Is Kickstarter Being Hijacked by The Man?
Posted on April 28th, 2013 in Entertainment, Movies, Publishing, Social Media with 1 Comment
When I first encountered Kickstarter, the Internet crowd-sourcing platform, I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Well … maybe not quite, but I did think it was an ingenious tool for helping creative “little guys” get their ideas into motion.
Recently, however, I’ve started to wonder if it’s been co-opted by the Hollywood establishment.
I became aware of Kickstarter when the makers of Falling Overnight, a small, independent film I’d seen at a festival, sought to raise money for a theatrical release. I liked the film and its message, so I chipped in. I was happy to assist in making it available to others. The fact that I received an autographed poster was nice, but not integral to my decision.
Shortly thereafter, I found myself at Kickstarter again when a friend, LA-based singer/songwriter Kat Parsons, sought funding to produce three mini-albums of her latest music. In 2004 – pre-Kickstarter – Kat financed an album titled No Will Power in part by asking fans on her email list to pre-order.
She told me Kickstarter made the process much easier the second time around:
“It was cool to be able to do that type of project with No Will Power and have it work out so well. Kickstarter makes the process clearer because there’s a tally, because there’s a countdown and because the rewards are so clear. It makes it easy for participants, and me, to see how things are going. I also could use video to speak with participants. For me. it was very user-friendly.”
Last summer, however, I began to notice a shadow of doubt while perusing the Kickstarter website. Not with the validity of the projects, but with the need for help.
I noticed that actress Eliza Dushku was seeking a relatively modest $60,000 to complete post-production work on a documentary about her ancestral homeland, Albania. I am a longtime fan of hers, from True Lies through Dollhouse. And I’m actually interested in Albania, which has unique history compared with the rest of Europe.
I was tempted to donate, but a single question kept coming back to me: Why does a successful Hollywood actress need my money to get this done? Sure, I don’t know her bank balance, but I suspect it’s higher than mine. It’s possible that she’d already laid out a lot of her own money to get the project to post-production stage. That might have made me more willing to invest, but her Kickstarter pitch didn’t address that. Still, it garnered more than $72,000 in donations.
With last month’s crowd-sourcing of a Veronica Mars movie, however, things really seemed to go off the rails. This pitch seemed more about demonstrating a market for the movie than actually financing it, but it won 91,595 backers – a Kickstarter record. With a goal of $2 million, the appeal brought in $5.7 million.
“This is it,” the Kickstarter page proclaimed. “We’re making a Veronica Mars movie! Now the only question is: How big can we make it? We need your help!”
But do they really? My understanding is that a studio had agreed to back the picture if it drew enough interest. So aren’t those Veronica Mars fans on Twitter really just subsidizing wealthy movie-makers? Yes, actress Kristen Bell has a new baby girl to support, but she isn’t hurting for work. [Check out my review of her new film, Stuck in Love.] An she can only benefit from reviving the Veronica Mars role that made her famous.
Emerging Backlash
I am not alone this reaction.
Actor Zach Braff‘s pitch this week for $2 million to make a sequel to 2004’s Garden State — without, as he asserted, having to make artistic compromises — drew a bit of a backlash. The Los Angeles Times reported:
“Commenters on Twitter and in the trades on Wednesday accused Braff of cynically leveraging free money from fans on behalf of Hollywood producers, who would have funded the film and acceded to his creative demands regardless.”
The money grab even drew attention across the pond, where The Guardian voiced my own concern about the celebrity Kickstarter trend:
“Crowd-funding has helped countless creative projects get off the ground, but if we continue to allow it to be hijacked by the rich and famous there will be no chance left for the little guy.”
Of course, this doesn’t have to be a zero-sum equation. People will continue to support projects that pique their interests. And celebrity-backed pitches could lure some new traffic to the website. But will people continue visiting Kickstarter if the public perception is that it has jumped the shark? Or, as The Guardian put it, has it become “the Internet’s cocky little panhandler”?
I saw Garden State several years ago – mainly because Natalie Portman was in it. I rated the film a B-. Will I pay to help produce a sequel, and then pay again to see it? No. Yet Braff reached his goal in only three days, and his Kickstarter total is sitting at about $2.15 million as I publish this.
Braff didn’t ease my concerns with his flippant response the criticism: “People seem to think I have Oprah Winfrey money. I’ve done well in my career, but I am not sitting on $22 million.”
Trust me, nobody is going to mistake Braff for Winfrey. But his Kickstarter pitch is for $2 million, not $22 million. Where are all those Scrubs residuals?
I view Kickstarter as a tool for independent artists to finance projects that otherwise would be out of reach. And somehow I think $2 million would be a much greater boon to an artist who wasn’t already collecting checks from movies and television.
###
Tags: Dollhouse, Eliza Dushku, Falling Overnight, Garden State, Kat Parsons, Kickstarter, Kristen Bell, Natalie Portman, Scrubs, True Lies, Veronica Mars, Zach Braff
COMMENTS
Joe Ellis
I concur wholeheartedly.
When I see all these celebs starting up Kickstarter campaigns it really angers me… Why can’t something be popular yet exclusive to the little-guy? There should be caps on how much a person can raise, depending on the type of idea.
Having said this, Kevin Smith backed-out of a Kickstarter campaign because of this very reason, but then again not all famous-film types are as grounded as he is.