Skeptic Project

Bolding is mine.

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"Hello Everyone.
TVP Movie is a project which TVP has talked about for many years - long before I met them and I am in full support of it in general.

However, after much consideration, I find the financial necessity too extreme to be rational to become an Official ZM Project.

TZM was founded, in part, on the idea of using money only when needed and to make such projects very time specific and direct. We have yet to have such a need. While we have a banner for the VP film and show basic support, I am personally not pushing the issue more so due to the extremity of the project.

As a person who has worked in the industry for many years and on many feature productions (not my crappy z films), I know for a fact that the kind of money they require to remain independent in this is very extreme. The odds of that money being generated from TZM community is very slim.

I have been open with them on this issue and suggested they use what money they have to, say, get a script finalized or the like. But - then it would need to go to the studio submission stage. They need the film picked up by a studio that can afford the 30-50 million needed. They need real render farms worth millions to get just the 3d going they require. A real studio.

Those points aside, I would also like everyone to consider the following:

1) Most major Hollywood productions have a public life of 6-8 months at best. We live in a short attention span culture. A single film - even if a "blockbuster" has a low probability of keeping such attention in a way that could really make an impact over time. [Avatar? whats that?]

2) It has been stated that the profits from the film would go towards the City Test System. Film profitability is also a risky, uncertain area. In many cases a studio spends 50 million on a film and 20 million on promo.. and they are lucky to make that money back after many, many years.
Given the 100s of millions or even billions needed to begin a city system, it is a bit overly optimistic to assume that such money will be generated from a mere single film release. (For example, even with the popularity of the Z series, I need to sell 80,000 DVDs of Moving Forward to just break even for material costs. At the given rate, it will be many years before this occurs given my model)

3) Let's assume, magically, 10 million or so was raised for this film via direct donation. Given the points above, wouldn't it be more beneficial to use that amount of money for direct, active technical expressions? Or funding for group research on certain issues? Or more deliberate, targeted PR campaigns?

Do you all really think another, single movie will change the world?

So, I leave you with those points. I love TVP and very much want to see Jacque's vision come to life... but I also want to see it actually get done... and in a proper, responsible way. Of course, I trust them completely. Any donations they do get will invariably go to a good cause one way or another… but I must voice my basic concern on the subject of donations for the "feature film".

As for me, I am working to find them real investors/studio contacts. Otherwise, it simply isn't going to happen on the scale/time frame they are interested in.

I am not here to direct anyone- if you want to donate to the Film Project do so and good for you- but given we will need to eventually use our fund-raising interests for more tangible issues in the future (perhaps for ZDay 2012), I am not personally advocating TVP's Film as an Official ZM project as a focus… though I do show passive support for the idea in general, of course.

It is simply too expensive to pull off and such large amounts of money could be used for better purposes. "

http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=3&id=327074&limit=10&limitstart=100&Itemid=100114#332250

So, what about all that shameless self-promotion before Z3? That was supposed to bring in 50 million new members, and yet their site hits are back down to what they were before the movie.

Whoah, whoah, is this the actually downfall of Zeitgeist? (Not saying they had any type of success, since the movement started).

I love the whole 'We need to get money, to get rid of it' method that they seem to have.

I get the feeling they are going to do the subscription thing soon, and whoever doesn't subscribe is shunned for not helping them.

If he left out the junk about ZDay I'd actually agree with the post.

Never underestimate the ability of people to waste money on nonsense.

Funny how they want to change the world, which they find sick, by using the tools that apparently made the world watch TV and think more about Oprah's new hair or that horrible crap called Avatar.

Heres a blog I made in January 2010:

http://anticultist.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/venus-project-hollywood-blockbuster/</p>

Discussing the stupidity of this idea.

Here are comments on their forum made 1 year, 3 months ago laughing at the very notion of this movie, notice their defense of the matter:

http://www2.thezeitgeistmovement.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=3&id=212049&Itemid=100114