99% Invisible is an ongoing radio and podcast series about “design, architecture and all the thought that goes into the things most people don’t even think about” (Kickstarter, 2012). Created by Roman Mars, the show’s third season raised over $170,000, with an original goal of $42,000.
I listened to episode 279 ‘The Containment Plan’, which talks about Skid Row, “roughly 50 blocks, occupying a significant portion of the downtown Los Angeles” (99percentinvisible.org, 2017) designed to contain the city’s less wealthy citizens. The piece describes the area well, using numerous senses (“The streets of Skid Row often stink of urine and excrement baking under the hot Los Angeles sun” (99percentinvisible.org)), which is a common feature in descriptive novel writing. This is then coupled with interviews with General Dogon and other contributors that give first hand experience of the area, as well as reasons for its existence, and minimalistic sound design that brings focus to the words. In my opinion, all these factors allowed for a very descriptive format that could be enjoyed without visual aid (though the website does have a mix of photos, maps and other media). According to Miranda Sawyer, the show’s have a “warm, inclusive tone” and have the “feel of a beautifully told story, rather than a “check my research” documentary” (The Guardian, 2013).
With the Seasons One and Two being produced on a shoestring budget (Kickstarter, 2012), Mars decided to use crowdfunding in order to improve production quality. As stated above, he originally set a goal of $42,000, but received over four times that amount. A common feature of successful, or thought to be successful, crowdfunding campaigns are stretch goals. According to Indiegogo, another crowdfunding website, a stretch goal is defined as “A stretch goal is an additional goal you set for your campaign in case you exceed your initial funding goal, and is generally used to finance another specific aspect of your project” (Indiegogo, 2017). Instead of being content with the amount of money, “He used both challenge grants and stretch goals to incentivize donors” (Vanessa Quirk, 2016) to keep pledging, well after the goal had been reached. Examples of these were to “produce a video episode” and to do a “website redesign” (Kickstarter, 2012). Mars utilises the Kickstarter platform excellently in order to pursue his goals, both personal and professional.
Sources-
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748303376/99-invisible-season-3
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-containment-plan/
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/may/26/99-per-cent-invisible-radio-review
https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/articles/205183457-Building-Stretch-Goals
https://towcenter.gitbooks.io/guide-to-podcasting/content/revenue_streams/direct_support.html
An Adventure In Media 