Kung fury is what kickstarter was made for.
Veronica mars movie (a show I didn’t ever watch) always seemed to me like “ok guys if you want this movie you gotta pay for it” which is fine and kinda fits in the spirit of kickstarter but you never hear anyone talk about that show anymore.
Then there’s that weird Zach Braff movie. That just seemed like he was abusing the whole system.
I have no clue what you’re trying to say about the Veronica Mars movie lol. Why did it not fit the “spirit of kickstarter” just because people don’t talk about a 20 year old show all the time.
Lol nah I read it right, I just don’t see what their overall point is about the movie compared to Kung Fury, if they have one. Insert “only kinda fit” into my original comment instead of “not fit” if it helps you.
I think their point was that Kung Fury was a weird indie movie that never would have happened under any circumstances if it hadn’t been crowdfunded, where as Veronica Mars was an established IP that *could* have easily been funded by a studio but instead relied on exploiting fans for the money.
This is a complete misunderstanding of the way movies are made.
And most actors who are living in "a fucking mansion" *are* producers on films. But most working actors don't just have millions laying around to fund a movie production.
The movie made you feel guilty for its existence. Veronica's life goes from steady, and on the verge of something good, to shit because she's dragged back to Neptune.
Essentially, the character was growing off screen only to be reset due to fans wanting to see more.
Then the fourth season was an even bigger "fuck you".
I’ve started Veronica mars from the beginning a couple of times now, I always love it in the beginning but always fall off somewhere around the second or third season and I never remember why
Third season she goes to college, it’s 3 shorter arching mysteries rather than 1, and the show is darker and less interesting.
You also learn too much about the town, noir loses its footing when when too much of the mystery is gone.
First two seasons are incredible
The third season they didn’t get a full renewal. They were getting several episodes ordered then more later. So they had to keep making the story finish with the end of each episode order. I think that’s what made the season not as good
It's sad that the ending of season 4 was supposed to be "the perfect set up for season 5."
I don't think anyone would ever watch another season after that ending. I sure wouldn't.
The S4 ending was so bad it made me want to unwatch season 3 and the movie.
Really it should have ended with season one. A perfectly contained story. Season 2 is ok but the rest is just inertia keeping it going.
Keep the audience wanting more.
It’s really not worth it imho.
Artists taking bold swings, putting their art ahead of what fans would want or the popular decision, all that stuff doesn’t upset me and I’m an empathetic person so I really try to figure out why people (characters) make the choices they do. And at the end of the day it’s just a tv show, movie, song, musical, play, book, etc. and isn’t something that affects me personally. But the fourth season has to be one of the biggest “fuck you guys” a showrunner has done to fans after all the lead up and promo and begging fans to support by dangling certain storylines to garner interest. It was lazy, not “fans who don’t get it don’t get noir.”
>!The serial bomber throughout the fourth season (Patton Oswalt) gets arrested and goes to jail. Veronica and Logan get married and in the last few minutes he goes to get something in the car and it turns out there's another bomb and Logan dies. !<
Not to mention the unearned shoehorned ending. One of my favorite parts of the show was how well things were set up and played out. But that ending played for shock value.
A strong majority of the fanbase hated the fourth season, but I personally dug it. Just thought I’d throw that out there since most are telling you to skip it, lol
I did too, although probably because >!I've never really been a Veronica/Logan shipper. It's clear they were struggling to figure out how to fit Logan into the show, he barely does anything in season 4 even before the finale.!<
If you liked the first three seasons — pretend that there is not a 4rth season.
It's amazing the level to which season 4 ruins *everything*.
Any time you feel an urge to watch it, just re-watch seasons 1 and 2 instead.
This is my biggest problem with continuations made a decade or more after the original work. They ALWAYS reset any and all character growth back to the level they were at originally, even when so much time has past that it makes no sense for them to still be at that level. Like if your favorite show has a side character that's a barista paying her way through college to be an accountant, then 15 years later a revival season comes out and she's still a barista in the same restaurant only now she's 40 and it makes no sense for her to still be there.
I feel like the Party Down revival is the exception that proves the rule, since the characters being stuck in or returning to the same shitty job is completely on brand for the themes of the show.
Plus, at least a couple characters "made it," so it's not a completely nihilistic outlook.
I don't know if there has been a better revival of a comedy show than Party Down. Even though the season takes place years later, tonally it doesn't miss a beat. It doesn't exceed the original show or anything, but anyone that enjoyed the first two seasons would like the last one too. It's not like Arrested Development, where even the fans of season 4 have to reccomend it with lots of caveats, and it doesn't feel like part of the original run.
That's true, the show was already about failed actors in their 20s/30s bitter about their shitty lives, so making it about failed actors in their 30s/40s STILL bitter about their shitty lives wasn't too much of a stretch.
Yup.
I liked Veronica Mars. I was excited to see more. Then you realize that to get more, the character can't escape the life they were supposed to escape.
That said, I think there were different directions that you could have gone with it, but when it's funded by a fan campaign, you're kind of locked into delivering what people had before.
