Why I'm Paying $20 for a 40 Minute Movie

Maybe it was too early to be anticipating the 2013 movie slate, especially considering how many 2012 movies have been delayed, but I had my heart set on seeing one particular film as soon as I heard about it: "Frank or Francis," the Charlie Kaufman scripted musical satire of the entertainment industry, that would have starred Jack Black, Kate Winslet, Steve Carell and many more. The assumption was that it would be shooting early in 2012, and be released some time in 2013. Now the project has fallen apart. While "Frank or Francis" isn't dead, there's no telling when it will ever be made, if at all. Kaufman is one of my favorite modern filmmakers and I was bitterly disappointed about the delay. It was my own fault, and I should have known better, but it's already been such a long wait since Kaufman's last major film, "Synecdoche, New York," the one that was responsible for my brief existential crisis back in the summer of 2009.

And then I heard about "Anomalisa," an animated short film that Kaufman has scripted for Starburns Industries Inc, a stop-motion animation outfit that's probably best known for their work on the "Community" Christmas special. Among the executive producers are recently ousted "Community" creator Dan Harmon, and Starburns himself, Dino Stamatopoulos. It's being funded through a Kickstarter campaign, which raised their minimum goal in eight days, but is still accepting pledges for funds through the beginning of September. I kicked in my $20, an amount that will get me a digital download of the finished film when it becomes available. Higher amounts net contributors fancier goodies, including signed scripts, DVDs, Blu-Rays, set visits, props, invitations to attend the premiere, and more. It's been estimated that "Anomalisa" will be finished sometime next May, which means the world will get at least 40 minutes of Kaufman-related media in 2013.

Okay, so I'm not really paying $20 to see "Anomalisa." I'm sure that once the short has been finished and distributed through the usual channels that I'll be able to find a way to see it for much less than that. However, I am contributing to the very existence of this piece of media, and that's a very new and empowering thing. After "Frank or Francis" went off the rails, and Harmon departed from "Community," it felt good to be able to do something for them, to signal that even if they were getting battered by Hollywood, they still had us plebes. If Anomalisa were a regular movie, being released by one of the studios, I don't know that I'd pay to see it in theaters, honestly. But since its very existence depends on those revenues, I find that I'm very willing to pay for my ticket well in advance, and with a healthy premium too. In fact, there are a lot of movies I'd pay extra to see exist, instead of having to choose from the endless flow of mainstream-approved sequels and remakes that Hollywood has been churning out.

Crowdfunding is a really fascinating new funding model, because it gives fans the opportunity to put their money where their mouth is at last and support their favorite artists with concrete contributions, not just cheerleading and fanart tributes. At the time of writing, over three thousand people have contributed to "Anomalisa," about half of them in the $20 tier with me. Sure, none of us have very deep pockets, but it adds up. And we've enjoyed a remarkably well-run campaign. The people in charge have responded to requests for different incentives, adding contribution tiers for Blu-Rays and digital downloads. They've answered questions, provided updates, and Harmon and Stamatopoulos appeared in a thank you video that went up on the site a few days ago. Right now it's only smaller productions that are being funded this way, and the amounts raised are miniscule next to the budgets of the usual Hollywood studio productions. Still, the $280K that "Anomalisa" has raised so far is no small amount of money in the right hands.

I wish the campaign were for the production of "Frank or Francis," for which I would happily increase my contribution by a considerable amount, but I think a film of that scope and size being funded through Kickstarter is a long way off. The potential is there, though, and I'm hopeful that this will become a viable alternative for certain kinds of risky, low-budget films and other media to get themselves funded. Hollywood has been getting more and more risk-averse, so I like that it's becoming easier for the general public to take up the slack. The mechanism is imperfect, and it's definitely not for everyone, but we're getting there. I may have had to remove "Frank or Francis" from my 2013 to-watch list, but now I get to add "Anomalisa."
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