Topic: 2019 Possible for Ferrania?

[rattymouse]

Or have they written off this year as the year they deliver on their promised rewards for backers?  It's been so many years I've forgotten what the current promise is. 

[Flippy]

They posted an update a couple months ago, although it doesn't say much. They said last year they're going to stop giving dates, because they kept missing them and don't want to keep disappointing people.

I don't know what's going to happen. I think they thought everybody would take the P30 when they made that, and maybe that's all people will get. I'd be happy with a few rolls of that now instead of the E6 film if I was given the chance.

[Francois]

People tend to forget how hard starting a business is when they're in the planning stage.
I sometimes think Kickstarter is both a helping hand and a hindrance. On one hand, you have some money to start-up. But on the other hand you have to deliver a product with a lot of people pushing you.

[Indofunk]

How different is that than venture capitalism? Except that you have more people to answer to, but each has contributed hundreds, instead of millions, of dollars...

[Indofunk]

I guess that answers my question Venture capitalists have a handful of people who basically comprise your board of directors and will dictate your policy. Hundreds of backers do not make a coherent board

[MrclSchprs]

How different is that than venture capitalism? Except that you have more people to answer to, but each has contributed hundreds, instead of millions, of dollars...

I would say that not only the numbers are different as you have more people to answer to, but the percentage of people knowing the difference between buying and investing is different as well.

[Kai-san]

The fact that they didn't manage to present even a prototype slide film before the new Ektachrome hit the street will probably make life hard for them. But it would be nice if they succeeded in making a film that looks like the old Ferrania E6.

[Francois]

or the old Scotch Chrome

[Moto-uno]

  Well if they can give us the E-6 in 120 , I'm going to continue waiting by my mail box , Peter

[Francois]

Welcome Peter!

[John Robison]

When someone mentions 'Kickstarter' now my blood pressure jumps 10 points.
Didn't bite on the Film Ferrania one but....
Never mind, it'd beer-thirty now anyway.

[Francois]

When someone mentions 'Kickstarter' now my blood pressure jumps 10 points.

Don't blame you. There's so much junk and scams on there that it makes your head spin!

[Jeff Warden]

How different is that than venture capitalism? Except that you have more people to answer to, but each has contributed hundreds, instead of millions, of dollars...

The main difference is that with venture capitalism if you as a manufacturer take their money they own your ass. :-) But with Kickstarter it's basically free money and when you're up and running you still own all of your company. And satisfying the Kickstarter rewards happens on your timeline rather than dictated by someone else.

The most recent updates from Ferrania looked promising to me so perhaps P30 will come soon, and when it does I'll be glad to buy some.

[patois]

I forgot they existed.

[John Robison]

After looking at the Ilford video on what it took to make film....
I don’t think these guys stand a chance unless they can come by a BIG pile of money, and that don’t seem likely. When this was funding and finished up with under $300K (after Kickstarter’s cut) I thought then that it was way...way underfunded.

[John Robison]

kickstarter is a clever little money making scheme. They get their percentage of the ‘take’ of every successful campaign and after that have absolutely zero responsibility for anything that happens to the marks...oh excuse me, I meant backers.
A casual read of their “Terms of service” lead some (most?) backers to assume they have some legal rights, or that Kickstarter has their back. They do not, and so state on their site that they do not mediate between backers and creators who violate the terms of service.
Backers take on completely unsecured risk and Kickstarter makes no effort whatsoever to warn backers of this. If they did their business would either collapse or suffer serious reductions in income.

They could certainly be more forthcoming about the very real risk that, if you like a project and wish to back it, just consider the money as lost right from the beginning. It will make it easier when the project goes south, the creator stops communicating and goes dark, and all you can do is either stew about it or walk away.

[MrclSchprs]

kickstarter is a clever little money making scheme.

That is debatable, but yes, if one does not know the difference between buying a bread and investing in a bakery than Kickstarter should be the last resort for your money.

[AJShepherd]

I did really like the rolls of P30 I shot. There did seem to be a lot of 'issues' with their factory, not least of which was that it seemed to be mostly made out of asbestos and that all needed to be professionally removed and replaced with something which would do the same job but without killing the staff.
Do wonder if a thorough survey of the premises would have shown all that up before they got started in which case they might not have started at all.

I did one kickstarter once for something which has never turned up, so never again!

[Flippy]

Ferrania is actually the only kickstarter I've pitched money to where I haven't gotten something in return. I've been disappointed on others, but at least got something back for my money. I don't think a lot of people are setting up a scam intentionally (after all if they were, they could still be caught for fraud even if kickstarter refuses to so much as slap a wrist) but I do see a lot of people seriously miscalculating their costs, or their time, or their own experience - and have witnessed projects where the show-runners seemed to think if they had money to throw at their product all problems would resolve themselves. Either way it sucks, but I think idiocy is a bigger problem than malice on kickstarter.