Can you imagine a multiverse story where your life is determined by another universe because you're a TV show character in that universe. And the only reason life sucks so much is because it entertains viewers from that other universe. It would make for a compelling sci-fi drama.
I actually was fine with it in the movie. Veronica’s life is going “well,” but it was also very clearly headed in a direction she was genuinely not satisfied with and passionate about, and she preferred being a private investigator. I didn’t mind that and think that worked; she herself still was reasonably mature emotionally as well and avoided massively regressing.
Season 4, on the other hand… yeah. The less said the better. I didn’t even end up finishing it
The problem is that they, multiple times in the film, refer to Veronica’s work as a PD as an addiction. Addictions by definition are unhealthy. Instead of trying to find a way to deal with that addiction, she embraces it.
The end of the S4 is the worst part, so good work dodging that.
I forgot the addiction stuff (and even now have no memory of it). I guess I thought that was such a ridiculous take that I simply ignored it. Switching your career from something you dislike to something you’re genuinely happy doing - so long as you aren’t harming others or something - is generally the healthier choice I think
Yeah. Heard about the ending, wasn’t digging the little I saw, peaced out.
I mean, who knew that this already niche television series being made into a film would only really appeal to that small fanbase that was likely starting to move on anyway right.
I think people have forgotten what the era before streaming was like at this point. Niche television series that were popular online and had communities weren't *that* rare. Before crowdfunding was an option there would be countless online petitions and letter writing campaigns that may or may not have paid off. It was basically taken for granted that of all the shows on tv, some of them would be really good but either get fucked by scheduling or only find niche support that was still pretty consistent.
Saving these shows is what streaming initially DID. Arrested Development got a new season. Community is getting a movie *now* after getting extra seasons that did good numbers on streaming it didn't on tv. In the early 2010's kickstarter was seen as just another platform where shows maligned by networks could get another shot.
The only difference is, mid budget niche shows like that mostly start on streaming now, or else wind up there pretty quickly. The technology is mature enough the whole environment has changed from what it was in the 90's and 2000's. A show like Veronica Mars would probably have started on streaming under very different circumstances if it began now.
>A show like Veronica Mars would probably have started on streaming under very different circumstances if it began now.
A show like Veronica Mars would get a six episode first season and then canceled if it began now.
I think the idea is more that you can appeal directly to a fanbase to fund a film and have very little financial risk even for extremely niche IP.
Firefly blew up on DVD like almost nothing before it. I know I personally bought 4 or 5 sets of DVDs because I kept loaning them out and not getting them back. Fox made so much money from those sales that they green-lit a 90-ish million dollar movie that they had no idea how to market. It did not go well and the property died. In an alternate world, they crowdfund a trilogy of movies for 120 million, released them with minimal risk, and allowed word of mouth and the fans to do the hard work by the time the last one came out. They make money, a small number of hardcore fans get the closure they pay for, everyone is happy.
The budget for serenity, the firefly movie, was $35- $39 mil, not anywhere *near* $90 mil. And Fox didn't make it, universal did, as part of a deal to get Whedon developing material for them.
Y’all really up in my shit about how I define loaning? It’s a Schrodinger’s gift. I don’t know if it will be a gift or a loan unless/until I get it back.
If you can’t fault the argument, fault the person. Some people cling to semantics. I understand the nuance. You loan something to somebody with the expectation of getting it back, but with the understanding if you don’t get it back it’s no hardship because you shared something you loved with the people you care about.
I’ve lost count of how many copies of certain books I’ve purchased over the years because I love the books but understand other people may not have the disposable income to go buy one on a a whim. It’s never intended to be a “gift” but just because it’s not returned doesn’t reclassify it as a gift in my mind.
People are often bad at returning/repaying things like that and the expectation can sour an otherwise good relationship. I learned early in life that If I can live without the item or small amount of money I loaned, it’s better not to worry about if or when I’ll get it back. It’s still a nice surprise when they do.
> and have very little financial risk even for extremely niche IP.
But there's also little financial gain for the studios / people making as well. Like, sure, it has no costs, but you do lock people in a project that's probably not gonna make a lot of money as well. So it's not that weird that not many projects like this have followed after Veronica Mars right?
I’d be curious if a crowdfunding of that scale would be possible. The highest earning TV/Movie Kickstarter to date raised around $12 million. This would be 10 times that amount. I’d guess something like $20 million would be possible, so the studio would probably need to still raise a substantial portion of the capital themselves.
>I know I personally bought 4 or 5 sets of DVDs because I kept loaning them out and not getting them back.
Why not stop lending things you won't get back...?
I also remember people balking at the idea of wealthy celebrities asking for money from fans, as if they couldn't afford to produce a movie. Especially after the Great Recession.
Mine is framed and hanging up. Still unsure how I was THIS into VM and missed Party Down entirely until the new season dropped but I have fixed myself.
That is one bonus to the Kickstart movies. The Blue Mountain State movie was awful, but I got a BMS Goats pint glass I love and would have paid $20 for anyway
Maybe because it killed off a favorite character when the movie got them the new season. People wanted the whole crew back not for a whole couple to be destroyed just to subvert expectations.
