My March 2012 experiment with Kickstarter was a real awakening, a roller coaster ride on the learning curves of two new worlds -- entering an unfamiliar social networking domain of the internet's long tail, and the world of documentary video production.
Combined with the unfolding exhibition of Pick Up Your Pencils, Begin, these events and revelations have caught me up in a whirlwind of thoughts and impressions. After a 4+ year odyssey of fabrication, I am reflecting on a post from Chase Jarvis titled "Hit List: 13 Things Crucial For Your Success [In Any Field]". I recommend reading every word.
Chase's #1 tip is "Get Shit Done".
For four years, I felt like I was limping along on the pencils. I couldn't work on it every day. Shows came up that needed new works to be made. Making work to sell gets in the way. Life gets in the way. But I'd force myself to work on it every chance I could.
And I would torture myself as well. Making a sculpture 28 feet wide and 15 feet tall from pencils is ridiculous! How will it look? Will it hang as planned? Will it ever get done? A combination of the simplest of art media - a pencil, a little thoughtful engineering, and tedious hours of assembly. But the vision of a hand-crafted work to carry a message that the arts have a value and place in education AND that standardized testing has become overemphasized in education kept me going.
I naively started the Kickstarter project and already learned an enormous amount. Each media and every social network has its own learning curve...so does Kickstarter. Reading the HELP menu doesn't adequately prepare you for what it takes to run a successful project on Kickstarter.
Before you start a Kickstarter project be prepared with a lot of research, in advance. During the project, it requires a huge investment in developing momentum and visibility.
Harriete Estel Berman
PS. I hired a video editor yesterday! More information about making a documentary video in another post.
This post was updated on March 12, 2022.