Crowdfunding for Distribution | Emily Best (Seed&Spark)
"We are really good at helping creators get their work made and that’s like shouting into the wind unless you have a plan for how to get the work seen.”
Watch now on YouTube.
Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a crowdfunding and streaming platform designed to support independent filmmakers. With a mission to increase diversity and sustainability in the film industry, Emily has helped creators raise over $70 million. She's a vocal advocate for alternative distribution models and a champion for empowering filmmakers to connect directly with their audiences.
In our conversation, we discuss:
The benefits of crowdfunding for distribution, not just production.
Shifting from waiting for someone to "pick" your film to actively controlling its destiny.
Building an audience and community from the start of your project.
Creating your own distribution windows and challenging traditional models.
The power of partnerships to amplify your film's message.
Leveraging Seed&Spark and Kinema to meaningfully monetize your motion picture.
Key takeaways:
A successful crowdfunding campaign hinges on your prep:
Like going to shoot your film, your production will “win or lose in the prep.”
Really great and successful crowdfunding campaigns deeply understand their audience (needs, motivations, locations, social media behaviors).
You incidentally need this for any distribution plan.
Crowdfunding is distribution prep. Crowdfunding is more than just raising money; it's building the relationships and understanding your audience, both of which are crucial for distribution.
Seed&Spark is “really good at helping creators get their work made and that’s like shouting into the wind unless you have a plan for how to get the work seen.”
Trick your brain into audience-building from the very beginning of your project.
Once a film is made, no one wants to start thinking about its distribution.
Do this work at the beginning, when you’re the “most excited and least exhausted by it.”
“Yank distribution thinking all the way to the top and that thinking will benefit you for this film and for many after.”
Case study: Ratified
Emily produced this feature doc about the 101 year struggle to add the equal rights amendment the the US Constitution. It’s about how law gets done, local elections, the inner workings of democracy.
Launched a crowdfunding campaign to screen the film pre-release in all 50 states before the 2024 election:
Goal: raise $$ to screen film, while activating the audience
Audience research:
Who: More than women care. 80% of Americans believe that we have gender equality.
How do they react to the film: They’re surprised, upset, and getting ‘activated,’ they want to take action.
Tactics:
Pitch video(s): Get people up to speed on the issue, kept it light. This drew in people that were excited to host pre-release screenings. “How can I see the film as quickly as possible…?”
Starting on the day after Ratified’s world premiere, the team opened up “private screenings through the Kinema platform, encouraging gatherings in workplaces, homes, and community spaces. The film’s outreach and advocacy campaign aims to mobilize 15 million Americans on the issue of gender equality.”
Organizational partnerships with 6 key organizations (Vote Equality, etc.)
Some of these partners they met along the course of production.
Pre-campaign launch, Emily had bi-weekly community calls with these folks: wanted to make sure she was including any issue related news / events in her campaign communications and that the orgs were reaching out to their mailing lists.
$25-$75 is the most commonly purchased incentive on any crowdfunding campaign so they made sure their reward(s) for these amounts were digital, shareable, visual, and immediate.
Want to keep the audience engaged and excited.
Over time, hosted screenings creates a snowball effect because someone at each screening wants to host a screening for their community.
“The snowball effect that is enabled by Kinema has been next level for us”
Especially for social action you need to capitalize on the moment someone cares: “sometimes the social issue is not waiting for the release strategy.”
If crowdfunding, one consideration is to offer the ability to host a screening of your film via Kinema as one of the larger ‘ticket’ incentives.
Challenge traditional distribution. Don't wait for someone to pick your film. Explore alternative distribution pathways that give you control and connect you directly with your audience.
And you can still get a more traditional distribution deal after exerting that control. Often because you hosted pre-screenings, fundraising screenings, select screenings, you can show potential distributors data (e.g., number of screenings, audience, etc.)
Seed&Spark and Kinema are partnering! We have to build what we need. No one is coming to save us.
Motion pictures need new infrastructure, new tools where artists can meaningfully monetize their work.
Independent filmmakers desire community features and ways of gathering — TVOD, but also events, talk backs, in-person screenings, etc. Kinema was built for this.
Most successful crowdfunding campaigns are actually festival distribution campaigns or impact campaigns.
These campaigns can be focused on activating the audience because you have a ready or near-ready film and can deliver a reward / deputize your audience immediately:
Support today, watch today.
Become a host in your community (this was very successful for Ratified).
Attend a premiere event.
If you’re raising for production it might take you 6-12 mos before you have a finished product. Ideally you maintain a relationship with your audience during this time. Easier to maintain if you raise right before distribution and your supporters will more immediately see the impact of their contribution.
Contribute to lasting infrastructure that works on your behalf.
The Big Tech mentality isn’t working. Social media and streaming amass content and deliver it via algorithm to micro-communities. It sounded good but in actuality is surfacing your work with people who look and think like you.
If we are going to avoid complete algorithmic silos we need to encourage real humans to use their social capital to gather people.
Partner organizations want every tool available to promote the issue they care about and film is a great way to do that.
Many orgs haven’t used films at all or they used a film once many years ago.
Go local. Start with your immediate community — whether that's a physical community or an online one — to build a strong foundation for distribution.
Don’t start thinking about national and international scale to start.
Start very locally and LEARN
BONUS: “Don’t pick your social handles before you have your final title.”
Where to Find Emily Best:
Seed&Spark: seedandspark.com
Film Forward: FilmForwardExperience.com
Ratified: ratifythefilm.com
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ebestinthewest.bsky.social
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction and Emily's background
(02:20) Seed & Spark's distribution philosophy
(04:28) Crowdfunding as a distribution prep tool
(06:24) Moving away from traditional distribution models
(08:23) Making and distributing the documentary Ratified
(11:50) Building partnerships and community engagement
(14:23) Using Kinema for screenings and community building
(19:00) Partnership between Seed&Spark and Kinema
(23:00) Crowdfunding for distribution and marketing
(32:11) Starting local and building a community
(33:28) Finding Emily and Ratified online
Referenced:
Emily’s viral tweet: https://x.com/emilybest/status/976269222321025024
The Distribution Playbook: https://thedistributionplaybook.notion.site/
Seed&Spark’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SeedandSpark
Seed&Spark’s partnership with Kinema: https://www.indiewire.com/news/business/seed-spark-kinema-partnership-1235092327/
Shortverse: https://www.shortverse.com/
Derek Thompson on isolation: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/02/american-loneliness-personality-politics/681091/