WE DID IT!!

WE DID IT!!!

Dear friends, I can hardly believe it, but as of this morning we have not only reached our $10,000 goal, we have surpassed it! Thanks to all of you and, it is important to add, an incredibly generous angel investor (henceforth known as "My Hero" forevermore). I can't begin to express to all of you the extent of the gratitude my team and I feel.

But wait! There's more:

All that said, the campaign is still active until June 1st, which means we have exactly one week to reach our stretch goals. You see, $10,000 was the bare minimum we needed to make the film, since we got our vehicle sponsored by the lovely people at Hunt Club Volkswagen, and that budget can be broken down as follows:

$7,000 for film equipment

$900 for car insurance

$2,100 for gas and other transportation

Now, at $10,000, IndieGogo will be taking about $500 in fees, so our first stretch goal is $10,500 to cover all our costs. As of writing this update, we are $325 away from achieving this goal.

$11,000 will help us cover accommodations. While we are getting billeted in all the festival cities, there will be a few detours along the way where we may need to pay in order to rest our heads. For instance, it is with great pleasure that I can confirm we will be interviewing the Canadian clowns of horror, Mump and Smoot, for the documentary.

Their critical acclaim and popularity was developed through consistent sell-outs in the Fringe Festivals across Canada, which has lead them on to enjoy successful runs in Toronto and at numerous North American regional theatres. We are lucky enough to have both Michael Kennard and John Turner available to speak with us for this documentary. We will be joining them at their farm on Manitoulin Island between the Toronto and Winnipeg Fringes.

$15,000 will help us focus on sound. Fringe Festivals are filled with incredibly multi-talented artists. Our dream is to have the film filled with original music from these artists. The money would help us cover recording costs as well as honorariums.

At $17,000, we will be able to hire additional crew in each city along the way, giving us the opportunity to collect even more stories from more people on the road.

At $20,000, I will be able to pay my team who is traveling with me all summer, fulfilling my belief that all artists deserve to be paid for the work they do.

Finally, at $20,000 + any money above and beyond this will help with post-production and distribution costs.

This documentary is happening, folks, now let's make it even better!

Coping Through Cartwheels

Something changed after Thailand. Many of the things I had been working on as a person finally seemed to sink in. A little while ago, I was speaking to an old University friend who I hadn't seen in over 10 years. It was after a yoga class and we were catching up. I was talking about my life on the road when finally he said: "Have you always been this much of a free spirit?" Before the sentence was even fully out of his mouth, I responded with a quick "No." "Yeah," he said. "I remember you being so much more..." Again, as he made this clipping gesture with his hands, I knew what he was going to say. "Serious," I said.

I'm still a pretty intense person, which makes me wonder if someone thought I was intense back then, just how tightly wound was I? It's a scary thought, so don't try and dwell on it further. I know I won't. I just know that it's still a process for me. Over the years, I've learned to laugh at myself more. Learning to relax, not worry, take things with more ease (Sabai sabai!) all these things take practice. I'm not saying intensity is a bad thing. I can channel my powers for good. It gives me focus and helps me accomplish big goals, like a major summer tour and a crowdfunding campaign for a feature-length documentary.  But what do I do when I start feeling the pull to the Dark side? When I start to obsess over things like said crowdfunding campaign for a feature-length documentary. When I find myself refreshing the page just one more time in case anything changed when I know that I would get an email if it did. What do I do when I get right up there in my head and start creating imaginary drama and worry? I get back into my body. Fitness has always been a salvation for me. Once I started finding the things I enjoyed, like Zumba, it became easy. These days, I've kicked it up a notch.

A few months ago, the Ottawa Stilt Union offered a workshop in acrobatics, something I've always dreamed of pursuing, but never though was possible until recently. I never felt "athletic" enough to do that sort of thing. That said, the schedule for this workshop never worked for me, even after it was rescheduled. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and approach them privately. For the past two weeks now, I have been joining them during their regular training sessions learning to use muscles that I have never used before. It's been an absolute thrill!

At one point during our first session I was asked if I'd ever done a cartwheel before. I said yes and flashed back to a time when I was 10, maybe 12, in my grandmother's yard with my cousins, rolling through the grass. I've found my sense of play in these training sessions, something that has helped ease my anxiety issues exponentially.

