.   But as you look at the site they have also enlisted a lot of other friends of the project including companies like Deering Banjos.   Before Kickstarter these kinds of projects - which have a focused audience (although if you look at the preview it should be popular with a lot more than just fans of bluegrass)  - might not see the light of day because raising money was always a problem.  

Not all Kickstarter projects are successful - even the ones that are funded.   This one seems to have been well organized and the director and editor did a lot of prep work - but the Kickstarter funding helped get them over the top.  The two leads on the project also seem to have thought carefully about when a critical funding point was coming up.  They were able to get 654 backers with about $70,000 in funding.

If you have not heard of Kickstarter check it out.  Or better yet, see the results of this kind of swarming when the Porchlight Sessions video is released.