Denies you unless you peddle like a Gen Alpha idea of film fundraising...cough, sexist selfies where YOU ARE THE PRODUCT!
September 2025:
I wrote to the CEO-founder giving this company a second chance. Ghosted after a while. So your female CEO is OK with a double standard of men approved with headshots, pro images, bio, etc. but us women including my chronically ill BFF have to sell ourselves like goofballs in videos to a predominantly male audience of investors, as repeat, all the men do not have one single selfie video/image update? Sorry, if I wanted that, I would be on OF not the film industry. Nice knowing she stands up for female users on her own website. Bye.
October 2024:
Seed and Spark refuses to publish our fundraiser with our current demo reel, information, blah blah. Our reel contains professional work done for studios and a few globally A-list/B-list celebrities from the people we want to hire. Our info has some other tier celebs on it for the film. The "feedback" was to basically have us take a stupid selfie video and chop demo reel bits into it, with redoing the entire plot and rest of our pitch. "Feedback" that reads like a human didn't write it. Gee, I didn't know I had to cut a TikTok video to please you. We already linked to our website and professional info about who we want to hire. Told you everything about our team. Do we need to lip sync for you too, or is a selfie "IG Reelz!" video cutting it enough?
Did you know several studio directors with movies you know told me how our pitch deck, script and all look excellent? Well, what would they know about directing hit films and getting financing, because the "experts" with blurred/odd photos and no surnames at this third party website say otherwise? Why would we follow a proven blueprint that works for established filmmakers when Seed and Spark *sarcasm* says we should act stupid online to fundraise money?
Their "experts" are people who would be working directly for power producers if they really were experts. They look like stock photos or AI images of humans with first names only. Looks and feels a heck of a lot like dealing with Fiverr right down to the web design when you sign up.
I'm just going to be frank: all of their correspondence feels like AI wrote it or Google Translate. Are these people real? If real, where are they based? Everything about this screams cheap and not human. Or one of those Russian bride websites where the "brides" are borrowed photos of women as American men write back to the naive elderly American wannabe grooms! I wouldn't be surprised if this company has something worse going on with how fast food plastic it feels/reads/looks.
We expected this website to be a LinkedIn for film financing. Don't waste your time because they will approve a few student or artsy projects but nothing with people who have been in the media/other work and anyone you plan on hiring who has proven studio CV material. This website seems to have gotten its film financing how to from an Instagram reel filter. Good riddance. Anyone who has a serious student, indie or semi professional-outside the studios film should use other crowdfunding websites.
PLEASE DO NOT USE SEED AND SPARK AND DEFINITELY NOT IF YOU ARE A PARENT. Ask for money from everyone you know, your whole block, your former classmates, that film production company you have a link to, ANYTHING BUT THIS UNPROFESSIONAL HEAP OF DUMPSTER FIRE. Their "advice" is how to dumb down your movie's marketing descriptions/details and have you yourself or your young people showcasing themselves, not the product to be financed itself. As you should already know, a human being should never be showcased as the "product." Seed and Spark career "advice" only sets up people for trouble online. Yeah sure, we enjoyed decades of feminism so my friend and I could jam makeup all over and make OURSELVES, not the film, the product!?! Sorry, I intend to get film financing like the men I know do it: NOT ACTING LIKE I HAVE TO MODEL FOR MY FINANCING AND WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE. Like for real, if I wanted to open a modelling based OnlyFans for film financing, I would've done it and had power in my hand without your help, Seed and Spark. What the heck is this!?!? We need VIDEOS/SELFIES of your team?!! Sure, that's how every Best Director winner does it.
Got so much to say about this horror show, but I'll end it at that. Anyone asking why someone who knows filmmakers would use this, I need to direct my first work with a serious budget before I can get to their level. No studio allows you to show up and get financing because you feel like it. You work your way up. :)