Zach Braff Movie on Kickstarter

[Stickman31]

I never understood why people criticize actors or musicians or inventors who ask for help funding their project. When the iPhone came out, do you think Steve Jobs paid for everything out of pocket? No way. He got investors involved. Almost everybody uses investors when they look to fund a business idea. Kickstarter is the same exact thing as reaching out to said investors, it just uses fan who already want to see the business succeed. 

 

I just don't stand why people get bent out of shape about it.

 

That being said, his video was pretty funny. I won't be investing, but I'll see the movie when it comes out. 

Yeah but when Investors actually Invest in something like the iPhone they

1. Are investing in an already known, successful business
2. Make a cash return on what they invest in
3. Have the ability to take legal action if someone just runs off with the money

The problem is that this guy has the money to do it, but he's just greedy and won't let actual investors in who will make money off him so he'll offer cheap prizes on Kickstarter and rake in more cash. I mean just look at the "rewards". $100 for a vinyl or advance screening,  $2,500 just to be an extra (he's actually making money by hiring people). To me shit like this boils down to greed most of the times, yes sometimes there are actual useful or cool things people make when they need the money. In this case though, I smell greed.

[Daniel Dopp]

Yeah but when Investors actually Invest in something like the iPhone they

1. Are investing in an already known, successful business
2. Make a cash return on what they invest in
3. Have the ability to take legal action if someone just runs off with the money

The problem is that this guy has the money to do it, but he's just greedy and won't let actual investors in who will make money off him so he'll offer cheap prizes on Kickstarter and rake in more cash. I mean just look at the "rewards". $100 for a vinyl or advance screening,  $2,500 just to be an extra (he's actually making money by hiring people). To me shit like this boils down to greed most of the times, yes sometimes there are actual useful or cool things people make when they need the money. In this case though, I smell greed.

 

Before the iPhone was invented, it wasn't an already known and successful business.

 

Zach stated that he wanted the money to do things 100% his way. I completely understand that you feel like the "cheap prizes" are a rip off. Totally get that. This is the beauty of Kickstarter. Who says that something is worth the money they're pledging? I can tell you for a fact that I'd drop $100 on a 5 minute phone call with David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), or a special limited edition piece of merch. I'd absolutely spend $1000 to go into the studio and record a track with Bazan that will be on his next record. That's a once in a lifetime experience to me that I would never forget. When it's something that you love and believe in, you actually WANT to help the person out, regardless if they've got the money to do it or not. Maybe the film sucks. Maybe it's a box office failure, but the people who invested in it still receive something that is special to them. If they didn't feel like it wasn't special, they wouldn't have pledged the money.

 

Bottom line, I agree with you to an extent. Some of the "prizes" are retarded to me and I wouldn't pay that much for them. There are a ton of Kickstarter deals that are like this. I don't see the point / value in it, but somebody does. You can call it greed if you want. I simply see it as a way to fund his film by involving enthusiastic fans who see the value in what he is offering. 

[Stickman31]

Before the iPhone was invented, it wasn't an already known and successful business.

Actually Apple was well known and successful 

Zach stated that he wanted the money to do things 100% his way. I completely understand that you feel like the "cheap prizes" are a rip off. Totally get that. This is the beauty of Kickstarter. Who says that something is worth the money they're pledging? I can tell you for a fact that I'd drop $100 on a 5 minute phone call with David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), or a special limited edition piece of merch. I'd absolutely spend $1000 to go into the studio and record a track with Bazan that will be on his next record. That's a once in a lifetime experience to me that I would never forget. When it's something that you love and believe in, you actually WANT to help the person out, regardless if they've got the money to do it or not. Maybe the film sucks. Maybe it's a box office failure, but the people who invested in it still receive something that is special to them. If they didn't feel like it wasn't special, they wouldn't have pledged the money.

 

Bottom line, I agree with you to an extent. Some of the "prizes" are retarded to me and I wouldn't pay that much for them. There are a ton of Kickstarter deals that are like this. I don't see the point / value in it, but somebody does. You can call it greed if you want. I simply see it as a way to fund his film by involving enthusiastic fans who see the value in what he is offering. 

