If you don’t know me yet, I’m a dancer / director in the mean streets of Astoria, NYC. Here’s a couple rough screenshots of my most recent project Black Man in America & a video of where we filmed.
And… drum roll please! Here’s the room we would have filmed in if we had had less money.
*Scream in horror.
The first studio was about double the price of the first, and we were trying to actually get the second for free. Could you imagine what the film would have looked like in a tiny, poorly lit, off white studio? Can you see that we would have been settling and the messages and images would have been less powerful? I cringe when I think, “what if we had settled for the cheap space?”
What if we had hired novice dancers and paid them $150 for the project instead of hiring professionals for $1000? What if we had rehearsed only two weeks prior to the film shoot instead of for six weeks, building community, trust, and the context for the honesty that we see on screen? What if we had saved that $4K of rehearsal space (yes, $4K, NYC rehearsal space is insane; p.s. drop me a line about nyc space grants!)
The vision would have been lost. The message would have been buried.
I am so grateful for taking the leap to crowdfund because, by doing so, we were able to produce the most powerful piece we could have with the knowledge, resources, and community support available at that time. That is an amazing feeling.
So I’m asking you: What is your message for the world? What do you want the world to experience? And what would it look like if you didn’t compromise on your vision?
make the decision not to compromise. get my step-by-step guide on how we raised $18K
To read my beastly step-by-step guide explaining how we crowdfunded $18K with no following or fanbase, click to view this awesomely detailed post I wrote 🙂Â
a little backstory
It was a chilly January 2018 day in the current dimension when 30-year-old unnecessarily educated Justina, queer artist child of black Panamanian immigrants, learned she had three months until her cushy job would let her go. Stunned that her comfortable safety net had broken, she stared at the email for 60 seconds before she resumed binge-watching Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. Two weeks later, she had a nervous break down. BUT. Finally, she will play. She will create. And hopefully never work again. Oh, and now she has a journal. More on her/me here.
my money journal: crowdfunding edition
This, my money journal, is a reflection on my successes & failures to make money doing what I actually love. I want to share it with you cuz… I bet you’re on this journey too. Â In the first series of my money journal, I’m sharing my first big success as an artist. At the end of 2016, I was listening to my boyfriend’s song Black Man in America when a vision for a dance film struck me. Five Black men seated at a white table with guns. Don’t worry. It is nuanced. By January 2017, I was storyboarding. By June, my boyfriend was on board, we determined we needed $16,000 to bring it to life, and we launched our crowdfunding campaign. With no fan base and no real fundraising experience. On August 6th, we filmed. I was freaking out. I had opened a credit card just for this project, was $4,000 in debt and owed our cast and crew $7,000 more. I was all in. By August 20th, 400 backers had given a total of $18,000 for Black Man in America to come to life, exceeding our goal. In this crowdfunding series of my money journal, I’m going to share how we did it, because – imagine what you could do with $5K ,$10K, $20K to bring your visions to life. It’s our tiiiiiiiiime. (Shine bright, shine far…)