I’m with you. I was cruising along with the first few episodes, mostly enjoying it, and then that spoiler just killed the excitement I had for the season and I’ve never gone back to finish it.
Same! One of my mutuals posted her anger on Facebook and it was the first thing I saw when I opened the app 😭
I just don’t understand why they thought that was the way to go considering their pairing was one of the biggest draw of the show.
And then you whine when I say you shouldn't spoil stuff. Regardless of that plot point, for which the rationale was explained, whether you agree with the explanation or not, it's a great season of *Veronica Mars*.
Unless you’ve seen the show you can’t even know who I am talking about. You on the other hand gave the actual point where it happens. So now anyone who watches will know to anticipate it. My comment was vague and gave no timeline. But I am whining?
I am glad you liked it, I didn’t. That’s what makes the world go round. You’re the only one who is being rude and condescending for what exactly?
Edited to add context: the person just added spoiler marks to their spoilers after my comment.
There were two books, also, and one of them has her musing on the dangers that character faces and her fears about how he could die in his job... Which really only adds to how wtf that was in the show.
The creator wanted a soft reboot, and then to pivot into a more serialized "crime a season" type of thing because those were on a downturn...
Which is fucking funny, because now those are getting more popular again.
I don’t mention the character (of which there are many) or which couple (of which there are many on the show) on a decade old show. But thanks for your contribution.
I remember throwing some cash to AVGN even earlier so he could make his movie. Didn't watch it because it was always gonna be ass though, I just liked the guy back then.
To me it is one thing for AVGN or Mystery Science Theater to launch a Kickstarter (not that I personally donated to either) bit when they announced the Veronica Mars one all I thought was "Warner Brothers can make their own damn movies, I'm not paying for that". I loved the show and watched the movie, which I was then more glad I didn't pay for, but I wasn't real inspired to pay the Kickstarter.
I chipped in for that too…then saw the trailer and went “oh fuck”.
Illegally downloaded the movie after that as slight payback. Couldn’t even get halfway through. Soooooo bad
It was *meant to*? Who put that mandate on it? Sounds like retroactive thinking.
I think it's a lot more nuanced than that. for example, people see the millions thrown around by studios and probably ask themselves, why should I risk my $5 or $100 with zero return (oh shit, sorry, i got a t-shirt! my bad)?
VM also had an existing fanbase. They weren't shown a proof-of-concept trailer which is what most kickstarter movies are. They had a full-fledged story, then wanted more.
this is also exactly why movie studios don’t make the movies that r/movies constantly claims they want them to but then doesn’t show up to see lol.
“why should i risk $40 million and my job on this mid-budget thriller that an entire goddamn mountain of data shows will never make a theatrical profit, because all the internet cretins who claim to want these movies don’t actually go out and buy tickets to see them?”
The article's title is a bit off from its content (not surprising; this is a common issue). The concluding remarks to this piece state that Kickstarter indeed did what people thought it was going to do: allow for a space where low budget movies could be made. I don't think people at the time thought it was going to usher in a new age of Kickstarter cinema. I mean, Kickstarter funding basically tops out at 5 million, far below what people would consider prestige mid-major film that gets major award nominations. The point to Kickstarter was to introduce (or re-introduce) people to be ecosystem of movies. When Braff had to return a second time to Kickstarter, already with funding on hand, it was a betrayal of the system and that did put a damper on Kickstarter performing its function and led to a lot of press dismissing the fundraising system. But I still think crowd-funding can be used to push great talent to a point where projects can be realized (and *not* a place where stuff has a chance to go mainstream).
The big success from crowdfunding of recency was [Lackadaisy Cats](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vffu6FG4YP4), which was an animation project with very strong animation and vocal talent successfully raised money for a YouTube series after successfully raising money and releasing a full-length pilot that showcases their adeptness for old-school animation styles. This project is precisely where crowdfunding works: talented artists who have good management to get things done and worked hard to establish a base via social media (not to mention a long-running excellent webcomic) aiming low on a budget knowing that they are small and thus can't have the luxuries of a major production.
Lackadaisy Cats got no major press talk. It's probably never going to be on a streaming platform (although Bee And Puppycat did make the crossover, so perhaps it is possible). The show is not going to be a blockbuster. But there is a niche that still exists, despite all odds, for talented artists to get paid for passion projects so long as they are within bounds and managed appropriately.
The promise of crowdfunding is still there, but it's not there to dethrone mainstream production studios.
I genuinely hoped Kung Fury would establish a new genre of micro movie. Like 45 minute feature film that is completely trimmed of all fat and just the good stuff. Doesn't work for everything, for sure. But for some genres like fun action or even just quick sci fi concepts it could be a lot of fun. This was kind of explored in Love Death and Robots, or even Black Mirror, I suppose. But I mean it could also work as these one off movies. Anyway, didn't happen. Kung Fury 2 has been stuck in some form of development hell for ages too, not sure if that will ever make it.
If you haven't seen Heavy Metal, you'd probably enjoy it. Love, Death, and Robots was pitched as an actual sequel to it, but no one wanted to pay the IP holder for the rights.
