Episode 613


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Recently, history was made when Rob Thomas successfully funded a Veronica Mars film through Kickstarter. In a very special TV 101, Will and Chris Johnson cover the project, discuss some shows they would like to see follow its lead, and speak about some of its cons. [ 50:05 || 24.4 MB ]

To listen, click here: http://www.earth-2.net/theshow/episodes/e2ts_613.mp3

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It's a 3-part fan film, not a Nightwing TV show.

And I find it pretty ballsy that they didn't put the following under "Risks and Challenges": "At any point, we could receive a cease and desist because we are making a product based on someone else's creative property without permission and offering items derived from that creative property in exchange for your monetary help."

Those guys are treading a REALLY fine line, and they may find themselves sued into oblivion sometime soon.

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The thing that terrifies me about cult projects being funded by Kickstarter (other than the encroachment by studios, which was absolutely, positively always going to happen as soon as they realized there was free money out there) is the question of artistic integrity. Thomas said himself (and I had heard this elsewhere as well) that he has some interesting ideas for where to take Veronica Mars, but since the fans are paying for it, he's going to just give them what they want.

Fan enthusiasm turns into fan ownership turns into fan entitlement very quickly already. If creators feel like they need to take the audience's wishes into account when making something, then fuck it. You want a story where Veronica solves another mystery of the week? Write yourself a fanfic and save your $25.

Let's suppose Serenity had been funded by Kickstarter. Can you imagine the unholy shitstorm that would have ensued? "Hey, Joss! I didn't give you $15 so you could kill Wash!" The internet would have gone insane (well... more insane). What the audience wants shouldn't matter. I know to some degree it already does, but when you start introducing the idea that these people are patrons as sell as consumers, it engenders a feeling of ownership that the true creator shouldn't have to feel beholden to.

If Fuller gets to make his Pushing Daisies movie (coughmakeWonderfallsinsteadcough) and he decides that the story has to end with Chuck dying again and Ned having to deal with it, the people who funded this movie are FAR less likely to pony up their cash for the next project. Kickstarter works on the goodwill of the people involved, and I worry about the precedent this is going to cause.

All in all, fantastic show, gents.

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To your point,

There was a real internal debate, for me, about what kind of movie I wanted to make. Just by way of example, I really enjoyed "Side Effects," and that sort of noir thriller that I could see Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars in something like that. I liked the plotting of that movie. I had some desire, as a filmmaker, to take Veronica in a slightly new direction and do something adventurous with her. Or, there's the "give the people what they want" version. And I think partly because it's crowd-sourced, I'm going with the "give the people what they want" version. It's going to be Veronica being Veronica, and the characters you know and love. Certainly, I think I can make a fun, great movie out of that, and I'm excited about that, but it was a creative debate I had with myself, and I finally made the decision that I'm happy with it, to go with, "Let's not piss people off who all donated. Let's give them the stuff that I think that they want in the movie."
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  • 2 weeks later...

I have to say, I hope you two are a regular duo for future TV 101, not trying to say the other episodes were bad, Will (Because they weren't, they were awesome) but I think the dynamic of you two, being able to discuss TV issues together and being able to bounce the topics off each other made for a different experience, as you both came to the table with different ideas, and were able to discuss them.

So yeah, sorry for the late feedback, and all my feedback saying you two should work together more.

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It's cool. TV 101 is probably going to remain mostly a solo project (mainly since half the time when I record it, I am totally winging it) but I'm still planning to bring in the occasional guest host when I have a topic in mind that I know someone else is also knowledgeable about.

As for Millennium, yeah, it totally does deserve a proper conclusion (none of this finishing the series on an episode of the X-Files bullshit). However, I could see it potentially being a bit more expensive than the Veronica Mars movie was and it might not have as strong a cult following. Still, it's something I would totally back just because, Hello, Lance Henriksen.

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  • 3 months later...
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