Honey Head Films launched their very first crowdfunding campaign last spring for their debut feature film A SONG FOR IMOGENE, raising $75,324 for their $50,000 goal (150% funded!). Per the small but mighty team, "this female-led drama follows an impoverished woman as she navigates a sudden death and unexpected pregnancy. Rediscovering her passion for music while rekindling a bond with her estranged family, she finds resiliency in the face of outstanding circumstances - ultimately deciding between freeing herself from a toxic relationship or remaining a relic of her drive-by Southern town."

Seed&Spark: What’s something you wish you’d known before you launched?

We spent a huge amount of time building our outreach list, making a social media plan, gathering email addresses for personal touches...all those steps that typically prepare you very well for a sustainable campaign. At the end of it all, no one on our team sent one single cold email and we surly didn't follow a social media calendar. That model wasn't necessary or a good fit for our brand, our authentic voice or the vibe we put out in the world. It felt too stiff and rigid for our "flow with the Honey" mentality. We instead let the very organic and natural excitement seep from every pore of our beings and our followers on social media contributed because they wanted to be a part of the momentum. We didn't find ourselves ever having to "ask" for anything after all. Our fears and anxiety were kind of for nothing because it all came through in such a wave of energy and groundswell of support it was honestly overwhelming. The exhausting part was keeping up with the momentum of the campaign and finding time in the day to type enough thank you's. Our little thumbs almost fell off each night in the best way.

What’s something during crowdfunding that surprised you?

What surprised us the most was how organic the process was for our team. We won't say easy or effortless because crowdfunding is exhausting and a lot of work, but as creative filmmakers we had been putting off "an ask" for years and honestly a little afraid of failing. When we finally took the leap of faith, it was like an enormous trust fall - and we were "caught" right away by our community, our network and sprawling fan base. The pledges and financial contributions came in fast; we raised over 40% of our goal within the first 48 hours. We were surprised by how many people chose the highest pledge amount at $1000...something we definitely weren't expecting. You hear these rumblings that the average pledge is $25 or X amount and you should reverse engineer your strategy based on that number... but 50% of our goal came from $1000 pledges and we absolutely didn't have those supporters lined up ahead of time. It was an organic wildfire of momentum and the years of authentic relationship-building leading up to our launch really came to fruition during this campaign.

How did you navigate raising above 100% of your crowdfunding goal?

Hitting the 100% mark of our campaign a week early was an astonishing feeling. We hadn't planned for a stretch goal but decided to focus on acquiring the tangible wishlist items like securing in-kind equipment rentals and and donated locations from vendors and members of our local community who were just buzzing with us on the success of the campaign. Everyone wants to get on a train that's moving toward a collective goal and securing the necessary seed financing and resources to attract even more capital was exactly what we needed to produce the best film possible. We used the campaign as a way to demonstrate a viable, built in audience and proven demand for the project - because of this, two female investors came to the table and matched our final campaign amount with private equity. The momentum never slowed down for us and hasn't since!

What advice would you give interested crowdfunders who may be apprehensive?

Find yourself a fiscal sponsor. We were fortunate enough to have a positive, long-term relationship with the Cucalorus Foundation who fiscally sponsored our project. We set the campaign up in a way that any contribution over $1000 (both monetary or an in-kind wishlist item) would be considered tax-deductible for the contributor. We recognized early on that our brand had two very different pools of followers - creative artists, filmmakers, actors and musicians make up one pool of our reach - the other is filled with business owners, entire families, and philanthropic folks who want to invest in and support change-makers. We utilized different social media platforms to reach these various pools of people and ultimately found that one group was generally able to give a higher amount and as a bonus we were able to limit their tax liability because of our fiscal sponsorship. We didn't cater our campaign to one pool or another, but remained authentic in our approach and the right people came to the table to help make it happen.

What advice would you give current crowdfunders who are in the thick of it?

Share your joy. Energy is contagious and desperation can be felt through the airwaves. People who care about you want to celebrate with you, they want to be a part of something positive happening in your life and keeping the focus on gratitude and joy brings a contagious momentum to your campaign. One of our peers came into the production office on the back half of the campaign - we were collaborating on a music video edit at the time and this was the first in-person encounter we'd had since his very generous $1000 contribution. As we were profusely thanking him and celebrating the success and momentum of the campaign together, he simply said "I had to do it! I mean the energy was palpable. This felt like a moment in history I wanted to be a part of." That has always stuck with us.

Even today, as we're able to ride the wave into a season of festivals and distribution, we continue to include those hundreds of folks as part of the celebration, part of the team who made this possible. Everyone likes to feel a part of something special, it's up to you to foster that authentically.

What's the latest on A Song For Imogene?

The latest scoop is so exciting! We're gearing up for our World Premiere next month at Geena Davis' Bentonville Film Festival. Our little micro-budget indie gem is one of 12 narrative features in competition at this year's festival. We wrapped our campaign in late-February 2022, completed principal photography in NC at the end of June, immediately pushed into a season of heavy post production and were able to finish color and sound by early December to begin festival submissions. We couldn't be more proud to premiere the project at BFF - this festival's mission of inclusivity is the core value at our female-led production company Honey Head Films.

What’s next?

We have a producer's rep on board to court distributors and get A Song For Imogene sold after a festival run this year. We have a locked screenplay for our sophomore feature: a female-led post-apocalyptic drama/thriller and are actively breaking down the budget for that project. We learned so much about the financing process and the value of our work in the marketplace on A Song For Imogene. We were able to finesse a successful small-footprint production model that we will carry with us through to the next feature. We're bringing our audience along for the journey and consider this debut film a prototype for what's possible in our region at a hyper-local level.

You can follow this team's journey on IG at @imogenemovie and @honeyheadfilms and in the hashtags: #honeyheadfilms #asongforimogene #imogenemovie

We can't wait to see what's next for A Song for Imogene! And if you're getting started with your own crowdfunding journey, we're here to help.