'Kickstarter' Gives You a Way to Invest in Arts Projects

Chris Cannon wants to make a hit series, and who doesn't? But unlike you and me, he's tapped into a major source of potential funding -- you and me. It's called Kickstarter, an online platform for pitching your arts project idea and, if people respond generously, rounding up the cash needed to get it going.

Vancouver-based Cannon, when not writing for The Tyee and many others, pours his comedic imagination into screenplays as well as the make-believe ranting radio persona of Rusty Shackleford. Cannon has burnished a script for a comedy web series called DOCUMENT, a cerebral satire of reality television, shot mockumentary-style. Instead of haunting the halls of Hollywood studios in the hopes of taking the life-changing lunch, he's posted the DOCUMENT-pitching video above on Kickstarter's website.

Wanting to know more about Kickstarter, The Tyee put these questions to Cannon:

What is Kickstarter?

"Kickstarter is a micro-financing website that helps artists fund creative projects. Writers, filmmakers and visual artists write up a proposal explaining their work and post a video saying why they're doing it, hoping to attract sponsors to directly support their project. People can donate as little or as much as they want, but all projects have a minimum funding goal and a maximum time to achieve it -- usually 30 to 60 days. Project creators can also set up a rewards system for donors based on how much they pledge."

How did you find out about it?

"I read about it in the New York Times originally, but then a friend started a kickstarter project, so I donated to it and started following other interesting ideas on the site. To launch a Kickstarter project, you need to be invited by an existing member, so my friend sent me an invite and I put together my proposal and posted it. At the moment, mine is one of two projects based in Vancouver, but I'm trying to use my Kickstarter invites to get other local artists to start projects of their own."

Do you think it's going to pay off for you?

"I read that a third of the projects get funded. It's all about spreading the word and getting people believing in you and interested in your idea. The vast majority of donations come in very small amounts, like 10 or 20 bucks, so if I can get a few hundred people to support my project, then I can raise enough funds and shoot my pilot. If I don't meet the minimum, nothing happens -- all pledges are cancelled and I just have to find another way. Either way, I'm better for the experience."

If you get the money, then what?

"If I raise the funding, the first thing is to honour all the rewards I offered to donors. Then I carry out my project, maintaining a blog about the experience for the project's sponsors. If I can shoot the pilot for less money than I raised, then I will put the remaining amount to distribution and filming more episodes."

Your partner Mary plays a role in your pitch video. Did she mind being part of the schtick?

"Mary loves this kind of thing. We are working on other creative projects together that don't require this level of funding -- we both love to bake, for instance, so we're planning a series of funny music videos to serve as lyrical recipes for our best breads. We also write and shoot satirical shorts with other film folks here in Vancouver like The Church of Jerks. When I had my bit on the Bro Jake Show as Rusty Shackleford, the Rant King of Vancouver, she helped me write and perform the bits sometimes -- she's extremely clever. I'm lucky to have such an amazing wife and collaborator in the same person."

What made you want to make DOCUMENT?

"I'm a big fan of Christopher Guest movies like Best in Show, This is Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffman, but this genre has only recently found a television audience, and is still limited to the standard "situational comedy" format. DOCUMENT lampoons popular culture by introducing the viewer to fictional people and places that are simultaneously bizarre and a little too real.

"The pilot, for instance, celebrates the career of Sir Geoffrey Wallace, a legendary photographer so avant-garde that he never put film in his camera. Of course this means everything he shoots comes out as a blank white square, and that is why the art world has dubbed him a genius.

"I was actually inspired to do this project by the satire pieces I write for the Tyee. I'd love to take that sort of humour to a whole new level."

Do you think Kickstarter is the wave of the future?

"I am the wave of the future. Kickstarter is just helping me get there."

If you'd like to visit Chris Cannon's Kickstarter page where it's possible to learn more about his project and pledge a contribution, go here.