Actor and filmmaker Zach Braff has raised more than $2.5m on Kickstarter so far to make a movie called ‘Wish I Was Here‘, but not everyone is impressed with his chutzpah. Emmy-winning writer/director Ken Levine is making waves with a blog post titled ‘I won’t give Zach Braff one dime’ in which he criticises the project. “The idea – and it’s a great one – is that Kickstarter allows filmmakers who otherwise would have NO access to Hollywood and NO access to serious investors to scrounge up enough money to make their movies,” he writes. “Zach Braff has contacts. Zach Braff has a name. Zach Braff has a track record. Zach Braff has residuals. He can get in a room with money people. He is represented by a major talent agency.” Braff has addressed the criticism in a video interview, noting that he’s spending an “ass-ton” of his own money on his project. “Making a tiny art film is not where people go to to make money. This is a passion project,” he says. It reminds us of a blog post by Amanda Palmer earlier this year (Bulletin, 15-Feb-13) in which she defended Bjork’s right to use Kickstarter (“she should – ANY artist should – be allowed to take advantage of the direct-to-audience tools that are available to us”). But the spirited debate over whether you can be too big for Kickstarter looks set to rage on.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…