In Montauk is a narrative feature film about pregnant photographer Julie, who's on the cusp of artistic success. While in Montauk to take photos for an upcoming show, she meets Christian, a composer, who becomes her muse and lover. Her extramarital affair leads her to a life-changing decision.

Kim Cummings is an award-winning filmmaker that recently concluded a successful Fractured Atlas sponsored project on RocketHub. Being that I grew up on Long Island, I was intrigued by Kim's film setting and original story. So we chatted about her inspiration and crowdfunding experiences.

In Montauk was conceived when my ten-year-old twins were very young. I was completely sleep-deprived, dealing with the intractable NYC school system and trying to write. I felt like a failure on every front and I no longer felt like myself. I'd kept my hand in filmmaking by working on friends' productions, but wasn't doing much creative work myself. The biggest project I felt could handle was a five-minute experimental film, with a one-day production schedule. I started thinking that I was in an impossible situation, trying to create art while trying to be a good mother to my children.

I started to think about how to depict this struggle and came up with the idea of a love story where a female photographer is torn between two men, one representing her art and the other representing her family. I starting thinking about what decisions she might make differently when she finds out she's pregnant. Around the same time, my DP, Brian Dilg, was working on a documentary that he'd shot on high definition. He was saying that the projection quality was really good and that if we just had a script with a few characters, we could shoot on HD, doc-style very quickly. I pitched the script to him, he signed on, and the project was born.

What has your experience been as a crowdfunding pioneer in the world of innovative film in New York and beyond - how are your supporters responding?

This has been an interesting journey for me. People have been incredibly supportive. I had a sneak preview screening in Queens, NY in early December, and after that screening, people came up to me and asked how they could give. That's where my first RocketHub supporters came from.

The challenge after that was to figure out how to get across the message of the film to people who hadn't seen it. I started with a teaser, which got some notice, and ended up drafting my daughter to interview me about the project, since I wasn't really used to talking to the camera. The next challenge was to reach out to people who'd been supporters of mine in the past. I'd never been very rigorous about my e-mail list, just using e-mail groups to send sporadic updates to people. I finally did some research and discovered MailChimp, which has been great! I've been able to send out updates and see who's actually getting them and responding to them.

It's been an enormous help. Once I put up my campaign, I had an easy place to send people who wanted to see what I was up to. I believe this campaign was instrumental in getting selected for IndieWire's Project of the Day.

It seems that you got a lot of very positive momentum. Any advice for others looking to crowdfund a similar project?

Like production, preparation is key!  

- If you can launch around an event, a screening, a reading, or a rough-cut screening it helps to get people excited about the project.

- Have a good method of sending out information about your film, a good e-mail list is a great start.

- Be clear about your message and get some help filming your video, preferably from a supporter.

- Take a good look at your support network and be realistic about what they can give when setting your fund-raising goal.  

- Reach out to everyone in trying to get additional press for your project.

Thank you to Kim and to our partner, Fractured Atlas, for this awesome project. We hope to see you back on RocketHub soon.

-Vlad