SketchyCon is a self-proclaimed “anti-arts” conference where artists meet up to share skills, participate in creative work shops, and hang out. Originally founded by Molly Crabapple as a celebration of unusual muses, the conference has quickly evolved into a key gathering point for alternative art scenes in major cities all over the world. We thought it all sounded pretty cool — and apparently we’re not the only ones. After witnessing the lightning quick success of SketchyCon’s Kickstarter project, we couldn’t resist dropping them a line to see how they’re feeling and how they did it.
Check out our Q&A with founder Molly below. Support the project here.
How did you feel immediately prior to hitting “Launch” on your project?
Since Dr. Sketchy’s has such a large, enthusiastic following, I was confident we could get SketchyCon funded. I was slightly nervous, but even more enthusiastic. Mainly, I just thought about how awesome it would be to bring Melanie Knight, the founder of the very first Dr. Sketchy’s branch, to NYC.
How did you feel three hours in? How about ten hours in?
I was staggered by how quickly the donations for SketchyCon came in. Every twenty minutes, it seemed like someone had dropped a hundred dollars. Friends, collegues and strangers all contributed. Watching the retweets and donations stack up was both humbling and exhilerating. After 9.5 hours were were funded. I was ecstatic, but drained.
The response to SketchyCon was immediate and very, very enthusiastic — any tips for other project creators out there on how best to network and promote a Kickstarter project? What did you do that you felt worked best?
The key to promoting your Kickstarter project is having a good-sized, supportive online network. I promoted on twitter (4800 followers), facebook (1,100+ friends), my facebook fanpage (1000+ fans), my mailing list (3000+ subscribers), my website, tumblr, and through the online presences of Dr. Sketchy’s branches. That said, none of this would have worked if my friends and fans weren’t generous people who believed in what I did. An online following is worthless if its inauthentic.
For actual strategy, twitter all the way. I’ve used twitter to arrange flashmobs, auction art, and raise money for Haiti, and as a tool to generate immediate excitement, it can’t be beat.
What about SketchyCon do you think resonates so much with people (it was an idea that clearly caught fire very quickly!)?
Dr. Sketchy’s has, over the last four years, expanded into a massive octopus of an art project. We’re doing alt. drawing in over a hundred cities on five continents- everywhere from Taiwan to Toronto to Tasmania. We’re a passionate community based on DIY values and a love of the performing and visual arts.
What do you foresee for the future of SketchyCon?
When we did the first SketchyCon, we had no budget. Nada. We begged, borrowed, stole from our dayjobs, and wheedled friends into baked cupcakes for us. Having a budget now is so liberating I cannot say. SketchyCon II is getting an enthusiastic, very international response from my branches. I can’t wait to see what SketchyCon III might hold!
“For the past couple of weeks Detroit has been buzzing about the Ice House, the abandoned house at 3926 McClellan that two Brooklyn, NY artists have encased in ice.
“Matthew Radune, an architect taking a break from his main profession to pursue dejaying and making art is a Connecticut native transplanted to New York. His cohort Gregory Holm is a native Detroiter who still owns a rental house in Hamtramck even though he now lives in New York.
“The two had a eureka moment when Matthew showed Gregory a photograph of a house engulfed in a frozen waterfall from a burst pipe. Wouldn’t it be cool to freeze a house on purpose as an art/architecture installation? And where better to do it than Detroit where abandoned houses seem as plentiful as stray dogs.”
This weekend Ice House Detroit, a Kickstarter project successfully funded in December, made its debut. The project’s unique goal? To encase an abandoned Detroit home entirely in ice. The creators, architect Matthew Radune and photographer Gregory Holm, came up with the idea as a public art installation, and began the arduous process last month. The results are astounding:
Radune and Holm have been documenting the fascinating process on their blog — everything from getting the permits from Detroit officials to photographing the house as it was being frozen (they had to freeze and re-freeze and re-re-freeze it for the intended effect). And, in a nice surprise, many of the photos were taken by another Kickstarter creator: Sarah Sharp, who had a photography project earlier last year.
