Geek Syndicate
them, I mean. I’m all for playing them. Thought so. In February a project to make a movie from cult hit Veronica Mars made it’s $2million funding level in less than twenty-four hours. This for a show that never got stellar ratings and went off the air years ago. Ah, the new Kickstarter Gold Rush. Seems so. Expect a flood of similar projects and a lot of Firefly fans getting excited and disappointed in an endless feedback loop, because Joss Whedon is just too busy. I should do that then. Firefly, Movie 2 Kickstarter. I’d make a fortune. I think it’s more complex than just saying you’ll make it happen. The Veronica Mars people made sure they had the studio on board, a script, and the main actors before getting started on it, and the whole thing raises a few questions about this sort of funding model. Like who keeps the money? Exactly. If the Veronica Mars movie goes on to be a sleeper hit, then the studio will get to keep all of that, not the backers. But the backers get what they paid for - and they get to help make a movie get made. That’s certainly true, but its a valid concern around the funding model. Kickstarter doesn’t seem designed to be a revenue sharing system; its a funding system, a way of getting things you want to exist to happen, not a model for return-on-investment. And there is more to it than big money games and TV shows. Doesn’t sound like it. OK, a good and somewhat high-profile example is Anita Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs Women”. This is a series of web shorts analysing and commenting on video games’ use of female characters, is completely free to air (well, free to web) and funding was pretty much just to get a piece of interesting critical analysis made. If you didn’t back it, you still get to watch it, and if you did back it, all you really got was a big thank you a glow of satisfaction. But what if I just want to make some big money? Shush. The “big ide x?'H??X???]\?? H H[[??]\?][???[?[?? H ?[XZ[?? ?YH ?]\? ?x?&\?H [?[??X??]?Y? ??X? ???][ K[Z[[??\??[Y\??H??\???[????H ?\?[??X????? Z\???[][?] H X] ?K?] ? [?\?[YY H ? [\? ???\??N???\^ ?\? H\?[???]?[??\?H ??X? ?X^H ?[ ? ?Y??K?]] ?H?[???? H[?\??]Y?K[?\? ? ?YH??] ??[ ??? ?]?]] ??X?XZ?\?][\?[?[? ?\?H[?\???[?H??? ?^H ??] ?X? ??? [?H ?Y[H ? [???????[XY?H0?H?X???\?\? ? L????X?H?X???\?\??Y[?[?Y???(?H?^XH8?(?HX??H8?(?H?\??X?HX\??H[?YH8?(?H ??X?]\??] H8?(?H ??\? ????Y[???X] ?\????B??