VICTORIA (CUP) — Victoria Westcott likes her social media. She likes to go on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, especially when she's talking about Locked in a Garage Band, the movie she's producing.

And it's pretty obvious why. Thanks to social media, Victoria and her sister, screenwriter and director Jennifer Westcott, successfully raised $20,000 to fund their film earlier this month.

This wasn't your everyday fundraiser. This was crowd funding on Kickstarter.com. The Westcott sisters became the first successful Victoria, B.C. crowd fundraiser.

Kickstarter is an online pledge system for funding creative projects, like indie films and music endeavors. Project owners choose a deadline and a minimum amount of funds to raise. The catch is that if the chosen target is not gathered by the deadline, no funds are collected.

On March 3 — the second-tolast day of the campaign through the website Kickstarter.com — the Westcott sisters only had $7,430 of the desired $20,000.

"It was extremely last-minute; it was in the last 10 hours," said Victoria of the final fundraising push. "My sister and I literally started tweeting at 7:30 in the morning until 9:52 that night, when Twitter kicked me out because you're not allowed to tweet more than 350 times an hour."

The tweeting was with strangers around the world, and each donation received a personal, if not silly, thank you from the duo. Jennifer would write rhymes that rhymed with the donor's name, Victoria offered to name her firstborn after one donar — either Zamba from the Czech Republic or Zuke from L.A.

"(The donors were) people around the world that we never even met that just loved the idea of the movie, and these two sisters who are following their dreams to make a movie together," said Victoria. "It was the best day of our lives."

The movie, as the title suggests, is a coming-of-age comedy about a high school band that gets locked in a garage. The band, on the verge of breaking up, is then forced to face the various tensions in its relationships. Drawing inspiration from the 1980s classic The Breakfast Club, the movie is set almost entirely in one location — the garage.

The Westcott sisters also wanted to bring back the 1980s teenage movie vibe of what Victoria calls "the smarts."

"There are smart kids out there that get a witty sense of humour. We have to get them more credit. We have to give our audience more credit. It's not just about sex and masturbation in movies," she said.

Jennifer wrote and is directing the film, while Victoria is producing, dealing with the budgeting and behind-the-scenes aspects of the film. Filming begins in June, now that the necessary funding is ready. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Silent Hill star Jodelle Ferland has officially signed on.

Victoria says that she and her sister consciously did not go to the Canadian government, not because of the arts funding cuts over the years, but rather because Victoria thinks the government wouldn't be as keen to help as much as her audience.

"If we make a really kick-ass movie, people will want to see it," she said of the decision to raise money through crowd funding.

While Victoria and Jennifer are including their brother in the project with the score-writing duties, Locked in a Garage Band will also look to feature unsigned indie garage bands as part of the soundtrack.

"We really want to have independent garage band music as part of our soundtrack where we're helping to discover some really great musicians from across the country," said Victoria.

They are planning to hold a contest where winning bands will be featured in the movie.