Perhaps this is why they are seeking payment before they even make it. Which is actually not a bad idea; some donors "do some good" or "support the arts" or whatever, the movie makers get to make their movie, and the world as a whole gets a work that it can freely enjoy for the rest of time.
I like that model a lot more than I like "copyright"!
Not really, if you're a patron you'd give without expecting anything in return. In the ransom model the artist does not release his works until he's received sufficient payment from a large group of people, and those people don't lose their money until there are enough of them to cover the ransom sum.
The big problem with this model is that unpopular works never get made. Even though most good works do have an audience, you do get some people making things that are ahead of the curve, and people aren't ready for them. It can take years before they get noticed, and they could never get made solely based on people paying upfront.
This reminds me of the story of Abbi Hoffman with his book "Steal This Book". The people who wanted it just did as title told them and stole it from the bookshelves. Bookstores didn't want to carry it if it's stolen half the time.
As someone who has a big personal and professional interest in TPB, I think a documentary about TPB is an excellent idea as I feel the project has run its course and so now is the time to capture the story for prosperity.
BUT, I have two issues with this project:
Firstly, the guy asserts that he has met and interviewed Brokep and the other founders of TPB on film. But he refers to Brokep as "BRO-KEP" (which is how most people assume you pronounce the name). If he had spoken with him (like I have) he would know his name is pronounced "BROKE-P" (short for Broke Peter).
It's probably nothing but it's a bit weird and I don't understand how someone who has met the guy AND interviewed him on camera would make such an fundamental mistake.
Secondly, it all feels the wrong order of things - he says he's already done the filming and NOW wants funding for editing?
Simon Klose clearly has editing skills himself and so I don't understand why he wants to bring in an external editor at this point. A "better" editor can only work with the footage he has, so if Simon was going to bring in an editor it would have been better to have started working with the editor pre-filming to consider + agree a documentary style, angles, overall narrative, etc.
To his credit, I would point out that Simon Klose is a Swedish national - and that gives me a lot of faith. I've found that the TPB folks are quite suspicious of talking to anyone who isn't Swedish and so I think a great merchant-of-record documentary on the subject needs to come from a Swedish film maker.
I might still donate something but given the end-footage is going to be released as CC-NC I'd like to know what will happen from the proceeds of the commercialization of the footage by the rights holder (Klose)
