I like Zach Braffs work- I enjoy Scrubs (the first run of course not that just plain weird comeback) even though I accept that its by all means terrible (I refuse to see that as a downside) and I thought Garden State was a good movie.
Scrubs – The Five of Comedy TV. I like Five though.
This is Five if your music taste isn’t as awesome as mine. (Yes, I know its not Five- that’s the joke.)
They were terrible by all means but also great.
I think Braff’s new movie sounds crap though, like, jesus, I expect it to suck. If there’s a Coldplay track on the soundtrack like last time then that will be the only warning sign I’ll need to stay away from it. The reason it didn’t put me off with Garden State is because Natalie Portman was in that and her awesomeness makes up for like five Coldplay songs. All of this is irrelevant anyway- my thoughts on the campaign are entirely separate from my thoughts on Braff or his work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCTcJB5mg_E
Your mother’s vagina.
I’m not going to post a picture of Coldplay because if you don’t know who they are I suggest you keep it that way and also CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY.
Now since you are reading this you either have an interest in this topic or a general interest in what I say (if its the latter then go outside or something). Either way, its worth knowing a bit about the topic before reading this as I’ve been following events and so you should be up to date too. I cannot be bothered describing it all here- this is just for my thoughts on it but I shall provide the necessary links:
The project page: (I don’t know if these pages close after the 30 days so the link may be dead depending on how old this blog post is)
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1869987317/wish-i-was-here-1
Braff’s twitter where he frequently provides info about the project:
Where to find criticism of either Braff as a person, his work, or the project:
http://mostoftheinternet.com/ (That’s a joke with another joke when you click the link- so much bad comedy up in here.)
Braff’s response to criticism along with more information:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?client=mv-google&gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=j1LY3C0Rbr8&nomobile=1
How complicated and unclear Kickstarters like this one get:
Kickstarter’s response to the criticism over Braff’s campaign:
http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/who-is-kickstarter-for
Proof that you have to be a current celebrity to get fuckin’ anywhere when you ask for 2 million: (Mellisa Joan Hart’s Kickstarter)
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/318676760/darcis-walk-of-shame
Info about Amanda Palmer’s (@amandapalmer) Kickstarter which also received a shit-load of criticism and raised lots of complex issues- its a good article and the case shares much of the same issues as Braff’s: (If you want my thoughts on Palmer’s Kickstarter then leave a comment but it was so long ago that I won’t bother otherwise).
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/10/amanda-palmers-kickstarter-scandal.html
That was a lot of linkage so to make up for it here is a reminder of the greatness of Mandy Patinkin (who is signed up for Braff’s new movie by the way- it still sounds shit though.):
That movie genuinely, to this day, can bring me to tears.
Right, with all of that out of the way- I no longer support Zach Braff’s Kickstarter campaign.
I never supported it financially (fuck that) nor was I enthusiastic about it in general but I wasn’t opposed to it at first- I certainly wasn’t one of the many haters. I changed my mind about it today and we’ll get to why but first- I was fine with it for the same reason that I like Kickstarter- it isn’t charity.
Much of the (quite funny) Braff jokes recently revolve around how rich he is and how he is essentially begging for money – “Hey guys I just found twenty dollars. Does ZachBraff need anymore money? I hope he’s ok now. =(” (@jamiekilstein) etc.
This revolves around the idea that Kickstarter is a form of charity for those with a creative idea who cannot fund it. This definitely is a big part of it but its worth remembering that backers/funders of campaigns get something from it too. Funding a project doesn’t need to be a good deed- you can get all kinds of stuff if you back something.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1798121016/american-psycho
That’s the American psycho musical campaign which I wanted to back (I’m just way too poor). I love the film and I’ve had the book lying in my house for ages and I’m finally planning to read it ASAP but I don’t really like the campaign so much- I won’t be at the performance of the musical and I didn’t like the sample-song on the page. I still wanted to back it though, not through support of the idea but for what I’d get if I backed- I planned to go with one of the t-shirts and the business card USB which is badass. My support for elements of the project (the American psycho part) meant that what was on offer if I backed was worth paying for. This is how, I believe most people think about Kickstarter.
Zach Braff’s new movie will sound terrible to those who do not like him and thus the idea of giving it money in anyway is batshit crazy. To those who either like him or like the idea of the movie though, attending an advance screening with a Q&A with Braff at the end, getting a copy of the script along with a t-shirt, production diary, weekly playlists, art prints and “a sneak peak of the soundtrack” for $100 is a bargain and so for them, funding the movie isn’t about being charitable to a celebrity that you like (I’m with the haters when it comes to that kind of thinking) but its about paying money and receiving something that you consider to be worth said money- that is something each of us does everyday and I have no problem with it. If I wanted to buy a CD would someone tell me I’m a fuckin’ idiot who is wasting their money if they didn’t like the band/artist involved? They might do that but they’d be a prick for doing so. (I’d probably do it.) The CD may indeed be lame but if it appeals to me then it is worthwhile to me and Kickstarter campaigns are worthwhile to those to back them. Braff’s campaign actually has went to a lot of effort to make sure that that is the case and I do think that has played a big part in raising the money.
