The 4 Steps to Getting an Idea
Ideas are mysterious things because they're produced by the subconscious. Nonetheless, there is a technique we can consciously employ that will help the subconscious do its work. Episode #1 of The Remix Method, my new series about using remix techniques to do creative work.
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Kickstarter Lessons Learned and Budget Breakdown
Below is the final Kickstarter Update for our successful fall campaign in which we raised enough funds to produce this spring's video Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens. We're sharing it here on the site in hopes that it may be insightful for backers and crowdfunders alike.
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Hi everyone!
We want to close out this amazing Kickstarter experience with a little recap of lessons learned and some behind-the-scenes numbers.
Here’s our frank assessment of our performance on Kickstarter thus far. We’ve done one good campaign (this one, The Five Year Anniversary Celebration) and one so-so campaign (This is Not a Conspiracy Theory). This campaign for the Five Year Anniversary Celebration went pretty much according to plan. We made the best quality rewards we could, and delivered them roughly on schedule. And we got to make an exciting new installment to the Everything is a Remix series that was an instant hit with fans and media alike. We hope we’ve pleased our backers and we’ve heard lots of good feedback along the way. In sharp contrast, This is Not a Conspiracy Theory is a gigantically ambitious project that outgrew the bounds of its funding and timeline. Kirby is very proud of the work he’s doing on TINACT, but has lingering guilt about how long it’s taking.
So we’ve done a good Kickstarter and a mediocre one. Here’s some of the lessons we’ve learned and mistakes we’ve made.
Lessons Learned
- Pulling off a Kickstarter campaign on your own is tough. Kirby designed and executed the campaign for This is Not a Conspiracy Theory on his own and it proved very difficult to handle all the creative and logistical challenges.
- There were two of us working on and supporting this Five Year Anniversary Celebration campaign. That means we had two people designing it, running the numbers, promoting it, executing rewards fulfillment, and communicating with our backers. With a two-person team we made less mistakes and had the required manpower to get everything done.
- Doing a crowdfunded project means you are getting into the customer service business. You need to have the time and resources to devote to keeping your backers happy and meeting your promises.
- We kept the scale of this project as small as possible. The bigger and more ambitious the project, the more likely it will change shape dramatically as it develops. That means you might deliver something much different than you intended, and it means it might take way longer than anticipated. For those large-scale projects, we recommend doing as much work as possible before Kickstarting, which will vastly reduce its complexity.
- Kickstarter takes a percentage of the funds raised (obviously), but this is also applied to shipping money collected, not just reward pledges. We didn’t take this into account which decreased our margins a bit.
- We ran the Kickstarter in fall 2015 and postage increased in January 2016. So shipping collected for the campaign didn’t go as far as we calculated. And for one reward level, the price changed enough that we lost $3-5 on shipping on every international backer.
- Printing expensive $15+ international postage is really nerve wracking. Hoping you got the address right, hoping it makes it through customs, hoping it makes it to the backer, hoping it has the right combination of rewards. If any one of those goes wrong, it’s a very costly mistake. If a batch goes wrong, it’s a disastrous mistake.
- Adding the color options to the rewards greatly complicated prepping, manufacturing, packing, and shipping. We wouldn’t do it again and recommend keeping the combinations of rewards as limited as possible.
Budget Breakdown
- Total Pledged: $24,125.00
- Dropped Backers: 2% (people who pledged but didn’t end up giving us money)
- Kickstarter Fees: 8% (Kickstarter’s cut of the campaign)
- Shipping and Handling Costs: 17% (packing and mailing rewards to backers)
- Manufacturing Costs: 26% (getting the t-shirts and posters made)
- Taxes: 12% (well, we all know what that is)
- Net Profit: 35% (the money that went into our bank account and funded video production)
The new Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens video took seven weeks full-time to research, write, and produce. The net profit of $8,443.75 funded six weeks of that production time. Costs for our two person operation include the hours it takes to research, write, produce, and promote the video, as well as direct expenses like media and research materials, software, hardware, administrative infrastructure, and health insurance coverage.