And I'm hoping that one day it means I could do something like this in a show:

How do you cope with stress and anxiety? How do you reconnect with your sense of play? Where do you find your bliss? Please leave your comments below!

What's Next? Back to Ottawa

About a week ago, over coffee with a friend, I mentioned how great it was to know what I was going to be doing with my summer, but that I had no clue what I would be doing for the next couple of months. No sooner stated that I arrived home to the following Facebook message from a friend and colleague: "Hey, are you still in Ottawa?" Me: "Kind of." (Which isn't a lie as I no longer have a home base and, let's be honest, did I ever really leave Ottawa?)

Turns out my friend had lost an actor for an upcoming play he was producing and he wanted to know if I would be available to take over. Now, this is a guy I have been dying to work with for quite some time now, so saying yes was a no brainer. Not only that, the play is in French, fulfilling a life-long dream of working professionally in my native tongue in a show that I did not have to produce myself... even though it turns out I may actually be speaking in English for most of it. Did I say the play was in French? It's actually a bilingual play.

It's a new creation by a local Ottawa company called le Groupe des 2. The show is called Pop Fiction and it has been a few years in the making. I don't know how much I can say, because I don't want to spoil the story, but it's a very cool project with a sci-fi bent that makes my inner nerd-girl squeeee. It will play at the end of January at Arts Court in Ottawa with rehearsals starting at the end of November.

Basically, this means I'm moving back to Ottawa until at least early February. I have a place lined up with some very cool theatre folks and, after almost a year on the road, I can't say I'm not excited to stop in one place, even for just a few months - though I already have plans to head to New York City again and will be visiting family back in New Brunswick over the Holidays, so my hobosapien ways will still be nourished.

If you would like to know more about the show, I recommend you check out the Indiegogo Campaign they've got going on (and maybe even donate a few dollars to the cause). Like I said, it's a super cool concept, but it does need the funds in order to pull it off, so every little bit helps.

In the meantime, Ottawa, get yourself ready. I'm coming home.

Where Did the Money Go?

Since I'm going to be teaching my first Crowdfunding workshop tonight for Theatre Ontario, I can't help but look back on my own campaign success. So what have I done with the 4,445.52$ (after fees) that I raised?

Well, first of all, there were the festival application fees. While I only got into the Edmonton Fringe Festival (708.75$), I also applied to close to a dozen festivals with admin fees ranging from 25$ to 50$. So in festival fees, we're looking at approximately 1000$ so far.

From the practical roller derby side of things, I signed up for skate sessions with the West En Waywards Roller Skating Association, the not-for-profit behind the Rollergettes. Membership, insurance and skate sessions have totaled about 150$ so far.

I also bought a derby gear travel bag, which will be key for touring as I can take it as a carry-on, and some new knee pads for approximately 250$. I will still be using the old ones for the show, but I definitely needed the new ones for skate practice. As my instructor told me, the old ones were good for preventing scrapes and that's about it.

And finally, I went ahead and hired a sound designer for the show. I was first introduced to Steven Lafond during Mary Magdalene and Adventures in Sobriety. While that particular show wasn't too heavy in terms of sound design, its companion piece, [boxhead] sure was. Since then, Steven has been working fairly regularly in the Ottawa theatre community. But the design that really sealed the deal for director, Tania Levy, and I, was his absolutely gorgeous work on Ladies of the Lake at the undercurrents theatre festival this past February. We've had multiple chats since then and he just keeps blowing my mind every time. You guys, we're not just talking sound design anymore, we're talking original compositions. Who knows? A Roller Derby Saved My Soul soundtrack could be coming to you in the near future...

Of course, I'm not going to mention how much I'm paying him here, but let's just say this guy is so good that I am probably underpaying.

Well, while this leaves me with money for rehearsal space, dramaturgy and travel expenses, there are always new festivals & production opportunities (perhaps, dare I say, even in Toronto?), as well as a pretty sweet merchandising deal with my pal Uncle Leon on the horizon (he of the original Roller Derby Saved My Soul song). So, just because my Indiegogo campaign is over, does not mean that I am still not accepting donations.

