One of the exciting things about being interested in fandom and writing a blog is that I never know where it will take me (for those of us interest in fandom the ultimate dream is a thesis at university). This particular post is about the fandom world of Veronica Mars, the movie. I first came across Veronica Mars, the movie and their fandom several months ago while researching on the Internet (devoted fans are known as marshmallows).The fans of the cancelled television series had raised millions of dollars to bring back the story in a movie format. Many of them had paid to be in the movie as extras (James Franco the actor, writer and director who wrote the article I attached to my previous post had a cameo role in it).
Last week at San Diego’s Comic-Con, the Veronica Mars fandom
won the best fandom at the first ever mtvU Fandom Awards. They were up against
stiff competition that included, the Teen Wolf fandom (for raising more than $25
000 to build a wolf sanctuary), the Community and Hannibal fandoms (for get
their favourite shows renewed for a further season) and Supernatural (Mischa
Collins and the fans of the series created “Random Acts,” raising money for
charitable organisations).
The San Diego Comic-Con event was attended by Josh
Rottenberg who wrote an interesting article on modern day fandom called “Comic-Con, Hollywood and nature of modern
fandom” and published by the Los Angeles Times on 1 August 2014. He writes
about many of the positive aspects of fandom, dressing up in costumes and
bringing people together to express their love of particular cultural phenomenon. However,
there was something unique about this Comic-Con in that it was also about the
fans and the fandoms and the newly created mtvU Fandom Awards.
The author briefly touches upon the negative aspects of
fandom for example, bullying, the bullying campaigns against actors cast in popular
roles and fan funded movies like Veronica Mars. "Veronica
Mars" fans may have brought the long-canceled show to the big screen with
their Kickstarter donations, but, despite all the talk of the revolutionary
power of crowd-funding, the movie ultimately proved a box office dud, grossing
just over $3 million”. Fandom literature does tend to focus on an incredible amount of positive
creativity and neglect the negative which I am interested in.
After researching Veronica Mars, the movie, the loss of profit expectations was more than a dud movie. According to an article published in the Sydney Morning “Veronica Mars' most devoted fans upset at their Kickstarter movie 'reward” by Matt Bungard on March 14 2014, Veronica Mars’ fans who invested in the movie were not given what they were promised. “When a Veronica Mars movie project was unveiled on popular crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter, the campaign quickly gathered momentum as devoted fans (or Marshmallows) emptied their pockets to the tune of $5,702,153, the most ever raised at the time. If a fan donated $35 or more, they were promised a "digital copy" of the film on its release date, March 14. All in all, there were 91,858 backers for the film, with more than 50,000 of those donating enough to receive a copy of the movie”…
Fans were in for a rude shock, however, when they found out that in order to watch the film, they had to register for both social film website Flixster and cloud-based streaming service UltraViolet. Following this, users were forced to watch the movie inside an app, rather than actually have a downloaded copy of the film which could be watched anywhere, or transferred to a different device…Advertisement This digital copy, which was locked to Flixster, also only came in standard definition…For many, their response was to turn to Amazon or iTunes – effectively buying it twice – or torrenting websites for a copy of the film". Therefore creating some unhappy and short-changed fans whom would have, I imagined spread the story throughout the social media world.
Today, five months later I bought Veronica Mars, the movie on DVD for $ 15 just to see what all the hype was about. It was $3 cheaper than Google Play. Enclosed was a pamphlet outlining how I could access a free digital copy on a device of my choice of the movie by setting up an account with Flixster and Ultraviolet the source of a lot of grief of the fans who invested in the film. But the horse has bolted. Fans who tried to do a good dead and help out the movie industry and through no fault of their own were done over by movie companies doing exclusive deals with digital providers.
Yes, I can understand why these fans turned to piracy in
these circumstances. Yes, I agree with the author of the article television
shows or movies who get fans caught up in red tape have no one to blame
themselves if fans turn to pirating. Whether fans continue to put their money
to fund projects such as this movie we will have to wait and see.
From geekytyrant.com (no copyright infringement intended)
“Comic Con, Hollywood and nature of modern fandom” by Josh Rottenberg published 1 August 2014 in the LA Times (no copyright infringement)
At the annual Comic-Con International expo,
pop-culture fandom is elevated to veritable religious status, and the
convention's 130,000-odd attendees have countless ways to worship at the altars
of their choosing.
Want to dress up as a Stormtrooper? Suit
yourself. Want to buy a bobblehead doll of your favorite movie character? Go
for it. Want to stand in line for hours for the chance to be in the same room
as the stars of your most cherished TV series? Right this way. Want to
stand outside the San Diego Convention Center holding a sign that says
"Kneel Before Zod"? Knock yourself out.
At this year's Comic-Con, though, there was
something new, a particular place where fans could gather to essentially pay
tribute to themselves: the first-ever mtvU Fandom Awards, held at Petco Park
for a crowd of roughly 4,500 convention-goers. There are other awards shows in
which fans vote for the winners: The People's Choice Awards, The Teen Choice
Awards, The Kids' Choice Awards, basically anything with the word "choice."
But the Fandom Awards were conceived as the first awards show in which the
fans, not the stars, would actually be the winners.
