Slashdot Mirror
Star Trek Luminaries Behind the Fastest Funded Film Project On Kickstarter
An anonymous reader writes "Legendary sci-fi writer Marc Zicree (Star Trek, Babylon 5, Sliders) and special effects wizard Doug Drexler (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica) are behind the fastest funded film project on Kickstarter. They're using crowd-funding website kickstarter to directly communicate with and enlist the support of fans for their latest project Space Command. Maybe with direct communication, sci-fi fans can rest easy and not have to worry about their favorite shows being cancelled like FireFly."
Maybe with direct communication, sci-fi fans can rest easy and not have to worry about their favorite shows being cancelled like FireFly.
That would work only if the writer actually owns the copyright in the show's setting. If the publisher owns it, and the publisher wants it canceled, no amount of crowd funding is going to bring it back.
I hope they succeed, but... all that talent, and they couldn't think of a name better than "Space Command?"
"(C)ommunication" isn't the issue, it's having demonstrable ratings that appeal to advertisers - TV is not an entertainment medium, it is a mediumm for conveying advertising. They attract you by offering you some entertainment, but until you realize the networks don't really care what they show, they just want an audience to watch the commercials in it.
The best thing a Sci-Fi fan can do is get themselves a nielson box and then set their TV to watch all their favorite shows.
Ken
It's because Kickstarter allows you to get $10 each from 3000 people (as an example) rather than trying to hit up one person for $30k. Or two people for $15k each or whatever. Yeah, if I throw down $15k I'm going to maybe want a say in the final product. For ten bucks, though, the dude can do whatever he wants. If he spends the cash on hookers and blow, well, I won't contribute to his next Kickstarter project. (Unless the Kickstarter project was for funding hookers and blow, of course.)
I was a bit surprised to see Marc Zicree listed as being a Babylon 5 writer, because my vague recollection was that J. Michael Straczynski wrote the entire show. But some quick research revealed that Marc Zicree wrote one of the 18 episodes (out of 110) not personally written by JMS. It's legit to list it as one of his writing credits, but I'm not sure it really contributes to his "legendary" status.
I don't understand kick starter. If you fund a project you don't get any shares and don't get to share in the profit...
Kickstarter would absolutely love to be able to allow users to offer a share in profits in return for funding. However this is prevented by all the regulations around public ownership of companies. Recent (or in-progress?) rule changes will substantially lower the compliance bar for small investments in small companies--whether the regulations will be relaxed enough to allow Kickstarter projects to offer shares, I don't know.
I know it sounds impressive... fastest funded (a claim made), blowing past their $75k goal, etc.
But does anybody actually remember the average cost of an episode of Firefly? Low estimates - and I do mean low are $500,000. Per episode.
Now, I know.. they don't need seasoned actors. They don't need expensive VFX firms. They don't need extensive sets. Perhaps they don't need people for wardrobe, catering, location scouting, etc. etc. etc.
And yes, I did see Star Wreck. But if that is the sort of result that one can expect*, it's entertaining enough but certainly not nearly as good as most of the TNG or DS9 episodes, Firefly, BSG, StarGate, or even Red Dwarf.
* I actually have, or had, higher hopes for Pioneer One. But Season 2 still seems very much up in the air, with the crew behind it admitting that they'll have to secure far more substantial funding first.
Still, best of luck to them.
" [..] and not have to worry about their favorite shows being cancelled like FireFly."
Yea I am still not over that either ..
But there was this follow-up movie, where all of it was wrapped up, right? *ducks*
The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
Is that really why you think firefly died? Because I know from experience that sci-fi fans are perfectly happy to watch multiple sci-fi shows at "once" (provided they don't occupy competing time slots.)
Babylon 5 would have been successful regardless of what else was on the air because it is different from anything that has been on before or since, despite its failings. I am far more interested in rewatching B5 than Trek, and I own pretty much all of both. (Literally all in the case of B5; I might be missing some TNG or something still, and maybe one or two movies I don't want to watch anyway.) I have a bunch of box sets etc. I don't want anyone to think I'm just a B5 fanboy, I'm a sci-fi fanboy in general. I like almost all of it, except BSG ;)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I don't understand kick starter.
