OT: A Veronica Mars Crowd Sourcing Miracle

[Andrew Kimery]

Call me Mr. Negative but I don’t think it will affect much more change than NIN & Radiohead experimenting with pay-what-you-want album releases, Louis C.K. making a couple million streaming one of his comedy specials or Tim Schafer raising over $3 mil on Kickstarter for his next video game.

Old Media success + rabid, installed fan base = crowd source windfall is not formula most people have access to. NIN & Radiohead both have not so found memories of their pay-what-you-want experiment and Trent Reznor has teamed up with Columbia Records for his latest music endeavor. The grass on new media side of the fence is getting greener but I don’t think it’s as green as the hype makes it seem (at least not yet).

[Chris Harlan]

Andrew, You misunderstand me, which is understandable given the Internet pie-in-the-sky talk that goes on here. But are we really so jaded, that when someone finances a film in day, its just not worth talking about? I don’t think its a revolution (dangerous word to use around here) or anything, but I think it’ll be a boost to niche production, which I’m all in favor of, especially among some of the more innovative, interesting folks in the already established creative community. I also like the people involved.

[Andrew Kimery] “Old Media success + rabid, installed fan base = crowd source windfall is not formula most people have access to.”

Exactly. I totally agree. The truth is that you have to stand out in a way that you can be seen. This is potentially a boost to people who are part of the creative establishment, but who–for one reason or another–are falling through the cracks. BTW, I think the term “old media” is quite a misnomer. “Old” media is actively absorbing “new” media at an astounding rate. I really don’t see much of a dividing line anymore.

Anyway, its a pleasure for me to see this happen. Yes, I’m rabid, installed fan base incarnate.

[Andrew Kimery]

I was impressed both times when Video Game High School blew by its funding goal but, honestly, I am less impressed when something like Veronica Mars or a Tim Schafer project gets funded. Raising over $2 million bucks in a day is of course amazing but the fact that that money is going to fund a Warner Bros movie is, I dunno, weird? According to the KS page, WB gave the campaign their blessing to gauge ‘fan interest’. Of course WB gave it their blessing. Fans are paying WB to help fund the movie then WB will charge the same fans to see the movie in theaters! Since KS backers aren’t investors this is about as close to free money as WB is ever gonna get.

I agree that crowd funding and social media is expanding the playing field so that projects that wouldn’t have had a chance 10yrs ago could get a shot at being made today. I’m not jaded (although considering the years I spent creating content for web-centric companies I should be) but I just have mixed feelings over projects like this getting funded.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Chris Harlan] “You misunderstand me, which is understandable given the Internet pie-in-the-sky talk that goes on here. But are we really so jaded, that when someone finances a film in day, its just not worth talking about?”

Yep.

Anything you like or value, or perhaps might be excited about that may differ from established norms; gets put in a grinder and chewed up to be spit back on your plate, predigested, ready for you to take a second helping.

Except for me, of course, I am jade-free.

The plan sounds wonderful and cheers to the future. Perhaps there’ll be a “Deadwood” kickstarter campaign hosted by Swearengen to ignite donations in hopes of bringing back the prospectors.

[Chris Harlan]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Perhaps there’ll be a “Deadwood” kickstarter campaign “

I’d kick in for that.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Chris Harlan] “I’d kick in for that.”

Me 3.

[Gary Huff]

[Chris Harlan] “But are we really so jaded, that when someone finances a film in day, its just not worth talking about?”

Yes, because apparently the lesson to be learned here is that, if your famous and/or have a famous back-catalog property, you too can raise millions on Kickstarter!

Exactly how does this inspire anyone? Oh, it’ll “inspire” a lot of people all right, a lot of people who’ll put up countless Kickstarter campaigns and raise nothing, because they are unknowns with no established properties to play off of.

It hasn’t changed hardly anything for people trying to break in with an original idea, no matter the quality.

[Chris Harlan]

[Gary Huff] “It hasn’t changed hardly anything for people trying to break in with an original idea, no matter the quality.
“

I didn’t mean to suggest that it had. We talk about the motives and movements of huge corporations on this forum all the time, as if we know and understand them intimately. Can’t we talk about a smaller group of business people who’ve made an interesting lateral move in an arena that has been previously blocked?

[Chris Harlan]

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-critics-notebook-veronica-mars-kickstarter-20130314,0,6613285.story

[Andrew Kimery]

[Chris Harlan] ” Can’t we talk about a smaller group of business people who’ve made an interesting lateral move in an arena that has been previously blocked?
“

Of course, I just think it’s too early to tell if this is a good example of an interesting lateral move. If the profits end up in the hands of the creator (Rob Thomas) and any cast/crew that agreed to work on deferred/reduced pay in order to keep the budget down then I think this is an interesting concept. If the profits end up at WB then, from my perspective, the fans have quit literally gifted a movie to Warner Brothers.

According to the LA Times article WB is going to cover marketing, promotion and distribution and I wonder how much are they going to charge for those services? If standard ‘Hollywood accounting’ is used then the production will be charged exorbitant fees by WB ensuring that the movie will never turn a profit on paper. My hesitation is really centered around WB’s involvement and that they will manipulate the situation to end up with a pile of cash from a movie that cost them $0 to produce and $0 to acquire.

I think the Shadowrun Returns (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns) is a better example of what we are talking about. The original creator wanted to make a new Shadowrun game but he no longer held the IP. He went to KS to raise funds (leveraging the game’s existing fan base) to cover licensing the IP from Microsoft, development and distribution. Sans the licensing costs and KS fees all revenue will go to the development team.