If you would like to contribute to Roller Derby Saved My Soul or to my upcoming production of Dolores at the Ottawa Fringe Festival, please be sure to get in touch by email at info at nancykenny dot ca. Lots of sponsorship opportunities still available for both those productions.

Stay tuned. More updates on the horizon.

FREE MONEY

Well, now that I have your attention, read on.

Nathan Gibbs via Compfight

As an independent theatre producer, I constantly find myself paying for my projects out of pocket. Yes, I have received grant money in the past and I do believe they still offer much needed help to artists. However the process to get them can be lengthy, the competition just keeps getting tougher, the pool money available often seems to be shrinking, and at the end of the day, after jumping through all the necessary hoops, you're still not guaranteed a dime. (That said, for more information and tips on grant writing, please see some of my previous posts here and here, as well as my podcast series with the Ontario Arts Council.)

What's a poor artist/producer to do?

Well, if you've been anywhere near the Internet in the last year or so, chances are good that you've heard about Crowdfunding.

According to the knower of all knowledge (i.e. Wikipedia):

Crowd funding or crowdfunding describes the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. Crowd funding is used in support of a wide variety of activities, including disaster relief, citizen journalism, support of artists by fans, political campaigns, startup company funding, movie or free software development, inventions development and scientific research.

Now, you might not have been aware of the term "crowdfunding," but you've probably heard of the multiple platforms out there that perform this very service. I'm talking about the Kickstarters, the Indiegogos and the GoFundMes, among others.

So, you just pick a crowdfunding site, put in your brilliant project, send out a tweet and BLAMMO! Now you can just kick back and watch all that glorious moulah roll in, right?

Well, not quite. While I personally find crowdfunding to be easier than writing one grant application after another, it still involves quite a bit of work.

From choosing the platform that's right for you, having a financial goal in mind, creating perks, leveraging your network and fans, making campaign updates that don't annoy the heck out of everyone you know & following through on your promises, developing a successful crowdfunding campaign requires a lot of careful planning and considerations.

Please feel free to join me on March 25th at 6:30 p.m. for Theatre Ontario's So You Need Money For Your Project: Crowdfunding for Artists and Arts Organizations to find out how you can create a campaign that best suits your individual or organizational needs.

Cool People Doing Cool Things

It's been a while since I've done one of these blog posts but I've definitely been inspired lately by the outpouring of Indiegogo campaigns that some very talented people I know have put together. From personal experience, I know how difficult raising funds can be even if you have the greatest project in the world. These projects are all pretty amazing in their own way and I hope that you will take a moment to click on the links, learn about them, and support them in any way you can. Because as my friend The Visitorium so eloquently put it: "Fuck that Tesla Museum bullshit." Here are some people who actually NEED your help! So without further ado, meet everyone:

Gruppo Rubato's 10th Anniversary Project: Snapshot I had the pleasure of participating in one of the first public reads of Snapshot by Karen Balcome and immediately fell in love with this story and you will too. This production is also Gruppo Rubato's 10th original theatre production, coinciding with the company's 10th anniversary. And they are just looking for $10 a person! Definitely worth supporting, especially if, like me, you can't make it to the performance happening later this week.

Day in the Life of Death Some of my very favorite up-and-coming filmmakers are putting together funds for a dark comedy web series. This is a super talented group of people who write and produce some top-notch, quality stuff. Just watch this trailer if you don't believe me:

Pornstar Another webseries, this one taking a behind the scenes look at the porn industry. This project comes from a bunch of uber-talented actresses I have the pleasure of calling friends. Plus, I just love this tag-line: Sabotage, hilarity, and skin abound as the girls compete to be the next porn superstar. Nuff said.

Second Skin Theatre Not an Indiegogo campaign, but I thought I might spread some love across the pond to my friend Jessica and her new theatre company. The money will actually help them renovate a space I hope I will one day get a chance to visit.

HOW IT WORKS: Free tickets for at-risk youth A thousand apologies to the gang at Plosive Productions! Unfortunately this blog post comes too late to be any good to their Indiegogo campaign. That said, it's a really good cause and I'm sure if you email them directly, they won't say no to an additional donation.

