WGTC: So, given your experience, are IndieGoGo and Kickstarter the go-to route for indie films now? Is crowdsourcing the future of independent filmmaking?
Eric Falconer: It’s a big part of it. One of the coolest things was when we first started working with Kickstarter, and we came with a proposal to make our donors into investors. We wanted them to participate in having a profit at the end. We didn’t want it to just be you send us a donation and get a t-shirt, but instead have it be money you invest, and you actually own a piece of the movie. This way, when it succeeds, you make your money back, maybe with some interest.
What we found out is that was illegal. Congress had passed a law just the year before, saying that crowdfunding is not an investment. Since then, I believe very recently, they’ve overturned that law. I don’t think Kickstarter or IndieGoGo have taken the measures to incorporate that into their way of doing business yet, but I think that’s the future. Having anyone donate their $10 or $100 or $100,000 – whatever people want to put in – and invest to take that risk. Like any movie producer would.
WGTC: That’s interesting, because one of the biggest crowdfunding complaints is that you don’t see a kickback, except for maybe a t-shirt or poster. Don’t get me wrong, perks are great, but monetary gain is a whole different ballgame. I honestly had no idea the law was overturned, so this could be exciting.
Eric Falconer: I think it’s the way things should be. I personally know a lot of people who have done Kickstarter and IndieGoGo projects, where every dollar they raise is going back into their own pocket threefold, tenfold – whatever it’s going to be. I think that people should be allowed to invest what they want to invest.
Alan Ritchson: One thing that’s kind of ugly to us is that we’re also in a lot of these Hollywood studio systems, and you see executives who are foaming at the mouth for what they call “free money” – which is anything but free. We had to work harder than anyone who earns $1.9 million dollars – we worked ten times harder to make that money. It’s definitely not free. We have a different perspective. But under their definition, it’s essentially free because there’s no return. They’re lusting over that. It’s really ugly because these are the people who have enough money to make movies if they want, but they’d rather take money from fans who don’t have these resources a lot of the time.
These fans are hungry for the material, though. They’re so hungry for content that isn’t regurgitated. They want something that’s original, interesting, and that speaks to where they are in their world. These fans deserve to participate, even in a small way, in their efforts to help get this stuff made – but we hope the future is even brighter for people who are participating in this new culture, and how we’re sharing and creating content as a whole.
WGTC: Did you always plan Blue Mountain State to be a four-year show that covered an entire college career, or were you going as far as the show would go? It lasted three glorious years on air, but getting cut off on that third season left so many questions – and now we have Blue Mountain State: The Rise Of Thadland. Is this the end, the beginning of the end, or the dawning of a new chapter?
Eric Falconer: We talked about it a lot. Four years would have been great, to be able to close out in some way. When we were doing the series, we always thought about four seasons. Then we thought, “If they wanted a fifth season, how would we do that?” We talked a lot about Friday Night Lights, and the way they handled it – which I thought was great. Even when some of the characters would graduate, or move on from the team, those characters were kept alive in the world. New characters were still being introduced, and it kept feeling like a fresh show season after season. With the exception of Season 2…[Laughs]
Then when we got to making Blue Mountain State: The Rise Of Thadland, that was the conversation we had. Do we close it out? Do we open it up? We tried to do both. This movie likes to have its cake and eat it, too. We close certain things out, but it also feels like a new beginning. Our goal ultimately is to do more of these. We want the show back, or we want to do more movies. The way that we left things, we can go anywhere from here with all of our characters.
Romanski: Me being 53 and playing a horny mascot may be a hard buy [Laughs], but I hope for that as well.
