As you may tell from the initial image macro (sorry about that, by the way) this isn't a review of Zach Braff's film "Wish I Was Here". It was supposed to be, but because of transpired events that did not go through. You may have heard of it, and you may not have heard of it, but it affect several people both within the USA but mostly outside of it. But first, let us look into what my specific perk promised to me:
For thirty US dollars my perk's headline feature was a "backer's thank you screening". This was advertised as a "first of its kind live group movie screening across the world". There were supposed to be at least three of them so that people could watch the one that fit their schedule the best, and it would work with computers and mobile devices alike. After each screening there were also going to be a Q&A with Zach Braff where he'd "answer as many of your questions about the film as I can". You'd also get access to a sneak peek of the soundtrack, weekly playlists put together by Zach, a production diary, and the script itself.
Sounds simple enough, right? You'd get to watch the film and partake in a Q&A afterwards. All in all 22,387 people paid for the privilege to attend the backer's screening.
Come July 4th this year (13+ months since the campaigns completion) I received a mail instructing me to save the date for July 11th (a week later). On this day you'd be able to start screening "Wish I Was Here". It would last from 5pm (PDT) on the 11th until 10pm on the 12th. They informed us that because there were "so many of [us]" around the world and in different time zones they would drop the idea of hosting three live screenings and instead just let people watch it whenever within that day. Okay. So we paid for three different live screenings, but we're getting one. I guess it makes sense. It could be hard to best plan it out so that anyone would be happy with at least one of the screening times. Giving us a day could sort that out. No biggie. No mention of a Q&A though.
July 11th rolls around and about two hours before the screening is supposed to start we get a second e-mail informing us about how it's going to happen. It's on a third-party service and we'll get a custom link that will take us to view the film when clicked (it will also keep track of who it is that's watching it). There's also a big spiel on not copying, filming, or sharing the film. Because they don't want their distributors to get angry.
Then the screening time comes. No e-mail. Five minutes in I get my e-mail with my own link, but I heard of some people who waited for as long as three to four hours. Which isn't exactly an negligible delay. I go through the e-mail, a lot of spiel again about not clicking the link right away. The moment you click it you'll only have three hours to watch it (Really? Why?), and to e-mail the support of the site if anything goes wrong. Then I clicked the link. It took me directly to a page labelled "you've been geoblocked". My first reaction was of course "what?" I tried re-loading. Nothing. I tried activating a VPN service I use (which I really shouldn't have had to do). Nothing. There's a short message from the site. "Your country has been geoblocked, please click this link to go to a survey to get a compensation reward". I click through and it's a short surveymonkey survey asking for my name and address (which Zach and co should have already). After filling it out I immediately e-mail the service to figure out if this was intentional, or if maybe they'd done goofed. Maybe this was some standard error page, and they'd accidentally sent me there. The answer I got said otherwise. "Per the Wish I Was Here team, please fill out this survey with your [blah blah] so they can be in touch about your alternate reward". So not only was this real, it was per the wishes of Zach himself. How do I know Zach was behind it? Because I sent a message through their Kickstarter 'contact me' feature where a lovely Coco confirmed that only herself and Zach were managing the campaign/project. The whole reason Zach went through Kickstarter was so that he wouldn't have to deal with meddling producers, so he was really the top man (at least that's the image he put out). So it really sucks hearing him being behind you not getting to enjoy the perk you paid for over a year earlier. Even better, in the message through Kickstarter Coco said "this was a last minute thing so we have been scrambling". The screening was far from a last minute thing. You knew about it 14 months prior, you just put off doing something about it until last minute.
On July 13th I got a simple e-mail. It started with the specification "Dear Backers in Norway", and went on to say how sad they were that we didn't get to watch the film. And they were going to do everything they could. "It may take a few days for us to sort this out". This e-mail was from a brand new account that had not been used for communications before, but the name "wiwhscreenings2" suggested that we would at least get the screenings we were promised. Just not at the same time as everyone else for some stupid reason.
Then there was a long, long silence. Not until July 16th did I get a new e-mail. It was about the Q&As. Apparently the long-promised sessions were going to be split between two twitter accounts, a Reddit AMA and a live YouTube video for backers only. The AMA was fair enough, though it seemed weird to include that as it's pretty standard PR these days, same with the twitter accounts. Especially considering how infamously bad some of those are. But the YouTube video had promised. At least some. Until you realise that they only scheduled 30 minutes for it. Only between 4:30 PM and 5 PM was Zach going to sit in front a camera and answer our questions. "This is only for you wonderful Kickstarter Backers", my ass. Not to mention that the video itself was made public shortly after the end of the Q&A, so only the question giving was backer exclusive. Though the fact that all questions were read off of notes makes me wonder exactly where those questions came from.
Oh, and did I notice that yet again did we only get a few hours notice? He was doing Q&As on a Thursday, when most people have work, and only bothered to tell people the day before.
The e-mail had some good news, though. It said that international backers were welcome to the Q&A, but we would get our own "down the line". Suggesting that we would indeed get a screening of the film as well.
Then there is today. I spent my evening going through his Reddit AMA, and one answer in particular held more information about the screening problems than any mail we had gotten earlier. You can read that here, but the gist is as follows:
- Zach admits he never really had any clues about streaming content globally, or how geoblocking and international rights works.
- Zach promises he will make it right, he "will not let [us] down".
- "Just give me a little time to launch the movie in USA and Canada and then all of my attention will turn to international for August and September"
Uhm, what? August and September? The biggest appeal of the online screening was that we would get it before the US premiere. It wasn't promised in the Kickstarter, but most people got to watch it then. Not to mention the fact that the film will start rolling out in the UK (one of the countries with troubles) by then anyhow. I understand that making a film is hard work, and launching one takes a lot of time and effort. But if you can't be bothered to take care of the people who paid for you to make your film, then you don't have your priorities right. This isn't some run-of-the-mill production where having foreign gross is a nice bonus. You told us we could back you, and we did for the promise to watch the film. We didn't do any shady deal in an alley.
As it stands not a single headline feature of my perk has gone through. I haven't gotten an online screening, and I haven't gotten a following Q&A where I can actually ask questions about the film I just watched. The fact that you don't seem super intent on solving this problem is troubling at best, and disturbing at worst. I backed your campaign because I was a fan of you, Zach. Not anymore. I have lost the respect I had for you as an artist, and as an online personality. I remember you going on and on in your Kickstarter video about how you hated producers who wanted to meddle in your project and make you change it around. The fact that your film is getting slaughtered by critics and you can't even put together a screening for those who paid for it makes me think you need those people above you. You clearly don't have the ability to put anything on this scale through. You will not get any more money from me.
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