Filmmaking and Crowdfunding: A Right Match?

Abstract

Broadly defined, culture is deemed the fourth pillar of sustainable development and increasing attention is currently being paid to how it can access all potential financial resources. In Europe, film production benefits from public financial support; however, film projects require large amounts of money to be completed and this support may prove insufficient in comparison with the actual need. This raises the question of identifying alternative financial resources that filmmakers could benefit from. Crowdfunding has recently emerged as a funding option for all the creative-cultural industries in general and for film production in particular. However, Romania’s capacity to use this alternative financial source is one of the lowest in Europe. In this context, the aim of the article is to study Romanian filmmakers’ attitudes towards crowdfunding and its perceived suitability for financing film projects. The research method consists in a survey based on self-administered questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with Romanian film producers. Although the largest majority of film producers have not used crowdfunding due to lack of awareness or scepticism, the paper discusses, based on experts’ opinion, how this method can become a viable source of finance for the film industry.

The study on the relationships among film fans’ willingness to pay by film crowdfunding and their influencing factors

“…Supporting these measures, Gerber, Hui, and Kuo (2012) found the motivations of founders of FC included the seeking of rewards, supporting the creators, and social networking (Belleflamme et al, 2015;Chen & Wang, 2018;Daly, 2018;Hobbs et al, 2016;Mollick, 2014;Tekeo glu, 2015). Fanea-Ivanovici (2019) found the rewards offered by the FC projects included film-related experience or byproducts (e.g., mugs, T-shirts, posters, badges, DVDs, and invitations to the premiere), public acknowledgment, and the roles, ideas, opinions, suggestions from the film.…”

“…In terms of research about the film industry, previous studies have frequently found the promotion of the film industry could help the growth of GDP, value-adding of related industries, employment, cultural consumption, citizen's awareness and social and cultural inclusion (Fanea-Ivanovici, 2019;Tera Consultants, 2014). FC has proven to be one of the most popular financing methods in film industry, and it brings longtail welfare of films as the funders are from all over the world and this may help to diversify the consumers in terms of gender, ethnicity, political opinions and so on (Booth, 2015;Herbert, 2018;Hobbs et al, 2016;Koçer, 2015;Loriguillo-L opez, 2017;Papadimitriou, 2017;Sørensen, 2012).…”

“…Solidoro and Viscusi (2020) found that the film industry is shifted from a supply-led value to a demand-led value; its points are the values co-creating across borders and the role redefining of intermediaries, gatekeepers and experts. Fanea-Ivanovici (2019) studied the crowdfunding attitude of Romanian filmmakers and their perceived suitability of FC projects, and the main results were: (1) Romanian film production mostly relied on public and private funding; (2) Romanian film was mostly funded with more than two funding sources (e.g., FC); (3) most filmmakers and film fans had little knowledge and awareness about FC.…”

Crowdfunding: The Two Sided Financing Alternative

“…The use of crowdfunding has increased especially after the 2008 financial crisis. Many have turned to crowdfunding as a solution to the difficulty to raise fund (Bruton, Khavul, Siegel, & Wright, 2015;Fanea-Ivanovici, 2019). Although start-ups play important role in creating jobs and increasing economic growth, they frequently face difficulty to obtain financing due to several reasons such as lack of collateral, credit history, reputation and connections (Bade, 2018;Beck, Demirgüç-Kunt, & Peria, 2007).…”

“…The application of crowdfunding is expanding for various reasons and activities. It is used in various industries such as video game production (Smith, 2015), sports (Huth, 2018) and filmmaking (Fanea-Ivanovici, 2019). Technology and creative cultural projects are among popular projects that receive support from the crowd.…”