I wanted to make a film that nobody explicitly asked for, I asked strangers to give me money so that I can make it happen, and they did! In this series of articles, I’m looking back at what happened last month and trying to understand what has made this crowd funding campaign successful. Note that this is a naïve analysis of someone who’s tried for the first time ever to get people to finance one of his projects. Some of my remarks might seem common sense depending on your background, but I’m just sharing my thoughts, as they might be useful to someone out there.

Just over a year after I decided to consider going into photography professionally, I’ve reached the milestone of getting my first paying client. Granted, it was someone I already knew, but you need to start somewhere, right? My client was my Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) instructor Martin “Oz” Austwick, who needed portraits to use on his websites and on social media. Here’s how it went.