Final Thanks
In these final moments of this project, we’d like to express our immense gratitude for your support. All backers large and small made this possible and we really enjoyed getting to make another Everything is a Remix video. We hope you enjoyed it too, and that it gave you a new tool of thought for how to approach your work and creative life. As a reminder to keep aiming for both the novel and the familiar, go grab the new Everything is a Remix desktop wallpaper.
We also want to thank the backers who pledged at the sponsorship level. These funds were essential to reaching our stretch goal and underwrote much of production. Thank you so much to Ramon Vullings of Cross-Industry Innovation, Mike Pendleton of pro-voke, and Ray Kimber.
If you’d like to keep up with the latest videos and other projects from us, sign up for our (infrequent) newsletter.
And there you have it. This Kickstarter is done! Thanks so much everyone!!!
Best!
Kirby & Nora
"Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens" Transcript
This is the transcript for the video Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens, which can be viewed above. The purpose of this post is to make the video more easily indexed by our algorithmic overlords. So if you haven't seen the video, click play. If you have, there's nothing to see here so please move along. But buy something before that.
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Star Wars fans had a rough ride for many years. First George Lucas recut the original films to incorporate garish, artificial-looking CGI. Then he produced a trio of popular but largely disliked prequels that featured more garish, artificial-looking CGI along with flat characters, convoluted plots, and Jar Jar. Light sabres were wilting among the faithful.
The JJ Abrams directed The Force Awakens was the Star Wars movie fans were looking for, and it was greeted with overwhelming praise. But even among those who loved it, there was a recurring criticism.
This core complaint was echoed more strongly elsewhere. It was called “the biggest fan film ever made.” Some claimed our culture suffers from a “nostalgia problem”. Others said it was an indicator of the “stagnation and repetition” of our collective imagination. And the film was also called a remix, which seemed to not be a compliment. It was even dubbed “the apotheosis of remix culture, its logical endpoint.”
The remix method of copying, transforming and combining is definitely used in The Force Awakens, as well as the other works of JJ Abrams. Is remixing a weak point in The Force Awakens? Is the remix method growing stale? Have we reached the limits of remixing?
JJ Abrams is well acquainted with the concept of remixing, but he’s a different kind of remixer than George Lucas. Lucas tended to copy scenes and shots, while Abrams tends to copy major story elements. This is something he’s done from the very beginning of his career, and his earliest screenplays loyally follow established story templates.
Taking Care of Business is about a rich man and a poor man swapping identities, a formula that was established in Mark Twain’s Prince and the Pauper then used in many films, including the hit Trading Places.
Regarding Henry came in the midst of a trend of films about people with intellectual disabilities teaching us life lessons and being adorable.
In Gone Fishin’ the disaster prone lead characters narrowly escape a string of misfortunes and triumph in the end, a comedy tradition that dates back to at least Buster Keaton.
Abrams’ voice becomes more distinct as he starts to transform and combine his sources more.
The influence of Steven Speilberg emerges in Joy Ride, a killer truck movie that resembles Speilberg’s Duel crossed with a road trip film.
The TV series Felicity was his take on the popular self-aware teen drama genre of the nineties and incorporates some unusual elements, like a Twilight Zone-style episode and this shocking twist. Which perhaps he picked up from the previous year’s Meet Joe Black.
His next show, Alias, was a Felicity-like college drama crossed with a spy thriller.
Abrams first big success was Lost, which took the stranded on an island genre of Survivor and Castaway and added the nonlinear timeline popularized by Quentin Tarantino and the surreal plot twists of The Twilight Zone.
Since graduating to the big screen, Abrams specialty has been rebooting familiar material.
Mission Impossible III was an Alias-like version of the Tom Cruise vehicle and renewed an aging franchise.
Super 8 was directed in the stye of Spielberg and resembled a monster movie version of ET.
And his Star Trek films successfully relaunched the franchise while pleasing most — if not all — of the existing fans.
So with this knack for updating and refreshing familiar material, Abrams brought his remix-like approach to Star Wars Episode VII.
The Force Awakens incorporates a bit of George Lucas-style remixing. There’s a shot inspired by Apocalypse Now. The x-wings skimming over the water was taken from the film Firefox. And the sword fight in gently falling snow recalls Kill Bill, which itself copied Lady Snowblood.
But most of the remixing in The Force Awakens is of story elements, and the primary source is Episode IV: A New Hope.
