Between 2023-25, we spent two years making an independent film: Ghosts of Alderney - Hitler’s Island Slaves.
The film has been successful; we’re streaming on Channel 4 and UKTV in the UK and on RTE in Ireland, so even if we have not been able to retire to our small Caribbean island just yet, we have delivered a film that is now part of the conversation on Hitler, World War Two, British history, the failures of governments, the quest for remembrance, and art (amongst other things).
Any creative project can be and usually is unfathomably draining, and many artists, journalists, musicians, and filmmakers will tell you that they think they have reached their limit, only to then push on again, starting a new project and beginning the slog, once again to the top. And so it is with us.
Zoe Clough and I started working with photographer Robert Davidson in 2019. We had hoped to make a film for BBC Inside Out in the South West about Robert, the man behind the iconic portrait of Frank Zappa naked on the toilet, photographed in a London hotel in 1967. The project was shelved when COVID hit, started again in 2022, and then shelved again. Now with Ghosts delivered, I was looking for another story. Our film about Robert was already started, so why not finish it? We have a news peg next year - the 60th anniversary of the picture and crucially, people are still around to tell the story. The question was (and still is for that matter), how do we fund the project?
The answer to that question seemed obvious to me… Crowdfunding. Great. But how does that work, which platform do you pick, and will people care enough about what we want to do to put their hands in their pockets to help us make a film? Either way, it seemed to be a sensible place to start for two reasons: firstly, the television industry that has sustained me and our company for years is going through radical changes at the moment. Freelance work has dried up for many producers, directors and crew. Channel 4 has recently announced that they are cutting 25% of their staff before the end of the year (Happy Christmas one and all…!) and the BBC seems to be in a perpetual doom spiral, egged on by the right-wing press in the UK who want nothing more than to see Auntie close her doors.
The second reason to seek independent funds is that Zappa and Me is really designed as a feature documentary for cinema; it’s not going to be a ‘TV film’. The very great David Wilkinson (whose latest film 1 in 2 is due to be released later this autumn) told me in no uncertain terms to try and develop Ghosts for the cinema. We didn’t, for various reasons, and I rather wish we had. Why? Well, David’s argument is that streamers and networks will ultimately pay more attention to a film that has a cinema release, festival gongs, and more importantly, good notices in the press. The other positive benefit, of course, is that you get to make your own film, free from the constraints of the commissioning editor.
So we took the plunge, and earlier this year, we set up a Kickstarter project. Then the hard bit… what to offer as rewards, how much to ask for, and when to launch? It has been a steep learning curve - and I am not sure we have learnt it all yet. Fortunately, we do have nice merch or rewards to offer our backers— books, posters, and even ‘experiences’. But as I was designing the offer in May, the World Cup was looming, and after that, the summer holidays. It seemed prudent to hold off till the autumn.
The downside to this was that, aside from a filming trip to the Zappanale in July, we’ve missed out on the chance to shoot over the summer. And we also missed out on some much needed project funding. Meanwhile, the corporate coffers dwindle and cameras sit idle, gathering dust. But as we move towards our launch date, all is not lost. We just heard last night that our project has been selected for an award from the Kickstarter Culture Fund and that we’ll be featured as a Kickstarter ‘Project We Love’.
The small amount of funding offered by the Kickstarter Culture Fund is probably not the main win here. The publicity we hope to gain from this is much more significant, as is the validation for a project which may not resonate with everyone, but which is, we think, a story well worth telling.
It feels like it’s been a long summer, but maybe now things will start to move for this project and we can look forward to being able to announce a successful funding campaign in just over a month’s time.
Andrew Johnstone
Edinburgh