1. BEST PRACTICE:
How To Finance, Produce,
and Distribute Cross-
Media Projects Internationally?
Lina Srivastava
Sheffield Doc Festival
14 June 2012
2. Best Practice:
Build Your Business Model
“A business model is the story
of how value is created,
delivered, and captured.”
-- Saul Kaplan,
The Business Model Innovation Factory
Best Practice | Transmedia
6. Lakou Mizik
Content Production
+ Lakou Mizik music
+ Lakou Mizik webisodes
+ Lakou Mizik Sessions
Distribution platforms
+ Album
+ Concert film shot in a classic Haitian outdoor “Lakou”
+ Website: music discovery and marketplace for musicians
+ Short-form interactive documentary films on featured musicians
+ LM “episodes” (downloadable song, short film+music video)
+ Media for television and film festivals
+ LM Collective music tour both in Haiti and internationally
+ Dedicated YouTube channel
+ SoundCloud (download, streaming, remix)
Best Practice | Transmedia
7. Lakou Mizik
Social Action
+ Tangibles
++Culture Regeneration
++Economic Development
++Community Vibrancy
++“Leave Behinds”
+++ Direct paths to action
+++ Lakou Mizik Marketplace
+++ Lakou Mizik Studio
+++ Education, Training, Networking
+ Intangibles: Awareness-Raising
++ "Positive awareness" + "empathy"
++ Shifting the narrative to a more positive picture of Haiti
++ Cohesive picture of systemic change
++ Musicians’ stories about issues in their communities
Best Practice | Transmedia
8. Lakou Mizik
Audiences | Fans:
+ Haitians in-country
+ Haitian Diaspora
+ Fans of World music
+ Fans of Caribbean music
+ Arts/activism
+ People who helped post-
earthquake and who need
to reengage
Best Practice | Transmedia
13. Successes:
+ Content:
++ The platform is up, active, alive
++ People know about it: It’s fulfilling a need
++ Filled with 1000 stories
++ Starting to get interest from established partners
+ Technology:
++ Forward movement is to become a service provider on
group storytelling
+ Lesson Learned:
++ Can become commercially viable off the back end
Best Practice | Transmedia
14. Challenges:
+ Content:
++ Funding: $120,000 ($100K from TFI, 20K from Kickstarter)
+ Technology:
++ Even harder raising funds from VCs if you’re “successful”
on other sources-- they want to be the first ones in
+ Lesson learned:
++ “Who are you?”
+++ Combined a technology company/documentary
company, but didn’t distinguish the two enough
+++ Combined management
+++ Combined philanthropic funding with VC asks
Best Practice | Transmedia
15. “Kickstarter is not for everyone.” -- Sara Nodjoumi.
Best Practice | Transmedia
16. The Iran Job
Successes:
+ Funding: Doubled their Kickstarter ask 4 days before the deadline
+ Audience: Had a built-in, existing audience
Best Practice | Transmedia
17. The Iran Job
Mixed blessings:
+ The film will most likely be self-distributed
+ Have pursued traditional avenues for distribution, but it’s too slow.
+ Audiences respond well, so they’re not going to wait.
+ Need USD $100,000 to put it into 10 cities.
+ They are going back to their grantors:
++ None of the “traditional” funders
++ Personal contacts, Iranian-American orgs
Best Practice | Transmedia
18. The Iran Job
Challenges:
+ Management:
++ 2-3 people working full time for 3-4 weeks before launching
the Kickstarter campaign
++ Spent a lot of time on the rewards
++ Every detail was studied, but delivery deadlines were pushed
back
+ Catch 22:
++ The money gets spent.
++ And people think you’ve already got the money
+ How to keep momentum after the Kickstarter campaign
Best Practice | Transmedia
19. The Iran Job
Lesson learned:
+ Your rewards are your donor engagement, your marketing tools
(even in pre-production).
Best Practice | Transmedia
21. AMERICA 2049
Successes / Impact:
+ Over 20,000 throughout the world played through the 12 week
run
+ 110,200 unique Facebook interactions. 5,200 twitter followers
+ 86% of players indicated at least some willingness to become
active on an issue they encountered in the game
+ 56% reported they had spent time reconsidering their views on
the issues raised in real life
+ Generated mainstream press coverage from 120 outlets
22. AMERICA 2049
Lessons Learned:
+ Balancing Engagement with Message to Increase Impact
+ Moving Players from Clicktavism to Activism
+ Transitioning from Expected to Novel Application of Platform
+ Exploring New Distribution Models & Unlikely Partnerships
+ Accounting for volunteer hours
+ ROI: Project management to Scale to Impact
25. Who Is Dayani Cristal?
Inside Comayagua Prison, Honduras
26. Who Is Dayani Cristal?
Successes:
+ Funding: Film has strong funding and investment
+ High aesthetic quality and innovative narrative form
+ “Flipped the Model”: Strategic Planning:
++ Social action and cross-platform strategy developed
alongside film development and production
++ Audience engagement planning developed alongside
film development and production
Best Practice | Transmedia
27. Who Is Dayani Cristal?
Challenges:
+ Need to flip the model of funding:
++ Social action, cross-platform, audience engagement need
funding earlier in the process
Best Practice | Transmedia
28. Who Is Dayani Cristal?
Lessons learned:
+ Strategic planning needs to be done earlier in the process
+ Impact planning and measurement are a specialized skill
+ Build strong, cross-sector teams
Best Practice | Transmedia
