Slatkiši
2009 · venue-based candy-machine micro-donation activation for the feature film "Život + režije" · film fundraising campaign
Nationwide donation-machine campaign financing an independent Croatian feature film through everyday cafe participation.
Kampanja s automatima za mikrodonacije, zamišljena da nezavisni hrvatski dugometražni film financira kroz svakodnevno druženje po kafićima.
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Notes from the producer
Slatkisi was me trying to solve the oldest problem in independent film, where the money comes from, without going cap in hand to a single funder. The idea was almost embarrassingly literal: if we needed a lot of small contributions, put a machine in every cafe and let people give two kuna at a time. With Studio Kubus we took it further than a napkin sketch. We drew the machines, priced the build down to the component, and mapped 26 venues across the country from Dubrovnik to Zagreb.
I will be honest about where it stopped. We finished the design and the cost engineering; we did not get the machines onto counters, and I have no record of donations collected or press that ran. It stayed a well-prepared plan. But the thinking did not die with it, the same idea, financing a film through many small public gestures, is exactly what became Projekt 365 a year later.
- Matija Radeljak
The story
Slatkisi began in late 2009 inside Studio Kubus as a blunt answer to a familiar problem: how to finance an independent Croatian feature, "Zivot + rezije", without waiting on a single institutional backer. Rather than write another grant application, the team proposed to put the financing question directly in front of the public. The plan was a network of custom-built candy and capsule machines, placed in cafes and cinemas, where anyone could drop two kuna and get a small token in return. Film financing would become a street-level, repeatable gesture instead of a closed-door transaction.
The design work was the most fully realized part. Through November and December 2009 the studio developed a run of hand-drawn machine concepts, cycling through clapperboard motifs, a director's-chair silhouette, and direct calls to donate for Croatian and independent film. A dedicated machine-design package was prepared with Silvija Dogan, and the visual language settled into a consistent, deliberately informal campaign identity carrying the film's title and the Studio Kubus mark.
Around that identity the team built an operations and cost plan detailed enough to have been executed. A placement list named 26 candidate venues across Dubrovnik, Opatija, Osijek, Pula, Rijeka, Split, Varazdin, Zadar and Zagreb, including cultural anchors such as Kino Europa and KIC. A production budget priced the build at 2.040,70 kn for a single machine, dropping to 1.638,74 kn per unit across a run of twenty, VAT and an 8% rebate included. The financing model layered three inputs: two-kuna micro-donations, participating venues, and content sponsors covering the first machine and its giveaways.
What the surviving record does not show is the rollout. The designs were drawn, the numbers were run, the venues were mapped, but there is no evidence that machines were installed, that press picked it up, or that any money was collected. Slatkisi is best read for what it proves rather than what it earned: a small studio's ability to take a financing problem and engineer a complete, deployable campaign, identity and logistics and cost model, from nothing. It shares its DNA with the later Projekt 365, where the same instinct, funding independent film through many tiny public contributions, finally reached a public stage.
Milestones
- 2009-11 — Concept and planning begin at Studio Kubus
- 2009-12-07 — Concept paper and per-unit / 20-unit production budget completed
- 2009-12-10 — Placement list of 26 candidate venues across nine cities issued
- 2010-01 — Venue planning carried forward in a later logistics spreadsheet
Outcomes
- Campaign identity produced — A branded donation-machine design set was completed, carrying the "DONIRAJ ZA FILM" and "Zivot + rezije" messaging and the Studio Kubus mark.
- Production cost model completed — A detailed build budget priced a single machine at 2.040,70 HRK and 1.638,74 HRK per unit across a 20-unit run, VAT and 8% rebate included.
- Rollout unconfirmed — No surviving record confirms installed machines, funds collected, or third-party press coverage.
Credits
- Matija Radeljak — Producer, director, co-screenwriter
- Zrinka Rogulj — Producer
- Mia Bucevic — Original story and screenplay
- Silvija Dogan — Public relations and creative advisor
- Studio Kubus, umjetnicka organizacija — Production organization
Related work: 365 - a film for a dime