Browncoatsriseagain.com finished.

POSTED BY: everyworldspinnin
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 04:36
VIEWED: 13874
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EVERYWORLDSPINNIN

Thursday, January 19, 2006 4:07 AM

Sorry if this is a dupe, but I didn't see it elsewhere. Saw on slashdot tonight that the site has given up it's fundraising efforts, and refunded the money already raised. From the site:

Quote:
We stopped taking donations today, not because of the bitterness, but because of a television producer who got a hold of me and taught me a little more about the inside of the television world. It was an authentic perspective I was not aware of.

It's about not being an albatross around Joss' neck. A lot of decisions in Film/TV are made on an emotional level. We were approaching this entirely from a logical level (nerds that we are). It was made clear to me that a decision maker would react badly to fan's money being involved in the production no matter how it was presented.

I thought an albatross was good luck 'til some idiot killed it.

Anyone know what was said? Andrew, if you're reading this, I'd like to know.

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Child One: "Republicans aren't real."
Child Two: "Full well they are!"

PRINCESSROHANNEN

Thursday, January 19, 2006 4:23 AM

I'd be interested in knowing the details, too. I can imagine a few reasons that fanfunds would look bad. A decision-maker might draw the conclusion that Whedon was praying off of his fans and coercing them into it, for one.

Maybe we could all wear sandwich-boards that read "Bring back Firefly!" I wonder if that would have any adverse effects?

ZIIANARKIST

Thursday, January 19, 2006 7:00 AM

All I told the guy up front was that using PayPal for donations would lead to an account freeze and having fans’ money happily seized by PayPal for one ‘suspicion’ or another..

We all wanted him to contact real people, which is the only way guys like him learn (for themselves, firsthand) why just slapping together a snazzy website with a witty domain name and taking trusting strangers' money for a heartfelt project such as the revival of firefly never works.

BROWNCOATSRISEAGAIN wanted to 'revolutionize' television with fan-funded content, which is all well and good in theory, trusting a director and content creation team to go their own way - but makes the directors and team legally liable, as in class-action lawsuit liable, for going in directions deeply unfavorable to the fan base or for consistently going over budget or for one of the actors getting greedy/going nuts etc.

Quote:
"It's our money, we're your fans, why are you guys doing that [to us]?"

There are a few other downsides to this I don't much have the patience to type out, and I'll agree that the current system gets a lot of good shows killed off while CSI gets seven spin-offs, but it *is* in fact the best we can do.

The fans want or even need control of the content they watch but here's the problem: No one wants to risk money on an unknown, just as we were reluctant to help BROWNCOATSRISEAGAIN despite badly wanting to, especially not a group of strangers giving millions of US_Dollars worth to another group of strangers with an unproven idea. But those who can afford to risk money will want creative control or even ownership of the intellectual property ("Twentieth Century Fox Television" for instance?) for the sake of protecting their investments. Only when the Big Wigs take a risk and make a hit, then rape it and leave it bleeding from the ears on the side of the road to be mourned by a sympathetic and angry fan base do these said strangers gather in enough numbers to aid a not-so-unknown group of strangers to assist them in reviving a project they no longer have a right to help on their own.

The system we have leaves the fan base out of the loop, we are essentially Whedon fans just as much as we are Browncoats, but it's all that really works, and we’re stuck at square one, screaming Give our dedication another chance! into an uncaring darkness.

===============
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CBY

Thursday, January 19, 2006 4:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by ZiiAnarkist:
All I told the guy up front was that using PayPal for donations would lead to an account freeze and having fans’ money happily seized by PayPal for one ‘suspicion’ or another..

They had nothing to do with it as far as I understand it.

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RHIZOD

Thursday, January 19, 2006 8:55 PM

The sad thing is, if fan-money could be directed in a way that worked, I think an effort like this could really fund a tv-series.

I just did some math on the current poll running here at fireflyfans. Summing up the *minimum* yearly contribution people have voted for gives (if I get this right):
($100*0.3781 + $50*0.2289 + $40*0.1140 + $10*0.109 + $20*0.1066 + $30*0.0635)*7327

EQUALS $431'870; and thats only from people at this fatsite (well, discouting multiple votes, I guess...)

Well, I realize web-poll data is inherently inaccurate; but this at least gives some indication of the proportions we are talking about here...

In any case, I just don't understand why somebody cannot do this properly;

Set up an echonomical foundation with formalized rules stating that its wealth should be directed by its board of directors to be used to set up fan-based TV, and in particular act to get Firefly back. It would be best if the foundation could be created with official ties to a well known and trustable organization that partially shares similar goals, for example the EFF. In that case at least I would be convinced to donate some significant cash.

Generate enough media buzz, and wait for the money to roll in. When enough money has come in, the plan would be something like:
1. Buy the rights to the series from Fox.
2. Let the foundations board of directors hire organisatory people with experience in media production.
3. Let them hire Joss and supervise his production (just like an ordinary media company would do)
4. Release the episodes as freely downloadable files on internet and/or press DVDs selling for the cost of pressing + distribution. (That this is the goal should probably be documented in the foundation's rules)

Well, I'm sure people will flame me for all the errors in this buissniessplan... But it seems good to me :)

ANONYMOUS1

Friday, January 20, 2006 2:51 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by ZiiAnarkist:
we’re stuck at square one, screaming Give our dedication another chance! into an uncaring darkness.

I think we are at square six.

Square one was when Firefly was cancelled.
Square two was when Joss got approval to make Serenity from Universal.
Square three was when Firefly was released on DVD.
Square five was when Serenity was released to theaters.
Square six was when Serenity was released to DVD.

