Friday, January 16, 2015

Wait, What? What We Do in the Shadows American Release Kickstarter

For those living in LA, don't fret. What We Do in the Shadows, the mokumentary vampire movie film festivals have been going mad over, will have limited release here in February. For the rest of the country, but New York, you'll have to depend on Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi's Kickstarter. I was already going to write about the problems of Kickstarter today (Amplitude), but this is just another addition to why it's a problem for less than indie companies or groups.

First off, the film easily, easily could be on VOD and earn the makers of the film Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi money if they are in any financial problems, which I doubt because the film was partially funded by New Zealand's Film Commission and Funny or Die. Secondly, there is no doubt that Magnolia or IFC Midnight, etc could be the American distributor and get this film out in theaters.

Now the Kickstarter is asking for 400k for distribution in the US, which is quite a huge number to ask for fans to pay. There are few incentives for big fans like being an extra in their next film, but still.

Jemaine & Taika really haven't given a reason of why they can't distribute the film using the model that everyone else does, where an American distributor takes the film, takes a cut, and people around the country can see the movie.

I have to strongly disagree with this Kickstarter, it makes them seem nothing more than bloodsuckers, which sucks, it's a great horror comedy.

Even, Bloody Disgusting doesn't get why they're doing this.

Update: The good folks over at Twitch Film have gone over the somewhat strange decision of the team of the distribution deal they went with.The guys have sold home video / VOD distribution to The Orchard with Unison Films on theatrical release. Unison isn't known for wide release. So they made a deal with a company not known for wider releases in the US.

They made a poor decision on who was releasing it and are trying to correct it in a unfair Kickstarter to fans.

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