Yeah I can see what you mean, if it's something once in a lifetime like meeting him or getting a more major role then it'd be worth it. But Paying $1,000 to be an extra is flat out insane, but the big thing is that crowd funding like this is abused to all hell. He can (and most likely will) make like 3 million or more, and I doubt ALL that money is going to go in to the movie/post production/anything to do with the movie at all. Just this whole thing makes me skeptic, and I've only had bad experiences with Kickstarter so that might be the reason I'm totally against this.

[AlexH.]

I never understood why people criticize actors or musicians or inventors who ask for help funding their project. When the iPhone came out, do you think Steve Jobs paid for everything out of pocket? No way. He got investors involved. Almost everybody uses investors when they look to fund a business idea. Kickstarter is the same exact thing as reaching out to said investors, it just uses fan who already want to see the business succeed. 

 

I just don't stand why people get bent out of shape about it.

 

That being said, his video was pretty funny. I won't be investing, but I'll see the movie when it comes out. 

 

 

Kickstarter is not an investment, I don't think people really get this. The only "returns" you'll get are the donation rewards, which are rarely worth the added cost unless you're a super duper fan who sees value in something like an advance screening of a movie that will later get a wide release in theatres and on DVD. Braff now gets to take your money, make his movie (which could have easily been financed through traditional channels - don't tell me there are no production companies that would let Scrubs guy have a go at another low budget romcom [seriously, $2 million was probably Iron Man 3's catering budget]), shop it to distributors, and make a boatload of money without any obligation to pay out any dividends to the thousands of people who paid $40 for a t-shirt.

 

It may seem like a win-win for everyone, since everybody gets something they perceive to be valuable, but that doesn't mean backers aren't being taken advantage of.

 

tl;dr anyone who contributes to a Kickstarter run by someone as successful as Zach Braff (dude made $350K per episode, plus mad syndication money from being on every channel all the time) is a sucker and deserves to overpay for trinkets.

 

Before the iPhone was invented, it wasn't an already known and successful business.

 

wut

 

have you ever heard of this thing?

 

or maybe this?

I think Apple was doing pretty okay before they took over the smartphone industry.

[Daniel Dopp]

Obviously Apple was well known. I was saying when the iPhone came out, it wasn't a known commodity. Because of Apple's track record, people were stoked to jump on board with Steve-O. 

 

Again, I agree with everybody here... people take advantage of Kickstarter. I'm not arguing that. I'm saying that the rewards are worth what you deem them to be worth. If you're a huge fan, you'll totally put down the money to help fund something. If you're not, then you scoff at it and talk about how dumb everyone is that's throwing away their money. 

 

I would consider Kickstarter "micro-investing." Nobody said that investment means a monetary return. It's putting money into something and getting a worthwhile return. For some that may be money, for others it may be a chance to hang with a dude for 30 minutes and share a beer. That definition is different for everybody because what may be worthwhile to you, isn't worthwhile to someone else. I think you're assuming that crowdfunding is meant to give YOU something, when in reality it's not about backer. It's about the musician, artist, or movie maker who is looking for support for their specific artform. Either you want to help with that, or you don't. 

 

For the record, I've been shafted by Kickstarters myself. It sucks. I'm not happy about it, and I won't support that persons project again, but that doesn't mean that I'm against the whole idea of crowdfunding. It raised $2.1 billion dollars last year. I think it's made a LOT of things possible that otherwise would've never happened. 

[Scruffy...the janitor]

To be clear, I had no problem paying $200 for the screening in SF and all the extras that come along with it. That seems like a good price to help him with the project and give my wife and I some good memories.

[Daniel Dopp]

To be clear, I had no problem paying $200 for the screening in SF and all the extras that come along with it. That seems like a good price to help him with the project and give my wife and I some good memories.

 

Exactly my point. Not saying you have to agree with everything I've said so far, but this is what I mean. It's worth it to you, and that's what matters. 

[almightyseancore]

looks like he hit that goal quick, with money to spare.

 

cant wait to see this. i loved garden state.