$2 Million for ‘Veronica Mars’ Breaks Kickstarter Records

http://variety.com/2013/more/news/veronica-mars-kickstarter-reaches-1-million-in-funds-1200194274/

by waterlesscloud • 13 years ago

114 84 13 years ago

TFA does not have a link to the Kickstarter project page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-m...

Currently at $2,335,670 with 37,676 backers and 29 days to go.

There are some really creative and interesting rewards for higher contributions. Personalized video message from the cast, personalized video message from Kristen Bell (much more expensive, obviously!), voicemail recordings, name a character after someone, have a local theatre rented out for a private showing possibly before the screenings, after-party tickets, be an extra, or even have a speaking role.

I presume that ultimate reward means this movie is outside the purview of SAG-AFTRA, as any speaking roles in SAG productions absolutely, positively must be performed by SAG guild members. This is going to be an official Warner Brothers product, and I wasn't aware WB was not fully in bed with SAG-AFTRA.

EDIT: What's up with Bell? She doesn't seem to understand the concept of Capital Letters aNd WHerE thEy bELONG In A Sentence. Or she's just being coy.

waterlesscloud5• 13 years ago

What I wonder about is if there are any SAG rules about paying for a role. Charging an audition fee is strictly verboten, for example.

anigbrowl2• 13 years ago

You just make the person a producer. I'msure something like this will result in a court fight, but SAG are going to look stupid trying to explain why they should be able to stop a picture being made in defiance of a willing cast and a prepaid audience.

rdl• 13 years ago

Can't they Taft-Hartley the speaking roles (paying a fine for using non-SAG performers, as is routinely done with commercials)?

When I saw the $10k thing I was wondering if it included a SAG background performer voucher.

VikingCoder3• 13 years ago

Why? They can just join SAG.

"All new members pay a one-time-only initiation fee, plus the first semiannual dues at the time of joining. The national initiation fee rate is currently $3000.00 (initiation fees may be lower in some states). Annual Base dues are $198.00. In addition, work dues are calculated at 1.575 percent of covered earnings up to $500,000."

kevinconroy2• 13 years ago

The Kickstarter page notes that some rewards require additional paperwork (presumably including becoming a member of SAG for the speaking role). Since only one (1) person claimed that reward, it seems reasonable that they could get them into SAG.

Also, Bell may have just made a typo re: capital letters. If you are expecting perfect grammer from the internet, you'll cry yourself to sleep every night.

Cushman• 13 years ago

> What's up with Bell? She doesn't seem to understand the concept of Capital Letters aNd WHerE thEy bELONG In A Sentence. Or she's just being coy.

Good question, actually. The only actual weird capitalization she used, "LoVe to you ALL", is actually an in-joke-- "LoVe" refers to Logan/Veronica shipping[0] in Veronica Mars fandom. She's maybe hinting at a possible romantic plot to the movie, maybe just playing around.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_(fandom)

anigbrowl2• 13 years ago

any speaking roles in SAG productions absolutely, positively must be performed by SAG guild members

Under Taft-Hartley rules they can't exclude other people from participating as long as they join up.

ars• 13 years ago

I wonder if the posters are going to be individually signed, or printed that way.

7,000 signatures is a lot of signatures. The cast will probably be spending every free moment writing their names.

vacri4• 13 years ago

I was thinking the same thing - at five seconds per signature, you're looking at nearly 10 hours solid work per cast member that foolishly agrees.

paigalhaes• 13 years ago

probably they will probably make stamps to stamp their names on posters :D

vacri4• 13 years ago

The speaking role only ships to the US? Bah!

habosa2• 13 years ago

Wow, some of the rewards people snatched up are incredible for a Kickstarter campaign. $10,000 for a speaking role? $1,000 to be an extra? I'm surprised people made that kind of purchase decision so quickly. This could be a whole new era of movie funding (not that Kickstarter hasn't already changed things significantly).

niggler4• 13 years ago

"I'm surprised people made that kind of purchase decision so quickly."