Perhaps instead of complaining and characterizing the people funding these projects as "suckers" when you don't know jack about shit, you should visit the site and glance at some of these projects. Next to the donation amounts, it tells you what you get. Some projects never give you anything other than a warm feeling. Some projects will put your name in the credits. Some projects are there to make a thing, and you get parts for the thing for some donation levels, complete kits for some donation levels, and complete products for other donation levels. Some projects only offer kits, some only complete products, some only plans, etc etc. There is usually plenty of information about the developer and their qualifications online, so you can make a relatively informed decision like any other investment. And unlike taxes, there's no reason to bitch or complain or make ignorant statements, because no one is forcing you to participate.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Re-run after reboot after re-run.
So many more great novels exist in the world that would be incredible on big screen.
Isn't it time to give some other hugo award winners a chance on the big screen?
My personal vote, tho not hugo class is the amber series.
I won't contribute to his next Kickstarter project. (Unless the Kickstarter project was for funding hookers and blow, of course.)
I may have an exciting investment opportunity for you.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
When a Kickstarter project is for a physical device, it generally aims to take advantage of economies of scale. I saw one for an aluminum bodied flashlight with a hexagonal cross section (presumably to make it less likely to roll when laid down). The creator showed how much cheaper it would be to make if he had precommitments for at least a thousand units, and if I recall, for 5000 and so on. This suggests to me that people who don't understand the kickstarter approach would be saying the same thing about all sorts of newer economics related ideas, such as print on demand, or selling excess solar power back to the grid. There's a difference between saying "Don't believe a stranger offering to sell you the Brooklyn bridge!", and "Don't believe bridges have any economic utility!".
Who is John Cabal?
Did you not see DS9 then, or something?
You're the racist, stereotyping Klingons that way, you Federation petaQ! [raises bat'leth]
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
It's like watching a poor soul on life support begging to be let go. Slashdotters, do the right thing, pull the plug and move on with your lives. Sticking to the topic though, I'm very interested in seeing this movie.
I don't understand kick starter. If you fund a project you don't get any shares and don't get to share in the profit, and if the person leading the project blows all the dough on ale and wenches you can't interject any authority right?
Sounds like its for suckers sorry. Why not find a bright young person and partner with them to try and get something great done? Is it just because kick starter is easier to fire and forget some cash on?
I have coughed up $$ to 4 different projects on Kickstarter and don't regret any. One of them is the TouchFire flexible iPad keyboard. I thought it was kind of neat and since I own an iPad2 and an Apple KB, it appealed to me personally.
Another project involves some local folks in my area, so again, I had a personal interest. A side note is that a brief talk with the project director led to me getting directly involved. I'm jazzed, they're pleased, and it was unlikely to have happened without the Kickstarter catalyst.
So from my POV, this is a great idea!
I am my own gestalt.
You don't know any prostitutes? You are very lacking in knowledge. But you are right that the depiction they get in sci-fi TV series is misleading. Here, let me show you what real prostitutes are like.
Kickstarter is not about investing.
Kickstarter is somewhat about supporting a project you believe in.
Kickstarter is mostly about buying a product. Most successful projects offer a 'reward', a product, for the 'pledge', payment, by the 'backer', customer. Kickstarter just likes to call it Backers, Pledges and Rewards. They try hard to avoid the term investment as that is dangerous. See below.
In return for pre-buying you get product and you get some satisfaction with helping to be an early buyer that helped make something possible. But it is really a transaction in most cases, a payment for goods or perhaps services.
When you buy a Pepsi you don't expect to get a share in the profit. You're buying a product. With Kickstarter the product doesn't usually exist yet so it is different in that it is a pre-buy.
