Two weeks ago, the creator and star of Veronica Mars announced that they were crowdfunding a movie based on the cult hit series from the early 2000s. Rob Thomas set a Kickstarter goal of $2million to get the project made, and they made Kickstarter history by getting to their funding goal within ten hours. And it just kept going. At the time of writing, backers have pledged $4,190,613. (UPDATE: I’ve even revised that upward since I started writing, in an attempt to conceal just how slow a writer I am. UPDATE: OK, twice now.)
It worried everyone from entertainment lawyers to pop culture critics, for reasons ranging from self-promotion-inspired sour grapes to legitimate concerns about the quality of storytelling that might result from a fan-driven campaign. And we wondered if the whole funding pattern looked a little uneven, with a focus that too heavily privileged the already privileged. Last year, Amanda Palmer raised more than a million dollars after looking for $100k to complete her record, book, and tour. What’s with all the overkill? (But this also comes in the wake of a study showing that Kickstarter’s pledges may be slowing down.)
We worried a little if it meant that smaller projects might get crowded out by the big name stars. So we had a closer look at what gets funded, and the results surprised us. We’re used to backing friends’ crowdfunded albums, films, and other audience-focused projects, so what we didn’t realise is that the projects that get the most funding are those in design and games. In fact, if you look at the numbers, design and games are particularly likely to end up overshooting their funding targets.
But then last week, a Maryland third-grader wanted to raise $829 to prove to her older brothers that girls could make games. At this moment, tiny fashionista and our new hero, Mackenzie Wilson, has raised more than $22,000. She said that she’d been inspired by the success of the Veronica Mars campaign. And in any case, we learned that it’s projects like Kenzie’s that get the most funding. Maybe we were a little too quick to judge.
It worried everyone from entertainment lawyers to pop culture critics, for reasons ranging from self-promotion-inspired sour grapes to legitimate concerns about the quality of storytelling that might result from a fan-driven campaign. And we wondered if the whole funding pattern looked a little uneven, with a focus that too heavily privileged the already privileged. Last year, Amanda Palmer raised more than a million dollars after looking for $100k to complete her record, book, and tour. What’s with all the overkill? (But this also comes in the wake of a study showing that Kickstarter’s pledges may be slowing down.)
We worried a little if it meant that smaller projects might get crowded out by the big name stars. So we had a closer look at what gets funded, and the results surprised us. We’re used to backing friends’ crowdfunded albums, films, and other audience-focused projects, so what we didn’t realise is that the projects that get the most funding are those in design and games. In fact, if you look at the numbers, design and games are particularly likely to end up overshooting their funding targets.
But then last week, a Maryland third-grader wanted to raise $829 to prove to her older brothers that girls could make games. At this moment, tiny fashionista and our new hero, Mackenzie Wilson, has raised more than $22,000. She said that she’d been inspired by the success of the Veronica Mars campaign. And in any case, we learned that it’s projects like Kenzie’s that get the most funding. Maybe we were a little too quick to judge.
Since I started writing this post, the Veronica Mars movie is up to $4,252,035. Is it because I’m slow or because it’s hot?