I'm gonna leave my two cents here as well.
Mike, I love you. You know I do. But man, five thousand dollars is an awful lot to try and seek via donations. I hate to ever say this, but I find myself agreeing with Dion in that like...
Okay.
It's not that I personally don't want to support you, because I think you're very intelligent and want a chance to succeed. But I know you personally. I don't know if you have enough friends/family willing to throw in 5/10 dollars towards this enough so that it'll make it to 5,000+.
If you're in school, would it be possible to rent a camera? Can you go to the classrooms after hours and use their workstations? When I was in Wisconsin, we were able to check out any sort of equipment we might need - cameras, video camera, microphones, anything. All we needed to do was put down a student ID as "collateral". When I was enrolled in a class in a computer lab, we were given the combination and told to come in and use the stations whenever we wanted to.
Maybe it would be more prudent to put money aside for something more akin to an external harddrive you can use to store shot film on so you can transport it to places to make videos and short films and stuff on your own time.
Roy may disagree with me here, and you might as well, but what you're asking for is like having a budding artist say that they need money to buy super high quality paints, brushes, and an easel so that they can learn how to become as great as picasso was. What that means is you're trying to run before you are walking and you're using excuses like not having access to stuff so you can't prove your talent. You even shoot down your own options to help yourself. There are just a lot of excuses, and I'm sorry if that sounds harsh. This shit isn't even about the gofundme anymore and more about your methodology towards achieving your dream.
What I am seeing and reading and understanding is that you haven't started anything because you lack the supplies to do anything, so until you have the supplies you can't even begin to work on what you want to work on. I think that's silly. I think that's lazy. I think Dion is right that greatness can come from anywhere but it comes from self motivated people.
Free up space on your phone. Start shooting videos. Get a pad and paper. Start storyboarding and writing out script ideas. Pitch me something. Tell me how you plan to do it. Do the legwork, man. Final Cut Pro is great and all, I'm sure, but there are several alternatives. You don't have to instantly jump into using stuff the pros use, because you're not a pro. You're an amateur. You're an enthusiast. If you're a creative type who wants to show that creativity... do it.
What if you could find a way to use current technology to explore the way film is used? What if you could turn a six second vine, or a series of vines, into a short film? Maybe one that could be watched standalone and then when watched together there's a whole different feeling. Explore the medium and what it means to be a "movie" or a "film". What is "cinema" in the modern age? Why does it have to conform to an old standard?
I would wager that if you start making something engaging and thought provoking and moving that people will begin to follow you. Much more so than you will on a wing and a prayer donation campaign.
I'm sorry, this is really probably very mean. It's probably very Dion-esque. Maybe none of this is helpful. I'm not sure. I do know that you have the ability, and when I get a chance I will definitely donate what I can to help you, but I feel that you also need to explore ways to help yourself.