Once again I forgot about this blog for a metric age. So much has been changing in my life recently, though, I am bound and determined to actually post things now. I have thoughts I want to express, and Twitter sometimes just isn't adequate. And this is a topic I am really, really interested in, so this seems like a great place to put it.
A lot of interesting discussion on Twitter this week about the success of the Veronica Mars Kickstarter. Most of the debate seems to center around the presence of Warner Brothers in the mix.
Warner Brothers, as the owner of Veronica Mars as an Intellectual Property, has to be involved in the process of bringing Veronica Mars to the big screen. They literally HAVE to be there. Yet, many are saying that a big corporation allowing a film project to hit Kickstarter for funding is either "Tacky" or "Gauche" or "Violates the indy spirit of Kickstarter." I'm afraid I just can't agree with that.
John Rogers, Former Producer/Showrunner of Leverage, argued (I think rightly) that Warner Brothers allowing a film they were unsure of to engage in crowdsourced financing (essentially presales in a way) to see if there was a market for the film represents a sea change in the way Hollywood Studios may bring riskier projects to the screen. By setting a goal it had to reach to get greenlit, then actually putting that funding toward whatever budget WB is going to put up themselves to enhance the quality of the finished project... well, that's just not been done before, and opens up a new means to demonstrate that there is an audience for these films. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but a big Hollywood Studio like Warner Brothers even entertaining the idea, much less implementing it... that's just something new coming into play, and succeed or fail, it's really damned interesting.
The ridiculous Hipster argument of "violating the indy spirit" is likewise a nonstarter. The idea that by doing this that Warner Brothers is somehow preventing people from also backing independent projects is a strawman of epic proportions.
Of course, the question of profit sharing has also risen its head, and that's trickier in some ways... but this isn't being done as a traditional investment. It's not even allowed to be done that way by law... yet. There is a Crowdsource Act making its way through the corridors of power, but it's not there yet and has a limit of $1 million, which would be insufficient for larger projects. I really see this as presales. People are putting up money to support the film and are getting more than just the film in return. It's iffy, and any genuinely sticky issues will come in here, I think.
We live in interesting times, it seems. I can't wait to see how it all plays out. And most of all, I actually want to see that Veronica Mars film. Loved that show. Congrats of massive proportions to Rob Thomas, who I have been a fan of since the original Cupid in 1998.
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