Click on all the title links to find out more about each individual campaign. If you don't the money to spare, don't worry! You can still help out just by spreading the word.

Happy crowdfunding everyone!

Thank you! Thank You! Thank you!

We did it! My Indiegogo Campaign for Roller Derby Saved My Soul was a total success! A big huge thank you to everyone who shared and/or contributed to the campaign. Over the next few weeks, I will be updating you on what's going on with the show, but until then here are a few thoughts on my crowdfunding campaign: Pros

• There aren't any start-up costs involved with creating an online crowdfunding campaign. It's easier than holding an in-person fundraising event and people can contribute from all over the world.
• It is so easy to share the campaign. I had widgets on my website and in my email signature. Links were being shared on Facebook, Twitter, and folks even wrote blog posts about the subject.
• Unlike other crowdfunding options like Kickstarter, even if you don't make your  projected goal, you get to keep all the money raised.
• The campaign collected email addresses and personal information from everyone who contributed. Though I won't be abusing this privileged information, it is nice to have a means of reaching out to people who were interested in the show.

Cons

• You can only contribute through your credit card or Paypal. Quite a few people I know were not comfortable using those methods and would prefer giving a cheque. I happily took those cheques, but they unfortunately don't count towards my final total. (Side note: I'm still waiting on a few payments and will share my true final total later on.)
• If your campaign doesn't need help building momentum, Indiegogo will totally promote it for you. As great as it is that some guy who works for The Oatmeal raised a shit ton of money for a Tesla Museum, he really doesn't need the extra help. His site has over 1 Billion (with a B) page views. He's going to do just fine. His campaign has currently raised over 1 Million dollars. On the other hand, my campaign aside, I have some friends who were trying to raise $2000 to take their wonderful little show to PEI. They unfortunately didn't even crack the $500 mark.
• The fees can get pretty steep. Both Indiegogo and Paypal take a percentage cut from your campaign, which is also probably why they help campaigns that already have momentum because it means a bigger cut. I agree that there should be some kind of fee, but let's be honest here. In the spirit of full disclosure, here's how much money I actually raised:
  • Amount Raised: $5,000.00
  • Amount Disbursed: $4,086.44
  • Disbursement Calculation: Amount Raised by Credit Card: $4,388.00
    • Indiegogo Platform fee (9.0%): $394.92
    • Payment processing fee (3.0%): $131.64
    • International wire transfer fee: $25.00

+ Goal Completion Refund (5.0%): $219.40 = Net Credit Card Funds: $4,055.84 US

Actual amount transferred to my account in Canadian dollars: $ 3,931.28

• Disbursement Calculation: Amount Raised by PayPal: $612.00
  • Indiegogo Platform fee (9.0%): $55.08
  • Estimated payment processing fee (3.0%): $18.36

  + Goal Completion Refund (5.0%): $30.60 = Net PayPal Funds: $569.16 US

  Actual amount transferred to my account in Canadian dollars: $ 514.24

  ACTUAL AMOUNT RAISED: $4,445.52

On a $5000 campaign, I paid $554.48 in fees. Is this unreasonable? I don't know. There is a strong possibility that I would not have been able to raise this money otherwise and, like I said, there should be a fee for the service. That said, if you decide to run your own crowdfunding campaign, go into it with your eyes open. About 10% of what you raise will not be going into your activity or event. Using my little example above, if the Tesla Museum project raises over $1M, Indiegogo pockets $100,000. And there's their incentive for promoting that campaign and not yours.

After all that, would I do it again? Probably. I think I would look into other options than Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Kickstarter also isn't an option if you are Canadian and I would pay closer attention to the amount of fees being charged. If anyone knows of any other crowdfunding sources, please feel free to leave them in the comments section.

That said, these days it feels like everyone and their dog is holding some sort of fundraising campaign online.  Remember how Groupon and its ilk was such a big deal last year and these days you barely hear about it? I can see user fatigue becoming an issue in the near future. But don't worry, something else will come in to take its place. It always does.

But that's a worry for another day. Today is a day for gratitude and celebration. Roller Derby Saved My Soul: coming soon to a theatre near you!