Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Crowd-Funding

[kidc85]

Couldn't find this mentioned here yet: a new Kickstarter project from American Genre Film Archive in association with Something Weird Video.

Thanks for this.

A poster at Rock Shock Pop posted some further information from Lisa (Vraney's widow)

Hey Weirdos! We have some very exciting news! Something Weird has been working with AGFA (American Genre Film Archive) and Alamo Drafthouse on co-branding, releasing and preserving 10 of our most popular films from the SW archive, theatrically and in high-definition! Alamo CEO Tim League has been a longtime fan and admirer our founder, Mike Vraney, and Something Weird. They have already acquired some original film elements from SW (which will be forever preserved in their impressive archive) and plan to screen them theatrically at Alamo Drafthouse movie theatres. The next step is to transfer the films in 4K. For this they will be launching a Kickstarter to fund a film scanner so that they can do their own transfers in-house. The Kickstarter campaign is active and I hope you all participate!

Before everyone freaks out, let us say that, even before Mike got sick and died, it was fully his intention to eventually sell the company to the highest bidder. Basically, he was done after Friedman died. Mike wanted to pursue other interests (mainly collecting more stuff and publishing coffee table books of his paper archives.) He knew that being the custodian of literally hundreds of tons of film is an overwhelming responsibility. But unfortunately, Mike died before we could find the right home for SW film archive. And he left this task in his widow, Lisa Petrucci's, fully capable hands.

Something Weird will continue chugging along as it has been selling DVDs and Downloads. Eventually we hope to find just the right home(s) for our massive film archive.

So show your love, support and enthusiasm for Something Weird and exploitation cinema by contributing to AGFA's Kickstarter!

I think this sounds great. SWV is a great endeavour and although their DVDs are always jam-packed (I think Vinegar Syndrome's output is sadly lacking in the crazy short film bonus department), I never thought their encodes (on top of frequently poor prints - although I'm happy to forgive this) were up to much.

[djvaso]

LOBSTER FILMS CALLS FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THEIR BUSTER KEATON FILM RESTORATION!

[knives]

That's a pretty good example of the poor rewards system we've been talking about. One free viewing of films I already have on DVD or Blu-ray? Merci indeed.

[Gregory]

It seems like one would have to almost want to fail to not reach the readily attainable goal of €45,000 for a major Buster Keaton restoration initiative, but it's currently only trending toward about half of that goal.

[hearthesilence]

Lobster Films is raising money to restore all of Buster Keaton's shorts. If you have the current Blu-Ray box set of Keaton's shorts, you'll know that there's huge room for improvement. Compare them to the PQ of, say, The General which was done from the OCN. Massive difference.

EDIT: Sorry, this was already posted!

[domino harvey]

I must have missed this the first or second go around, but I just got an email about the above Keaton Kickstarter and it's worth reiterating that it features the worst contribution bonuses I've ever seen outside of delusional wannabees who were never in danger of getting funded anyways. Amazingly awful-- "Hey, for $100, here's some fucking postcards"

[EddieLarkin]

Cohen already initiated a restoration project via the Cineteca di Bologna, which has no links to this Lobster project. More information and some sniping between affiliates of the two parties here.

[tenia]

I must have missed this the first or second go around, but I just got an email about the above Keaton Kickstarter and it's worth reiterating that it features the worst contribution bonuses I've ever seen outside of delusional wannabees who were never in danger of getting funded anyways. Amazingly awful-- "Hey, for $100, here's some fucking postcards"

My thought exactly, to which Lobster answered that this is a call to fund the restorations, not a video release (being on DVD or on BD) and that this is not a commercial operation in their mind, but a way to compensate for the drawback of a significant financial partner on these restorations, hence the IMO unworthy rewards.

So basically : except if you want to be a sponsor, you shouldn't expect worthy rewards. It's all the more baffling since Bologna is doing the same kind of work in parallel, so it would be more constructive for Lobster to liaise with them rather trying to raise a parallel funding.

[rockysds]

Spector Books and Jonas Mekas are kickstarting a book of his writings: Scrapbook of the Sixties.

[sir_luke]

Help bring back MST3K!

[Alphonse Tram]

$2.2 million to make three of these? I'm no MST3K expert, but wasn't the whole thing just three Silhouettes gabbing over B-Movies (Sometime public domain)
I don't see any financial breakdown of how the money is going to be spent, does it really cost that much to make one of these?

[rspaight]

Seems like a lot to me, too. Jim Mallon had the rights to MST3K, so I assume Hodgson bought him out recently in order to do this. Maybe he's also trying to recoup some of that. (Although the Kickstarter page obliquely suggests that Shout! Factory put some money in the pot, too.)

