Arts: Did Veronica Mars Ruin Kickstarter?

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Brow Beat Did Veronica Mars Ruin Kickstarter? By Sam Adams Posted Friday, Mar 15, 2013, at 09:16 PM ET It took three days for Veronica Mars to change the way movies are made. Or maybe it didn't. As the Kickstarter for the Veronica Mars Movie Project sailed past its $2 million goal in a scant 10 hours—as I write, the budget is at $3.3 million and counting—bereft fans of Terriers, Chuck, Pushing Daisies, and, for all anyone knows, Twin Peaks, EZ Streets and Mama's Family, started dreaming of a cinematic extension to their tragically truncated shows. But while TV fans took heart, independent filmmakers and cinephiles heard alarm bells. John Boldrick, whose Twitter account identifies him as a "moving image professional," worried that the crowdfunding of a studio project "could destroy Kickstarter & possibly the movie business." (A previous tweet was hashtagged #EndTimes.) Critic James Rocchi called it "Food Stamps for the 1%." Apart from rankling artists who've used Kickstarter to fund projects more adventurous and less commercial than a reboot of a failed TV series, the Veronica Mars fundraiser seemed to set a terrible precedent. Why should a major entertainment studio like Warner Bros. risk their own money when they can get fans to pay in advance? Investors expect a return on their investment, but the VMMP's backers paid many times the value of the rewards they could expect to receive: $50 for a DVD and a t-shirt; $100 to add a Blu-ray and a poster. Of course, return on investment isn't the point. Fans are used to accepting intangibles as ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Rob Portman and the Politics of Narcissism L.A. Times Magazine Story From 1988 Predicts Life in 2013 Play the Slate News Quiz	Advertisement
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