Today, Scrubs alum and all around white guy Zach Braff launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new film project titled Wish I Was Here. The $2,000,000 campaign is another in a long line of projects that the popular fundraising website has fostered since it's inception in 2009. The website began as a way for burgeoning artists of all kinds to find financial backing for projects that would otherwise go unnoticed. According to Braff, 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." Aside from the fact that Braff seems to be utilizing metaphors in the same way this CNN reporter does, it's a signifier of an alarming trend that has become prevalent in our crowd funded culture:
Kickstarter is being abused.
Much like SXSW, which started as a hub for emerging artists to get noticed before eventually being trampled to death by corporate interests yearning for indie credibility, Kickstarter has outgrown it's intended users. Considering the fact that no one pays for music anymore, it's become increasingly difficult for artists to not only make a living, but to even afford the insurmountable costs of producing new material. Buffalo based bands The Tins and Love Scenes have both successfully utilized Kickstarter to fund their most recent albums, producing original, forward thinking material in a town that's known for neither. For every Blissed Out Youth, however, there are countless Wish I Was Here's. A project like Braff's is insulting to up and coming artists because not only has Braff accumulated a significant amount of wealth during the 134 seasons of Scrubs, he's an award winning Director as well. Manic Pixie tendencies aside, the man has established himself in the arts community.
So why is this dangerous? The magnanimous side of me wants to allow fools to part with their money in any way they see fit. What these fools don't realize, however, is that Braff will likely sell his film at Sundance (another trampled indie festival) for well over $2 Million which, thanks to his Kickstarter campaign, will now be 100% profit. Do you still want to part with that $20 you desperately need for quaaludes? Defenders of Kickstarter will claim that this funding approach is an effective way to wipe out studio interference. Established author and Twitter loudmouth Bret Easton Ellis got his Canyons project off the ground and then some with Kickstarter. Their page cites that "we all experienced the frustrations of financing and institutional censorship. But now, with advances in digital photography and distribution, we can tell a story in the manner we choose". It reads like a rallying cry to break the shackles of money influenced ignorance, paving the way for provocative, thought provoking art. After checking out a scene from The Canyons, however, I'm inclined to accept that some scripts aren't meant to be greenlit.
Getting back to music, you can take the abuse of Kickstarter two ways. One: musicians are greedy ass holes, or Two: the state of the music industry is in such dire straits that even established artists can't make ends meet. Kickstarter funded albums seem like a direct result of a post Napster fanbase, unwilling to shell out cash for music. Instead, artists are asking fans to shell out cash they would normally use to buy the album ahead of time, with the promise of a copy given to them upon release (or other, more demeaning promises). This approach seems to make sense, and is proof that there is still a valid use for crowd funded campaigns. If bands can only score a profit by selling their music to Apple commercials, the least their fans can do is assist with their recording process to make that happen. The trouble comes with discerning the noble from the exploitative, it comes down to the user to decide who really deserves their hard earned money.
Speaking of which, this guy is raising funds to fight cancer, so there's that.
Braff is a tool