Kirsten Opstad is ready for the studio thanks to her successful Kickstarter campaign.

By Sanjeev Selvarajah

Local musician Kirsten Opstad has met her fundraising goal and is in the preparation stages of recording her next album. Thanks to the Kickstarter.com campaign she initiated, as reported in The Somerville News last Week, she has raised enough capital to take the project to completion.

Filmmaker Whit Scott wasn’t the only person Kirsten Opstad knew who succeeded with Kickstarter. He approached her to do a song for his film and raised $30,000 for that same project via the fundraising platform. In addition to featuring her musical skill in the film, Scott promised her the use of a studio, provided that she can reach a goal of $5000 with a Kickstarter campaign.

And Opstad did just that. She attained a sum of 5,301 dollars, a small percentage of which will be given to Kickstarter and Amazon for processing the campaign. Scott’s Kickstarter ceffort for his film Rolled ended at the beginning of September, while Opstad’s campaign began at the close of the same month and ended Sunday, October 23.

Opstad explains, “I had to put together a budget to determine what the goal should be, estimating the actual production costs (recording, mastering, duplication), gift-fulfillment costs, and travel costs. Initially, $5,000 seemed like a reach, but Whit was confident that I could raise that amount, so I went for it.”

In addition to Scott’s advice, Opstad studied Nathaniel Hansen’s blog on raising money through Kickstarter, http://www.nathanielhansen.com/kickstarter/. Hansen is a fellow Emerson alumni, and Edgar Rosa, one of his students and a current member of the school, also provided great insight. Other established social networks help to enable the monetary network that Kickstarter creates. As of Sunday morning the endeavor has been shared on Facebook 515 times. Opstad cites Scott’s success with Kickstarter as an example of it’s potential for achieving one’s goals. “Somerville’s own Honk! Festival raised over $10,000 on Kickstarter this year.”

Of her collaboration with Scott, Opstad said, “We’ve been in touch quite a bit recently. I’ve just finished writing the song for the film so there have been many email exchanges. They are in the middle of shooting the film, so he’s a little crazy, but he’s a great motivator. My success is his success and vice-versa. I’m thrilled to be part of this project.” She heads into the recording studio November 1.

“I’m very excited for Kirsten. She sent me a version of the song I’ll be using in my film and it sounds amazing. I can’t wait to listen to her whole album, which I’m certain is going to be beautiful,” says Scott.