Zach Braff Responds to Kickstarter Critics [video]

[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.

[learningram]

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

[nhangen]

Because most people actually received a game at the end.

[plnewman]

There were complaints/questions about Richard Garriott's project, but none as high-profile as this current criticism of Zach Braff.

[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.

[larrydag]

I think it is about making money but you are right about connecting with fans. Its an added layer above the funding.

[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.

[illuminate]

I think you've confused Kickstarter for Twitter.

[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).

[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.

[caf]

This big movie from Zach Braff is an indie project. This isn't just semantics - the whole point of it is that Braff wants to maintain creative control, which requires being independent of the major studios.

[k-mcgrady]

This is a good thing. People are constantly telling the big media companies, musicians, film studios etc. that they need a new business model - maybe this is it.

[troygoode]

if Kickstarter pivots (purposefully or not) to support brand name / BigCo projects, that'll just open up a market for someone else to come in as Kickstarter Classic.

[adregan]

I don't think you have to worry about shifts in crowds because when I started visiting kickstarter, I was funding art shows for painters and strange performance art. I still mostly fund small ( < 2000 dollar) art projects regardless of the fact that kickstarter is full of consumer products and iphone accessories.

[nsxwolf]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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