Is it really surprising? Wouldn't you pay 10K for a speaking role in Star Wars? I imagine there are many people who would pony up for the opportunity to have a speaking role in a movie (regardless of the movie), and certainly most hardcore fans of Veronica Mars would want a chance to be part of the movie.

habosa2• 13 years ago

Well Star Wars is now a cultural icon, so that's a decision I'd obviously make in hindsight. However we have no idea what this movie will be like or even if it will satisfy the fans.

Also I wasn't surprised so much by the transaction of a speaking role for $10k as I was surprised that someone dropped that kind of money on Kickstarter and made the decision to do so within hours of the campaign's beginning. That's an intense impulse purchase.

alanfalcon3• 13 years ago

The co-founder of XE.com (Alexa 500) doesn't have to think too hard before dropping ten dimes. He's not even a huge fan of the show (though he is a fan) and might not be able to play the role due to scheduling.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/03/13/veronica-mars-movie-kickst...

gizmo• 13 years ago

Technically, you can change your mind for the duration of the kickstarter. So you reserve the spot and if you get cold feet after a few days you can change the $10.000 pledge into $10 or so.

cadlin• 13 years ago

Planescape: Torment's spiritual successor on Kickstarter right now. It's raised over 2.5 million so far, with a whopping 8(!) pledges of $10,000.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-...

hydralist• 13 years ago

who wants to back a kickstarter for the tv version of harry potter, game of thrones style. the way it was really meant to be!

batiudrami2• 13 years ago

A Kickstarter campaign wouldn't come close to covering it.

Your average cable TV drama costs upwards of $2M/episode, with Game of Thrones costing $4-$10 million/episode. Harry Potter has a big following, so it might make $10M all up - enough for a set and a pilot, maybe.

waterlesscloud5• 13 years ago

Something like this will happen, eventually. It'll start with a very high-profile pilot, though.

VikingCoder3• 13 years ago

Why wouldn't it come close?

38 K people just raised $2 MM in 12 hours.

I think you're thinking about this all wrong.

I'd pay $10 to watch a new episode of Sherlock right now. Even if I have to wait 6 months for production. They can have $100, if I get 10 episodes. And if you can ONLY get episodes by paying for it, I think it'd scale.

mistermcgruff• 13 years ago

VM was one of those smart shows that died an early death, kindof like Arrested Development or Firefly. For the longest time fans of movies and TV have been able to buy DVDs, tickets to cons, posters, action figures, etc., but all of that is a proxy for what fans really want to buy: MORE CONTENT. Glad to see this working.

purplelobster• 13 years ago

I thought the first season was brilliant, but it couldn't keep it up.

aaron695• 13 years ago

Agree. Brilliant first season.

But it seemed to me some idiot somewhere who worked on the second season saw it had a strong female lead and thought that meant she should be a dick and wrote the later seasons like that.

It amazes me how Hollywood just doesn't get strong female characters.

18pfsmt5• 13 years ago

Sorry for the off-topic/ pedantic, but since when has VM stood for Veronica Mars, and cons stood for conferences?

To me VM == virtual machine, and cons==convicts. I realize context changes that, but I like browsing from the https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments section of HN, and I find it rude that many HNers feel the need to use common Reddit acronyms not found anywhere else. For people that find Vim shortcuts so simple, one cannot easily fathom the time savings is worth the confusion (however temporary).

potatolicious4• 13 years ago

To you cons = convicts, to the rest of the cons is a command line tool, which arguably is closer to the "HN" standard (whatever the fuck that means) than yours.

I find it rude that you would choose to use such an irrelevant definition of "cons" on HN given the general subject matter of this forum.

Just kidding - who gives a shit? The extra 0.5 seconds it took to parse the contextual meaning of an acronym I am not going to sweat, and I am certainly not going to call someone rude for daring to use a subculture-specific word in a way I would not normally.

koko775• 13 years ago

"cons" is not just not a "reddit acronym", but is also a common term for "conventions" and "conferences" that has been in use for at least three decades. I haven't lived longer than two and a half but I wager it's older than I am.

You're not entitled to your own ignorance, and not everyone uses language the same way you do. Please lighten up, open your mind a little bit to that, and grow a thicker skin.

nollidge3• 13 years ago

This is not pedantic, it's asinine.

