Fire up your creativity before your cameras

Kickstarter is one of my favorite websites. The idea is simple, it lets creatives, engineers and artists crowdsource funding for their dream projects.

So far I’ve used it to fund an iPad marker, a case for my Kindle and a desktop trebuchet (how badass is that?!?).

But just browsing their website is inspiring. Imagine helping make possible a floating pool for everyone in the rivers of New York City or a desktop lamp that pulses every time the International Space Station orbits overhead. It makes you realize…

Dreams can come true What makes the very best Kickstarter projects truly unique however, is how they use video to pitch their ideas. The styles vary – but every one tells a story. A compelling story. Something that makes you want to open up your wallet and pay to make it a reality.

Here are just a few of my favorite Kickstarter project videos:

Motion Poems (replete with stunning visual design)

RedPop (focuses on a heartwarming family tale)

Glif (highlight realworld use cases of the product)

To those that say video is expensive, time-consuming and difficult, I’d say… sure it can be – but I’d also point out that the previous videos I highlighted were all done on spec.

Marc rightly points out his post that in real estate, OK is becoming the new Great. You don’t have to look too far into the legion of bad real estate videos and the bad advice that’s being tossed about to realize this is this case.

To me this all points to…

A failure of imagination

I brought this up before, when I wrote that it was time to coin a new term – that we need to ditch “real estate video” and start creating real estate cinema.

For what’s more inspiring than the true vision of home-ownership? And as Realtors, you are literally helping make people’s dreams come true.

So run with that notion. Think about the stories you can tell with video. How you could truly sell a home or your services. Take a page from the dreamers on Kickstarter. Present your stories in ways that are fun, novel, and gasp, maybe even a bit creative.

I can’t wait to see what you come up with.