[Minkin]

"Something's Not Right About the New, Crowdfunded 'Mystery Science Theater 3000"

This seems concerning as it appears that none of the promised "cameos" (or people previously involved with the show) want anything to do with this reboot. The whole reboot sounds like Shout's doing and that everyone's been burned by Mallon/Best Brains enough already to want to deal with it again.

I don't feel too optimistic about the new MST3K. I'm sure it will reach more than its goal, but the quality of whatever we get will most likely disappoint everyone (especially since they won't have any of the original writers or anybody other than Joel). I do think Mike/Kevin was the core to the strength of the writing and this can easily be seen in the comparison of quality between Cinematic Titanic and Rifftrax. I'm not going to expect another season 4/5, but at least something decent (equal to or better than CT). Here's hoping whoever they hire for every position can muster up something worthwhile.

[Ashirg]

Since Warner is not interested in providing retrospective extras on their Hammer Collection, there is this kickstarter campaign to produce a film and blu-ray of HAMMER HORROR: THE WARNER BROS YEARS. Only 67 hours to go and for $35 + shipping you can get the blu-ray + can get some exclusive posters for more money. One of the questions one might have is answered - PLEASE NOTE: the blu-ray will be professionally replicated, NOT burned.

[mfunk9786]

Nerdist's Jonah Ray will be the 3rd host of MST3K

I find the co-hosts on the Nerdist podcast considerably annoying in most cases (and don't know one from the other, so just in general), but can't really make a judgment call on whether this is good news or not since the guy obviously knows the tone of the show and what Joel will want it to be. It probably could be worse. If anything, his tweets on the subject seem to indicate that his heart is very much in the right place.

I donated at the $100 tier. MST3K brought so much joy into my childhood, and into my adult life (it's easily the most frequent thing my wife and I go to bed watching in our bedroom each night) that I feel like I owe Hodgson some money just as a thank you, let alone as a contribution to a continuation of this series. Of course it'll disappoint and of course it won't live up to the heights of the original and of course there'll be issues with the tone and rhythm and charm of these new episodes. There's no way this wouldn't be the case. But I'd feel silly not to try and contribute to what must be a pretty cathartic thing for Hodgson after having the show ripped away from him two decades ago by an overreaching and opportunistic former collaborator.

[kidc85]

A restorer behind MANOS wants to do the same for THE ATOMIC BRAIN. There are "currently no plans to distribute [it] on physical media beyond this campaign", so if you're interested you'll need to pay $50 for the blu-ray (or DVD). There's also a 1080p download for $15.

Part-time Guardian writer and filmmaker Charlie Lyne is going to make the BBFC watch paint dry. As of today his submission is going to be at least 8 hours long and the campaign still has 23 days to go. Even with discussion in his spiel about how the BBFC's tariff makes it "prohibitively expensive [for] independent filmmakers", I can't see this as (effective) protest or satire, but it is an impishly funny idea.

[TMDaines]

I hope it gets above £6,000 to beat Out 1.

[bunuelian]

I gave to the Jodorowsky kickstarter. I have no expectations at all about the film, though Dance with Reality is wonderful. I just love the idea of having a small part in helping him make another film. It feels like a concrete step toward averting a tragedy. His promo video where he takes cash from his wallet with such disgust worked well on me, I suppose. And I mostly gave just to get the awesome Jodo currency. It's a pretty loaded incentive package.

[colinr0380]

One of the chaps from Nitrateville, Edward Lorusso, has a new Kickstarter up. He's done this a few times before and it's been a really interesting run of projects. Essentially he pays the LoC (or a private collector in this instance) to scan an unreleased-on-home-video silent, he commissions a composer and then rewards his backers with the DVD(-R, I believe). This time around it's for the Cecil B DeMille / Gloria Swanson flick FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE.

Edward Lorusso's next Kickstarter project has just been set up, this time for the 1921 silent Ducks and Drakes starring Bebe Daniels.

[pet42]

Who the F*@% is Frank Zappa? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/al ... rank-zappa

[jorencain]

That FZ project is a massive undertaking. I pledged some money towards it, and I hope that they're able to achieve their goal of saving the vaults.

[domino harvey]

Kickstarter for Blu-ray/DVD combo of Marion Davies-starring When Knighthood Was in Flower-- only $25 for the Blu-ray combo

[Luke M]

Kickstarter for Blu-ray/DVD combo of Marion Davies-starring When Knighthood Was in Flower-- only $25 for the Blu-ray combo

Backed.

[sir_luke]

Sure didn't take long to get funded!

[matrixschmatrix]

Crosspost from the animation list thread-

For those interested, there's an IndieGoGo campaign for a second disc of Fischinger shorts