Once the house thaws, a crew will dismantle it and recycle its materials. The land itself will be turned into an urban farm.
It’s really a spectacular project, and one made triply so by the community involvement. Reading through the project’s blog, it’s amazing to see how many Detroiters embraced the mission and were struck by its beauty. The reaction is incredible.
It’s also worth watching the Detroit News’ video piece (top of the page) on the house, which is thoughtful, moving, and inspiring. What a wonderful job by Matthew, Gregory, their backers, and the Detroit community. Amazing stuff.
The South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival has unveiled its complete line-up — 119 features to be screened over the course of a nine day fest. Of those films, three have spent time as Kickstarter projects. Call us crazy, but we still think it’s pretty neat to see ideas initially funded on Kickstarter become fully-realized artistic endeavors.
Check out the trailer’s for all three movies below.
Putty Hill Director and Screenwriter: Matthew Porterfield A young man’s untimely death unites a fractured family and their community through shared memory and loss. Cast: Sky Ferreira, Zoe Vance, Dustin Ray, Cody Ray (North American Premiere)
11/4/08 Director: Jeff Deutchman Weaving together footage recorded throughout the world on the day Obama was elected President, this vérité documentary explores how people choose to live through “history.” (World Premiere)
Beijing Taxi Director: Miao Wang Through a humanistic lens, Beijing Taxi vividly portrays China undergoing a profound transformational arch in an era of Olympic transitions. The intimate lives of three cabbies connect a morphing cityscape and a lyrical journey through fragments of a society riding the bumpy roads to modernization. (World Premiere)
Three weeks ago we moved into our very first office in the Lower East Side of NYC, and last night we hosted a hastily prepared office christening with some amazing New York-based Kickstarters.
We were too rapt in conversation to take pictures of the party (if you attended and did, let us know!), but we do have a handful of snapshots of the space to share.
This is the long table that everyone sits around all day (that’s Perry working):
We’re thinking this room eventually becomes a space to showcase awesome Kickstarter rewards. The incredible plush letters were made for us by creator Kit Geary.
There’s also a big back room with a ping-pong table (a start-up cliché but also a big part of Kickstarter’s legacy).
Best of all is the huge “PONG” sign, which came from a ping-pong club that was funded using Kickstarter.
The space is very much a work in progress, but it was exciting to share it with the Kickstarter community last night. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!
There’s a disturbing trend afoot at Kickstarter these days: monster projects galore! Don’t get us wrong — we love a good monster — but we’re starting to get a little concerned. What’s happening out there?
A little food for thought to go with this list of our favorite monster-related Kickstarter projects:
A hungry monster is addicted to eating kids in the short film DENNIS. (That’s a monster sketch by DENNIS director Kyle Aldrich, above.)
Just in time to save us from the midday office-music blues, My Teenage Stride frontman Jed Smith drops a new tune on our doorstep by way of his project blog:
“Newly recorded MTS song, just for Kickstarter, recorded at 4AM in the studio, eyelids taped open. Topics covered: being poor, having bad shoes, peer groups, a life of creative pursuit, solicitors.”
Emily Jacobi of Digital Democracy recently completed a project that will translate Cory Doctorow’s novel about resisting oppressive regimes — entitled Little Brother — into four Burmese languages in the hopes that it would, quoting Emily, “broaden the debate on using technology in the struggle for freedom against tyranny.” It’s an excellent project.
We just heard from our favorite sailor Emily Richmond from Mexico! She writes:
i was just rowing into the harbor here and i saw one of my friends from LA on the dock…..so crazy. they have a posh condo and big heap of sloppy birthday cake leftovers in the fridge. life is good!!!!
Emily left to begin her trip around the world three weeks ago, but terrible weather kept her docked in Mexico for almost a week. We spoke with her by phone then, and will be posting our conversation soon.
We’re glad to see Emily is safe and sound, and we’re jealous of that birthday cake! Take care, Emily!