“When you see all the enthusiasm fans have for
their favorite TV shows and movies and the way they’re expressing it online
through fan fiction, fan art and Tumblr — it just seemed like it would be great
if we could come up with a franchise that would embrace that passion,”
Ryan Kroft, MTV’s senior vice president of
specials and events, explained. Categories were designed to reflect the
way fans engage with their favorite movies and shows, and celebrities on hand,
including Channing Tatum, Chloe Grace Moretz and others, were instructed to
keep their speeches focused squarely on the fans. "'Game of Thrones'
fans are the best fans in the world!" actress Natalie Dormer announced
when she collected the award for OMG Moment of the Year for the HBO series'
"Purple Wedding" episode. "'Veronica Mars' fans are the
best!" actress Tina Majorino enthused on accepting the Fandom of the Year
award for the legions of "Mars" fans who helped bring the erstwhile
TV series back to life on the big screen through a Kickstarter campaign.
You can call it pandering (or
"fan-dering") if you like. But in many ways the Fandom Awards — and
the entire circus of salesmanship Comic-Con has become over the years —
represent the logical evolution of film and television creators' increasingly
sophisticated, and increasingly urgent, efforts to capture audiences'
enthusiasm.
In this digital age, fans are easier to reach
than ever — and yet more fragmented and fickle than ever. With all of us awash
in a vast and ever-expanding sea of entertainment options, most available at
the click of a button or the swipe of a finger, it's little wonder Hollywood is
looking for new and innovative ways to court, or supplicate itself to, every
potential ticket buyer or binge-watcher it can.
Fans, of course, are more than happy to be treated
like royalty. As the late film critic Roger Ebert noted in his 2009 review of
the movie "Fanboys," there is an undeniable solipsistic and
self-celebratory quality to much of fandom, a sense of being part of an elect
tribe defined by taste.
"A lot of fans are basically fans of fandom
itself," Ebert wrote. "It's all about them. They have mastered the
'Star Wars' or 'Star Trek' universes or whatever, but their objects of
veneration are useful mainly as a backdrop to their own devotion. Anyone who
would camp out in a tent on the sidewalk for weeks in order to be first in line
for a movie is more into camping on the sidewalk than movies.”
Consider the tsunami of Twitter hate actor Ben
Affleck received on being named as the new Batman in Zack Snyder's upcoming
"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" (which, perhaps not
surprisingly, turned into uproarious cheers when Affleck took the stage at
Comic-Con). Or, more troublingly, read through some of the vicious and often blatantly
sexist comments Village Voice critic Stephanie Zacharek received from some
diehard comic-book fans for writing a negative review of the new superhero
space opera "Guardians of the Galaxy."
Despite all of its efforts, it's unclear
whether Hollywood will ever figure out how to harness fan enthusiasm —be it
through social media, Comic-Con, or any other avenues — in a way that
consistently translates into profits. "Veronica Mars" fans may have
brought the long-canceled show to the big screen with their Kickstarter
donations, but, despite all the talk of the revolutionary power of
crowd-funding, the movie ultimately proved a box office dud, grossing just over
$3 million.
As former Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart
wrote last week on Deadline.com, "One studio chief told me recently that
all social marketing represents is a road map for spending less money while
still failing to find an audience."
Nevertheless, this much is certain: As long as
there are people so devoted to their favorite films and TV series that they
will make a pilgrimage to San Diego and stand in endless lines in 80-degree
heat, the creators and stars of those movies and shows will be there to meet them with bells on. Or maybe even
Stormtrooper costumes.
Veronica Mars'
most devoted fans upset at their Kickstarter movie 'reward' by Matt Bungburg 17
March 2014. Sydney Morning Herald (no copyright infringement intended)
Some fans who donated to the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign
are furious that they are not getting what they felt they were promised.
What's the worst way to reward some
50,000 fans who donated to your cause? By not giving them the promised reward.
Or, at least, the reward in a format they're accustomed to.
When a Veronica Mars movie project was unveiled on popular
crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter, the campaign quickly gathered momentum as
devoted fans (or Marshmallows) emptied their pockets to the tune of $5,702,153,
the most ever raised at the time.
If a fan donated $35 or more, they were
promised a "digital copy" of the film on its release date, March 14.
All in all, there were 91,858 backers for the film, with more than 50,000 of
those donating enough to receive a copy of the movie.
Fans were in for a rude shock, however,
when they found out that in order to watch the film, they had to register for
both social film website Flixster and cloud-based streaming service
UltraViolet. Following this, users were forced to watch the movie inside an
app, rather than actually have a downloaded copy of the film which could be
watched anywhere, or transferred to a different device. This digital copy,
which was locked to Flixster, also only came in standard definition.
These might seem like the definition of
first world problems, but in an age where companies are fighting harder than
ever against online piracy, you would think that making it easier to acquire
media legitimately would be top priority. For many, their response was to turn
to Amazon or iTunes – effectively buying it twice – or torrenting websites for
a copy of the film.
Director Rob Thomas was quick to try
and appease fans after negative feedback, saying "we've always planned to
include Flixster as a digital distribution platform. But I also know that many
of you use iTunes, Amazon or other platforms, and would prefer to claim your
digital copies on your favourite service, so we hoped we'd also be able to
arrange for more options. Unfortunately, it just wasn't possible. In the end,
Flixster was the best option for getting the digital movie reward out to all of
you, worldwide, at the same time."
Warner Bros US has said it will
compensate fans who contacted customer support after buying the film elsewhere.
A spokesman for Warner Bros Australia told Fairfax that they were unaware of
any backlash from Australian fans.
This is not the first time that fans
have tried to purchase or acquire one of their favourite shows/films by legal
means only to get caught up in red tape. In 2013, many Australian fans of Arrested Development tried to buy the
long-awaited fourth season through Netflix, only to run into problems with
geo-blockers. In the end, when illegal downloading is just easier, can movie
and television studios really blame anyone but themselves?
