Zach Braff Owes Everyone a Dollar

[Andrew Robinson]

I originally wrote this rant for the website Theo's Roundtable for which I am a contributing writer. It's a good site and one I recommend checking out regularly if you love cinema and movies -and the occasional article from me. Anyway, here's an excerpt from my most recent article...

Did you hear? Zach Braff joined Kickstarter and just raised a butt-load of money. Nearly three million dollars as of this writing. What a visionary. Because of Braff, real folks like you, me, and your Uncle Sal will now have equal success—hell, if we band together, we could have even greater success. Get your Captain Planet rings ready, for it’s on, *bleep*. I’ll blast my Twitter followers, you blast yours, and Sal will hit up his bingo club, and BOOM we’re in the money. That’s how it works, right? We pester people for money until they give us some and then rather than make anything of merit we just keep hitting up those same followers with our “success story.” That is how it works, right?

No?

Then why is it every time I log onto Twitter, Facebook—hell, the Internet—I’m inundated with people begging me for money, if only a dollar? Rarely do we give a dollar to the homeless man or woman who is in need of food, but for Zach Braff, we’ve got a crisp twenty? We scoff at the inner-city child selling candy bars for a dollar to pay for uniforms. We cut music and the arts from our school programs—maybe because they’re not on Kickstarter. But Zach Braff wants to stare off into the middle distance for 90 minutes and we’ve got nearly three million dollars for him? Are you f—ing kidding me!

Zach Braff doesn’t need your money; he’s got his own—lots of it, or at least far more than Kickstarter’stypical user. Furthermore, all the money his fans just gave him wasn’t even what he needed—he got more.Much more. How? By pre-selling Zach Braff abroad to foreign investors/distributors. He says the more you support him, the “better” his film will be, because he’ll be able to do it (the film) “his way.” I’m sorry, but was Garden State in any way not a Zach Braff film? If what he’s saying is at all true about his intentions for joining up with Kickstarter, then every speech or interview he gave surrounding the making and/or release of Garden State should be preceded and concluded with the saying, Liar, liar, pants on fire.

I’m sorry. Rarely do I get this worked up publicly. But I’m just going to come out and say it: Kickstarter is stupid, and they’re stupid for letting people like Braff and others hijack their otherwise good karma and take it for a ride like the valets in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Zach Braff needs your help making his dream a reality? Go pound sand.

What’s worse is...

Read the rest at Theo's Roundtable

[garbulky]

I guess I don't see the issue. People constantly get overfunded due to popularity. The funders realize that it is already overfunded as it shows how much has been received but choose to give. The "prizes" were made clear before funding so they knew that they weren't getting a ticket to the show. Just because he makes more money than everybody else doesn't make it a problem to me because everybody knows who Zach
Braff is. I can see that it is annoying to independent filmmakers that likely wouldn't get anything close to that. But Zach has made a name with his fans and that's what's drawn in the cash.

[jdskycaster]

Maybe I am just too far removed from this but I do not see a problem with it either. For some reason more than 40,000 people thought the cause was worthy of their contribution. It is the world we live in.

[chaosrv]

I think Kickstarter and Indiegogo (another crowd funding project) have a place for certain projects that would not otherwise find an audience. I have even contributed to a few on both I felt worthy of my money. Even to a movie project...but not Zach Braff.

The guy has enough funds & contacts to make his film the way he wants. Asking for one dollar contributes nothing to his film it is strictly so he can pad his number of backers. There costs associated with pledges - from kickstarter's cut to other admin costs. I wouldn't be surprised if he loses money on those $1 pledges. But the more backers he has, the more publicity he gets and the more investors will give. I didn't contribute and I feel as if I am owed a dollar.

As a disclaimer, I do donate/give money to people I think deserve & need it too. And even when I do contribute on kickstarter or Indiegogo, I don't sing it from the heavens. I will maybe tell one person I think might be interested and that's about it.

[chaosrv]

I can see the difference here.

There is no problem with making more money than you originally requested. More power to you, if you can. The question, I think, is did Zach Braff need to go the kickstarter route? I would say no. He has money & the success of Garden State to trade on to either get financing and/or distribution.

I'm sure the new movie will be good and I wish him the best of luck. I thought Garden State was excellent but while he's raking in the money & publicity at the top of the kickstarter page, the little guys that need crowd funding are still sitting unnoticed.

[Deleted]

Zach Braff probably needs the money since he's the worst actor that has ever lived and has a expensive coke addiction. I hope he's never on TV again. My god he's so damn bad and has no comedic timing at all.

[mrsinister]

Incentive.

Unlike a gentleman on the street asking for change (by the hundreds here in D.C. sadly), Kickstarter provides incentive to those that contribute.

Its a societal thing in may aspects. In my experience, many people do not give, without the hope of receiving something. That is a huge plus of Kickstarter.

For instance, how often does the average person living in...lets say Minnesota get the chance to receive art from a hollywood movie, go to an advanced screening, or even have your name painted on a wall in a movie, maybe even go to an afterparty with the cast? Never... But the more you contribute, the more you can get in return.

For example, I support a singer Richard Cheese. One may say he was already famous but there was incentive to supporting a CD he wanted funded on Kickstarter. I supported him with 12 dollars. In return, Not only did i get a CD, but it was signed by him. For me, that was a great!

Instead of angrily typing on the internet, take the energy that it took to write that email, and volunteer 30 minutes at a food bank.

[Andrew Robinson]

Instead of angrily typing on the internet, take the energy that it took to write that email, and volunteer 30 minutes at a food bank.

How about animal rescues and such? I do that occasionally.

[mrsinister]

In fact, (maybe i only deserve one reply haha) I sat here thinking that more should be done via the kickstarter method. imagine local government earmarks that are normally taxpayer funded anyways, being decided by crowdfunding.

And yes, saving puppies and walruses goes a long way towards credibility!

[Deleted]

Who is Zach Braff and who gives a sh!t about all this? Frankly I don't, and I don't think it has any place here on the Emotiva Lounge...

-RW-

[Keith M]

Zach Braff has stated that he wants to raise the extra money so he can do the film without being beholden to the studios. To me that is a worthy goal. True he could tie up more of his personal assets in this movie, but it would be unwise for him to use too much. And as for using his contacts, well again, those people he could hit up for money in hollywood would want influence/control which he does not want to deal with for this project.

And the people who run Kickstarter are happy that Zach Braff and the producers of Veronica Mars have raised money on Kickstarter because that has brought them a lot of publicity and new users who have directly to numerous other Kickstarter projects .

"The Veronica Mars and Zach Braff projects have brought tens of thousands of new people to Kickstarter," the founders wrote. "63% of those people had never backed a project before. Thousands of them have since gone on to back other projects, with more than $400,000 pledged to 2,200 projects so far. Nearly 40% of that has gone to other film projects."

(mashable.com/2013/05/10/kickstarter-zach-braff-critics/)

Seems to me that's a pretty good result.

[yves]

I like listening to Eddie Money and Johnny Cash.