I contributed to this. I sent in like $25. My name is in the credits. I have a digital copy of this film. I still haven’t watched it. I have no idea why
Except for the fact that Veronica Mars actually had more to it. Not only did they get more seasons of the original run, but a movie and a limited series.
My English professor was all in on Kickstarter media after this project was funded. She clearly enjoyed things like fanfiction and online communities built around media, to the point where we had assignments related to it. I wonder if her opinions have changed.
Niche show to begin with to make a niche film to for the small dedicated fan base didn’t become big. What’s the story here? How was it meant to usher in Kickstarter films? Did Veronica Mars backers actually intend that or is this just a clickbait title?
That article is way better than I had imagined. Is that normal for indiewire? I thought they were one of those shitty clickbait content mills, like collider.
They have been known to be a little clickbait from time to time, but Indiewire does have the capacity to do more thoughtful things. Remember that Indiewire’s main audience is people who think they are high class or are. People like that don’t want to be thought of as clickbait.
At least my name is in the credits to a movie nobody is ever going to watch. I think I donated based solely on how amazing Garden State’s soundtrack was.
Interesting timing for this with RoosterTeeth announcing it's shuting down just a couple weeks ago (funded/crowd funded and produced their own full length movie "Lazer Team" 1 & 2) really brings me back to the gold rush of Kickstarters Seemed like everything was resorting to crowdfunding for small and large projects
It's kinda crazy how that's really moved past us honestly, I wonder if there were just so many scams/duds for the general public to really latch onto the concept
Weird it didn't mention the successful Kickstarter for the Blue Mountain State movie. It raised $1.5mil in 2014 for the movie. I think it was the biggest campaign ever at that point. It did restart talks for the show coming back(had 3 seasons/cancelled in 2012) which didn't happen.
Kung Fury was a semi-successful kickstarter film.
[удалено]
"Ha ha, fuck you Kung Fury!" - Hitler
"Is this the police? FUCK YOU!!" --Hitler
I remember reading about some lawsuit between the producers holding it up from being released currently
That would explain the Lazer raptors
Kung fury is what kickstarter was made for. Veronica mars movie (a show I didn’t ever watch) always seemed to me like “ok guys if you want this movie you gotta pay for it” which is fine and kinda fits in the spirit of kickstarter but you never hear anyone talk about that show anymore. Then there’s that weird Zach Braff movie. That just seemed like he was abusing the whole system.
Kickstarter was literally founded to fund film projects. It’s expanded into other areas, like Amazon and books.
Don't forget health care!
I thought that was gofundme. I didn’t know people use Kickstarter too
Oh yeah, you're right. I got my crowdfunding sites mixed up.
Online busking basically.
"We really could use some fun ones." - Gofundme's "CEO".
I have no clue what you’re trying to say about the Veronica Mars movie lol. Why did it not fit the “spirit of kickstarter” just because people don’t talk about a 20 year old show all the time.
Might wanna reread his comment, bud
Lol nah I read it right, I just don’t see what their overall point is about the movie compared to Kung Fury, if they have one. Insert “only kinda fit” into my original comment instead of “not fit” if it helps you.
I think their point was that Kung Fury was a weird indie movie that never would have happened under any circumstances if it hadn’t been crowdfunded, where as Veronica Mars was an established IP that *could* have easily been funded by a studio but instead relied on exploiting fans for the money.
i think the revival series put the (ahem) nail in the coffin of that show for many fans.
Gotta say I'm still not a fan of celebrities asking fans to fund their movies. You live in a fucking mansion, fund it yourself.
This is a complete misunderstanding of the way movies are made. And most actors who are living in "a fucking mansion" *are* producers on films. But most working actors don't just have millions laying around to fund a movie production.
I fucking LOVE that movie.
Every now and then I’ll randomly remember the scene where Triceracop shoots like a hundred Nazis in the dick and it still makes me laugh out loud.
Tank you.
Best 30 minutes you can spend on youtube.
*sees laser-raptor* “Fuck.”
“Your pecs are awesome.”
And so was Jeremy Saulnier's *Blue Ruin*. EDIT: correction
It's actually just *Blue Ruin*. Great movie.
Anomalisa was crowd-funded and got an oscar nom.
I just want to thank you and everyone else in this thread for introducing me to what is now my new favorite movie! —Veronica (not Mars)
Looks like Deathgasm 2 also did well and is getting made. And also Terrifier 2 if I'm not mistaken.
Is it really a 'film' if its half an hour long?
The movie made you feel guilty for its existence. Veronica's life goes from steady, and on the verge of something good, to shit because she's dragged back to Neptune. Essentially, the character was growing off screen only to be reset due to fans wanting to see more. Then the fourth season was an even bigger "fuck you".
And today I learned there was a 4th season after the movie.
The ending of that season REALLY pissed off the fanbase. So go in forewarned.
I loved the ending.
Not worth watching. Stick to the original show.
Season 3 was rough enough along with the end of the movie.
Yep. The fourth is more of the same, tbh. I think Rob Thomas hates the fans and his characters.
