Christopher Young's "Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror" CD

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

(Posting this in a separate thread to hopefully give it more attention than if it were just in the Christopher Young thread)

 

Christopher Young's Nosferatu CD recording Kickstarter is up:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nosferatu-music/christopher-youngs-nosferatu-a-symphony-of-horror-cd

 

The goal is a hefty $50k. So far (after just a few hours) it's approaching the 10% mark, so hopefully it'll meet its goal within the month.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I was confused at first because I wondered why a re-recording would be needed (and what sorts of insufferable legal shit was preventing the original recording being heard by mortals) and then I clicked the link  

 

I'm also confusing it with that other recent Young score that remains unreleased for substantially less understandable reasons.

[Edmilson 7,466]

52 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

I'm also confusing it with that other recent Young score that remains unreleased for substantially less understandable reasons.

Apparently that score (The Piper) will be released later by Intrada:

 

(edit) Jon Broxton also mentioned in his review:

 

Quote

At the time of writing the score for The Piper has not been released commercially; this is a promo that Young and his team put together for awards consideration purposes. However, sources tell me that one of the specialty soundtrack labels, most likely Intrada, intends to release a proper album of the score to coincide with the film’s American release later in 2024

 

[ddddeeee 257]

I love Young, so I'm all over this.

 

Is there any sort of precedent for this, though? 50k seems ambitious when most scores struggle to sell a few thousand units. Of course, I hope I'm very wrong.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

1 hour ago, ddddeeee said:

I love Young, so I'm all over this.

 

Same. And based on the 10.5 minute suite I've heard I think this may be his magnum opus.

 

1 hour ago, ddddeeee said:

Is there any sort of precedent for this, though? 50k seems ambitious when most scores struggle to sell a few thousand units. Of course, I hope I'm very wrong.

 

Intrada raised over 60k for their most recent (third overall) Kickstarter, the album for which just won an IFMCA award:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/129145902/on-dangerous-ground-the-man-who-knew-too-much-new-recordings

 

Yavar

[Edmilson 7,466]

Lucky for us that the community of film music fans is generally rich 

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

I backed at the third tier level. Figured I may as well take the opportunity to add a signed Christopher Young score to my collection and support what sounds like an amazing score. I must be being dim (no comments please…) but I couldn’t see where it explained the need for this to have a kickstarter (that @Richard Penna seems to have seen!). 

[Richard Penna 3,694]

Oh, the bit I realised on clicking the link is that there only exists a live recording and they need funding to clear it legally, edit and master it to be suitable for release, and to record some pickups to clean up a few bits.

 

I'd imagine a lot of fans would be fine with just the recording from the day, audience noises and all, but if they end up being able to raise the full amount to do it properly, great.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I couldn’t see where it explained the need for this to have a kickstarter

Quote

...adequate funding needs to be raised to pay for the licensing of the original sound recording, the commissioning of appropriate artwork, final editing, and mixing & mastering in order to ensure that the listening experience is of the highest quality.  Additionally, a “pick-up” session is required to repair some areas within the live capture; eliminating significant audience/ room noise, and the re-recording & re-balancing of the organ track.  In order to accomplish this, orchestra and conductor must, once more, gather in the Tonhalle Zurich in order to match the sound, tempo, and feel of the original performance.  This is complex task and, given the music's specific instrumental requirements, it is a relatively costly undertaking.  

 

There's also more details about the organ needing to be re-recorded in Young's main video for the campaign.

 

Yavar

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

Aha thank you. Clearly I was being dim. Makes sense now. Hopefully it’ll hit the target!

[crocodile 8,017]

Chipped in as well.

 

Karol

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

Not looking good - as I feared considering the asking sum. At the moment the campaign stands at $27,120 pledged of the $50k goal, with only 12 days to go.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

Perhaps they could lower their sights in terms of not bothering the re-recording cleanups they had planned and just focus on licensing, editing and mastering the existing recording. Not ideal, but if you can't raise enough, surely it's better than nothing?

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

Too late for that, I suppose. I don't think you can lower your goal once the Kickstarter campaign has started, and if they don't reach their goal, they get nothing. Best they could do is probably run follow-up campaign with a lower goal; question is how many of those who backed this one would bother to try again (I would).

