Kick-Starting a New Wave of Filmmakers

If you're a budding filmmaker, amassing the resources to get your picture made can be a daunting obstacle.

So daunting, in fact, that back in the day, famous German director Werner Herzog found it necessary to inspire an aspiring student named Errol Morris by betting that he would eat his shoe if Morris could complete his initial project, a documentary about pet cemeteries. Morris -- now a renowned director -- did finish Gates of Heaven, and his mentor proved to be a man of his word, dutifully cooking and consuming his suede desert boot. (That event, in turn, was immortalized in Les Blank's 1980 short film, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.)

Fortunately, it's no longer necessary for fledgling filmmakers to seek inspiration from someone willing to dine on footwear. Previously, I wrote about sixtysomething female rockers June and Jean Millington, formerly of the 1970s hitmakers Fanny, and their successful effort to raise money to support the release of their new CD through Kickstarter.com, a novel micro-philanthropy website that enables ordinary folks to contribute a few bucks to support worthy artists.

But Kickstarter isn't just for musicians. The website is joining forces with the Sundance Institute, superstar actor Robert Redford's incubator for independent cinema and sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival, to aid filmmakers on a shoestring.

In the partnership, recently announced at the festival, Sundance will guide festival alumni's film projects to Kickstarter, rally indie film fans to support the projects, and showcase Kickstarter-funded films each month. Kickstarter, in turn, will provide filmmakers with promotional, educational and branding support to teach creative types how to be businesspeople.

It's a promising synergy. Budding flmmakers will gain access to Kickstarter's growing audience of small-scale arts supporters, who have contributed $30 million to various projects since 2009. Sundance, in turn, has extensive contacts and cachet within the movie industry, which means that someone who starts small on Kickstarter has a better shot at eventually going big-time.

This post at Fastcompany.com speculates that the deal may portend a new paradigm of crowdsourcing in filmmaking. And, memo to Werner Herzog: Since you don't have to urge on would-be auteurs by offering to dine on leather, you can try this recipe for Cajun-style Maque Choux (pronounced "mock shoe") instead.