No Kickstarter for You!

Lots of backlash against the Kickstarters Zach Braff and Veronica Mars. The screediest of these seems to be Kickstarter Abuse by Dylan Gadino, which I disagree with in every possible way, but especially the ugly and condescending tone. Here’s how he treats Braff:

To be clear, Braff secured money for the project, but he would have had to make sacrifices – you know, the way we all do every day in every aspect of our lives. So, instead of accepting this financing deal and creating the movie like an adult, he’s decided to beg us for money. His other options included not making the movie or liquidating $2 million of his assets – that is, if he doesn’t have the much sitting in an account – so he can pay his friends to make the movie, which is what he’s now doing with the donations some of you gave him.

To put it another way, Braff’s life was already great: He’s rich, famous and gets to put his penis inside a model’s vagina. But his life could be even better if only he could make another movie – better still, if he can do it exactly the way he wants with the exact people he wants in the exact location he wants using the exact equipment he wants and with your money to pay for it. I’m not saying Braff’s wealth excludes him from pursuing more wealth and happiness, but isn’t it obvious he should be using his own money to do so?

And the fans? Desperate and deluded:

If you’ve already given to projects of these types and you still think it was a good decision, by all means, keep doing it. If you’re so desperate to feel part of something that you believe the rich have your interests – and not their own – at heart, commit to it. But don’t delude yourself into thinking you’re actually part of something special; you’re helping the rich get richer. There’s nothing special about that.

Class act. Not even worth refuting.

Ken Levine is much more reasonable. I can relate to his Sundance analogy; that the big players will crowd out the true indies. But there’s limited space and time at Sundance, while Kickstarter can scale. True, there may be issues around discoverability, but when you are a relative unknown discoverability is always an issue. As for backers having limited funds to go around, backers will back what excites them, whether it’s on the scale of The Avengers or El Mariachi.

Since then, Kickstarter has chimed in, Who is Kickstarter For? Noteworthy:

The Veronica Mars and Zach Braff projects have brought tens of thousands of new people to Kickstarter. 63% of those people had never backed a project before. Thousands of them have since gone on to back other projects, with more than $400,000 pledged to 2,200 projects so far. Nearly 40% of that has gone to other film projects.

Also worth noting that the traditional model failed to get us a Veronica Mars movie, despite the avowed desires and efforts of the creators. Now there’s going to be a Veronica Mars movie. And there’s a bunch more money kicking around Kickstarter for smaller projects. Win-win.