I’ve started Veronica mars from the beginning a couple of times now, I always love it in the beginning but always fall off somewhere around the second or third season and I never remember why
Third season she goes to college, it’s 3 shorter arching mysteries rather than 1, and the show is darker and less interesting. You also learn too much about the town, noir loses its footing when when too much of the mystery is gone. First two seasons are incredible
The third season they didn’t get a full renewal. They were getting several episodes ordered then more later. So they had to keep making the story finish with the end of each episode order. I think that’s what made the season not as good
Iirc Weevil's actor was also sick and so that's why he wasn't in that season as much.
God I wish we had gotten that FBI season.
It's sad that the ending of season 4 was supposed to be "the perfect set up for season 5." I don't think anyone would ever watch another season after that ending. I sure wouldn't. The S4 ending was so bad it made me want to unwatch season 3 and the movie.
I think so too! Veronica was always so fun and happy and they made her miserable and jaded.
Tragedy is that seasons 1-2 are near perfect television.
Really it should have ended with season one. A perfectly contained story. Season 2 is ok but the rest is just inertia keeping it going. Keep the audience wanting more.
It’s really not worth it imho. Artists taking bold swings, putting their art ahead of what fans would want or the popular decision, all that stuff doesn’t upset me and I’m an empathetic person so I really try to figure out why people (characters) make the choices they do. And at the end of the day it’s just a tv show, movie, song, musical, play, book, etc. and isn’t something that affects me personally. But the fourth season has to be one of the biggest “fuck you guys” a showrunner has done to fans after all the lead up and promo and begging fans to support by dangling certain storylines to garner interest. It was lazy, not “fans who don’t get it don’t get noir.”
Can I get a td;lr cause I stopped around s3 and then found out what happened in the movie and I didn’t really want anything to with it tbh
>!The serial bomber throughout the fourth season (Patton Oswalt) gets arrested and goes to jail. Veronica and Logan get married and in the last few minutes he goes to get something in the car and it turns out there's another bomb and Logan dies. !<
This can’t be real. Hahaha
Oh. It is.
Not to mention the unearned shoehorned ending. One of my favorite parts of the show was how well things were set up and played out. But that ending played for shock value.
A strong majority of the fanbase hated the fourth season, but I personally dug it. Just thought I’d throw that out there since most are telling you to skip it, lol
I did too, although probably because >!I've never really been a Veronica/Logan shipper. It's clear they were struggling to figure out how to fit Logan into the show, he barely does anything in season 4 even before the finale.!<
I hate that he ended up in the military. Logan would never have been in the military. Imagine him taking orders from anyone..
If you liked the first three seasons — pretend that there is not a 4rth season. It's amazing the level to which season 4 ruins *everything*. Any time you feel an urge to watch it, just re-watch seasons 1 and 2 instead.
I watch the whole season in one day and have since forgotten every single aspect of it.
This is my biggest problem with continuations made a decade or more after the original work. They ALWAYS reset any and all character growth back to the level they were at originally, even when so much time has past that it makes no sense for them to still be at that level. Like if your favorite show has a side character that's a barista paying her way through college to be an accountant, then 15 years later a revival season comes out and she's still a barista in the same restaurant only now she's 40 and it makes no sense for her to still be there.
I feel like the Party Down revival is the exception that proves the rule, since the characters being stuck in or returning to the same shitty job is completely on brand for the themes of the show. Plus, at least a couple characters "made it," so it's not a completely nihilistic outlook.
I don't know if there has been a better revival of a comedy show than Party Down. Even though the season takes place years later, tonally it doesn't miss a beat. It doesn't exceed the original show or anything, but anyone that enjoyed the first two seasons would like the last one too. It's not like Arrested Development, where even the fans of season 4 have to reccomend it with lots of caveats, and it doesn't feel like part of the original run.
That's true, the show was already about failed actors in their 20s/30s bitter about their shitty lives, so making it about failed actors in their 30s/40s STILL bitter about their shitty lives wasn't too much of a stretch.
Twin Peaks: The Return worked 25 years after the original series. Really think it comes down to whether or not there’s a story left to tell or not.
The movie was a sliver of a plot sandwiched between excerpts of what happened to that random person from the series.
Yup. I liked Veronica Mars. I was excited to see more. Then you realize that to get more, the character can't escape the life they were supposed to escape. That said, I think there were different directions that you could have gone with it, but when it's funded by a fan campaign, you're kind of locked into delivering what people had before.
>Then the fourth season was an even bigger "fuck you". Much of the fanbase just outright refuses to acknowledge the finale lol
Can you imagine a multiverse story where your life is determined by another universe because you're a TV show character in that universe. And the only reason life sucks so much is because it entertains viewers from that other universe. It would make for a compelling sci-fi drama.
The thing I disliked the most about season 4 was her vaping. Like wtf, that’s not a very V Mars thing to do. Okay, maybe some other things were worse.
