Kickstarting a Fire

By Stephen Knoll on April 25, 2013

Starting a small business or passion project is hard, like really really hard. I tried to and funded it myself and well it’s going nowhere and that’s being generous. Being self-funded and in college that means I don’t have the resources available to actually create the things I need to run a company like the one I want, I won’t get into what it is because that’s beside the point. I tried to start mine before I knew what this marvelous thing called Kickstarter was. Now, if you haven’t heard of it, it’s in its most basic sense a crowd-sourcing agent for funding projects. What kind of projects? Well anything ranging from books or movies to a Robocop statue in Detroit (seriously…that’s a project…that met it’s goal…plus an extra SEVENTEEN THOUSAND FOR A ROBOCOP STATUE). This sounds like a bunch of crazy stuff right? Why would people voluntarily toss money at folks for projects that might not even work? Because incentives. People love incentives lets face it, backers are offered different prizes for different levels of commitment, obviously more money means more things. Now, unlike other funding sites Kickstarter doesn’t charge you unless the goal is met. I’ve funded a few things, some work, some didn’t, and I mostly support bands I like funding their CDs/EPs because that stuff is expensive. And I got some sweet stuff out of the last one (autographed EP, shirt, poster, handwritten song lyrics with meaning to song, signed tour pass, it was awesome).

The reason I’m writing about something you most likely know about is because recently it’s caused quite a stir. As I stated this is a site that’s great for modest-means people like myself to start something they love. So if you’re a celebrity stay away right? They have enough money to do their own things, why should we help? Well, even with millions of dollars, if you were given the chance to not pay as much wouldn’t you? A $3 sandwich is pretty cheap, but if you find the same one for $1 which would you buy? Exactly, it’s not being greedy, it’s being smart. Well, when Zach Braff, Garden State and Scrubs star, started his own Kickstarter campaign for his new movie

project there was a bit of a backlash. And he received this because of all the reasons I listed above. Most people know who he is and can assume he’s not exactly struggling. So why fund him? Because making movies is extremely expensive and funding one covers so much more things than the average person realizes. There’s casting, directing, producers, set design, wardrobe design, post-production, marketing, advertising, distribution, etc. Yeah, that’s a lot of stuff. Not that I particularly care for this movie premise or funding it, I’m interested why so many people would be upset by it. The thing you have to realize about Kickstarter is that it’s opt-in meaning you are not required to give him money. So, America could’ve banded together and given Braff a metaphorical middle finger and not sent him a dime. The result? Braff funds the movie himself taking a huge financial risk. Because that’s the other part of making movies, it’s a huge risk taking endeavor. Let’s say you make a $400M movie and overall revenue ends up being only $102M, well congratulations you just lost $208M that’s not coming back. So a Kickstarter campaign helps defray some of those costs, which is helpful for actors like Braff who are famous enough to get the funding, but don’t make $200M off every single appearance on anything. Back to the topic though, this is opt-in, and so far his project is over half-funded. Obviously the idea wasn’t as stupid as people thought. People also seem to ignore that Kristen Bell recently completed a campaign for a “Veronica Mars” movie and she’s pretty much in the same boat as Braff, famous enough but not rich enough.

So the evil of Zach Braff making a Kickstarter campaign? None, because this is an opt-in service for fans of Braff and company. The campaign can be found here. He lays out in pretty great detail his plans for this movie and covers a wide range of issues that might come up. All in all, I don’t understand where all the fuss started when he started this campaign but he has my moral support. If only Turk were in it.