Even though I don’t think most people back campaigns like Braff’s solely for the celebrity factor involved, it has to play a part- there’s no fuckin’ way some random guy would raise 1/10th of what Braff has raised, if anything at all, if he were to make the exact same pitch for the exact same movie. Braff and the like are thus benefiting from their status and this is just unfair on the others who use Kickstarter. I’d agree that this is the case but it’s also an overly-simplistic way of viewing the situation. As Kickstarter themselves noted: campaigns like Braff’s lead to more people finding the site and thus backing lots of other projects. Braff’s campaign then is actually good for everyone. I’m sceptical about this argument though- Kickstarer obviously have financial incentives from the commission they receive to argue that celebrity campaigns are good. There is some truth to it though- I’ve saw that many new people have started backing campaigns thanks for Braff’s one and some very small and non-celebrity projects have benefited from it.
As Braff said himself- it’s not like people are choosing his project over someone else’s- someone who isn’t famous. Its more a case of the person having not heard of Kickstarter and getting into it thanks to big campaigns like his. Its hard to complain about that really.
So with the idea of charity out the way along with the idea of celebrity beating down on the average person what’s left is the stuff that I think bothers people the most. First- why doesn’t Braff and the other rich Kickstarter users pay for their own damn project instead of asking others to? And secondly, if they are going into it to make something, that something will make money and yet the backers won’t get any of the profit- that’s a rip-off from the get go.
I generally agree with these points and that’s why I’d be hesitant to support something like Braff’s campaign even if I were to be totally into the pitch and whatever. He is funding some of the film himself- I don’t think an exact amount has been stated but it’s around the two mill. mark going by my shit maths and tid-bits of info about everything. Now I don’t know how much money he has but I’m fairly confident he could afford to fund the whole thing and if he can’t he should just fuckin’ say that but it certainly looks like he won’t even be funding the majority of it. That definitely bothers me and he can justify it how he likes but that’s the reason for me wishing he hadn’t started the campaign. His main point for using Kickstarter was so that he could retain full-control over the process, he mentioned specific things that would be missing from the film- Jim Parsons for instance but these were clearly hypothetical- I’m certain no good film company would have an issue with someone like Jim Parsons being in a movie, regardless of the role he’d play. Surely that would only increase the chance of the film’s success?
“Bow down before me.”
The only other reason he states is that he wants “final cut”. I understand that but, again, I doubt that there is no company out there that wouldn’t fund the film and pretty much give him full creative control considering how successful Garden State was. The final cut thing feels like a bit of a technicality to me- the greatest directors/producers/screenwriters/etc. work or have worked at some point on productions where they have had to compromise on things- it’s a part of the business and if they can be 100% happy with something under a companies’ backing then Braff should accept that and make a movie like everyone else who considers themselves successful with films does.
He talks about making a real indie film and something that’s free from top-level interference like that but he simply could never do that- Garden State wasn’t that and nothing he will ever do will be like that. It can’t be because indie films are tiny and there’s nothing tiny about being a successful actor- Garden State had an indie feel and I enjoyed that but it starred Natalie Portman- a massive actress and, while it may not have had company-funding, it benefited a shit-load from having Braff’s name on it. Whether he likes it or not- everything he does is going to be mainstream to an extent and that’s not what indie-films are about.
I understand his wish to not have to compromise though and I see why he’d want to do it all on his own terms. I also see how he’d want his fans involved- these things along with the fact that backers benefit too is why I was okay overall with the campaign. I still don’t think he can justify asking for money like that though and it does bother me.
Rest assured that the statement is entirely made up- It’s part of a series of memes so unused that even KnowYourMeme didn’t include them. (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/zach-braff-facts) The majority of them are quite terrible and, in Braff’s words, unfunny, “crass” and “tasteless” but this one is smarter than that and quite funny I think. View it at face value though and take that hate with you for the next section, it adds dramatic effect!
Now there’s the issue of profit- all the people who’ve backed the project will end up paying for it in the end, literally handing over money to own the finished project. Money that Braff will receive. Why should anyone pay 50 bucks to fund a film and then have to pay more later to own a copy of that film? It’s unfair. In a bigger sense, this kind of thing is an example of bourgeois exploitation of the masses through deceitful and monopolistic means.
Here’s a picture of my Marx sex doll.
Braff addressed this issue stating that it simply is against the rules and that it could lead to large companies dominating Kickstarter for profit and stopping your average individual from benefiting. I agree with this but its still bullshit to have someone else pay for something and then make them pay for it again. The only real solution is to give the end product away for free- that way those who helped make it can access it but they also have also helped in making it available to everyone plus they received whatever incentive was on offer when they backed the project. When Amanda Palmer did her Kickstarter the situation was very different- she had been, and still is, an advocate of making her music available either for free, for a very low price (usually just a dollar for a whole album) or a pay-what-you-want kind of thing. This meant that one of the main things the project was about would be available to the backers and everyone else without them paying out again- that works. I got the album for free as I hadn’t really heard her stuff before so the Kickstarter backers made that possible and I thank them for that. I did pay a dollar for Palmer’s Radiohead covers EP though so I’m clearly totally valuing her music. (Fuck, I am the cheapest prick on Earth.)