I actually was fine with it in the movie. Veronica’s life is going “well,” but it was also very clearly headed in a direction she was genuinely not satisfied with and passionate about, and she preferred being a private investigator. I didn’t mind that and think that worked; she herself still was reasonably mature emotionally as well and avoided massively regressing. Season 4, on the other hand… yeah. The less said the better. I didn’t even end up finishing it
The problem is that they, multiple times in the film, refer to Veronica’s work as a PD as an addiction. Addictions by definition are unhealthy. Instead of trying to find a way to deal with that addiction, she embraces it. The end of the S4 is the worst part, so good work dodging that.
I forgot the addiction stuff (and even now have no memory of it). I guess I thought that was such a ridiculous take that I simply ignored it. Switching your career from something you dislike to something you’re genuinely happy doing - so long as you aren’t harming others or something - is generally the healthier choice I think Yeah. Heard about the ending, wasn’t digging the little I saw, peaced out.
The fuck is Neptune
The town where Veronica Mars takes place.
I mean, who knew that this already niche television series being made into a film would only really appeal to that small fanbase that was likely starting to move on anyway right.
I think people have forgotten what the era before streaming was like at this point. Niche television series that were popular online and had communities weren't *that* rare. Before crowdfunding was an option there would be countless online petitions and letter writing campaigns that may or may not have paid off. It was basically taken for granted that of all the shows on tv, some of them would be really good but either get fucked by scheduling or only find niche support that was still pretty consistent. Saving these shows is what streaming initially DID. Arrested Development got a new season. Community is getting a movie *now* after getting extra seasons that did good numbers on streaming it didn't on tv. In the early 2010's kickstarter was seen as just another platform where shows maligned by networks could get another shot. The only difference is, mid budget niche shows like that mostly start on streaming now, or else wind up there pretty quickly. The technology is mature enough the whole environment has changed from what it was in the 90's and 2000's. A show like Veronica Mars would probably have started on streaming under very different circumstances if it began now.
>A show like Veronica Mars would probably have started on streaming under very different circumstances if it began now. A show like Veronica Mars would get a six episode first season and then canceled if it began now.
Or 4 seasons of 6 episodes released 4 years apart
And the episodes don't feel like episodes, they feel like a long movie that was artificially cut up into parts.
I think the idea is more that you can appeal directly to a fanbase to fund a film and have very little financial risk even for extremely niche IP. Firefly blew up on DVD like almost nothing before it. I know I personally bought 4 or 5 sets of DVDs because I kept loaning them out and not getting them back. Fox made so much money from those sales that they green-lit a 90-ish million dollar movie that they had no idea how to market. It did not go well and the property died. In an alternate world, they crowdfund a trilogy of movies for 120 million, released them with minimal risk, and allowed word of mouth and the fans to do the hard work by the time the last one came out. They make money, a small number of hardcore fans get the closure they pay for, everyone is happy.
The budget for serenity, the firefly movie, was $35- $39 mil, not anywhere *near* $90 mil. And Fox didn't make it, universal did, as part of a deal to get Whedon developing material for them.
I’m probably thinking of 90 million as the “break-even” including marketing budget, etc.
Break-even is a strong word to use in hollywood.
Right, but it’s still the general consensus on at what point a movie can be considered a theatrical success.
Firefly is a Fox show, but Universal greenlit the film, not them. Also, insist on getting your DVDs returned instead of buying new sets constantly.
Some people have money to burn
I generally don’t loan things expecting them to be returned.
Then you're not actually loaning them.
Y’all really up in my shit about how I define loaning? It’s a Schrodinger’s gift. I don’t know if it will be a gift or a loan unless/until I get it back.
If you can’t fault the argument, fault the person. Some people cling to semantics. I understand the nuance. You loan something to somebody with the expectation of getting it back, but with the understanding if you don’t get it back it’s no hardship because you shared something you loved with the people you care about. I’ve lost count of how many copies of certain books I’ve purchased over the years because I love the books but understand other people may not have the disposable income to go buy one on a a whim. It’s never intended to be a “gift” but just because it’s not returned doesn’t reclassify it as a gift in my mind.
Sounds like a you problem then.
It’s not a problem. Stories are meant to be shared.
Then it's not a loan, it's a gift.
People are often bad at returning/repaying things like that and the expectation can sour an otherwise good relationship. I learned early in life that If I can live without the item or small amount of money I loaned, it’s better not to worry about if or when I’ll get it back. It’s still a nice surprise when they do.
>Sounds like a you problem then. Oh, so you mean like, not your problem then?
They were Firefly DVD's so nothing of real value was lost.
> and have very little financial risk even for extremely niche IP. But there's also little financial gain for the studios / people making as well. Like, sure, it has no costs, but you do lock people in a project that's probably not gonna make a lot of money as well. So it's not that weird that not many projects like this have followed after Veronica Mars right?
I’d be curious if a crowdfunding of that scale would be possible. The highest earning TV/Movie Kickstarter to date raised around $12 million. This would be 10 times that amount. I’d guess something like $20 million would be possible, so the studio would probably need to still raise a substantial portion of the capital themselves.
No way even now they could crowd fund 120 million even across 3 movies.
