BuddingSTEM Kickstarter

Jenn, my friend and former boss, sought my help to create a promotional video to launch a kickstarter campaign for her startup, buddingSTEM. She started the company with her friend, Malorie, because they both had trouble finding clothes for their young daughters that celebrated science, math, and other fields of early exploration. Instead, current clothing lines often featured princess themed dresses.

Malorie and Jenn wanted to change all that by introducing a clothing line designed to encourage young girls to embrace their curiosity in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). After a year of research and development, they were ready to launch buddingSTEM’s first clothing line – they just needed the capital to bring the designs to market.

Enter Kickstarter

Every campaign benefits from a high quality video that catches the attention of the intended audience to compel them in supporting the cause. The video also serves as a convenient way for news affiliates and bloggers to reference on their own platforms. Malorie and Jenn understood this, but had no idea where to start so they reached out to me.

A great place to start is with a subject and a script. Luckily, Malorie and Jenn already drafted one and were ready to proceed with a storyboard – a graphic and detailed representation of how the video will unfold, shot-by-shot. Storyboards are helpful in communicating the vision; enabling me to figure out all the pre-production stuff such as the camera, lighting, and audio equipment needed to capture each scene. It also helps to determine whether the existing script times well with each shot to see if it needs to be expanded or trimmed down.

With a complete script and storyboard in place, we planned for one full day (mainly in consideration of the children) of recording in two nearby locations. Followed by a half day of editing and another half day for revisions. In hindsight, it all went smoothly according to plan. What I wasn’t prepared for was the reception to the video as well as their Kickstarter campaign.

BuddingSTEM met their initial $45,000 Kickstarter goal within a week and nearly doubled it within its month-long campaign.