There was a little “controversy” over at Huffington Post about whether or not a star like Zach Braff should be able to use Kickstarter to raise money for his films (he just raised $2,300,000.)
Especially since he has so many “Hollywood” connections. Should he really have access to the same platform many starving indies count on to get by?
Yes, he should.
First of all, Zach Braff is not Brad Pitt. It’s silly to assume “Hollywood” will just write him a check to do whatever he wants.
Think about it: you’re a studio and want a guaranteed return on your investment. Are you thinking, “Hey, let’s make a Zach Braff project?” (No offense Zach, we here at Joke Productions think you’re awesome.)
(And by the way, even big stars have trouble getting passion projects made. Rumor has it Sandra Bullock only did Speed 2 so the studio would let her make Hope Floats.)
Secondly, just because you’re a star doesn’t mean you have loads of cash. It’s been while since Scrubs.
Even if Zach is rolling in dough, should he risk his cash to make a project?
Maybe, to a point (by the way, my guess is he will put his own money in at some point.) But when all is said and done, he’ll have to sell his movie to someone if he has any hope of recouping his costs. Why not let his audience”pay in advance” via Kickstarter and alleviate some pressure?
Finally, if he’d gone to a traditional source for funding, he’d probably compromising some of his artistic vision from the outset. Their money, their rules…at least a little bit. Zach also says as much on his kickstarter page.
So why not go the Kicksatarter route, and, as filmmaker David Baker pointed out on Twitter, cut out the middle man:
@jokeandbiagio Anything that can make direct to fan the norm to the mainstream, I have no complaint’s with. And of course as you know
— CITY OF SIN WORLD (@davidpbaker) May 1, 2013
@jokeandbiagio its not just the money raising, its the direct fan gathering. marketers. Good to catch up with you guys too. Hope you
— CITY OF SIN WORLD (@davidpbaker) May 1, 2013
David also points out that the attention Kickstarter is now getting thanks to Zach Braff should only help those of us who want to create our own Kickstarter projects.
Having used Kickstarter ourselves to take our film Dying to do Letterman to DocuWeeks, I can tell you we felt no shame asking for support from all of you (and thanks for giving it!)
We’d put much of our own money into the film (far more than we raised on Kickstarter.) Even though we make a lot of TV for a living (and do okay) there’s only so far you can safely (and wisely) go in funding your own project.
As a final point, given Steven Soderbergh’s recent State of Cinema address (covered wonderfully over at No Film School) it’s getting nearly impossible for anything but big tentpole movies to get made under Hollywood’s aging megaplex model.
So Zach Braff, please continue to use Kickstarter to make cool projects. That’s my take.
What do you think?