Seed&Spark is an all-or-nothing platform, which means that if we don’t obtain 80 percent of our funding goal, we won’t keep anything we raise.

We decided to use this platform because it’s designed for independent filmmakers telling stories of impact.

Seed&Spark has given the OUTLIER team access to educational resources and filmmaker support that other crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and iFundWomen don’t. Moreover, we get to keep 100% of our funds once we reach 80% of our funding goal.  

Actually, brand sponsors and grants are an important part of our funding mix!

This crowdfunding campaign ONLY funds about 1/3 of our total project budget.

Because this project is about community, we want our supporters to know that they directly paid the production crew (filmers, photographers, safety folk, etc.) and made permits possible.

Important to note, though: brands can become very loyal to the creatives and athletes they’ve previously hired.

As a newer film production team and with athletes outside of the mainstream, getting the right people to pay attention is tough. (BUT we love a good intro if you have one!)  

Shameless plug: we’re proud to work with deuter USA, Fischer Skis, Weston Backcountry, Voited USA, and Anon Optics.

The cast for OUTLIER: Common includes:

• Nina Aragon is a snow athlete, PHD candidate and new mom. How will Nina approach new motherhood, pursuing her PhD and balancing it with her love of the sport? 

• Vanessa Chavarriaga Posada is an activist and snow athlete who faces the realities of being a woman of color in the white, male-dominated ski industry. How will she confront the pressures of being a sponsored skier who doesn’t fit in the typical ‘box’? 

• Dani Reyes-Acosta faces the challenges of being a trailblazer in her own family. When her mom was diagnosed with cancer, she gave up her snowboard season to support her Mom’s journey. This film will give an intimate look at what she’s had to (and continues to) sacrifice.

If you sign up for the email list above, you’ll get access to the social media and email messaging content that will help our crowdfunding campaign be successful. Signing up above will also get you access to the OUTLIER: Trust (Episode 1) soundtrack, which isn’t publicly listed!

If you want to directly support our campaign, please make an account on Seed&Spark and follow our campaign before we launch on/around February 7. (Note that the signup pre-launch has been a little buggy, so you might have to come back to this link.)

After February 7, support our campaign!

Engage with us! Follow us on Instagram @OUTLIERfilmseries, support our crowdfunding campaign, and really, well, show up! 

Joining the team can mean a lot of different things, so please: build a relationship with us, because we’re just getting started!

This crowdfunder will raise just shy of $30,000, which will pay for the remaining film shoots. (These shoots include both backcountry time in the mountains and interview sessions with Vanessa, Nina, and Dani).

This money goes directly to cinematographers, photographers, permitting, and the production team that will go out and gather the film footage. 

By supporting the crowdfunder, you ensure that the athletes and creative team don’t have to give up their own pay just to pay the production crew. This “we all get paid” approach is the standard for the rest of the entertainment industry—but not the outdoor industry.

Help us set a new bar: everyone should get paid for their work.

Dani built this website from scratch, which includes website design, content writing, content editing, and SEO.

Megan Munley of OutsidePR helped us get our press release and several social assets together.

Sam Davies of Three Peaks Media edited our crowdfunding pitch video.

Charlie Hernández provided sound engineering for the crowdfunding pitch video.

All of this work was done pro bono, because these friends want to see the project succeed.

Finally, the photos and film you see in our pitch video, on this website, and on the Seed&Spark crowdfunding campaign came from a 2023 shoot that Dani paid for from her personal savings. (While Nina and Vanessa joined in with the long-term plan that their time would be compensated.)

The crowdfunding campaign and grants we have in the works will ensure that everyone involved gets paid.

Making media ain’t free, and we hope you’re here for this system-changing work!