There's a deep dark secret I like to keep from most of my new acquaintances. I am hopelessly fascinated by economics. Economics books take up an embarrassingly large portion of my bookshelves and the majority of my podcasts library is, you guessed it, economics related. Why the need for secrecy? Well, if I'm completely honest dear reader, there's nothing quite like confessing your love for economics for getting one typecast.
But in these days of crowd funding, my two greatest loves, economics and music have finally combined, in a socially acceptable and more importantly, interesting way, which allows me to share both my loves with you.
Crowd funding, if you haven't yet been introduced to it, is basically a perfect free market, an economist’s wet dream if you will, where the user pays only what they believe the value of the product is to them. With bands ranging from Eskimo Joe to The Good Ship successfully (and in the former’s case, controversially) jumping on the bandwagon, The Au Review decided to sit down and chat to Brisbane’s Sports Fan, one of the latest bands to join the crowd-funding trend.
Relatively new to the Brisbane scene, the three-piece Sports Fan launched their crowd funding campaign on 13 June 2013 using Pozible as their platform of choice. The band sought to fund the creation, filming, editing and release of their latest music video for their second single ‘Shallow Water’ also featuring the talents of Jen Boyce through the site.
With the original target set to $800.00 to cover the basic costs of the film, the campaign exceeded even the bands hopes, raising over $1,000.00 after a few short weeks.
'Initially we were a bit wary of using a crowd funding technique to raise money for the video,' explains front man Dion Read, 'we didn't want to be seen to be asking something for nothing, but we knew that we couldn’t afford to make the clip we wanted for this track. We also realised that crowd funding probably has an expiry date for its effectiveness so it seemed like the right time to try’.
Thankfully Read’s gamble paid off, with the bands various rewards, including signed copies of their upcoming Shallow Water EP, buffalo wings with the band, music lessons and even personalised songs enticing enough loyal friends and fans to pledge away.
‘We were really blown away by everyone’s support of the campaign, explains bassist Ben Webster, ‘so many people donated enough for a reward but opted not to claim it. It was really awesome and incredibly generous of our friends and fans.’
So where did the $1,020.00 of funds raised go? To find out, I took one for the team and invited myself along to the filming of the video. For those of you who, like me, are pretty oblivious when it comes to anything film related, it’s a lot more complicated than it seems.
Firstly before any filming can even begin, the boys created a story board for the clip, a collection of stick figures and speech bubbles which was so incredibly detailed I wasn’t quite sure how the whole story would fit in the three or so minutes of ‘Shallow Water’.
Then, utilising the talents of their friends, (editor Luke Constable, director Jarrad Rooke and D.O.P Alex Kirchner) the storyboard came to life, albeit through multiple takes and the magic of the film set. With a certain level of perfectionism, the crew and Sports Fan worked hard over the two day shoot to ensure the clip would flow seamlessly from scene to scene.
The funds that were raised helped in the provision of props, catering, hair and makeup (a very important scene involves some hilariously applied mascara just FYI), plus the all-important editing of the clip and the distribution of the final product.
From the snippets I managed to capture on my evening on set (in addition to the sneaky pics in the gallery below), the money sourced from the Pozible campaign definitely helped Sports Fan create a memorable video for their single. With the added pressure of fans helping to ensure the end product met both the band’s and the fans’ expectations.
So, was the process worth it?
‘It was definitely worth it for the fact that it would have been a much lesser product without our fans’ involvement. More than anything it allowed us to take a step back and look at what we’re doing from a different point of view, having that pressure of expectation. To be a young band and to have that level of affirmation and involvement from our fans was the most rewarding thing. It sounds cheesy but it’s true,’ explains Read.
‘We would do it again, but only if the planets aligned like they did this time. We’ll be doing our best to fund our projects through gigs and merchandise from here on out but if we feel that we have something unique and exciting to offer our fans in the future, there’s no reason to ignore that possibility. Especially if we’re broke!’
But really, the final say on this video has to go to the fans that paid for its inception and creation. Will they be happy with the final product? Lucky for you, you can also pass judgment with the video premiering right here, right now, right after this sentence...
Of course, it also raises some wider questions about crowd funding. Does crowd funding actually put the pressure on artists to create better work? Or is it just a popularity contest?
And finally, with all the pros, cons and multitude of bands seeking your financial support (outside of the usual streams), has crowd funding reached a saturation point? Would you still donate to a campaign or should musicians accept that they picked this road themselves and should suck it up? Let us know in the comments below.
Shallow Water (feat. Jen Boyce) will be released on August 12 and are touring throughout August in support of the release. Tour dates here: http://sportsfanband.com/shows
