thoughtfulTHERE'S GOING TO BE A VERONICA MARS MOVIE THERE'S GOING TO BE A VERONICA MARS MOVIE THE KICKSTARTER FUNDED AND THERE'S GOING TO BE A VERONICA MARS MOVIE!!!!
Ahem. Look, my cat is named "Lilly Kane," there's a signed poster hanging in my guest room, what do you want from me? I wear my geeky heart upon my sleeve. And now, on to the actual substantive post you may have hoped was hiding here. To whit:
Yesterday morning, Rob Thomas, creator of the show Veronica Mars and author of books such as Rats Saw God and Slave Day, announced a Kickstarter to make a Veronica Mars movie. The Kickstarter, which is still going, had a target of two million dollars, with reward levels starting for a $10 donation. Here's a link:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559
The Kickstarter raised its first million in four hours. Last night, I watched it click over the two million dollar mark. There was much rejoicing, because dude. Veronica Mars movie. I shrieked, I chair-danced, and all was right with the world...
...only not, because it turns out a lot of people are really perturbed by the fact that a movie which will have corporate backing (Rob Thomas is not the Veronica Mars intellectual property owner, which means Warner Brothers has to be involved) was asking for money on Kickstarter. Mind you, no one held a gun to my head and forced me to fund this project; no one forced me to sit here carefully considering the reward tiers and choosing the one which came with the most awesome swag. No one clicked the button for me. But somehow, my backing this movie has stolen projects from indie artists who really needed it.
And unto this do I say: bullshit.
The world is not a zero-sum game. Yes, if I have one dollar, and I give it to Sunil, I am not going to be able to give it to Vixy. But if I only have one dollar, I'm not giving it to anybody. I'm keeping it for myself, to live. I am an artist and a creator of art, and I know as well as anyone that art is a luxury: art is something that we pay for after we've paid for food and housing and heat in the winter and all the other things that keep our physical bodies going. Yes, I do believe that we need art to live, but that's a spiritual and emotional life, not a "I can no longer breathe because Fringe is off the air" life. They are different.
So let's say that I've paid for my necessities, my survival is assured, and I have a dollar to give to a super-deserving project. Obviously, if I give it to one person, I can't give it to anyone else (although I could give both people fifty cents, but I digress). And you know what? That experimental retelling of The Crucible with sock puppets probably needs my dollar more than the Veronica Mars movie. But I'm paying for my luxuries here. I'm paying for what I want. And what I want is to see Logan, and Veronica, and my fictional friends again. I miss them.
The Veronica Mars movie did not take my dollars away from "more deserving" projects, because no one gets to measure that but the person who holds the dollars. Me. And Sunil, and Chris, and Rae, and every other Veronica Mars fan I know. Rob Thomas did not violate the Kickstarter terms and conditions: I know, I checked. I am not somehow being rooked into paying for something that I will then have to pay for again: I chose a reward level that gave me enough stuff that I felt the price tag was justified (and they did a great job of balancing the rewards; $10 gets you a PDF of the script, and that's reasonable, if you're a fan of the show). Yes, I'll have to pay if I want to see the movie in the theater, but that's paying the theater, which has its own bills to take care of (and will feed me delicious popcorn).
Life is not a zero-sum game. Kickstarter is not a zero-sum game. The money I am willing to shake out of the couch cushions for Veronica Mars is not the money I am willing to shake out of the couch cushions for anything else. Living in a capitalistic society means I get to pay for what I want, and saying that it was tacky of Rob to even ask, when there was no better funding channel available, is missing the point.
You do not have to want what I want. No one does. But just like I don't get to say "the things you want are worthless and not worth wanting, come want this other thing instead," nobody gets to make that statement to me. And there is nothing that makes "I want two million dollars to make a movie of a TV show that the network canceled, that the studio won't fund, but that the fans adore" any more or less legitimate of a request than anything else. And "Well, what if the studios start holding your shows hostage?" doesn't scare me. I've been waiting to be able to pay for the things I love, to count directly with my dollars, not just as a shadow of a Nielsen household, for a long time.
It's not a zero-sum game. But it's a good one.
March 14 2013, 16:19:29 UTC 4 years ago
However, my issue with the kickstarter is not that the money could have gone to other projects. People clearly love the show and are expressing their love by spending money on it. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, because worth is an aspect of personal value.
