Interview (Part 1): Marc Hofstatter, Indiegogo
Since the concept of crowdfunding has taken hold over the last few years, particularly in relation to movies, TV, and web content, I thought it would be a good idea to talk with Marc Hofstatter who is Head of Film at Indiegogo.
Today in Part 1 of a two-part series, Marc provides background on Indiegogo and his take on the current state of indie film financing:
Scott Myers: Your background, Indie film, agency, production executive, producer. Can you give us a quick through line on your background and how you ended up at Indiegogo?
Marc Hofstatter: Throughout my youth and high school, I was a bit of a film nerd. I got that from my father. Along the way, in the ’90s, when I was in high school, the Independent Film Channel launched. They were actually based in Solera, the town over from where I grew up, on Long Island.
I was lucky enough to get an Independent Film Channel at that time. I started watching all these amazing films and realizing, “Wow, this is really what I want to be doing for a living and do this with my life.” I started as an intern at October Films in New York, an independent film company behind films like “Breaking the Waves” and “The Apostle”.
But, shortly after college, I moved out to L.A., because that’s what my friends were doing, and that’s what I was told to do. I started a road into the studio system, working at William Morris as an assistant for a literary agent, who represents a lot of great literary writers and directors today.
Then I went to work for a company called Depth of Field at Universal, the production company run by Paul and Chris Weitz. We made about half a dozen films when I was there. Most notably, aside from Paul’s films, we did “A Single Man”, a Tom Ford film which I worked on.
After that, I moved to another production company at Fox, but right around the time of the recession the company lost its deal and I moved on. I started into digital content, saw the progression of where the industry was going and was producing independently, features and TV on the side.
It was really in digital content in that area of the industry that I saw opportunity. I did that for a couple of years and finally, I heard about the opportunity at Indiegogo. Two years ago now, that I came to Indiegogo, as I had a film and digital. It was exciting to me, because crowd‑funding was blowing up. It’s still blowing up in a major way.
It is now part of the film industry, not just the independent film industry, but the film industry at large, which I think is extremely exciting.
Scott: Let’s say you’re at a party and someone has been living under a rock for a few years and says, “Indiegogo? What’s that?” What would you tell them?
Marc: I would start with “Indiegogo is a crowd funding platform. It’s where filmmakers, creators, whether it be someone that is creating visual content or you have a small business or a piece of technology. It’s an opportunity for you to put your product, your project in front of the masses and get their support, to make what matters to you happen”. Obviously, that’s both through financial commitment but also community building at large.
We all at Indiegogo say, “If you’re coming to Indiegogo just to raise money, well, you’re not really doing it right. The goal here, specifically in film, is to engage your fans, your audience, your community, into making something bigger than yourself.”
Scott: You head up the film team at Indiegogo.
Marc: Yeah.
Scott: What does that entail?
Marc: There are five of us, we’re based in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, and London. The company itself is headquartered in San Francisco, but on a day to day basis, we’re working with filmmakers to ensure that their crowd‑funding campaigns with Indiegogo are the most effective ones.
We boast a 78 percent success rate for filmmakers who work directly with us. Everybody has the opportunity to do so. A lot of people, unfortunately, don’t take advantage of that. We’re also going to film festivals, preaching the gospel, telling people who we are, and what we’re doing, how we can help them get their projects off the ground.
On top of that, we’re also working with great organizations, like The Black List and IFP and Public Independent and other media sites, like Bloody Disgusting and Twitch Film, to promote film, filmmaking, genre, independent film, female directors, black directors, diversity.
Our goal is to create as wide a swath of success for filmmakers within the film industry that we can.
Scott: What’s your thumbnail take on the current and future state of film finance?
Marc: It’s interesting because film finance, it’s complex. It’s not easy. I think a lot of people look at independent films and they go, “They’re not profitable. So, why are we getting involved?”
But, done right and now because there are so many distributors that didn’t exist before, whether it’s a VOD platform or whether it’s a theatrical distributor. There are so many great new ones on the scene like 824, Bleaker Street, both out of New York. Broad and Green is starting to play as well, in distribution.
Then, of course, again, you get the VOD platforms, like Vimeo, Netflix, and iTunes, obviously. The opportunities are there. That’s why Indie film finance is taking a turn. There’s more opportunity than there was a little while ago. The industry is doing better.
One of the things that people ask me about a lot, especially lately, is equity crowd funding. That’s going to be a game changer for the film industry.
Scott: Could you break down equity crowdfunding?
Marc: Equity crowdfunding, previously, any time you were looking to solicit investment in any project, be it a film or otherwise, a business, small business, you couldn’t publicly solicit it. You had to do all back channel engagements in equity conversations.
About a year and a half ago, Title Two of the jobs act was enacted, which allowed accredited or rather, wealthy individuals to contribute to equity projects publicly. Someone could solicit on an online platform, contributions from an accredited investor.
What is really the game changer is when unaccredited investors, the average person, much in the way that they could invest in the stock market, whether it be Coca‑Cola or Facebook. They could now and they will be able to invest in small amounts, of course, or larger amounts, in films, in music album sales, in products, tangible technology products, or small businesses.
That’s something that is happening in America. It was available overseas, but it was not available here. As of next week, it’s going to be available here.
Scott: There’s quite a bit of language, relative to crowdfunding about disruption.
Marc: Yeah.
Scott: Most of us, in our lives, that’s a negative thing, but not with Indiegogo. You embrace that concept. What’s that about?
Marc: It’s the same exact thing that the Black List was founded upon, was disrupting the gatekeepers, people who said, “Here are five people and they get to make all of the decisions”. We didn’t like that, and Franklin, obviously, didn’t like that either.
So, here’s an opportunity for people who, perhaps, would not have been discovered otherwise, to present their case to the masses and let those masses decide, “Is their project viable or not? Is it something that people want to see or people want to get involved with?”
That’s a wonderful thing. I think that if crowdfunding had been around in the time of Thomas Edison, people like Nikola Tesla might not have been screwed over, or we would have seen a greater deal of technological innovation in a shorter period of time.
Tomorrow in Part 2, Marc talks about some new Indiegogo initiatives and some keys to running a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Twitter: @TheOriginalHoff.
Indiegogo site: Here.