Dedicated Fans Bring Movie Back To Life, Contributing $346k In Just A Few Weeks

from the connecting-with-fans... dept

Fri, Oct 29th 2010 9:52am — Mike Masnick

A bunch of folks have sent over this story of how the author of the popular book Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller, had been working for years on turning the book into a movie, but in the middle of September, he posted to his website that it just wasn't going to happen, because the traditional funders of movies weren't interested in the movie. The book apparently is a sort of coming of age, semi-autobiographical story, involving aspects of the author's spiritual/religious journey. As Miller explained, while the book is a "Christian" book, it has elements in it that those who traditionally fund "Christian movies" didn't want to support (for example, something involving putting a giant condom on a church steeple...). And he suggested that, while the book has found an audience among students going through similar situations, those are not the people who generally fund movies.

Or, perhaps they are. Miller had been able to bring together some funding, but came up $125,000 short of what was needed for the indie film production (including some well-known actors). After saying that the project was dead, some fans apparently stepped up and suggested he try to raise the missing $125,000 on Kickstarter. In the course of about a month, not only did they hit the $125,000 mark in just one week, but fans of the book continued contributing to the cause, leading them to bring in $346,000 by the time the project closed.

That's a rather stunning amount. Prior to this, I believe the largest Kickstarter project had been the famous Diaspora distributed social networking project that got tons of press for breaking $100,000. Of course, no one is suggesting that this is the way to fund all films or that this will work in every case (we've certainly seen Kickstarter projects fail at times). However, it's yet another example of how really committed and engaged fans can make things happen where the old gatekeepers stood in the way.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: blue like jazz, donald miller, fan funding, funding, movies
Companies: kickstarter

17 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 10:15am

Expect the govt to come in and start regulating.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 10:17am

Pshaw
It'll never work for bigger or smaller productions...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Berenerd (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 10:25am

PLEASE THINK OF THE BIG LABEL EXECS!!!
How will they be able to fund their yacht expenses if you donate money to someone OTHER than them??? GAWD YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Derek Bredensteiner (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 10:28am

How big is the religion/belief factor?
"However, it's yet another example of how really committed and engaged fans can make things happen where the old gatekeepers stood in the way."

I'd wager that we'll see the largest "donation" oriented activities being successful in more situations like this where a bit of religious fervor is involved, regardless of it being a traditional or a modern religion such as this one. Not to discount the merits of this of course. I'm only suggesting that due to the history/upbringing of these individuals there's already a solid connection between "what I believe in" and "donate money towards that". And Mr. Miller is clearly connecting at a deep level with what they believe in.

Then again, we can see the exact same phenomena in activities like the previous "Ron Paul Moneybombs". Perhaps a different sort of religion, but fervor and connecting on a deep level with beliefs nonetheless.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 10:38am

Re: How big is the religion/belief factor?
Meh. Christianity, Buddism, Paulism, Whedonism... it's all about connecting with people. The framework of the connection is irrelevant.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
interval (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 10:43am

Hey...
More power to the guy. But I have to say, judging by "The book apparently is a sort of coming of age, semi-autobiographical story, involving aspects of the author's spiritual/religious journey." sounds about as interesting as watching milk turn sour.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
:Lobo Santo (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 10:44am

Re: Re: How big is the religion/belief factor?
The framework matters some--if the Whedonists well and truly believe reavers are coming for them... well, truly frightened people are capable of extraordinary things, some things we'd call crazy.

Believers (those who fervently believe their particular shared delusion is a fact) scare the crap out of me for exactly that reason; they're not making rational judgments based upon reality, but rather deterministic judgments based upon their false belief.

Those who know they're enjoying a shared fiction, on the other hand, I can well and truly appreciate.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
RadialSkid (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 10:49am

Re: Pshaw
And it's not repeatable, even after it's been repeated five or six times.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 11:10am

Re: Re: How big is the religion/belief factor?
I'm sure the Luddites would be pissed about this particular framework.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
droslovinia (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 11:16am

It's a great book
"Blue Like Jazz" is a really good book for Christians who want to challenge some long held (and wrong) assumptions and non-Christians who want to have some hope that maybe we're not all a bunch of pontificating nut-jobs.

That said, I have no idea how they'd make it into a movie, but I'd love to see the scene where they set up the "confession booth" to confess all the sins committed by the Church over the years. That's bound to draw some comments!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 11:31am

Re: Re: Re: How big is the religion/belief factor?
"The framework matters some--if the Whedonists well and truly believe reavers are coming for them... well, truly frightened people are capable of extraordinary things, some things we'd call crazy."

Ah. I see where you're coming from, but I have to disagree.

From the perspective of funding a project, the degree of belief only matters to the point where funding is made available. Sure, there are religious types who truly believe that the end times (or whatever) are here, and would conduct their lives accordingly. Likewise there a Whedonites who think that the Firefly universe should continue in any medium they can get their hands on. Now the former group certainly 'believe' in their message more than the latter group, but it's the money they can front that makes the difference in which project gets funded.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
:Lobo Santo (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 11:40am

Re: Re: Re: Re: How big is the religion/belief factor?
Agreed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 12:17pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: How big is the religion/belief factor?
The frak? You can't just agree in a civil manner! This is the Internet!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 12:47pm

Too bad
Too bad this didn't happen with Firefly.

I'm still bitter.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hoeppner, 29 Oct 2010 @ 2:38pm

People get payed big money in the movie industry because people like comfortable familiar names, and for what skill they process.

Even if the first part of the statement isn't as true as it once was it still is and will be for quite some time.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Derek Bredensteiner (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 2:48pm

Re: Re: How big is the religion/belief factor?
I disagree. There's clearly more power in some frameworks than others, if only because those frameworks encompass more aspects of the person's life and belief structure than others. Connecting with someone on the type of music they like will provide some opportunities to RtB if you can find a good RtB. Connecting with someone on their religion provides about 8 others, and has the added benefit of that persons "training" in donating cash on a regular basis to their cause, with the only minimal RtB provided as "spread the word".

Some connections are stronger than others. Some strong connections are easier to make than others if that person already has a strong set of beliefs surrounding it and you tap into those existing beliefs.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
hegemon13, 2 Nov 2010 @ 10:24am

Re: Too bad
Unfortunately, IIRC this would have paid for approximately 1/3 of one episode of Firefly. It was a very expensive show, which is part of the reason it was canceled so quickly. That, and the mangling of it's broadcast by Fox.

It would be great to see Firefly continued somehow as an actual series, but crowd-funding wouldn't pay for one episode's worth of Nathan Fillion's bill at this point.
[ link to this | view in thread ]