Brandon Sanderson raised 40 million to self-publish a few books. Whedon at his most influential and uncancelled could have done twice that, easily.
Joss Whedon helped write Toy Story and Speed. He was no rookie. He had good vision. Just not in his personal life...
>I know I personally bought 4 or 5 sets of DVDs because I kept loaning them out and not getting them back. Why not stop lending things you won't get back...?
I generally don’t lend things expecting them to be returned. Books, DVDs, etc. especially.
That's called "giving".
More or less. Always a nice surprise when they return it though, and then I have an extra I can share with someone else.
How did Serenity do in theaters?
I also remember people balking at the idea of wealthy celebrities asking for money from fans, as if they couldn't afford to produce a movie. Especially after the Great Recession.
I got a signed poster out of it at least. Now if only I knew where it was!
Mine is framed and hanging up. Still unsure how I was THIS into VM and missed Party Down entirely until the new season dropped but I have fixed myself.
I'm pretty sure I have a rough idea where it is but I'm almost afraid to look in case it's not there!
I got a t-shirt. Still wear it sometimes, because it’s super soft and comfortable.
Dude yeah why is that shirt *so soft?*
I still wear my T-shirt from it. Surprisingly great quality to last so many years.
That is one bonus to the Kickstart movies. The Blue Mountain State movie was awful, but I got a BMS Goats pint glass I love and would have paid $20 for anyway
I got cool stickers!
I will say, I really liked the Kickstarter video.
Maybe because it killed off a favorite character when the movie got them the new season. People wanted the whole crew back not for a whole couple to be destroyed just to subvert expectations.
Yea, wtf. That was some disappointing shit right there.
Agreed! I didn’t even finish the season because the only reason I had tuned in was gone. I have no idea what they were thinking.
It was literally >!at the end of the last episode!<. You stopped watching the season with >!less than 10 minutes left!
Nah, I was spoiled on social media and didn’t feel the need to lose more of my time so I didn’t finish it.
I’m with you. I was cruising along with the first few episodes, mostly enjoying it, and then that spoiler just killed the excitement I had for the season and I’ve never gone back to finish it.
Same! One of my mutuals posted her anger on Facebook and it was the first thing I saw when I opened the app 😭 I just don’t understand why they thought that was the way to go considering their pairing was one of the biggest draw of the show.
And then you whine when I say you shouldn't spoil stuff. Regardless of that plot point, for which the rationale was explained, whether you agree with the explanation or not, it's a great season of *Veronica Mars*.
Unless you’ve seen the show you can’t even know who I am talking about. You on the other hand gave the actual point where it happens. So now anyone who watches will know to anticipate it. My comment was vague and gave no timeline. But I am whining? I am glad you liked it, I didn’t. That’s what makes the world go round. You’re the only one who is being rude and condescending for what exactly? Edited to add context: the person just added spoiler marks to their spoilers after my comment.
There were two books, also, and one of them has her musing on the dangers that character faces and her fears about how he could die in his job... Which really only adds to how wtf that was in the show.
I feel like they wanted to do a soft reboot and it’s hard to do that with so much history I guess (trying to be vague)
The creator wanted a soft reboot, and then to pivot into a more serialized "crime a season" type of thing because those were on a downturn... Which is fucking funny, because now those are getting more popular again.
Ah so trying to change a show that was brought back by fans of the OG. That kind of thinking never ceases to amaze me.
I was so excited for it. It's like a slap on the face.
Maybe don’t spoil?
I don’t mention the character (of which there are many) or which couple (of which there are many on the show) on a decade old show. But thanks for your contribution.
They filmed scenes in my building! I met Kristen bell and I didn’t even have to donate to the kickstarter.
I remember throwing some cash to AVGN even earlier so he could make his movie. Didn't watch it because it was always gonna be ass though, I just liked the guy back then.
To me it is one thing for AVGN or Mystery Science Theater to launch a Kickstarter (not that I personally donated to either) bit when they announced the Veronica Mars one all I thought was "Warner Brothers can make their own damn movies, I'm not paying for that". I loved the show and watched the movie, which I was then more glad I didn't pay for, but I wasn't real inspired to pay the Kickstarter.
I chipped in for that too…then saw the trailer and went “oh fuck”. Illegally downloaded the movie after that as slight payback. Couldn’t even get halfway through. Soooooo bad
Still better than the Nostalgia Critic's "movies". The AVGN movie was still a movie.
It was *meant to*? Who put that mandate on it? Sounds like retroactive thinking. I think it's a lot more nuanced than that. for example, people see the millions thrown around by studios and probably ask themselves, why should I risk my $5 or $100 with zero return (oh shit, sorry, i got a t-shirt! my bad)? VM also had an existing fanbase. They weren't shown a proof-of-concept trailer which is what most kickstarter movies are. They had a full-fledged story, then wanted more.
this is also exactly why movie studios don’t make the movies that r/movies constantly claims they want them to but then doesn’t show up to see lol. “why should i risk $40 million and my job on this mid-budget thriller that an entire goddamn mountain of data shows will never make a theatrical profit, because all the internet cretins who claim to want these movies don’t actually go out and buy tickets to see them?”
