Thread: Zach Braff begs internet for money, gets over $1.4 million    

Thanks to Kickstarter, Zach Braff Finally Has Millions of Dollars - Hollywood Prospectus Blog - Grantland

In the video above, Braff explains why he avoided the traditional financing routes, and it's all the stuff you could have guessed: Money people make you choose different actors than you wanted, make you change your script, make you not able to do everything exactly the way you wanted, basically. Writes Braff, "I was about to sign a typical financing deal in order to get the money to make 'Wish I Was Here,' my follow up to 'Garden State.' It would have involved making a lot of sacrifices I think would have ultimately hurt the film." And that sound you hear is a million people simultaneously groaning.

The criticism is twofold. First, the thinking goes, the more that famous people take over Kickstarter, the less room or attention or money there'll be for small, plucky filmmakers with no name recognition who try to get their projects going the only way they can, through crowdsourcing. And second: He wants to make a sequel to Garden State, quite possibly the most maligned film of the last 10 years. Yes, of course, a lot of people love Garden State: I mean, the guy's got almost $10 billion off this damn Kickstarter already. But people who express opinions on the Internet, almost as a rule, despise Garden State down to its marrow.

Also aiding the backlash, presumably, is the cutesy story line for the project: "'Wish I Was Here' is the story of Aidan Bloom (played by me), a struggling actor, father and husband, who at 35 is still trying to find his identity; a purpose for his life. He and his wife are barely getting by financially and Aidan passes his time by fantasizing about being the great futuristic Space-Knight he'd always dreamed he'd be as a little kid. When his ailing father can no longer afford to pay for private school for his two kids (ages 5 and 12) and the only available public school is on its last legs, Aidan reluctantly agrees to attempt to home-school them. The result is some funny chaos, until Aidan decides to scrap the traditional academic curriculum and come up with his own. Through teaching them about life his way, Aidan gradually discovers some of the parts of himself he couldn't find."

This part right here isn't helping much either: "One of the cool things about being a backer is that you can get access to weekly song picks by me, and be the first group to stream the soundtrack."

People of Kickstarter: You gotta listen to music picked out weekly by Zach Braff (which he sends you in exchange for money he could have gotten elsewhere). It will change your life.

WISH I WAS HERE by Zach Braff -- Kickstarter

"Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something." - Thomas A. Edison

Zach? What is this?

I was about to sign a typical financing deal in order to get the money to make "Wish I Was Here," my follow up to “Garden State.” It would have involved making a lot of sacrifices I think would have ultimately hurt the film. I’ve been a backer for several projects on Kickstarter and thought the concept was fascinating and revolutionary for artists and innovators of all kinds. But I didn't imagine it could work on larger-scale projects. I was wrong.

After I saw the incredible way “Veronica Mars” fans rallied around Kristen Bell and her show’s creator Rob Thomas, I couldn’t help but think (like I'm sure so many other independent filmmakers did) maybe there is a new way to finance smaller, personal films that didn’t involve signing away all your artistic control.

Financing an independent film the traditional way often means having to give away your right to “the final cut,” casting choices, location choices and cutting down your script to make it shoot-able on the cheapest budget possible.

--snip--

I didn't hate Garden State as much as most people, I guess. It was a fine little movie, something original, Peter Sarsgaard was good, and I rather enjoyed Ian Holm's few scenes. I'm not usually a fan of someone who writes, directs, and stars in their own movie, but whatever. Back in the day I gave it 7/10 on IMDB, for what it's worth. But I tend to agree with the Grantland piece, Kickstarter shouldn't be for people who are a. already millionaires, and b. have access to Hollywood's purse strings.

What say you, BG? Did any of you dullards give Zach Braff your hard-earned money?

I like Braff's work generally, but I don't like the idea if someone who very likely has enough clout to get traditional financing using Kickstarter for it.

I liked Garden State as well, but I'm not giving money to someone like Zach Braff.

Very much enjoyed Garden State and I really like Braff's taste in music. He has turned me onto many songs that I never would have listened to otherwise.
That said I would not donate to this, but otherwise have no harsh opinions on his decision to go this route. Will look forward to his next film behind the camera.

I can't completely hate him for doing this, because if Nathan Fillion ever did this for firefly (he said he'd completely fund it if he had the money) I'd donate in a heartbeat. So I'd feel like a hypocrite if I bashed Braff for doing this.


With that said, I can't imagine why people would donate to this, and for w/e reason Braff has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Who's Zach Braff

Scrubs guy.

Originally Posted by Ksandra

I can't completely hate him for doing this, because if Nathan Fillion ever did this for firefly (he said he'd completely fund it if he had the money) I'd donate in a heartbeat. So I'd feel like a hypocrite if I bashed Braff for doing this.


With that said, I can't imagine why people would donate to this, and for w/e reason Braff has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Let's be real. If Nathan Fillion ever did this for Firefly he'd hit 1 million dollars in about 13 seconds.

Fuck Zach Braff. Now if the Janitor needed money to make a movie starring himself as the Janitor I'm all in.

Something I just realized that bugs me even more is that as both the director and main actor, Braff would probably be pocketing a fair amount of the Kickstarter money himself.

i see the same issue with pretty much everything anyone has been excited about on kickstarter ever. you're paying money to people who could go and find that money elsewhere or have it themselves.

kickstarter is risk free financing for rich game/movie producers.

How do you guys feel about the Veronica Mars movie then? I didn't donate to either, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited about the Veronica Mars movie (as evidenced by starting a thread when I heard about it..).

Man, I remember seeing an episode of Punk'd and Zach Braff was the biggest fucking douchebag to the kid. I think he said something like "I make more money then you will ever see" or some shit.

Dude always annoyed me on Scrubs as well, never saw the love for him.