Some filmmakers use Kickstarter as a means to fund their movies from scratch. But for filmmaker Fred Schroeder and cartoonist Dave Kellett, Kickstarter has become their chance to finish (and augment) a documentary that’s close to their hearts, and to their childhood dreams.
STRIPPED: The Comics Documentary has taken on a life of its own since getting featured in Kickstarter’s weekly newsletter. Originally seeking $58,000 to cap off their filmmaking odyssey, Schroeder and Kellett have already earned that and more. Here, they explain how their running tally of nearly $80K (as of this writing) has caused them to rethink what else they can do with all their hours of exclusive interview footage with some of the biggest names in the world of comic art, including Jim Davis (Garfield), Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics), Kate Beaton (Hark, a Vagrant) and Scott Kurtz (PVP).
CrowdFundingHelp (CFH): What inspired you to create a documentary about the world of comic strip art?
Fred Schroeder (Fred): Originally I had approached Dave about doing a broad documentary on working artists in a variety of different mediums and exploring their studio spaces and creative processes. Dave came back with the idea of specifically looking at the world of comics and cartoonists, and before we knew it we had interviewed about 60 cartoonists!
Dave Kellett (Dave): Fred and I had known for maybe three or four years that we wanted to work on *something* together. And this was really the topic that brought all our divergent interests together: Comics, films, how artists create, how technology is changing the rules, and how artists are adapting, in turn.
CFH: What were your initial expectations for the film before Kickstarter entered the process?
Fred: In all honesty, Dave and I began this project just for ourselves. We didn’t really know if there was an audience out there for what we were interested in. We just wanted to take the journey. It was only when we started putting it together and finding the common threads that we thought, “Hey, maybe this will be interesting to other people.”
Dave: Yeah, Fred nailed it exactly. It started out as a project for us — which is maybe how all good art should start, really — and we just found it growing and growing in scope.
CFH: Why did you choose to use Kickstarter to raise finishing funds?
Fred: So much of what Dave does as a web cartoonist is based on the idea of crowd funding. He has a mantra that if you can cultivate 1000 fans, you can make a living producing things for them the rest of your life. We hoped those 1000 fans would be behind us with this project. I had also seen a few friends successfully fund projects through Kickstarter and that gave us added confidence that it could work for us too.
Dave: And we checked around at the other distributed fundraising sites, but Kickstarter just appealed to us on terms, aesthetics, approach…a whole slew of things, really.
CFH: How did you arrive at your original budget for your Kickstarter campaign?
Fred: Dave and I sat down together and with two talented producers, Laura Boersma and Lara Wickes, and crunched bare bones numbers to determine what it would cost to get this thing done the way we wanted it. We basically said, “What are the essentials needed just to finish this?” Lara and Laura were really helpful resources and basically laid out what it would take, and then we asked what we could cut out and still have something we would be proud of.
Dave: But it’s also kind of playing “Price Is Right” rules as well: Getting as close as you can without going over. Because Kickstarter has an all-or-nothing fundraiser gimmick, you have to set the bar within *very* realistic levels, or risk losing it all if you fall $5 short.
CFH: What was your promotional strategy for spreading the word about the campaign?
Fred: The amazing thing we had on our side was we had interviewed so many cartoonists with incredible online audiences. Everyone has been so supportive of the project because I think the subject matter is so near and dear to their hearts. We basically asked everyone we interviewed to tell their fans about it and the word spread like wildfire across the web in just a few days.
Dave: And the power of social networking, on this project, has been amazing. Everyone really does love comics, and if you give them the chance to spread the word on it, they do.
One of STRIPPED's most popular donation levels & Kickstarter perks
CFH: How did you choose the various perks for your donors?
Fred: Our basic approach was: what do we have to offer to people? What would fans like? We also had to consider what wouldn’t cost us an arm and leg to give out so that the movie’s funding wouldn’t suffer.
Dave: That being said, our postage fees are gonna be huge at the end of all this. 
CFH: You’d already exceeded your project’s fundraising goal with several weeks left in the campaign. Why do you think this project caught such fire with the donors?
Fred: I think it is as simple as people just love comics. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have at least one fond memory of reading a comic strip at one time in their life. I think that goodwill has transferred to our documentary and we are so thankful and appreciative.
Dave: And that love for the art form gets magnified when people stop to think about the future of comics. Where *do* the funny pages go if newspapers cease to print?
CFH: Your campaign relies primarily on the visuals and name recognition of your interview subjects. Have you tracked the project’s viral trail to see which names / terms have been most helpful in spreading the word?
Fred: There are some subjects that people just want to know more about. I think having a cartooning legend like Jim Davis is helpful mostly for other cartoonists to get excited about and get excited to share the same space with. Richard Thompson (Cul de Sac) is also a cartoonist’s cartoonist who adds a lot of excitement within the community. These people end up becoming evangelists for the project and help tremendously by spreading the word. Other subjects have a huge online fan base (like Kate Beaton or Ryan North) that want to see more about them and what they have to say about the art form.
Dave: As someone who makes his living from his online work, I have to say that my one grief with Kickstarter is the complete lack of metrics. I have no idea which lead or which press piece is bringing in the most eyeballs, and more importantly which links are converting into patrons… and it’s driving me nuts. It wouldn’t be tricky for them at all to make that info available.
CFH: Updating your already-successful project and outlining where the additional funds could be directed seems like a necessity of you’d like to keep raising additional funds. How did you arrive at the idea to do so, and how did you decide which potential growth options (closed captioning, animations, etc.) to aim for?
Fred: We were blown away by the support and basically said, “If this many people want to see this doc, we better make something AMAZING.” We saw an opportunity to do more. Much of where we could take the doc is coming directly from fans and what they would like to see. Several people asked for closed-captioning, which is not something we considered for our original bare bones version of the doc, so that seemed like the easiest place to start. Then there were a lot of people we didn’t get a chance to talk to that fans were asking to see in the doc. Dave and I want to see them too!
Dave: And we’ll be updating the Kickstarter page with extra content as we go, to encourage folks to revisit the page, and convince folks on the fence that it’s time to support the film.
CFH: How has your Kickstarter success altered your perspective about Stripped?
Fred: For us it is a small validation of two years of work. Kickstarter has proved that people want to see this and that is a great feeling. It’s also ramped up the pressure to make something really great for all these fans.
Dave: It’s really widened our perspective for how large the impact of this film might be. If this many people are sold based on a 3-minute trailer, imagine what we can do with an hour-and-a-half film!
CFH: What other tips would you suggest for documentarians looking to make better use of Kickstarter?
Fred: I am by no means an expert but I would say: don’t wait for Kickstarter to start making what you want to make. If you love the material and you invest time, energy and money in it yourself first, you’ll have a much easier time showing people what you want to do later on and an easier time gaining support. We shot for two years before putting up our Kickstarter campaign. I think people appreciate the time and effort we’ve put in already and are much more willing to lend support because of it.
Dave: I think Fred hit on it, exactly. In some way, you have to put your money where your mouth is. And in our case, it was two years of work before ever asking folks to support us.
Fred Schroeder and Dave Kellett expect to finish STRIPPED: The Comics Documentary in late 2011 or early 2012, depending on how many more bells and whistles their Kickstarter funds allow them to include. In the meantime, you can watch Dave’s speech at the Festival of Cartoon Art about the future of the comic format, and donate to their Kickstarter project until Thursday, Sept 22.
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