I am quite aware of crowd funding and have looked closely at the success and failures of feature films that have worked with platforms such as Pozible or Kickstarter.

Whilst crowd funding is in a way like free money for filmmakers, I ultimately have a philosophical problem with model.

I believe that accepting funds from a crowd funding platform de-values the product you are making. It says there was no commercial case for this film to have investors or other interested parties, therefore it has had to resort to public welfare handouts. Once a crowd funding campaign is published, it is out there forever and that film will forever will be tainted with that image.

If somebody is going to put money into a film I'm producing, I want them to do it because the numbers add up and the investor feels they are going to make a good return on investment. Due to the way these sites are set up, it is not possible to offer those who fund projects a share of revenue, profit or equity in the finished film. 

The other factor to consider with crowd funding is in order to be successful they need a strong marketing, PR and social media strategy, otherwise they tend to only yield a few thousand dollars and that is certainly more often than not the case in Australia.