THE REVOLUTION

I love the idea of there being a site like kickstarter.com around to help aspiring filmmakers make their dreams come true. The purpose of the site is to help everyone that has some sort of entertainment related dream make that dream come true without having to go through 20,000 middlemen. It really irritates me when well established celebrities with means decide that they want to be a "part" of the revolution. The fact is that when people like Zach Braff decide to use their star power and name to get a project funded they are taking the playing field and turning it into their own personal playground. If I had to compare it to anything it would be to the US men's basketball team being comprised of all pro players and wining the gold by destroying the opposition which is comprised of less experienced players. It's true that not every kickstarter project reaches its goal but a lot of the ones that do go on to launch very successful careers.

Why does this bother me? I read an article about Kevin Smith stating that he would fund Clerks 3 with his own money because he did not want to take away from indy filmmakers that used kickstarter as a way to realize their ambitions. Why do stars that have access to funding or that have the money themselves fail to follow the Kevin Smith example? Many of the kickstarter projects that don't get financed actually have a lot of potential based on their descriptions alone. It's easy to have your project financed if you are a celebrity because everyone that gives a dollar is going to thump their chest saying "I helped Zach Braff" or " I helped the Veronica Mars people." My question to the people funding the celebrity project is: Do you honestly think you will get a heartfelt thank you" Do you think that these celebrities will give you a second thought in the future?

I will say Garden State was a pretty good film and I did enjoy Scrubs but I don't agree with someone using his name to fund a damn vanity project. There are a lot of legit talents whose only chance comes from sites like kickstarter and now they have to step back because the Scrubs guy wants to fund a project that will likely earn over 20 million and net him probably 2 or 3 million of that to say the least. I say if you are going to donate, donate to projects that really need it. Let established celebrities use their name, connections, and own dime for their projects. It's bullshit that celebrities want to take mediums like this instead of using their own means. Zach Braff has already raised a cool million and chances are he will raise what he needs in the allotted time. Does anyone know about Dov Simens' movie cloud project?

Chances are high no one knows about the Dov Simens project and how it attempts to give the indy people their shot.

Seriously if you want to give someone a chance give it to someone that wants to help the process and not step in the fucking way. Also look to projects that try to educate people on how to improve their chances of making it in the industry. Look at people like Gary W. Goldstein, trying to help people either establish their career or further enhance it. Here is an idea for a serious revolution "SAY NO TO CELEBRITIES" Share this blog on your facebook, twitter, anywhere and fucking say no to celebrities. You have the power so use it to protect your own territory, the globe is wide open because of social media the territory is getting easier to navigate so SAY NO TO CELEBRITIES!