Almost every single lexical object is overloaded with multiple meanings, so it is incumbent upon an addressee to put in a modicum of effort to use context in interpreting communication. There's really no other way to get by.

thelibrarian2• 13 years ago

It's even more impressive when you consider that this is effectively U.S. only, as they will not ship anything (apart from a digital copy of the script) to overseas backers.

niggler4• 13 years ago

from the kickstarter: "The most common donation amount on Kickstarter is $25. Surely, 80,000 of our three million viewers would find that price-point viable!"

I assume those viewers are predominantly US.

coldtea2• 13 years ago

Why? Europeans, Japanese, Koreans etc would also find $25 perfectly viable.

thelibrarian2• 13 years ago

True, my comment was more to the fact that all of the previous record setters (e.g. Torment: Numenera, Double Fine Adventure, Ouya, and Pebble) have been open world-wide, so this has had a much more limited potential backer population and still was a roaring success.

pasbesoin2• 13 years ago

Given that Warner Brothers is behind this and still owns the property (per what I read, elsewhere), I'm not particularly in favor of this.

They have plenty of money to "risk" and invest, and presumably will see the lion's share of any positive outcome of this initiative.

If and as such, I'm not favorably inclined towards their using the mechanism to... mitigate risk (yet further), I guess. It takes away from projects that don't have a "sugar daddy" sitting in the wings.

P.S. Or, even if it doesn't "take away" from other projects seeking funding, I'm... somehow still offended. Especially in light how how these same "big name" studios use severely restricted distribution options and other controls to screw over not only fans/customers but the shows that depend upon them.

Warner Brothers using Kickstarter -- or, "forcing" their property to do so? It just stinks, to me.

waterlesscloud5• 13 years ago

I'm mixed on it. I'd rather see micro-equity crowdfunding, but my understanding is the SEC still hasn't issued rules for that yet.

Outside of that, making movies using other people's money is what studios do. It's the core of their very model. Isn't it better if it's from the fans than some ROI obsessed hedge fund?

pasbesoin2• 13 years ago

I think I know what you mean. I would, regardless of my comment and the circumstances I describe, probably kick in (or, have kicked in, were it then an option) for another season of "Firefly".

I might be more in favor if the restrictions on the resulting product were loosened. As it is... I guess I kind of feel like the players you name are getting the fans to directly fund production, while still walking off with all the profit.

And, regarding restrictions on the finished product... We'll see. But, I'm not optimistic.

Prove me wrong, VM! :-)

InclinedPlane3• 13 years ago

You have to pick your battles. You can't reinvent hollywood overnight, but you can make incremental changes bit by bit. Sending a strong signal that fans will flock to smart TV shows helps if it gets more shows of that caliber made, even if the slimebags in hollywood profit from that too. And it also gives a signal to the legitimate indie creators out there that there's money available for people who can make shows that engage their fans strongly.

eric-hu• 13 years ago

To add on to the spirit of your comment, this could be the first of many major films funded through Kickstarter.

In this case, the intellectual rights are already owned by Warner Brothers. In the next film, perhaps Joss Whedon wants to create a new sci fi movie with Nathan Fillion in a universe that hasn't yet been purchased by a major studio. (Replace director/actor with your choice).

Hopefully this will be yet-another-alternative for non-Hollywood American entertainment to be produced.

doktrin• 13 years ago

Totally fair concern. For what it's worth, I think this was intended as an interest barometer first and funding vehicle second.

If I understand correctly, passing the one million mark was sufficient to bring in WB backing. Since this would probably only cover a fraction of the production costs, it feels as if they [Warner Bros] really just wanted some market research validating interest in the product.

> Warner Brothers using Kickstarter -- or, "forcing" their property to do so? It just stinks, to me.

I know where you're coming from, but I don't feel the same way. The alternative, in this case, was literally nothing. The production would not have been greenlit, and fans would be left without a potentially interesting movie. Kickstarter has made this project a reality, and that's no small accomplishment.

ghshephard• 13 years ago

I pray that Joss doesn't do something like this for firefly, because I'm worried about how in debt I would go to assist in funding a reunion of that series...

kevinconroy2• 13 years ago

I'm not sure that he would go this route. Based on what he's said in interviews, I get the sense that although he loves the Firefly characters as much as us, he DID get a chance to make the movie (Serenity) to wrap it up. VM fans/Rob Thomas didn't get that chance, hence this Kickstarter.

