Millionaires (Zach Braff etc) raising money on Kickstarter - your view?

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IndiePaul

I got an end of year email from Kickstarter praising some big hitting projects that got funded via it. One was Zach Braff's $3.1 million raising Wish I Was Here.

Kickstarter: Zach Braff's - Wish I Was Here
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1869987317/wish-i-was-here-1?ref=live

Some net worth sites claim Braff is worth over twenty million.

http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/celeb/zach-braff-net-worth/
http://celebsnetworth.net/zach-braff-net-worth/

He has faced a somewhat muted backlash and claimed that he was rich but not that rich. Yet Entertainment Weekly reported in 2007 that he made $350,000 an episode in Scrubs (which ran from 2001 to 2010) so I would not be surprised if the $20 million plus is about right.

The Veronica Mars Kickstarter project raised $5.7 million from a $2 million goal

Kickstarter: The Veronica Mars
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project?ref=live

At least that was for a fan movie, and the Veronica Mars fans had been pleading for years for more Veronica.

The Zach Braff Kickstarter really presses my buttons. I still remember an episode of Punk'd were he lost it big time with some teenager - was screaming at him that he would sue his dad, his dad would be ruined, did you know who he was, was using the f-word with the kid etc - all to some 13-15 year old kid who damaged Zach's car (he bumped it or something when he took the handbrake off his dad's car)... I thought that pretty much showed the true personality of the man.

Tried to find that Punk'd episode on youtube to link for you all but couldn't. Interesting in itself.

Like me, most of us here have sunk many thousands of our own and very hard earned $$$$ into our passion, film making.

How do other IT'ers feel?
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well his money was earned from people paying him, he raised money from people paying him, i dont see the difference so it doesnt really matter does it?

you still need to be paid to make something, he earned it somehow.
 
You spend your own money to get your education - low/no/mini/micro budget films made by indie filmmakers.

When you build a large business you have your reputation (name) and experience, and you provide some seed capital yourself, but look for outside investors to provide the bulk of the funds needed.




Some net worth sites claim Braff is worth over twenty million.
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One was Zach Braff's $3.1 million raising "Wish I Was Here."
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How many of you have put 10% or 15% of your entire personal wealth into your project? He's following the tried and true dictum of "don't invest you own money, invest the money of others." All he's doing is capitalizing upon his name, and many will want the vicarious "thrill" of being able to say that they financed a Zach Braff (or other celebrities) film, or of gaining I don't know what.
 
Not to mention, Kickstarter isn't a place where people give you free money (except for the lowest donations, in most occasions.)

The people pledging money are, in a sense, just buying a product really really early.

At $10 you get a production diary (not exactly the coolest thing, but hey, it's the lowest pledge)

At $20 you get to listen to the soundtrack early (again, not too big a deal, but some people might like that.... but you also get the production diary)

At $30 you get to see the movie early. (now that's a cool deal, especially considering you also get the lower end rewards)


These are just the first three pledges, there's still more after that, but I feel I've made my point. So, a Kickstarter account basically sets up an online store where you sell a product early, in exchange for money to make that product. It's actually pretty good business.
 
Don't ever make a movie with your own money.

The issue I had with Braff's Kickstarter project is that he could have easily gotten his film funded with traditional investors. But that would have meant giving up a percentage of the profits, though his selling point was 'losing creative control' (which, in itself I take issue with). There's a thread on this from much earlier in the year and I expressed the points of:

Kickstarter backers are not investors and as such will see no profit from the film. This means all the profit that would otherwise have gone to investors, will now all go to Braff himself. As well, keeping all 'creative control' means that if he makes an absolute piece of crap film, it really doesn't matter. With traditional investors, it's bad if the film doesn't at least make it's money back, and studios/investors will often suggest changes to ensure the film does make money.

With Kickstarter, he could go and make another The Room and there would be no repercussion. He wouldn't be out a single dime. And his Kickstarter backers could do nothing except kick themselves.

I have no issue with the Veronica Mars project, as there was no other way the film was going to get made (and it proved that there certainly still was a fan base that would go see it). With Braff's movie, the KS campaign seemed borne more from his own greed than anything.
 
jax_rox said:
Don't ever make a movie with your own money.

With Kickstarter, he could go and make another The Room and there would be no repercussion. He wouldn't be out a single dime. And his Kickstarter backers could do nothing except kick themselves.
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Jumping off of this point, I think I remember reading a certain article at the time of the Veronica Mars, Zach Braff and Spike Lee Kickstarter tsumani. This article predicted that one of the big problems that these high profile Kickstarter campaigns are going to face in the future is simply: "Like many other high dollar Kickstarter projects in other categories, one of these film projects is not going to get made, and it will cause a mini scandal."

Movies at the level of Braff, Lee and the Veronica Mars series run into all sorts of problems, just like low budget films. Actors' schedules change frequently, gap financing gets tied up... people go into rehab. I could easily see a scenario where the Veronica Mars movie hits hurdles with Warner Bros and it stretches into years of delays and the eventual abandonment of the project. Then what will become of the money everybody invested? The people who gave 1-100 dollars might not be so upset, but those who really put in a lot to get some of those hight tiered rewards, might get pretty pissed.

However, it is not that smaller Kickstarter projects don't end up like this as well. I've given to a lot of Indiegogo and Kickstarter projects, and most all of them seem to complete. But occasionally there is the musician who had a great appeal and good songs and was looking to record his or her first album. They successfully raised 12K and then pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth with no updates about the album in over 18 months. It doesn't diminish my feelings towards Kickstarter of crowdfunding though.

In fact, I think most studies about crowdfunding indicate that backers don't really get upset when something doesn't come to pass as long as the project heads seem to have tried their best and communicated along the way. Even when the creators don't come through on some projects, and seem to just take the money and run, it seems it doesn't affect backers inclination to donate to another project in the future.

BTW: We're starting our crowdfunding campaign this week! :)
 
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Dreadylocks said:
I posted my thoughts in that older thread while his campaign was still going on. Reading back on it, I still feel the exact same way.

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?p=47722#post319160
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That link took me to 'Best Scheduling software?' in the Premiere Lounge.

Lots of interesting points from fellow ITers ^.

In relation to Braff's approximated net wealth in various websites, he could have funded (he was seeking two million) the movie himself with 10% or so of his net wealth. Leaving a cool $18 million or so left for himself.

I get that funders got various rewards, which is great. And yeah if you are a huge Braff fan that contribute away. I have to say the Veronica Mars rewards were hyper cool, personal message for your voicemail from a member of the cast, including Veronica herself. If you were a fan, that would be one super cool reward.

But Braff and his twenty million+. That's serious wealth. He could easily have funded the project himself.

I guess I still can't get over how he treated that kid in that episode of Punk'd - I'm going to sue your dad, he's gonna be ruined etc...

But multi-millionaires raising money on KS, fundamentally presses my buttons.

And as someone said, any profits will go to Braff.

At least the $3.1 million he raised will largely go back into the industry, and wherever they decide to shot will get a large chunk of that change.
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