9/4/14 - The Howell Theater was not able to find enough contributors for an online fundraising campaign before it timed out yesterday. Tyler DePerro, the owner of FilmTell LLC in Toledo, Ohio, bought the theater in June. DePerro says he has a âunique visionâ for the theater that includes showing independent movies, silent films, documentaries, and other less-well-known works. He created a fundraising page on Kickstarter seeking contributions from the community to purchase and install a new digital projector to replace the old-fashioned models currently inside the theater. DePerro said community funding for the projectors would help keep ticket prices down once the theater opens. He sought a total of $75,000, but a private company would have been willing to make up the difference if community contributions had added up to just $35,000. Unfortunately, despite commitments from 162 different backers, the pledged amount only reached just over $23,000 as of the deadline at 4:30 yesterday afternoon. DePerro said while the campaign didn't achieve it's goal, it did get "awareness out there about the theater and build the enthusiasm about its re-opening." Because of the way the website works, none of the backers will actually be charged for their pledges because the goal was not reached. However, there is nothing to stop DePerro from recreating the fundraiser and trying to hit the goal again. (JK)
↧