We’ve really been enjoying Dannielle Owens-Reid’s Shaker Love project. Part salt-and-pepper shaker store, part make-believe soap opera, it’s been one of the most creative and playful uses of Kickstarter that we’ve seen so far.
The crush is growing. Today on her Tumblr, Dannielle announced a contest in honor of Tumblr’s Gratuitous Picture of Yourself Wednesday tradition: share the best picture of you with a ponytail on the top of your head and receive a pair of salt shakers. Dannielle posted an example:
Never one to be out-done, our own Cassie has posted an entry:
Speaking of inspiringstories, we woke up Monday morning to find the following e-mail in our inbox:
“Just wanted to say, I funded an arts conference on Kickstarter in 9 hours. You guys are amazing. If you need any success testimonials, just let me know.”
The author? Molly Crabapple of SketchyCon, an international, alternative artist’s conference. In the time it took us to fall asleep, wake up, and get into the office that day, Molly’s project had raised over $3,000 — surpassing it’s funding goal — and will now be a reality. Pretty amazing!
“Celebrity millionaires may be investing fortunes in a coconut water company (I’m not making this up) but creating social capital out of the goodness of our hearts is so much cooler. Creative expression, the act of turning nothing but an idea into something tangible, is such an amazing feeling and important experience. Kickstarter provides an invaluable testing ground and an accessible means of raising funds for such ventures.”
Last week a Kickstarter project for Jens Pulver | Driven, a documentary about a legendary mixed martial arts fighter, faced possible failure. Seeking $25,000 in a tight three-week time frame, the project was short nearly $12,000 with four days to go. It seemed a potentially insurmountable amount.
And then the internet happened. Over the weekend pledges erupted, and yesterday the project finished $2,000 over-funded. Here’s a chart showing number of backers per-day:
An amazing 80% of Driven’s pledges came in at $25 or less. This was a project funded not by big money donors but an enormous, organic groundswell. Here’s something Gregory Bayne shared in a recent project update:
The $13,500 raised thus far, as you all know, is not from anyone wealthy, it’s from regular people like yourselves, all across the country that are making a choice with their hard earned dollars to say “this is what I want to see!” And, your contribution to the film doesn’t end once the dollars have been pledged, you are now part of the process of making this film. We’re in this together, rooting for Jens, and sharing in the creation that is his remarkable story on film.
Everything about Greg’s approach to the project really blew us away. Yesterday as the project was nearing its deadline, we sent Greg a couple of questions asking how he did it. How did he manage to make up such a huge gap? What worked for him and what did not?
Greg’s answers are a must-read for anyone with any interest in running a Kickstarter campaign. He worked his ass off for his funding, and as he said in our exchange:
Putting myself, and the film out there like this so early on really made me quickly hone my message, and really focus the story I was looking to tell. I’m quite grateful for that.
Read on for more.
As of last Thursday you needed roughly $10,000 to reach your goal. Somehow you made it, and almost all of it via small ($100 or less) pledges. How did you pull that off?
Daunting right?! Well, from day one I decided to approach this campaign as a full time job. Everyday I would track down where, and how, the film and this campaign were being discussed online. Luckily it was mostly positive, but whether it was positive or negative I just put myself out there and engaged with the quite vast, and diverse MMA (mixed martial arts) community. I was very upfront, and fully transparent in what I was trying to accomplish in the campaign, with the film itself, and with the fact that I am a completely fresh into this world of mixed martial arts. There was a lot of good response to that, which prompted some to write blogs, or news articles (luckily there were some sports journalist in the mix), and opened up opportunities for a couple of interviews, including two MMA radio shows.
Additionally I have my own site where I write essay style blogs about film, culture, and politics. I used this, connected with my personal Facebook and Twitter, as well as a film fan page and Twitter account to push the word out everyday.
The project gained some early steam from a handful of fans, compelled by the trailer, who also joined with me to push the word out, and soon you could search “Jens Pulver Driven” or “Jens Pulver Documentary” on Google and come up with 10+ pages of relevant links to individual blogs, posts, sharing of the trailer, etc., or search on Twitter to see a stream of tweets, and retweets.
