I was interested in how this video was made because I'm proud of how we are a 501(c)3 public charity and of how the TMS movement is an authentic grass-roots movement rather than a fake, "astroturf" movement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
We are a completely independent organization and our grass-roots action
really comes from the grass roots. I wanted to know if the "Never, Ever Give Up" video is the same way, so I did a bit more investigation.
I was also interested because, as I mentioned, above, the video was made by an independent film studio attempting to make a documentary. The film studio had turned to KickStarter to raise money for the film. This drew my attention because we are currently working to help another production company that has also turned to KickStarter to make
a documentary about Dr. Sarno.
Here's the director's pitch for the KickStarter campaign for "Inspired: The Movie." You can tell how much he cares about the movie and how much it means to him:
Unfortunately,
that first Kickstarter campaign was not successful. It had a goal of $75,000 but it only raised $
15,592. Because of the way that KickStarter works, no one was charged and they didn't get a single penny of it because they didn't meet their goal.
In comparison, the Dr. Sarno documentary also has a goal of $75,000, but it has already raised 69% of it's goal and is only 39% of the way into the campaign. I'm confident that they will meet their original goal, though I do expect things to slow down unless they can pull in some media attention. The key thing, though, is that they surpass their goal.
Not to be dissuaded, the "Inspired" team made a second attempt. This one ended on July 21, 2012 and featured a goal of $25,000, which they surpassed,
raising a total of
$26,157.
You can watch the pitch that Arthur made for the KickStarters, trying to support the film company that documented his progress. He is very open and also passionate about the project and the responsibility the video has given to him:
I've wondered why they were able to raise 168% as much the second time around. Was it because they had learned more about how to run a kickstarter campaign? Was it because their goal was lower and so backers felt like they might actually succeed?
Unfortunately, while their second KickStarter may have succeeded, the movie itself seems to have stalled. Their Facebook page hasn't been updated since December 2012 and some former supporters have written some very angry comments on the wall of the page:
https://www.facebook.com/inspiredthemovie
The web page is still up, though:
http://inspiredthemovie.com/
It's a sad story, but it doesn't detract from Arthur's individual hard work and accomplishments. It does, however, help explain why the editing on the YouTube video is so very good. Sometimes it takes a partnership between people with real experience and others with special skills to make a movie that will reach 12 million views.
Anyway, I thought I'd share what I found... I feel very lucky that we are dealing with an experience production company for the Dr. Sarno documentary, who has six films under their belt and even a Guggenheim award for one of the directors. Nothing beats a track record of success when you are trying to figure out who to partner with.
Finally, as a bit of a bonus, I thought I'd share a little footage that I tracked down that shows Diamond Dallas Page working with Arthur and another person from the film. It was made before Arthur's video went viral and it shows a little more of what the collaboration between Arthur and DDP looked like on a day to day basis. It's not particularly inspiring, but it does help to ground us because it shows what it really looked like behind the scenes. Based on all the help that it was clear Arthur was receiving it also might help us understand why we personally don't always get the same results.