- In both films, an old Jedi must be found.
- Vital information is tucked away in a cute droid.
- On a desert planet, the droid is found by a young orphan.
- Storm troopers search for the vital information and kill innocent people.
- Our heroes narrowly escape in the millennium falcon.
- The orphan forms a relationship with an elder figure.
- Han Solo has a confrontation with someone he owes money.
- There’s a space bar filled with wacky creatures, where our heroes are stared at in silence for a moment.
- The villains have a planet-like weapon that destroys planets. They demonstrate this power by destroying a planet. This is also the second time this has happened in a JJ Abrams film.
- The villain murders the elder figure, which the orphan witnesses.
- The heroes go into the planet-like weapon to incapacitate something.
- Ships fly down a trench, shoot a particular spot, and destroy it. This is the third time this has happened. There’s even a joke: which suggests there’s a twist coming. But then there isn’t.
And there’s also elements copied from the original Star Wars that seem like they really should have been changed.
The First Order, like the Empire, is modeled on Nazis, despite there being no significant nazi threats since 1945.
And the Jedi are again a semi-mythical clan, despite sensationally saving the galaxy only a few decades earlier. Perhaps the record keeping was left to the ewoks.
The film certainly isn’t all copying. There’s plenty of transforming as well, especially in the characters. The hero is a woman, another lead is a former stormtrooper, and the villain is a raging, failure-prone fanboy. These changes provide some of the freshest narratives.
So The Force Awakens clearly is a remix — but so is everything else. For as long as humans have been creating, we have been copying, transforming and combining. The issue isn’t the remixing, it’s that the film is heavy on copying, and lighter on transforming and combining.
But this was an intentional choice. The Force Awakens was designed to be familiar because we love the familiar. That’s why more and more of Hollywood’s top hits are new versions of old stories.
But the familiar isn’t the only thing we love. We’re also attracted to the novel, the unusual, the innovative. This is a smaller, riskier market but it’s influential and it’s where many of the most enduring films are born.
The familiar and the novel both appeal to us. Think of them as two halves of a spectrum. Box office hits tend to land on the left, critical hits tend to land on the right. But some films land right in the middle, like the original Star Wars.
It felt very novel because it blended previously unrelated sources into a highly unusual and innovative package. Yet it also felt very familiar because it copied something well known: the mythical structure of countless heroic tales of the past. The result was something that strongly appealed to our desires for both the familiar and the novel.
This target between the novel and the familiar is something we can all aim for. We can make our novel ideas more accessible and understandable and perhaps more impactful by copying familiar elements. And we can make our familiar ideas more fresh, exciting and surprising by extensively remixing from diverse sources. And if you can create that perfect hybrid of the new and old, the results can be explosive.
One last thing.
In the book, The Art of the Force Awakens you can get a glimpse of the remix method at work. All these tags are references to remixing.
This illustration includes an image of a water bear, a weird little microscopic creature.
This one is a recreation of this shot of the Nazi’s Nurembourg rally.
This early image of Snoke was based on the Lincoln Memorial.
Rey’s speeder is a combination of Luke’s speeder and a tractor.
Maz Kanata was inspired by Abrams’ high school teacher, Rose Gilbert.
And with this image the artist thought he was copying this scene from The Right Stuff, which he thought featured a girl dressed as a mermaid — but it doesn’t. So he thought was copying, but we actually transforming.
And one last piece of evidence that suggests the team behind The Force Awakens were intentionally employing the remix method is Rey’s last name: Mixer. Rey Mixer.
Or perhaps someone working on the book was just having a little fun. You be the judge.
The Evolution of My Editing (2010-2015)
For those interested in how my work has evolved over the years, check out the GIF above to see the timelines of my videos morphing over the years. (They look different beginning with This is Not a Conspiracy Theory Episode 1 because I switched from Final Cut to Premiere Pro.)
There was also an unseen leap in complexity between TINACT 1 and 2 because Nora and I started producing our own music, which spawned additional timelines in Logic Pro and Ableton Live. Also not apparent is the rise of collaborator contributions from people like Louis Wesolowsky, Adam Farnsworth and Joshua Michie. Their work in After Effects and Cinema 4d is only seen here as simple clips.
