New York Times
Kickstarter is a concept: a website that puts together creative types seeking money with backers willing to chip in micro- and macro-payments, a way to crowd-source the financing of ideas. Started last year, the company has become an unexpected influence on indie culture, a new model for a D.I.Y. generation. And today Kickstarter will also become a curator, when it hosts the first Kickstarter Film Festival. The New York event will present some of the projects that patrons of the site have financed, from features and animation to quirkier stuff like a video of a dance anthropology performance piece. The project marks an influential change in the recession-driven climate of the filmmaking community. It also provides opportunities for projects that might otherwise be ignored in the big, scary world of film production. Musicians can busk; artists can sell sketches. But filmmakers have a harder time underwriting their projects as they go. So kudos, Kickstarter, for initiating a trend that will hopefully make its way to the Northwest. To read the full article, follow the link.