Bring Back *Mystery Science Theater 3000*!

@DrWorm @DrWorm Before I get called out by any "MSTies", I realize that Trace Beaulieu was the original Crow (and for a lot more episodes than Corbett) and Josh Weinstein the original Servo.

Nelson and Corbett have both confirmed via tweet that they are not involved. Weinstein has also, but seemed "friendlier" in his tweet. (Nelson/Corbett were not nasty, just spoke more matter-of-factly) I haven't seen anything one way or the other in regards to Beaulieu or Frank Conniff.

@djslack Maybe @pavlov can step in and address whether this is expensive or not directly, but here's some of my thoughts on it.
The biggest thing you're missing here is that not all $2 million actually goes toward the 3 episodes- there's a chunk that goes to Kickstarter, and a bigger chunk that goes towards reward fulfillment- both physical and digital.
There's no advertisers here to help cover costs for you either.

@dashcloud I've struggled with this for a day or two since the campaign started . . . Eight percent of what they are raising goes to Kickstarter and credit card fees. About 30 percent goes toward making and fulfilling all of the rewards. That means that MST3K itself only "costs" about 65 percent of what they're raising. But it still seems inflated and it has to be above the line . . . The first couple of episodes do end up costing more than the others because there are one time production charges involved, for example, props, costume design, and set design / build out are usually charged out on the first episode if there isn't a back-end distribution deal in place, which, in this case, there is not. It adds up, but in the end there's some fuzzy math here and frankly, I feel it boils down to Joel and a few others securing creative for the full run regardless if they meet the stretch goal.

From their campaign:

Believe me, man. I get it. If it cost $2 million just to make three episodes, we'd be spending almost $700K per show! And you're right: by itself, an episode of MST3K doesn't cost nearly that much.
The real explanation is pretty simple.
1. We don't get to keep all of the money we raise on Kickstarter!
CAMPAIGN FEES: Out of the first $2,000,000, we have to pay about 8% – that's $160,000 – in fees to Kickstarter and the credit card processor.
REWARD & SHIPPING COSTS: Then, we have to design, produce, print, sort and ship all of the rewards we're offering in exchange for your pledge. (Those t-shirts aren't free, you know!) That costs about 27%, so that's another $540,000.
(We're not charging you twice for shipping, I promise. Even though Kickstarter asks you to add more for shipping, they count that money toward the total we've raised, even though we still have to spend it on, you know… shipping!)
So, out of the first $2,000,000 we raise, we have to spend $700,000 just on the costs of this Kickstarter campaign!
2. Then, we have to spend a lot on startup costs just to get the show going.
To shoot new episodes, there's a lot we'll need to do: creating concept art and designs, building sets, making models, creating costumes, adding new features to upgrade the robots, and all sorts of other things. All of that work costs money, which is why our first $2,000,000 includes $550,000 for startup costs. The good part is that every penny of that ends up on screen where you can see it.
3. But... the more episodes we make, the less each episode costs!
We have to spend the same amount up front, no matter how many episodes we make. If we only make 3 episodes, these costs increase the budget for each episode by $183K… but if we make a full 12, they only increase it by $46K each!
Anyway, once you take out the CAMPAIGN, REWARD and STARTUP COSTS, there's a lot less than $2,000,000 left. In fact, that leaves just $750K for three episodes, which – I hope – sounds a lot more reasonable than $2,000,000!
At the end of the day, our goal is to make each episode for around $250K.
To put that in perspective, that means we're spending less to create 90 minutes of MST3K than even the low-end reality shows spend to make 22 minutes! (Really makes ya think, don't it?)

$250K / episode may be about right considering they have no advertiser and no back-end - but true hard costs could be even less than $50K / episode. Fact is, they're not providing (and they're not going to provide) an accounting of what is above the line (creative) and what's below (actual direct costs) - and that makes all the difference. There's no completion bond to worry about and insurance should be minimal.

I'd bet above the line is heavy, to the point of tipping this over if it were taken to a distributor, which is why they looked to crowdfund.

@Pavlov Thanks for your insight!

@Pavlov I think you're severely underestimating their costs. They have to pay for writers, puppeteers, prop makers, actors, producers, sound people, camera people, audio and video editors, they need to pay for the rights to reproduce the movie they riff in physical media formats and digital media formats because they want to do both. They need to rent the camera gear, audio gear, office space to work from, studio space. They need to make multiple copies of each robot. All that stuff adds up quickly.

@paulgraham I'd be inclined to agree with you, except @pavlov has owned & operated his own production company for many years.

@paulgraham - No, I'm really not.

I have a Master of Fine Arts degree in Cinematic Arts, Film & Television Production from Savannah College (Atlanta) and a Ph.D. in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. I co-own a media production company currently specializing in fashion (think Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week International) and popular culture (think what you'll see on Vevo). My firm has also been specializing in high speed film/videography/photography for the last several years (in which we hold several patents) and we occasionally do VFX work in high speed (both real time and simulated) for several major studios / production houses.

Interestingly, when we're not engaged by contract, we focus on full-length feature and documentary (sometimes docu-drama) equity / rev share projects where we'll front all of the production costs for projects we like and assume the risk and make our money on the back-end (the gross). I deal with financing and distribution entities myself, every single day. I can calculate the hard costs of their production in my head without straining because I have read or written deal sheets like this time and time again - they just skipped telling their audience a lot of the salient details (and BTW, many of the 197 episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured films that are in the public domain and I'll bet over half their run will again - and as for rights costs to the others, it is a whole lot less than you can imagine).

I do this for a living. I can smell the stink on this a mile away and so can many others - they purposefully structured this as an above the line grab with unlimited back-end potential flowing straight back above the line because it is crowd-funded. I actually have to admire their brilliance as they've displayed here in padding their own wallets in a genre that they admit they don't even have hard focus numbers on . . . Good on them.

Ugh. If that idiot Bing pimp is in, then I am out.

@jqubed here is hopin' it is her big break!

Anyone who doesn't know what the guild is should check it out:

(language warning)

@hallmike Who what?

@hallmike

@jqubed That idiot Jonah Ray pimped for Bing in TV commercials - the 'Bing it on Challenge'. He thinks he's the greatest thing since sliced comedians but I have never once found him the least bit amusing.

@hallmike I must've missed those, fortunately. I have no idea who he is, just that he's the new person on the satellite.

@Pavlov Same here. I didn't actually fund anything with my current infrequent freelance work.

@Pavlov Agreed. I've only;y ever supported 2 kickstarters, Meh and Of course Reading Rainbow