Nonetheless, the steady increase in the density of the edits is still apparent. By TINACT 3, the most sophisticated thing I've produced yet, the timeline has practically become a wall of clips.
Below is an early look at TINACT 4, which I've just resumed production on. As you can see, it's still early, but this episode will likely be even more intricate than TINACT 3.
If you haven't yet purchased This is Not a Conspiracy Theory, you can do so here. Episode 1 can be watched for free.
Kickstarter enters its final week! Help us take Remix in a new direction!!!
Take our online poll to help us choose a new video topic! bit.ly/25MaZ4s
Back us on Kickstarter to make new videos possible! bit.ly/1stMXZY
We recently posted a poll to gauge our audience's interest in various Remix topics. And what we found out was really interesting! People not only want a new Everything is a Remix video, they want to see me try something totally different. So I'd like to explore that path a bit further. I'm doing another poll with some rough Not Everything is a Remix ideas and I'd like you to rank them.
Violence A personal exploration of violence in our culture and my own relationship with it.
Media Analysis of the 2016 Election This isn’t news or opinion about the election, it would be meta analysis of the media coverage itself.
And lastly, How True Is... I take a look at nonfiction or nonfiction-inspired films, and determine how truthful they are.
Here's the poll where you can rank the topics: bit.ly/25MaZ4s
I love both these directions and I'd like to develop both ideas, a new Everything is a Remix video and a Not Everything is a Remix video. To help make this happen we are running a Kickstarter, and if we can hit 20k I can put a new Everything is a Remix into our production pipeline. And if we get above 20k that would be amazing. If we can reach 50k the proceeds would fund production for at least four months and we could get Not Everything is a Remix into the pipeline as well.
Go here to back us on Kickstarter! We've got awesome t-shirts, a new collectors' edition book for fans, and sponsorship opportunities for companies and individuals that want to underwrite production. This is the last week to help make these videos happen! We hope you'll consider supporting our videos that continue to inspire, educate, and entertain audiences worldwide.
Help translate Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens
For you bilingual Remix fans, we could use your help translating "Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens" into other languages. Head over to Amara to add your language. All contributions are welcome, and you don't need to translate the entire video. Just do what you can, then someone else can pick it up from there.
These subtitles will ultimately be added to both YouTube and Vimeo.
Help us choose the next Everything is a Remix video!
Wow, the response to the first week of the Kickstarter and the new Everything is a Remix video has been amazing! Thanks so much!!! The video is already a Vimeo Staff Pick and has been featured in Boing Boing, Daring Fireball, Slate, and Filmmaker Magazine, among many, many others. We’re excited to take backer rewards to the printer and get our supporters some awesome t-shirts and get to writing “The Remix Method: Beta Edition.”
Now that we’ve hit the goal, half of every dollar we receive during this Kickstarter goes toward making new free video content (the other half goes to printing the t-shirt and mailing them out). If you pledge to this Kickstarter and want even more than 50% to go towards funding new videos from me, consider adding $5, $10, or $20 to your reward selection. If you want 100% to go towards video production, just click "No thanks, I just want to help the project" when prompted to select a reward.
Proceeds from this Kickstarter help support the time and resources it takes for our two-person operation to produce these videos. For example, the Force Awakens video took seven weeks full-time to research, write, and produce.
If we hit $20,000 we can definitely produce another Everything is a Remix video. But we’re going to aim big and try to hit $50,000. These proceeds would underwrite us for at least four months. That means we can take on fewer clients for the rest of 2016 and have time to produce more free videos.
To get to $50,000 will definitely require some larger backers. So if you're interested in booking me for a talk or becoming an underwriter, please get in touch. Or if you know anyone who might be interested, please forward us to them.
Alright, on to audience participation! We're seeking your input on what to do next. I’ve set up a poll where you can rank ideas for potential videos. This is just info gathering, not a public commitment to anything, but I’m interested to find out what’s most exciting to you guys. Here's your choices.
Everything is a Remix: Kanye An audio-centric investigation into the work of Kanye West. This will be designed first and foremost as an audio piece and the visuals will likely be more restrained and simplified than usual.
Everything is a Remix: Video Games This one will involve considerable crowdsourcing because I’m not a gamer. So I only know the basic premise: I’ll look into remixing in video games.