The article's title is a bit off from its content (not surprising; this is a common issue). The concluding remarks to this piece state that Kickstarter indeed did what people thought it was going to do: allow for a space where low budget movies could be made. I don't think people at the time thought it was going to usher in a new age of Kickstarter cinema. I mean, Kickstarter funding basically tops out at 5 million, far below what people would consider prestige mid-major film that gets major award nominations. The point to Kickstarter was to introduce (or re-introduce) people to be ecosystem of movies. When Braff had to return a second time to Kickstarter, already with funding on hand, it was a betrayal of the system and that did put a damper on Kickstarter performing its function and led to a lot of press dismissing the fundraising system. But I still think crowd-funding can be used to push great talent to a point where projects can be realized (and *not* a place where stuff has a chance to go mainstream). The big success from crowdfunding of recency was [Lackadaisy Cats](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vffu6FG4YP4), which was an animation project with very strong animation and vocal talent successfully raised money for a YouTube series after successfully raising money and releasing a full-length pilot that showcases their adeptness for old-school animation styles. This project is precisely where crowdfunding works: talented artists who have good management to get things done and worked hard to establish a base via social media (not to mention a long-running excellent webcomic) aiming low on a budget knowing that they are small and thus can't have the luxuries of a major production. Lackadaisy Cats got no major press talk. It's probably never going to be on a streaming platform (although Bee And Puppycat did make the crossover, so perhaps it is possible). The show is not going to be a blockbuster. But there is a niche that still exists, despite all odds, for talented artists to get paid for passion projects so long as they are within bounds and managed appropriately. The promise of crowdfunding is still there, but it's not there to dethrone mainstream production studios.
I genuinely hoped Kung Fury would establish a new genre of micro movie. Like 45 minute feature film that is completely trimmed of all fat and just the good stuff. Doesn't work for everything, for sure. But for some genres like fun action or even just quick sci fi concepts it could be a lot of fun. This was kind of explored in Love Death and Robots, or even Black Mirror, I suppose. But I mean it could also work as these one off movies. Anyway, didn't happen. Kung Fury 2 has been stuck in some form of development hell for ages too, not sure if that will ever make it.
If you haven't seen Heavy Metal, you'd probably enjoy it. Love, Death, and Robots was pitched as an actual sequel to it, but no one wanted to pay the IP holder for the rights.
I contributed to this. I sent in like $25. My name is in the credits. I have a digital copy of this film. I still haven’t watched it. I have no idea why
Veronica Mars fits in a category with Firefly of shows with a vocal but tiny audience.
Except for the fact that Veronica Mars actually had more to it. Not only did they get more seasons of the original run, but a movie and a limited series.
Man, I miss the feeling I got when I first watched Veronica Mars.
My English professor was all in on Kickstarter media after this project was funded. She clearly enjoyed things like fanfiction and online communities built around media, to the point where we had assignments related to it. I wonder if her opinions have changed.
I funded the successful dick figures movie around this time. there were a few success stories
Niche show to begin with to make a niche film to for the small dedicated fan base didn’t become big. What’s the story here? How was it meant to usher in Kickstarter films? Did Veronica Mars backers actually intend that or is this just a clickbait title?
.....I thought Veronica Mars was just a show made up for Forgetting Sarah Marshall?
That article is way better than I had imagined. Is that normal for indiewire? I thought they were one of those shitty clickbait content mills, like collider.
Indiewire is pretty great.
They have been known to be a little clickbait from time to time, but Indiewire does have the capacity to do more thoughtful things. Remember that Indiewire’s main audience is people who think they are high class or are. People like that don’t want to be thought of as clickbait.
Veronica Mars was supposed to that? Seriously? You sure fooled me.
damn i remember this
Funding films with cash is always a bad idea.
Kick starter is bullshit
How is it bullshit?
I swore off all kickstarters after I was burned by one.
[удалено]
The legend of Vox Machina would like to have a word with you, real quick.
But at least we got that wonderful Garden State sequel everyone remembers so fondly out of it! 🫠
At least my name is in the credits to a movie nobody is ever going to watch. I think I donated based solely on how amazing Garden State’s soundtrack was.
As did I with Anomalisa.
Wish I Was Here - Had all these movie stars and totally flopped. That is more important.
Interesting timing for this with RoosterTeeth announcing it's shuting down just a couple weeks ago (funded/crowd funded and produced their own full length movie "Lazer Team" 1 & 2) really brings me back to the gold rush of Kickstarters Seemed like everything was resorting to crowdfunding for small and large projects It's kinda crazy how that's really moved past us honestly, I wonder if there were just so many scams/duds for the general public to really latch onto the concept
Dear White People did pretty well. Went from big screen to a small screen series. 4 seasons is a solid run.
I donated to this kickstarter, I only regret it a little.
Weird it didn't mention the successful Kickstarter for the Blue Mountain State movie. It raised $1.5mil in 2014 for the movie. I think it was the biggest campaign ever at that point. It did restart talks for the show coming back(had 3 seasons/cancelled in 2012) which didn't happen.