Hi all,
There has always been a little confusion about exactly what The Busking Project hopes to achieve: a book, a documentary, a website…and for what? So, we thought we’d write a post about the aim for all the work we’ve put in over the last 10 months.

This is an ideal list, some of which is dependent on us getting funding in the post-production stage (so that we can afford to spend our time working on The Busking Project in the years to come). If we don’t manage to raise funds from outside sources, we may not be able to follow through with everything.

For Buskers

Free Promo Videos
We’re creating promo videos of every busker who lets us film them. Buskers can spend a lot on getting promo videos put together. We’re doing it for free. So far we have over 90 videos created in the last 9 months.

Busker Resources
Once the trip has ended, we’re going to put our experience and reach together to create a comprehensive resource system for buskers, including permit systems, tips, links and organisations that would interest them.

Reducing social stigmas
Our audience will see that street performance is an historical and global phenomenon that has been bringing entertainment to people everywhere for millennia, in an attempt to reduce social stigmas against buskers/busking.

The fight for free public space
We’re hoping to build a body of visual evidence that can be used to convince municipal governments that buskers are good both for public morale and for tourism, and that street performers are more than able to look after themselves without the need for overkill regulations that hinder artistic freedom.

Giving Buskers Confidence
Through showing our online compendium of street performances from all over the world, we’re hoping to give buskers the confidence of knowing they are a part of something beautiful, not something to be ashamed of. Check out our guestbook to see what buskers have been saying.

For Our Audience

Free entertainment
First of all, the entertainment shown on our website is free. So far, 23,000 visitors have spent a cumulative total of 2,200 hours on our website, none of which we’ve charged for.

Augmented Reality
The audience is half the story when it comes to busking. By helping people understand their part in the grand scheme, we’re hoping to magnify their experience when they next come across a street performer they enjoy. They’re not just eavesdropping, they’re part of the show!

Cultural Education
Our documentary and book will be educational. Never before has the global phenomenon of street performance been studied on anything but a local level. This isn’t just entertainment, this is information about people and cultures that they cannot get anywhere else.

A Connection
It’s obvious, but worth mentioning: there are more and increasingly talented buskers in places that cater well to the medium. Better artists on the streets are better for people in general. We hope to improve, in some small way, the free public art that people have access to on a daily basis

For us

We’ve lugged our equipment from couch to couch each week for the last ten months. It’s been a HUGE job with massive difficulties, very little sleep, emotional exhaustion and at a vast financial expense. So what are we getting out of it?

Money?
Probably not. The average first time doc, if it gets sold, will make $40,000. That sounds like a lot, but that wouldn’t even cover what we’ve already spent!

Experience
We’ve learned a lot about filming, ourselves, and the world in which we live. This is our biggest gain, and we’re grateful for the chance to experience it.

Prospects
Hopefully the book, documentary, website and experience will help us get better jobs in the future.

Nothing else?

One other thing — we’ve also enjoyed many hundreds of street performances along the way.

So what’s left to look forward to?

  • Logging tens of thousands of clips
  • Translating and transcribing dozens of hours of interviews
  • Creating hundreds of promo videos
  • Fundraising
  • Writing the book
  • Editing the film
  • Social networking
  • Building resources on the website… and so on, and so on.