Kickstarter, losing it to hollywood?

In lieu of a picture tonight I decided to write about something I see going on that’s troubling.

Kevin James just turned down Kickstarter.  “We nearly Kickstarted the budget back in November,” he said. “But now I’m feeling like that’s not fair to real indie filmmakers who need the help. Unlike back when I made Clerks in ’91, I’ve got access to money now — so I should use that money and not suck any loot out of the crowd-funding marketplace that might otherwise go to some first-timer who can really use it.”

When it first started, Kickstarter was for the independent artists who would never have gotten funded by the big corporations. But ever since veronica mars threw a project on there and made way more than what they were asking for, the celebrities have been drooling.

It’s a very simple idea, and I loved it. You have an idea, you have no money, no name, no way to get it off the ground. All you have is passion, drive, and determination. Well guess what here’s a site full of people like you who will help and receive help and it can be one big community of artists doing great things! Of course until celebrities get involved. See they have something, several things, that independent artists just don’t have. But the main thing is a name.

Bear with me a moment while I explain exactly why this is going to destroy Kickstarter for the people it was meant for.

Crowd-Sourcing, that’s what its called. You are attempting to get a bunch of people you don’t know to donate to something you are throwing your all into. The first trick is to get people to FIND your listing. This is hard enough without people searching for famous celebrities listings. If you don’t get picked as a staff favorite you pretty much have no chance. Even IF they find it AND like your video and your project getting them to believe you will finish it is yet ANOTHER obstacle. With celebrity comes a name that people feel they can hold accountable.

People like to donate to things other’s have donated to because they figure if they like it maybe its good. However the floodgates have now been opened for people to say “who is this guy? That’s not Zach Braff nope not donating.”

What’s worse is this could scare people away from posting things because they know they don’t have that name recognition that others have. The co-founder of Kickstarter Yancey Strickler spoke on this earlier.

“The thing is, if Michael Bay came along and wanted to do a Kickstarter we’d probably tell him, please don’t,” Strickler said at the time. “I would never want to scare the girl who wants to do a $500 lithography project, ’cause that’s why we started this thing. We think we have a moral obligation to her.”

Very well put, however I feel that Kickstarter will become commercialized and over run by celebs who could easily fund their projects themselves or with a studio’s green light but will whine about having to have their character drink Coke instead of Pepsi, or don’t want to put in the energy to argue down a studio on small issues like that. Pretty much it will begin to be dominated by people who don’t need our money but as shown previously in human history, we will continue to give it to them.

I had a Kickstarter that failed for several reasons one being advertisement and placement. I’ll be listing it again utilizing a different marketing strategy, I still remain hopeful for this site. It has amazing potential. I’d just hate to have to re-list my project next to George Clooney and Denzel Washington’s projects.

Thanks for reading

Sincerely,

Wiseguy Industries

The Cowardice of Hollywood

Yep, that’s right I said it. I’ll say it again! Cowards! All of you! You have forsaken us, you turned from the path that we followed you so blindly down into a cul-de-sac of repetitiveness and mediocrity. Where are the original films? Why on earth would you remake Total Recall? Were you trying to ride off the “success” of Arnold’s similarly titled autobiography? No that can’t be it because you’ve also remade Judge Dredd and Spiderman. You just made Spiderman! There are fifty remakes coming out yes that is correct fifty. Come on Hollywood this isn’t what we need to see.

Ok I fully understand that this is a money-making industry, at the end of the day it is far easier to green light something that already has people who love it than to green light something that nobodies ever heard of. But this is not why we love you Hollywood. We love you because you gave us films like the godfather, strangers on a train, west side story, terminator, Singing in the rain, and do the right thing. Do you see the diversity of those films? This is what we came to expect from you but you tricked us. You got us in there, you saw the profitability of films like these and thrown away the full artistic qualities needed to produce such. Primarily you have discarded creativity for easy profits. But what you have forgotten is that the newer the creativity the more long-term profits. Star wars is a perfect example of this. While the idea of an epic is not new, the ideas behind it were some of the most creative ideas ever to grace the big screen. To this day there are new star wars fans being born every day and it is one of the most profitable movies ever made.

I remember when I used to read the list of new movies coming out in the theaters and actually have to read the review to know about what was going on. Now I just look at the list and its “i saw that when i was five, saw that when i was six, what that just came out last year they’re remaking it already?”

But you know what? It’s our fault, the audience, the movie-goers, we are to blame. We’ve allowed you to comfortably slip into mediocrity like a warm security blanket, hit that snooze button and miss class. When really its time for us to yank that cover off you and kick you out the door. We’ve gone to remake after remake but I can only hope that the flop of Total Recall will usher in an era of productivity in the creativity department.

Hollywood its time to stand up, get back on the right track, get back to being that creative, amazing, unpredictable force that you once were. Let some new people in the doors, at the end of the day I’ve seen more creative stuff on youtube than from Tinsel Town. Don’t get me wrong Hollywood, I still love you and hope to be counted among your illustrious members one day, but I hope by that time you have gotten back on the right path.

Sincerely yours,

A man named B

Wiseguy Industries