We will not go back to square one unless they stop making the Serenity and Firefly DVDs. Everyone could not get to a theater, but we can all get to a store that carries the DVDs or Amazon.com . (Serenity UMDs at BestBuy maybe other stores) (Serenity VHS www.walmart.com $20.48)

Give our dedication time.

How many Serenity DVDs do you think they produced? Will they produce more--if we keep buying them?

Lots of gift giving opportunities out there. Birthdays, charity drives, libraries. Christmas time again.

ZALIUM

Friday, January 20, 2006 3:34 AM

that was a great idea but he don't develop it enough. if the main company like fox, universal, wb,... can't produce the tv show we want nothing stop us to produce it. The main idea it's to create a company that will produce what we want! the investor will be the consumer. the compagny will release the show over internet for like nothing about 2 to 5 buck an episode so nobody will put it on a p2p program or bittorrent and the tv show will also be deliver in dvd at the price of the market or below it. the fact is that major company did what they do to earn cash but this thing will just live to create good stuff and all the profit will be use for paying the employes and the development of product no more big profit useless, just enough to survive. like wikipedia... maybe wikitv ;)

ZIIANARKIST

Friday, January 20, 2006 4:01 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by CBY:
Quote:
Originally posted by ZiiAnarkist:
All I told the guy up front was that using PayPal for donations would lead to an account freeze and having fans’ money happily seized by PayPal for one ‘suspicion’ or another..

They had nothing to do with it as far as I understand it.

No, PayPal had very little to do with it, as it wouldn't have been more than an hour's work converting donations to another credit-card acceptance system, but I warned him initially simply to say that should he continue, PayPal will stuff him simply because they can.

I'd be interested to know exactly what this 'producer' contact of his told him that finally discouraged his efforts. It would be enormously helpful in our efforts to show support for the series outside of forcing ourselves to buy merchandise and more and more DVD box sets. Not that buying more boxed sets is at all a bad idea.

Quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous1:
Quote:
Originally posted by ZiiAnarkist:
we’re stuck at square one, screaming Give our dedication another chance! into an uncaring darkness.

I think we are at square six.

By 'square one' I suppose I meant the physical efforts involved in reviving the television series.

I didn't so much like the way the movie turned out in that it was written in the context of farewell and good bye! and I would hope, should the series return, that Serenity be designated a different piece of a different continuum of the 'verse, if not just for the sake of bringing everyone back (Badger!) and alleviating the many difficulties the crew would now face in a post-Miranda-scandal and post-omigod-they-killed-Wash! 'verse, and damn whatever confusion it may cause to see Wash and Book alive again.

An opinion merely.

ANONYMOUS1

Friday, January 20, 2006 4:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by ZiiAnarkist:
we’re stuck at square one, screaming Give our dedication another chance! into an uncaring darkness.

Quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous1:
I think we are at square six.

Quote:
Originally posted by ZiiAnarkist:
By 'square one' I suppose I meant the physical efforts involved in reviving the television series.

You didn't think it was funny to say we are at square six?

Would you edit your post and put ****** over the spoilers or change it somehow? I figure there are like 6 billion people that we still haven't gotten to see the movie yet. Let's see 6 billion DVDs at $20 a piece...

Quote:
Originally posted by zalium:
if the main company like fox, universal, wb,... can't produce the tv show we want nothing stop us to produce it. The main idea it's to create a company that will produce what we want!

But what we want is Firefly or Serenity.

FOX owns the rights to Firefly. Universal owns the rights to Serenity. You cannot produce a Firefly show without Fox's permission or sale of those rights. Universal is going to decide if there is a sequel to Serenity.

Just keep spreading the 'verse. We just have to reach the tipping point.

And remember River can at least hear ghosts. Maybe she can see them too.

BROWNCOATSRISEAGAIN

Friday, January 20, 2006 5:18 AM

Sorry I didn't see this thread earlier as the thread I started got banished to the troll dungeon (not sure it deserved that but I respect the judgement of the admins of this forum).

The producer that I talked to was not afffiliated with Firefly or Serenity. He has worked with some big names but that is for him to reveal if he wants.

He helped me see that fan money even if given to Joss represents a loss of power to the decision makers at the studios involved. They want full control over what they do and often will make decisions not based on logic, but the emotion of the moment. Films and TV shows often do not get made because the person in charge of the decision doesn't like the maker of the show (happens everywhere in life but is magnified in entertainment where relatively few shows are made versus not made).

So without Joss' approval my site could have caused him some damage if it continued. The dead albatross around the neck showing up at every pitch meeting (and not just Firefly/Serenity meetings either but everywhere in the Whedonverse).

So realizing this, I shut down the site as quick as I could. We were getting the slashot effect right as we were doing it too. I was afraid I was going to have to refund a lot of money.

In the end, we collected almost $1400 in 36 hours. Everyone got every one of their pennies back. If anyone here did not, please contact me and I will make it right.

So, what's next? Well, today we had a meeting with the fellow who started www.fireflyseason2.com. We are working out how we can help each other out and I hope that all of you go over there and fill out his short survey.

We will relaunch our website by next week outlining simple things every Browncoat can do to help and grow the site over time.

I have gotten countless e-mails and have tried to answer every one of them. There are a LOT of good ideas. I'm just another person on the internet just like all of you. Don't be afraid to try out your ideas. Now, don't make the same mistake I did and not clue in the fanbase (boy hindsight is 20/20 and I apologize again!) but try out your ideas all the same. The worst thing that could happen is you could be ostracized on an internet forum board. :)

Kindest regards,

Andrew
www.browncoatsriseagain.com

P.S. As I said, I'll be around. I love this 'verse and will continue to try to help it as best I can.

P.P.S. BIGREDBUTTON, I would appreciate it if you could find some time to talk to me. E-mail, phone, or IM. Thanks.

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