Umm… I think you’re okay and everything, um, thanks I guess? Here’s a dollar
for being a Radiohead fan.
Braff’s situation isn’t like that though and I think it never could be- no film intended for cinematic release, etc. could be free for everyone, it’d be far more costly than making digital versions of an album free- you could make a digital version of the movie and make that free but then no-one would but the DVDs- with music there’s the same issue but the risk is smaller- making an album is cheaper than making a movie and the free-music format can work.
In Rainbows was free and one of my top-five albums of all time, I’d happily have paid my manhood for that album had I known it’d be so fuckin’ good. Radiohead charged for the next album though which I think is the problem that whoever made this picture had. The boxset for 40 quid was pretty good so I dunno what the problem is but yeah, the next album was priced fairly plus they released it early and I can’t tell you how good it felt to know that I was hearing the music before any music critic, etc.
Fuck, I’ve went off on some tangents in this one. Right, I’ve explained my thoughts on the Kickstarter and why I was originally hesitant but generally fine with it at first. The change came today when I read about how Braff has received six to seven million dollars from a film company to fund the movie. The movie that he harked on about not being funded by a company, is in large being funded by a company. Now this would be fuckin’ bullshit straight out but actually it’s not as simple as that either (seriously, nothing is simple with this Kickstarter business). It has since been revealed that it’s gap financing i.e. a loan from the company as opposed to them actually funding it- its very different in film-terms and not quite the same betrayal.
It’s still not right though- Braff stated that the project would be funded in three-ways- by him, by Kickstarter and by foreign sales. This serious-corporate involvement was not discussed and when you take 2-and-a-half million (and counting) from people, you should be perfectly clear on what’s going to happen. This lack of transparency isn’t my biggest issue though, I’m worried something much more deceitful is at play.
Guess what- getting 6/7 million dollars of gap funding is not easy and lets assume that Braff got that and kept his “final cut” that matters so much to him. Could he have got something like that without the Kickstarter campaign? Had he tried to and failed and thus resorted to using Kickstarter for something other than the money? He stated that an “ass-ton” of his own money will go into the project- that may be more than the 2 mill I predicted earlier. Basically, did he use 2 million of other people’s money as leverage in getting a 6/7 million deal without ever stating that that was his intention?
I don’t know the answers to those questions but I’m worried that I wouldn’t like them if I did- Braff stated that the film’s budget would be 5-6 million- that’s what led to me figuring he’d pay about two mill of his own money but that’s less than the gap financing (6-7) so the Kickstarter money isn’t even needed now. He needed it for something though and its entirely possible that the 2 mill along with the shit-load of publicity (bad publicity is good publicity remember- unless you’re a rape apologist/nazi/etc.- then it’s just always bad.) so what if he got his gap financing because he used Kickstarter to convince the film company that the film would do well? Again, I can’t be sure of that but its all became too uncertain and morally questionable. This lack of clarity combined with the other issues I’ve mentioned make it damn-near impossible to support the project. I like Braff as a guy and I don’t think he is any of the negative things that he has been called recently- I think he will make it worthwhile for all of the backers and that’s why I could live with it at first but now there’s bigger forces at play- ones that suggest that a ton of people have been, maybe not scammed or tricked, but certainly not told the complete truth when they’ve handed over their money to someone who already has a ton of it. Financing is a tricky issue and he was always gonna need it for distribution etc. – it would never be solely Kickstarter and himself but this new deal is another thing. If he had started the campaign with the gap funding already in place then things would be different but he didn’t and I think that’s because he couldn’t- he needed the Kickstarter for far more than he claimed to and it looks to have a bare-faced lie simply to receive outside funding so that he could make a film and make a shitload of money from it. I’m going to give this some time an see what happens- he hasn’t posted a defence to the gap funding yet and hopefully he will and hopefully it’ll be good and I will update this post accordingly. Until then though, I am disappointed and angry with Braff and his Kickstarter campaign.
“I think that would be in bad taste for all the people who are backing this. It wouldn’t be in the spirit of the thing.” is what Braff said when asked about whether he would accept funding from investors originally opposed to the project who changed their minds and wanted to support it. This looks to be exactly what he has done and indeed it is in bad taste- I shouldn’t have to use his own words against him but for the moment he leaves me no choice.
I await some more information so that I can update my blog and acknowledge that my concerns were fuckin’ stupid but until then I’ll assume I’m right and take the moral high-ground and shit:
“Hell, there are no rules here – we’re trying to accomplish something.” – Thomas A. Edison
That’s the quotation at the top of Braff’s Kickstarter page. Thomas Edison, a blatant fuckin’ thief and an all-round lying prick. (http://www.cracked.com/article_16072_5-famous-inventors-who-stole-their-big-idea.html) Should we add another to that list?
Now that one hurt.
Manic Website Preacher 