My issue has to do with Warner Bros. and the fact that they have billions of dollars to spend and could have easily have spent 2 million on the movie instead of making Rob go through kickstarter to accomplish it. But that's a small quibble for me, because THERE'S GOING TO BE A VERONICA MARS MOVIE, which is really the important thing.
March 14 2013, 16:28:56 UTC 4 years ago
Which for me, is why it's so damn wonderful that it funded so quickly.
March 14 2013, 16:34:48 UTC 4 years ago
And really, I'm just happy it's getting made.
March 14 2013, 16:49:24 UTC 4 years ago
Veronica Mars was cancelled because the ratings weren't there, and because the fandom was not able to say "LOOK I HAVE MONEY TAKE IT." This is a mechanism for showing that actually, we want it, and we want it badly enough to help it happen. I can kinda understand why Warner Bros. wouldn't want to take the risk inherent in traditional funding, and what we've just done is prove that while we may not be gorillas, we're capable of banding together until we look like one.
March 14 2013, 17:25:14 UTC 4 years ago
March 14 2013, 20:26:04 UTC 4 years ago
March 14 2013, 22:12:34 UTC 4 years ago
March 15 2013, 16:00:07 UTC 4 years ago
The movie publishing model is "most movies lose money, a subset break even, and a small percentage become blockbusters that pay for everything else". Bernie Brilstein's book "Where did I go right?" is still the behind the scenes account of the business I've seen.
March 15 2013, 16:29:59 UTC 4 years ago
"Where did I go right?" is the book to read, huh. I'll pick it up.
March 21 2013, 22:26:42 UTC 4 years ago Edited: March 21 2013, 22:27:25 UTC
I said, jumping in several days after the fact, 'cause somebody just pointed me at Seanan's mention of the VM Kickstarter. :)
(eta: Oh. I see somebody already said that. That'll teach me to read all the comments before commenting myself. *blush*)
March 21 2013, 22:57:27 UTC 4 years ago
March 14 2013, 18:06:18 UTC 4 years ago
So far as I've read here, Warner Brothers hasn't said they'll contribute a dime to the project. They just happen to be the entity that owns the rights to the property. What they said was "If you can raise the money to make a film...we'll let you."
Which, it might be noted, they don't have to do. They didn't *make* Thomas resort to Kickstarter. They allowed him to take a property they own and pitch it to the public in a way that might raise the fund for it and allow it to happen, rather that just saying "We don't see any reason to move forward with that project. Thanks for calling."
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March 14 2013, 20:30:14 UTC 4 years ago
Yeah, that's my concern, too. Though, like you also said, it's up to the backers to research on who they're spending their money on, which is a good thing to do for any project. Just because it's "grassroots" doesn't mean it's legit.
March 15 2013, 16:45:52 UTC 4 years ago
Not that I'm bitter about the indie-writer's project that is STILL BEING DEVELOPED after OVER TWO YEARS but it will be ready soon OMG really no really, we're just giving you more material than we promised...someday....
:P
March 14 2013, 22:13:47 UTC 4 years ago
As it stood a week ago, WB had no reason to think VM even mattered at all. Dead series, off the air for years, no significant revenue... like any other dead IP.
In order to spend money on a project, they need some evidence that it will pay off. They had none.
Now, there are a few significant things going on here that are not surface-obvious. First off is that the movie is not "being done" by WB. It's being done by Rob, and WB is just the distributor. They have to be involved, because they own the Veronica Mars IP Rob approached them and said "If I fund a movie without any money from you, and have you distribute it, can I use the IP?" and they went "Dude, free money for us? Deal!" because it is free money for them, they assume zero risk.
Second is that while people go "oooo, 2 million!" that's chump change. For that much money, you're making a higher quality of indie film, at best. I can pretty much guarantee the principal cast will be working for peanuts.
1-2 million dollars is the average budget for a single episode of a primetime TV show. An average hollywood movie (not necessarily a CGI laden blockbuster) has a budget exceeding $100mil, with some estimates up to $140mil on average. Even ten years ago, when budgets were much smaller, $50mil was pretty common. So this is running on an absolute shoestring budget.
March 14 2013, 22:51:33 UTC 4 years ago