An example is our family raises pastured pigs. We're building our own on-farm USDA inspected butcher shop (http://smf.me) and as a part of raising funds we pre-sold our product, pastured pork. We did this initially locally through CSA Pre-Buys and then this spring we did a Kickstarter project that raised an addition $33,456. When we finish construction and have our licenses we will then ship product from our farm to customers, some of whom joined our adventure via Kickstarter.
In our case the product already exists, we've been raising pigs on pasture and selling our pork for almost a decade. What is new is we're bringing the meat processing on-farm. This resolves a major bottleneck and helps to keep more of the money on-farm while also providing more humane handling for the animals and better quality for the customers. 369 people thought that was worth doing so they backed our project on Kickstarter. About a hundred more had already backed us prior to that. We provide product for backing. This is different than going to a bank for a loan (they aren't lending) or giving away a share of the business to investors (we're rather small for that as the project is only about $150,000).
Until recently it was illegal to solicit investment such as on Kickstarter which is why it is not an investment angle. With the new law that just passed there may soon be other web sites like Kickstarter that do offer investment opportunities. Alternatively, if you want to own the project and get profits then start your own business. That also gives you control.
With any project that's buying on the future, pre-buy or investment, you need to carefully consider if the project creator can deliver. Kickstarter says about 50% of the projects succeed. What they mean is 50% get successfully funded. As anyone with significant investment or business experience knows, not all funded projects will get to the production stage or be sustainable businesses. I have seen several Kickstarter 'successes' that never produced. It happens. But I think that most do succeed once funded. Caveat emperor.
Our project already successfully completed its Kickstarter run. Check it out at http://smf.me/
Cheers,
-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/butchershop
it took me a while to admit this, dedicated scifi nerds/fans(fan is short for fanatic after all.) are a minority. too small to through traditional means to keep a show alive.
it's the main stream and / or the casual watcher's that are the determining factor. with star trek or star wars still around they will always pick them over another scifi show despite if the other show is better.
the movie studio's and the tv studio's know this. this is why they kept pumping star trek all the way down the drain to enterprise. and then did that bad(sci-fi wise) reboot movie of star trek to try to restart it.
these franchises need to stop, they are drowning good talent and good shows simply because they are viewed as less risky then a new sci-fi property. the sad thing is due to the sheer amount of money needed to produce either a movie or tv series in the traditional sense. no studio is going to risk that on a unknown franchise. the new one may turn out to be a hit like babylon 5(i loved it too). they just simply WON'T take that risk unless they are garenteed a return.
that is why babylon 5 was a success, there was no star trek to draw the more main stream crowd away if you wanted sci-fi it was basically the only show on. and it's why firefly died. enterprise despite how bad it was, was backed by the star trek name. when people in this group only have a short amount of time to watch a show, they go for the one with name brand recognition.
In my opinion, B5 was great because of the 'flaws'. Humans weren't depicted as the oldest and wisest race around. Compared to the Vorlons and the Shadows, they were kids playing with capguns. Even the Mimbari had them out-teched. Londo was certainly seriously flawed, feelings of inadequacy due to his career peaking late in his life (in his opinion), after being punted off to a 'joke assignment' just to get him out of the public eye. And Garibaldi's personal flaws are many. All this contributed to one hell of a storyline.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Yes, Klingons are wary. With sneaky, dishonorable Romulans and the annoying Federation as neighbors, of course they are wary, and yes, they are aggressive and violent.
Of course they are fictional too, but I was trying to use humor to make a point. What's Klingon for "whoosh"?
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
Takes it away!!! It burns, it burns precious!!!
DS9 was not about a married man balancing the needs of his family with the needs of his job.
It was about a single father workaholic who was barely present in his son's life....
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
I don't understand kick starter. If you fund a project you don't get any shares and don't get to share in the profit, and if the person leading the project blows all the dough on ale and wenches you can't interject any authority right?
That's right! You should only put your money into good, solid, traditional investments. May I suggest Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC?