The best $100 I ever spent

The first few moments after finding out that Veronica Mars had launched a Kickstarter campaign were a blur. I literally didn’t know what to do. Should I tweet, Instagram, blog, shout, yell or cheer?  In the end, I think I teared up…and then I did everything else.

I was always a big Veronica Mars fan. When it was on TV ten years ago, I talked about the show so much, I felt like I worked for the show. But, as with all great shows that I love (RIP Wonderfalls), Veronica Mars was cancelled too soon. But, at least I got three full seasons. That’s me, always trying to look on the bright side of life.

I knew almost immediately that I wanted to pledge something, anything. But how much?  That’s a big question anyone asks themselves when browsing through crowd-funded sites. For the Veronica Mars movie, the pledge amounts ranged from $1 to $10,000.

I don’t have a ton of money and honestly, I can’t think of the last time I spent $100 on anything that wasn’t a ticket to ride a giant rocket that got me from one side of the country to the other. I don’t ever consider buying clothing over $50, 100% of the time order the cheapest thing on the menu and if there’s a rewards club that offers discounts, I’m a part of it. Spending $100 on anything is a very big deal to me.

So I when I hit the “Back this Pledge” button, I almost instantly had buyers remorse. And who could blame me? Almost immediately after the campaign was announced, there were naysayers saying that Hollywood had stooped to a new low, asking the public to fund it’s own movies.  But I saw it differently. I remember reading an interview once with Bill Lawrence, the creator of Scrubs. Even though Scrubs was well passed its prime, he decided to make a ninth season and when he was asked why, he told the reporter that he had a chance to employee 250 people, why would he turn that down?

I know that my $100 isn’t keeping anyone employed, but, I can’t say that it didn’t feel like it.

Since backing the movie almost a year ago, I can tell you that I’ve loved every minute of the process. Almost every week, we’d get an email from the show’s top guru Rob Thomas, telling us about casting details, production notes, release dates and every detail of the movie, without every spoiling it of course.  With most of us getting way to many emails on a daily basis already, I always looked forward to reading the Kickstarter emails about the Veronica Mars movie because it made me really feel apart of the process. The perks on top of all the emails was really just icing on the cake, or in this cake, marshmallows.  The stickers, the t-shirt, the poster, the digital downloads and everything else, that’s something that only a few people have. That’s something that I now have. That never happens.

And what’s weird is that I’m not really a person that’s into the behind the scenes news that Hollywood usually offers up for filler. I don’t think I’ve ever watched a DVD extra andI know I’ve never listened to the director’s commentary. I think once I watched Shrek using the spanish subtitles, but that was when I trying to learn another language.  But there was something about seeing photos and videos pop up from the Veronica Mars set. Maybe it kind of felt like I was a boss and I was checking in my uber-cool employees? And let’s be honest, I’ll probably never be anyone’s actual boss, so I’ll take any figurative opportunity that I can get.

And maybe that’s really why I loved it.  I’ve given up long ago of ever working or living in L.A, but for this one project, I felt like I was a part of something bigger. That maybe, holding on to every Entertainment Weekly since I was in Grade 10 wasn’t for nothing.  I got to be a part of the industry that I love so much. And it only cost me $100. To me, that’s money very well spent.