Help us Kickstart Tenspotting

At 2013 San Diego Comic Con, my friend Michael Patrick Sullivan and I came up with an idea for a short about Doctor Who cosplayers. That night over drinks, we expanded it with a couple of friends, and by the time we got back to our hotel rooms, we already had a plan.
Michael wrote a first draft, then I took over from there. Marisa Stotter, who we met that very night at SDCC, agreed to come on and produce. She is a producer who used Kickstarter to fund her feature documentary She Makes Comics with Respect Films, who she is also partnering with to put together our little film.

This is our Kickstarter page.

The story is about a woman named Angel, who fell in love with a Tenth Doctor cosplayer at last year's con, only she never got his number or his name, and now all she wants is to find him again. The problem? There are a zillion other Tenth Doctor cosplayers all around her, so she needs a strategy to find the perfect one - that one man who gets her and loves all the same things she does.

I mean, we've all been there, right? You have a hobby or an obsession. We all do, and we've all dated people who don't get it. I sat in on emocore concerts and Steelers games at Hooters and watched countless games of Halo trying to form a bond with someone. Wouldn't it be easier if the person you love is also obsessed with the stuff you love already?

But it goes beyond having stuff in common. Many of us come into relationships with a list of criteria we expect our partner to meet. Nobody likes to wast time, right? So how can you be sure you've found somebody worth your time? That's something we all struggle to figure out, no matter what genre TV shows we do or do not watch.

So Angel wants a Doctor Who fan, and now that she's met the perfect one, nobody else will do. She enlists her friend Tiffany to help her track him down. Can she find the right Doctor among all those men wearing the same costume? Or will she find something else instead?

That's the story. It's a nerd romcom. I know - Emily wrote a romcom? Crazy, right? I did write a brief fight scene into the script, though. No way am I letting this thing happen without at least somebody slapping somebody else in the face.

But it's really fun. It's filled with Doctor Who in-jokes, but we made sure it's also approachable for anyone who's not a fan of the show. It's just a fun story about a geek girl looking for a perfect match.

That's why Chloe Dykstra signed on to play Angel. She's one of the stars of Heroes of Cosplay and has hosted a million geek shows. If you know anything about cosplay, you probably know who she is. She's absolutely fantastic and I'm over the moon about working with her. She was our first choice for the role.

Angel's best friend Tamara will be played by Tiffany Smith, who you may recognize from G4's legendary Attack of the Show. She also hosts a zillion shows about geek culture. She's a huge comic book fan and is really excited about getting to play in this sandbox.

What I love most about having these two amazing women in our cast is that they are geek girls, out and proud. I've been in love with genre TV and film for a very long time, but I kept the level of my devotion largely to myself because geek girls aren't cool, right? If you're a girl and you like sci-fi shows or comic books or gaming or anything generally associated with geek culture, The common theory is that you're probably a fake, just doing it to get attention. Besides, only losers who live in their moms' basements like that stuff, right? That's the stereotype, but I think most of us know now that the stereotype is bullshit, and women like Chloe and Tiffany and Felicia Day are part of the reason why.

That's why this story is important to me. I love telling a story about a girl whose love of Doctor Who is a perfectly normal thing, just like loving a sports team.

Anyhow, our male lead, named Ben, is played by Kit Williamson, who writes/directs/stars in a series called Eastsiders and has played Ed on Mad Men for the last couple of seasons. He's perfect for this role on account of how he's fucking adorable.

So as you can see, we have a legit cast, a legit script, a legit crew and a legit producer. We have an interesting, largely unexplored setting (The Guild is the closest example) and a plan for distribution. What we don't have yet is all of our funding.

We're offering some cool rewards in return. We have some good stuff for filmmakers: a private tutorial on editing from our excellent director, Patrick Meaney; a private tutorial on cinematography from our excellent cinematographer, Jordan Rennert; I'm offering script notes, and we have script copies and a production diary available as well. Plus, you can get a one-of-a-kind drawing of yourself as the Doctor's companion or a cosplay photoshoot.

The video features my excited mug and charming cosplayer Stephan Reese, who made me laugh so hard we almost had to call the whole thing off. It's less than three minutes long, so take a look. And if you like any part of it, or if at some point in the last few years I have given you any insight into anything, or made you laugh, or motivated you at all - consider contributing to this short. It would mean the world to me.

Help us bring more great art into the world. Check out Tenspotting and then give us some money. Please.

And if that's not persuasive enough, listen to my adorable dog.

Confessions of a Veronica Mars Kickstarter Backer

One of these beefy gentlemen is my husband.

