

Zach Braff Responds to Kickstarter Critics [video] - why-el
http://mashable.com/2013/05/08/zach-braff-interview/

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nacho2sweet
I don't see people complaining about all the video games they have kickstarted
to get whatever 1995 Cult Hit Part 4 made by an established well known
developer from that era. Why does it have to be different for movies.

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learningram
Because people who contributed got the game. people who put money in his movie
get nothing.

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Wingman4l7
Seriously? They don't get a DVD or download link or movie pass? What _do_ they
get? A warm fuzzy feeling that they gave money?

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k-mcgrady
He explains in this video that he will be posting behind the scenes content
regularly over the new 18 months. That's what people get by funding the
project. He seems serious about posting a lot of content and it sounds like
it's one of the major reasons he did the Kickstarter.

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sp332
The kickstarter isn't really about making money, or about getting a film
"made". It's about connecting to fans, and I think it's working just fine.

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wmf
Couldn't you connect with fans equally well with some kind of "likestarter"
campaign where you say "we'll only make the movie if we get 100,000 likes on
Facebook"? That wouldn't shift financial risk to the fans.

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mdellabitta
What financial risk, exactly? There's no upside to this transaction . It's
almost a straight donation save for the perks.

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brazzy
Even without the perks, the basic idea is that you pay money to allow someone
to make something that you want made, so there's still the risk that it isn't
completed or differs from what you were promised.

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dwild
I think some people fail to see that big projects like that can change the
target audience of Kickstarter. Yeah it bring more people, but these people
went on Kickstarter for this big movie from Zach Braff, not for indie
projects. It show to the big company that Kickstarter is a good option to
start project and if more of them do that, then they will dilute the content.
It's for the same reason Hacker News doesn't accept news about other subjects.

However I love that big project like that start to give consumer the ability
to "control" what is produced. Now at least we can show them directly that a
project or an idea is good/wrong. I just don't think that Kickstarter is the
place to do that (they could easily use one of these Kickstarter-like script
that you can install on your own website, they would even save some fees that
way).

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james33
The same argument could be made that it opens Kickstarter up to the mainstream
and can help get more eyeballs on the other smaller projects.

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Scottopherson
I think it'd be interesting if Kickstarter projects were required to (or maybe
strongly encouraged to) donate a percentage of their earnings to another
project(s) on the site. Making these percentages visible to users would be
interesting as well; smaller projects might get some extra visibility from
larger projects like Mr. Braff's.

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chc
This would be really onerous for small projects that are barely making ends
meet. They already have enough trouble budgeting as is.

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mostly_harmless
well, maybe for projects that cross their goal, the surplus can be partially
and optionally passed forward

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chc
That's already the case, isn't it? If somebody who's running a Kickstarter is
concerned about holes being burnt in their pockets, they already have the
option of donating some of their money to another Kickstarter, don't they?

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nsxwolf
It's not a zero sum game. People fund what they personally see value in.

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mesozoic
I still don't understand why people who like kickstarter only want to see it
flounder around with tiny nearly meaningless campaigns and never get anywhere.
It's like a bunch of tech hipsters who don't want them to sell out.

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nhangen
The 'fans' angle is just a marketing bullet point used to seduce people into
backing the project. I don't have a problem with it, because IMO you get what
you back, but let's not get ahead of ourselves by thinking Zach is in this for
the fans.

I would have much more respect for him if he offered copies of the movie to
backers, instead of asking them to back it so he can sell distribution rights.
Make the fans your distributors. After all, they're paying for it.

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msandford
It sounds like he'll do precisely that as soon as the changes to the law go
into effect and he's legally able to.

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joedevon
Hmm, maybe Zach Braff will bring fans TO Kickstarter who then help grow the
ecosystem. And every big success might just grow Kickstarter.

OTOH, do we want Kickstarter, like twitter, to be overrun by celebs?

Perhaps what really matters is what Kickstarter wants. Would be cool if they
actually had a policy now that this is starting to happen.

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bowerbird
i thought zack got all the money because he's a celebrity. like, he's cute,
and all, and plays a funny guy on scrubs.

but...

but then i watched that mashable interview...

ends up he's paid his dues, and seems to have a clue too.

i've backed 2.5dozen projects before, but i went over and gave him $10 -- put
him over $2.5million -- because, hey, i like people who pay their dues, and
have a clue too...

good thing i have a girlfriend, so zack can "shift" all of that "financial
risk" to me and my ten dollar contribution.

(some of you people need to listen to what you're saying. i'm just sayin'...)

-bowerbird

