Professional Context - First Few Weeks and Initial Ideas

For a number of weeks now we have been introduced to areas of creative work outside of our own specialism in order to make us think about a subject worthy of research with respect to professionalism.

I think it would be most interesting and beneficial to research something which is a common issue to all disciplines - something they all have in common - and relates to what it is to be professional.

It strikes me that what sets a professional apart from a hobbyist is that the professional is getting paid for their work, so I began considering the issue of funding streams.

Getting funding for creative work has long been a matter of (mostly) conforming to certain paths. For example public grants, studio backing, private investment. However, a new method is arising now which could be a big opportunity for many people - crowd funding.

I already know a little about this. The general principal is that you join a crowd-funding site and put yourself out to the public, offering 'perks' as incentive for them to invest small amounts, but in large numbers, into your creative project.

I would really like to investigate this further; is it a sustainable method of funding? can anyone benefit? is it set to grow and change the funding landscape for creatives?

I will focus my research around the animation industry, but crowd-funding itself does not, so I will also research into possibilities for other disciplines (particularly music and filmmaking) as well.