 I'll explain how this photo happened in a minute. But first-

Veronica Mars is one of my top five television shows of all time. I never missed an episode when it aired, and in the summer between seasons one and two I kept an unhealthy level of obsession with who was at the goddamn door. I watched the kissing scene on the balcony like a thousand times. I think "A Trip to the Dentist" is still one of the greatest episodes of television ever made. Every time I see a yellow Nissan Xtera, I still say "Hey, it's Logan!" 

MILD SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES:

When the third season ended, Veronica had just ruined her father's reputation through her own reckless behavior. Her entire college campus had seen her naked in a sex tape filmed and distributed without her consent. Her ex-boyfriend beat the tar out of a mobster who threatened him with certain death, and her current boyfriend still refused to cut his stupid hair. And suddenly, that was it. No more story.

SPOILERS OVER.

 You may not love Veronica Mars. You may never have understood it or even watched an episode, but at some point you've probably loved a show that was canceled. The vast majority of my readers are screenwriters, and I refuse to believe a screenwriter does not love a single show that's been canceled. If you haven't, you're either extremely lucky or you haven't loved enough. And if someone wanted to continue your favorite story and give it an ending, wouldn't you be excited?

I'm lucky to have loved shows that had a rebirth - Farscape and Firefly chief among them. I'm still waiting for Samurai Jack to go home or a Pushing Daisies... anything.

When Firefly was canceled, fans offered to pay for a second season. That would have been unrealistic even if Kickstarter had existed then, but the intent was there. If it's money you want - we have money! We will give it to you if you give us our show!

And we do pay for content. We pay for Hulu Plus and Netflix and Amazon Prime and cable and satellite and other services that allow us to watch the things we love. And I loved Veronica.

So when Twitter buzzed with the news that Rob Thomas had launched a Veronica Mars Kickstarter, I did not hesitate to check it out. I watched the video a million times because this is the most Veronica Mars we'd gotten in years. I read the fine print. I studied the rewards list. I made my choice and gave my money.

And ever since, people have given me shit.

Not me directly, but VM Kickstarter backers as a group have been sneered at by a lot of folks who think they know better how we should have spent our money.

According to some, anyone who contributed is a sucker who gave a studio money and only got a T-shirt in return.

Here's what I say to that:

Jog on.

I wanted a Veronica Mars movie. Without the Kickstarter: no movie. With the Kickstarter: movie. It was that simple. Is this setting a bad precedent? Is it going to make studios run to Kickstarter to fund all their movies now? First of all, not really, and second of all, that's not my problem. That's not Rob Thomas' problem. Rob Thomas wanted to get this movie made, as did we all. This was the way.

A friend of mine used to bring me to these Battlestar Galactica viewing parties with cast and crew members, and at one of them I told a director I was making a short film. He handed me $20 and wished me luck. I never saw him again. And that happens all the time in this town - the support for creative endeavors from other creatives is enormous. We all want to see good stories get told.

So yes, I gave my money. And when I did the math, I probably paid maybe $20 more for the items I got than I would have had I bought them independently. I'm okay with that.

Because what I really got was a great movie. The advantage all the naysayers weren't considering was that by circumventing the studio system to a degree (isn't that what we all say we want to do?) Rob Thomas was able to make a movie for the people who funded it - the fans. Instead of getting note after note and making a film that had to appeal to a broad audience at fan expense, he was able to indulge us in everything we loved about the series.

This film was exactly what I wanted. It's what I paid for. And I proudly wear my shirt and look at my poster, and when the Blu Ray comes I will watch it repeatedly.

The cast and crew knew how much trust we placed in them, and they didn't take it for granted. At the Paleyfest panel, they showed a documentary about the fans, and in every frame, as well as in the panel discussion that followed, there was a respect and love for the people who helped make this film happen. Yes, extras usually get paid to be in a movie and here were people who themselves paid for the privilege. But you know what? For professional extras, it's work. For these people, it was a chance to be part of something cool that they wouldn't otherwise get, and they don't regret it, so why should you regret it for them?

The guy in the picture up top in the red pants? That's Eric the Trainer, who trains tons of celebrity clients, including one Jason Dohring, AKA Logan Echolls. Through a mutual friend, I was able to go see the movie this week with Jason up there. He was polite and friendly (and I ain't gonna lie, handsome as hell in person), but when I told him I was a backer, he jumped up and hugged me and engaged me in conversation. It made my fucking day. I'm also pleased to announce that I did not embarrass myself, despite my internal squealing.

The entire time they made this film, the cast and crew knew exactly who they were making it for. You can see it in every frame of film. Is it a perfect movie?  Of course not. Is it everything I wanted as a fan? Fuck yes it is.

Here's one last thing. I never gave to Kickstarter before the Veronica Mars campaign. I have now given to nine funded projects in all, including comic books, short films, documentaries and a project that allows terminally ill children to write their own books. I think that's a pretty good precedent.

So don't you worry about how I decided to spend my money. You worry about your own spending habits. I chose wisely.