Also with the huge success of Avengers, Joss is going to be busy directing big budget sci-fi/fantasy/awesome movies for a while.

qohen• 13 years ago

Joss is going to be busy directing big budget sci-fi/fantasy/awesome movies for a while.

With low budget Shakespeare/awesome movies mixed in between,

e.g. his just-released Much Ado About Nothing, briefly reviewed here (and the trailer's embedded):

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/03/08/173808228/joss...

(Firefly fans: Nathan Fillion is in this one.

As is Clark Gregg (aka Agent Coulson from The Avengers) and other actors from other Whedon projects).

oracuk• 13 years ago

I too would bankrupt myself over a firefly kickstarter.

EnderMB• 13 years ago

My biggest fear is that Community will get cancelled and that their fans will turn to Kickstarter in order to get Dan Harmon back on board to get their six seasons and a movie.

alanfalcon3• 13 years ago

He's stated clearly that he's out and done with Community, for the good of the show and his own mental health. And he's on to other projects. That's probably healthier than holding on to your baby, but then Harmon was treated like shit by the production company that owns the IP so it's not a similar situation to Veronica Mars.

http://danharmon.tumblr.com/post/23339272200/hey-did-i-miss-...

InclinedPlane3• 13 years ago

The problem with creative content that is funded primarily by ad-revenue is that you break a key part of the feedback mechanism between creators and fans. Revenue becomes a matter of the intersection of lucrative demographics with eyeball counts. And because it's cheaper and easier to make content which merely titillates and draws attention such content tends to be what dominates. In a way it's surprising that anything of quality has been made under that system. Fortunately crowd funding helps reforge the link between fans and creators but it'll be a long, uphill battle before that sort of connection is the norm.

SoftwareMaven• 13 years ago

And there is the next step on the road to obscurity for the major distributors. Right now, WB sees it as a way to vet market interest, which is great for them. But in a few years, as the market optimizes around this, the actual people who make the movies will see less and less value from the studios.

It is directly analogous to the writer/publisher world. It's not to say distributors won't exist, but the part they play will be significantly different.

ck2• 13 years ago

I loved the series and was angry when it was canceled but I am not sure I could get into a movie at this point, it's so far gone now?

hkmurakami• 13 years ago

This gives me hope that some day animation projects in Japan will be initiated by kickstarter-like platforms, resulting in profits going to the actual production studio / animators rather than the TV studios which don't do jack all for the creation of the shows.

(animators in Japan typically make below minimum wage as a result of being paid per drawing, which in turn is a result of the tv stations taking an undeservedly huge cut of the revenues)

alanfalcon3• 13 years ago

Smart, entertaining show if you haven't seen it. Right now you can stream it online from thewb.com:

http://www.thewb.com/shows/veronica-mars/

aidos• 13 years ago

I've never actually seen the show but there's obviously a strong cult following for it.

The Kickstarter article is well written and there are some very interesting pledge rewards on the table.

"You will get a speaking role in the movie. Here’s the scene — Veronica is eating with the man in her life. Things have gotten tense between them. You are the waiter/waitress. You approach the table, and you say, “Your check, sir.” We guarantee you will be on camera as you say the line. Unless you go all hammy and ruin the scene and we have to cut you out, but that would be a sad day for all of us. Just say the line. Don’t over-think it. You’re a waiter."

baby• 13 years ago

This just put a huge smile on my face (that should last a month).

And then I read this : " This reward will ship to backers in the US only". Sadness sadness... I would have paid more if that meant I could have received anything for backing them up.

jpxxx• 13 years ago

Just to be sure, this is a marketing technique, not a method of funding a movie. The actual movie will cost around 20x more just to cover production, talent, editing, and distribution costs.

Consider Kickstarter marketing that pays for itself.

$2 Million for ‘Veronica Mars’ Breaks Kickstarter Records

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