Ultimately, I believe this groundswell came from a sincere effort to include the backers in this project, and the constant diligence paid to that effort. I always responded to their comments, their emails, their questions, their concerns, as quickly and honestly as I could. I wanted them to know that this was in many ways a populist movement to be a part of telling this remarkable story. I may be the guy making the film, but I, with Jens, am making it for all of them.
What did you find were the most effective methods to finding backers? Were there particular techniques or communication channels that worked better than others?
I knew that with Jens, and the sport of MMA I had initially both an established audience, and fan base to approach with this endeavor. And, after the initial trailer crossed 10,000 views, I knew that they were responding very positively to what I had put together. YouTube’s insight tool also helped me track where the views, and ultimately conversations, where generating from.
In terms of the best method, I would have to honestly take a poll from my incredible pool of generous backers to pinpoint their particular points of entry to the project. Like I said, I was full time 24/7 with this. I spent all day in MMA discussion forums, responding to blogs, and emails, sending new emails, keeping in constant contact with backers via Kickstarter updates, Facebook updates, Twitter updates, I used YouTube annotations to update the two trailers I had online there to both explain and help guide people to the campaign, did a couple of MMA Radio shows with Jens…it was basically an all on the table approach. I tried to leave no stone unturned in this effort.
How involved has Jens Pulver been with the project? As the subject of your documentary it’s obviously a bit complicated to involve them in the funding. How did you handle that?
Before beginning the campaign, I ran it all by Jens, the concept, the rewards, everything. I wanted him to be on board, and comfortable as in many ways I was representing him to the public via this film and campaign. After putting together the initial trailer, I think we solidified a trust between us, and he was all in on whatever needed to be done. He was not out there promoting it 24/7, but did share the link on his Facebook, did accompany me on radio interviews, in which he put forth a very compelling reasons for both the film being made, and why folks should jump in if they could, and also assured people that I was indeed legitimate, which helped tremendously as I am very new to MMA.
Jens is at a place in time where he wants to share his story, not out of vanity, but because he really believes (as do I) that in telling it he may be able to speak to those that need to hear his message most.
I think that this campaign, the very independent nature of it, and the way in which it included his fans in a very tangible way, excited him. And now that it has proved successful, he’s 100% with me in this project, ready to retrace the steps of his life thus far as an open book, not shying away from anything, doing whatever needs to be done to deliver a fantastic film.
How has publicly funding your film impacted your project? Would you do it again?
Despite some detractors along the way, I have to say that this experience has been overwhelmingly positive. Putting myself, and the film out there like this so early on really made me quickly hone my message, and really focus the story I was looking to tell. I’m quite grateful for that. As well, it just opened so many doors. I now have over 400 good people along for the ride with me, and have met some incredible new people that I’m sure will turn into lifelong friends, if not collaborators.
Would I do it again? Yes. The opportunity to engage an audience from day one of a project is something I find incredibly valuable. I don’t take lightly what the backers of this project have done, and believe that it’s actually now that the hard work begins. I need to make good on my promise, keep them engaged, and deliver to them a work we can all be proud of taking part in.
The last 20 days have been remarkable. I am humbled, blown away, and motivated as hell.
How did you first come to the film itself?
I met Jens through a friend, had a one hour conversation with him, and was totally engaged by him. He’s an amazing story teller. After that I did my research, read his book, and realized that there was so much more to this guy, and his sport that meets the eye. I knew immediately I wanted to make a film. I tried to put together some funding to get it going, but it all fell through, so right after the holiday we got together, I shot him in the gym for a couple of days, did a 20 minute interview, and cut together the trailer. A month later, we’re all systems go!
Anything else to share?
I am truly thankful for a place like Kickstarter that has enabled me to connect with so many others in this shared pursuit. And, I appreciate Arin Crumley, who invited me to the site.