Everything is a Remix: Blurred Lines The “Blurred Lines” case is the most important copyright suit since the conclusion of the original Remix series. I’ll compare “Blurred Lines” to its inspiration, Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up,” and also investigate Gaye’s sources.
Not Everything is a Remix This is simple: take the storytelling and reasoning style of Everything is a Remix and use it on a totally different topic. For instance: How do we get ideas? Why are our brains attracted to tabloid headlines? What is the ideology of The 700 Club?
Here’s a link to the poll. It only takes a few seconds to fill out!
http://kirbyferguson.polldaddy.com/s/kirby-ferguson-video-ideas
A note about the ideas above: these are early concepts and might change radically once I start developing them.
And if you haven't backed yet, you can head over to Kickstarter now!
Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens
The remix method of copying, transforming and combining is definitely used in The Force Awakens, as well as the other works of JJ Abrams. Is remixing a weak point in The Force Awakens? Is the remix method growing stale? Have we reached the limits of remixing?
Back us on Kickstarter to get Star Wars inspired t-shirts: bit.ly/1stMXZY
Back us on Patreon to support Kirby: patreon.com/kirbyferguson?ty=h
Get Kirby's acclaimed new series 'This is Not a Conspiracy Theory': thisisnotaconspiracytheory.com/series
Thank You For Your Support
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The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens: amzn.to/1rUENKc
Music Featured
"Rey's Theme," John Williams: amzn.to/1rUDXwV
"Bunsen Burner," CUTS: amzn.to/22gucpj
"They Won't See Me," The Field: amzn.to/23XB1eT
Movies & TV Featured
The Force Awakens: amzn.to/1TpnV8J
Star Wars Episodes IV-VI: amzn.to/23XAXvv
Star Wars Trilogy Episodes I-III: amzn.to/1steyug
Web Videos and Articles Features
The Force Awakens Trailer (Official) REACTION!!!, Tyrone Magnus
youtube.com/watch?v=NwvGP9EkBzM
Star Wars Force Awakens Final Trailer Reaction Megan, SawdustFilms
youtube.com/watch?v=LwHrBVOQ8qU
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Official TRAILER REACTION & REVIEW!!!, The Reel Rejects
youtube.com/watch?v=7oZJrKrhJB0
Trailer Reaction: Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Movieclips Trailers
youtube.com/watch?v=LQMo6cVGq9o
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer (Official) Reaction!, Superhero News
youtube.com/watch?v=E1QVZr242GA
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" - Trailer Reaction!, Dillon Garland
youtube.com/watch?v=xw8kCD77JzI
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer Reaction, ColliderVideos
youtube.com/watch?v=RQsbeMtfWg4
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Movie Review, Chris Stuckmann
youtube.com/watch?v=zBMW3y86cpo
Star Wars: Force Awakens Reaction, boogie2988
youtube.com/watch?v=7iGMgJ6H8E8
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review!, Screen Junkies
youtube.com/watch?v=rh_84ExOdhU
Star Wars: The Force Awakens gets 4 out of 5 stars, CBC News
youtube.com/watch?v=efkrvCFmZcA
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Angry Movie Review, AngryJoeShow
youtube.com/watch?v=hipPC2UfYBY
Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie review, Jeremy Jahns
youtube.com/watch?v=UNfqzpCgu9k
Star Wars: The Force Awakens — The Verge reaction roundtable, The Verge
youtube.com/watch?v=J2mgeAK6ESk
Review: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' is the Biggest Fan Film Ever Made
bit.ly/1TI8tQZ
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a prime example of Hollywood’s nostalgia problem
bit.ly/1ToiOEC
“Star Wars” and Decadence
nyti.ms/1Xmvs9u
Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 5 ways the new movie copies the original film
bit.ly/1TZTn9i
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is a Remix of "A New Hope"...That is Both a Good and a Bad Thing
bit.ly/22gw8OO
13 ways Star Wars: The Force Awakens is just a remix of A New Hope
bit.ly/1rUHBHc
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ succumbs to the worst parts of remix culture
wapo.st/22gwyVl
MORE LINKS TO COME
New video coming soon! Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens
New video "Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens" coming soon to an internet near you. Happy Star Wars Day. #maythe4thbewithyou.
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