"Veronica Mars" kickstarter-fan-funded movie project

[Chipmunk]

Woo-hoo!
And VM is owned by WB, so if this goes well, it may bode well for B5.

I had assumed "kickstarter" was just a bell-the-cat site, but I just caught a segment on CNN about this.

Figured some of you would know a lot more about this funding mechanism than I, so please educate us.

Here's a couple of stories about this:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/veronica-mars-movie-meets-2-million-fundraising-goal-in-one-day/

For anyone who never watched Veronica Mars, it had Enrico Colantoni (Galaxy Quest's "Mathesar"), and Joss Whedon was a big fan (even had a cameo). It was quirky & smart - a nice change from the usual drivel aimed at young females.

[Jan]

Woo-hoo!
And VM is owned by WB, so if this goes well, it may bode well for B5.

Even (I think) before the first million mark was reached, somebody asked JMS about it on his FB page:

You could do a Veronica Mars movie for 2M because there wouldn't be much in the way of SFX. But to do a B5 movie you'd need 60M or more, and that's more than could be cooked up by a dozen kickstarter projects.

I had assumed "kickstarter" was just a bell-the-cat site, but I just caught a segment on CNN about this.

What's a 'bell-the-cat' site?

Kickstarter and Indiegogo have been around for at least a couple of years now and seem to have much of the 'crowdfunding' market. With Kickstarter, you have to meet your goal or no funding happens (read: none of the pledges are charged). With Indiegogo, you can opt for full funding which is the same as above or there's an option for folks to pledge even if the goal isn't reached. Both take a percentage of the pledges as fees and credit card processing.

This has really caught the attention of many fans of too-soon-gone shows but it's worth mentioning that the main two things I see that the VM folks did right was to a) get WB on board before starting the campaign and b) making sure the main star was already on board.

As I type this, funding is up to 2.7 million. I'll be interested to see what the final total will be.

Jan

[Chipmunk]

What's a 'bell-the-cat' site?

I mean the type of site that is all talk, and no action.
From the fable:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_the_cat

Figured a cat reference would work here.

(p.s. Aren't we due for another Buddy Update?!?)

the main two things I see that the VM folks did right was to a) get WB on board before starting the campaign and b) making sure the main star was already on board.

Jan, you nailed it... with your hammer-gun.
What excites me about this project is that it was a quality WB show and somebody at WB ok'd it. It sets a precedent.

I should have mentioned that B5 would be a hefty order of magnitude more, due to special effects. However, the DVDs have brought in more than a half billion, and Geeks in general have more disposable income, so I think B5 could be readily fan-funded.

From what others have said, it sounds like the main barrier is internal WB Pakled-ness.
To misquote Neroon, maybe there was some wisdom in WB not dying during the Recession.