Kickstarter is a great fundraising tool, but like the last hand of a high-stakes poker game, it’s all or nothing. If you don’t reach your stated goal, you walk away empty handed. The pressure is huge, the figures daunting. 60% of all campaigns not only don’t raise their intended amount, but get little or no money at all.

To be successful, campaigns and the personalities behind them have to stand out. The person running the show has to be able to smile and talk up the project–repeatedly–to friends, acquaintances, and total strangers who might be interested. It’s not for the weak or faint-hearted.

The project itself is also important. Like a good book, it has to capture people’s imagination, whether by proposing an ingenious solution to an age old problem, launching a great artistic venture, or recording and preserving some aspect of the world we know. Here are two ongoing campaigns that aim to do just that, one with still photography, the other with video.

When the Deuce Was Wild – If you don’t know Flo Fox, you should. This amazing woman has overcome serious health challenges (Multiple Sclerosis, cancer, and recently broken heels from a bus lift accident) to pursue photography, make lots of friends, and inspire people all over the world.

One of her great loves (we won’t go into the men), is photography. She began recording the city in 1972 when she bought a camera with her first paycheck as a costume designer, and never stopped. Her 1981 book, Asphalt Gardens, is a collector’s item, and her newly launched Kickstarter campaign is raising funds for a second one about Times Square, or “The Deuce” as it was known in earlier, wilder days.

Fox wants to show “the funkiness, the sleezyness, the prostitutes, the porn row,” of the area from 1972 through 1989, and has the archive to back up it up. Levels of participation range from small ($5) to large ($2,000), with many stops along the way. The big reward is going to be the book which is available in hard and soft cover, signed and unsigned editions. A great chance to grab a bit of photo history and sample a wilder bygone day of New York.

The Fabricant Way is a series of Internet films that focuses on a new breed of artisinal entrepreneur. Jennifer Dopazo, a branding expert and head of the design firm, Candelita, began to notice a new way of doing business among small creative ventures. They were rooted in a culture of artistic integrity, were closely tied to the local community, with a very personal approach to branding and customer relations. Wanting to understand and capture this, she reached out to businesses in Manhattan, but none responded. She widened the search to Brooklyn, and discovered in Bushwick an extensive creative network as well as receptiveness to her film project.

The first season featured the quirky, captivating ventures Lite Brite Neon Studio, Fine & Raw Chocolate, Mellow Pages Library & Reading Room, Wrecords By Monkey, and Shag Brooklyn. All were small enterprises begun with dreams rather than hard-headed business plans, and the conversations reflect an inspiring idealism. One of the neat things about the films is that they capture not only the individual enterprises, but a sense of the movement behind them: creative people who want to do high-quality work, stay local, and be a part of their communities. Lots of money isn’t the ultimate goal, but rather being honorable, and keeping faith with inspiration and the artist’s way. Highly informative, the first season captured an important slice of art and business life in a borough that has become synonymous with creativity.

In the coming season, Dopazo is looking beyond Brooklyn, with possible subjects that include a soap maker in Greenpoint, the vegan cheese maker, Dr. Cow, a portrait painter who works on the streets of the Lower East Side, and an apothecary in upstate New York.

Small business owners, entrepreneurs, and individual artists have much to learn much from these in-depth interviews, which are also fun. Like the popular open studio events, they are a great way to get a peek inside some of the off-beat spaces of the city and meet some of its unique and creative minds.