This is a campaign that brings the bling. The shocking, shameless, sparkly short film “Vajazzle” is premiering online for Valentine’s Day, and after the spectacular success of its Pledge Me campaign, we just had to sit down with creator Nathalie Boltt to get the inside scoop.
Before launching Vajazzle’s campaign, Nathalie and her crew had never considered crowdfunding. They initially tried to fund the film through conventional channels, with encouraging results – the film was shortlisted for premiere funding from the Film Commission. But Nathalie suspects it was “just a bit too racy” for the Commission to support. She describes the decision to turn to Pledge Me as “terrifying”, saying “you’re really putting your neck on the block, and the danger is that nobody wants to see this.” But as she points out, filmmakers have to be willing to make that sacrifice anyway – “because why should the Commission give you money for stuff nobody wants to see?”
Much of Vajazzle’s campaign success is undoubtedly tied to its pitch video, which is 1 minute and 46 seconds of glorious glitz and glitter. If you haven’t checked it out yet, watch it below!
It was shot in an hour (after they decked the house out in silk and hunted down the cat) and not only showed viewers what they were in for, but also helped in terms of “clarifying [the] whole concept” for Nathalie and her crew. The reaction to the video surprised Nathalie, with eager responses from everyone from her own mum and dad to the parents at her six-year-old son’s school. But these unexpected supporters are what make up a crowd – as she puts it, “that sort of person comes out of the woodwork, and says ‘yes, let’s do something naughty.’”
And Nathalie has no intention of letting them back into the woodwork any time soon. Although the film has now been shot and is ready for release, she’s keen to maintain her crowd: “[the project] has got to lead back to the mothership…so when it’s time for your next feature, they’ve been with you the whole time.” And Nathalie is also committed to showing gratitude to her audience – whether that’s with an autographed blu-ray of the movie or a customised vajazzling of her own “mons pubis”. Our chief media wrangler, Jackson, was even thanked with his very own free vajazzle voucher! It’s all part of showing her appreciation: Nathalie urges future campaigners to “say thank you, thank you, thank you to your pledgers – never come across as ungrateful.”
All in all, Nathalie sees people pledging to films as a win-win for everyone: “Not only have they funded you, seen the result, been happy with it hopefully…but they’ve been part of something fun – and isn’t that just basic human nature, just wanting to be part of something exciting?”
So if you want to be part of something exciting, and you’re keen to see an exploration of “the freaky side of the female mind”, watch one of our latest crowdfunded short films, Vajazzle, below – trust us, it’s like nothing you’ve seen before.
