The interest for Freeman’s Mind 2 should be gauged, I know in a video it was said that it isn’t as popular as before, but that was when it was on the Machinima channel. In one of the latest video the creator, Ross Scott, stated that he got $18,000 for SSDs in order to produce Freeman’s Mind videos in HD. So I think that if there was a fundraising campaign for Freeman’s Mind 2 and if the goal was something really high like $500,000 it could make it easily. Why not just create a fund raising campaign for some stupid amount like $500,000 or even $2,000,000 and see what happens, that could fund the project and the movie with profit perhaps.
One way that could be done is through Kickstarter or maybe just a simple donation page, where it is stated that if $x is reached then x hours will be produced and if that amount is less than the cost to make, then the rest could fund the movie. Something like $10,000 for 1 hour, $25,000 for 2 hours, $60,000 for 3 hours, $100,000 for 4 hours. Something like that and if it is just donations people could donate for the amount that has already been funded. Or a normal Kickstarter, although I’m not sure how well that will work because it might work better if it ran consistently and I presume Kickstarter takes some of the money. I am sure that a lot of people would be happy to donate for Freeman’s Mind 2, even if it is stated that work would only start in 2017 or take 7 years to complete or something.
Another thing that could gauge interested is in Steam Greenlight there is a section for concepts, it’s free and doesn’t count towards anything being greenlit, but has the same features, most importantly voting. Alternatively, Freeman’s Mind 1 could be put onto Greenlight, this is not only a good way to gauge interest on the voting and possible purchases, it could also raise money. If it was greenlit it could be made clear that all the videos are free and can be watched on YouTube where a link is provided, and that any purchase would just be to support the creator and possible future projects (so Freeman’s mind 2 and the movie) also that the purchase is purely for appreciation of the original.
I and I am sure a lot of people want Freeman’s Mind 2 and would be happy to donate money for it and\or to donate money for the already created Freeman’s Mind 1. And if this could be done through Steam a lot of people would participate in it, I would and even more so if there were say 10 different versions that were and stated to be meaningless, but with just different costs. Like “The Pirate Edition” for $4 or the “Super Epic Awesome Edition” for $20 so people can choose how much they want to donate. A lot of people would purchase it because it is on Steam since they maybe didn’t know\didn’t read the description saying that it is on YouTube and a lot people value things more purely because it is on Steam. Also with the Steam Machines it would make it easy to view it on a TV or in Big Picture mode. But also it would help spread Freeman’s Mind quite a bit, since a lot of people would recommend it and I’m sure it would be on the most popular section on the homepage on release, but it would also bring in money for those that did not what to pay for it, as a link to the YouTube page could be provided. But there is the 20% Steam fee, but since this would be supporting the sale of Half-Life games, maybe a link could be provided in the Freeman’s Mind Steam page, Valve might waiver that fee because A) it is supporting the sale of their games and B) it is a donation and a Freeman’s Mind has benefited Valve quite a bit.
Basically I am sure a lot of people would support Freeman’s mind 2 and a lot of people would purchase Freeman’s Mind 1 on Steam just as a show of appreciation for being created, and not to mention how it would widen the audience.