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

Best thing they could do is to pay the remaining amount. 

[Richard Penna 3,694]

12 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Best they could do is probably run follow-up campaign with a lower goal

 

Yep, that's what I meant. I know existing ones have to meet their goal. At least this one is a reasonable representation of the number interested though.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

3 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Not looking good - as I feared considering the asking sum. At the moment the campaign stands at $27,120 pledged of the $50k goal, with only 12 days to go.

 

I don't think that's bad at all. I think it may end up being close, but past film music Kickstarters have been only a little over halfway to goal, with 12 days remaining, and still made it. In fact, Intrada's Dial M for Murder campaign was *less* than halfway to goal around this time, and it ended up going more than $4,000 *over* goal!

 

We may just have to push and promote extra hard those last few days of the campaign...

Yavar

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

Fingers crossed.

[Mr. Hooper 1,793]

Unless a bunch of people suddenly step up and donate at the Tier 7 - COUNT ORLOK level, I fear the worst.

 

But hopefully there's a lot of late donors like me, who simply haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

 

[crocodile 8,017]

I think these things tend to happen. I bet there will be a huge push towards the end and they will find some wealthier donors.

 

By the way, all the samples sound amazing.

 

Karol

[ddddeeee 257]

 

[bored 309]

Had to chip in. Might be too late, but I really want to support this. Hopefully it gets more eyes on it soon, because this is truly amazing work. Young deserves to be known as one of the greats.

[Imperivm 146]

I'm considering to donate as well, as I'm really curious about this score. But I'm left wondering, if in the worst case scenario happens and the end goals are not met, what will happen? Will donators be refunded they money, or they will proceed to work on the release with the sum they'll have by then? I'm pretty new to these kind of things, I don't know how it works.

[ddddeeee 257]

I'm new to it, too, but I believe you aren't charged unless the project is successful. I haven't been charged yet.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

Indiegogo (for example) works differently, but with Kickstarter there’s nothing to refund in that case because they only charge (at the end) IF the funding threshold is met.

 

Yavar

[Mr. Hooper 1,793]

It's steadily going up now, but with just 5 days to go, it's gonna be a nail-biter!

[ddddeeee 257]

 

It's picked up a bit of pace in the last few days.

[Mr. Hooper 1,793]

At this rate, it just might happen!

[Romão 2,274]

Well, I'm biting the bullet, even if the shipping is a bit steep. I really want this to happen

[pete 907]

41 minutes ago, Romão said:

Well, I'm biting the bullet, even if the shipping is a bit steep. I really want this to happen

 

For some reason I thought "Ships to anywhere in the world" meant free shipping. I really just want a digital download and would rather that shipping cost went to the project. I know that shouldn't stop me contributing.... I'll see how things stand a little closer to the end.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

39 minutes ago, pete said:

For some reason I thought "Ships to anywhere in the world" meant free shipping. I really just want a digital download and would rather that shipping cost went to the project. I know that shouldn't stop me contributing.... I'll see how things stand a little closer to the end.

 

You are free to pledge any amount of money at or above your selected pledge level. I haven't checked, but I'm sure you can also lower your pledge level while the campaign is running. If you've currently backed at a physical level, but don't actually want a physical CD, I imagine you can lower your pledge level to a digital tier and leave your pledge amount as it is.

 

Personally, I selected the $50 level with my name in the booklet, not because my name is worth the extra $20 to me but because I figured the campaign needs the money.

[pete 907]

1 minute ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

I imagine you can lower your pledge level to a digital tier and leave your pledge amount as it is.

 

Unfortunately, there's no digital download tier. The only download is the Complete Nosferatu "Piano Sketches" (lossless audio download), only available at the highest tier - $1,300.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

Oh, right… No digital tier, how odd. That's so uncommon I never even noticed. It does make me wonder how much money goes into providing physical copies to people who don't even want them.

[ddddeeee 257]

 

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

Suddenly it has only 5000 to go.

This looks promising!

[Thor 7,512]

I don't know how rich Christopher Young is at this point, but if it's just a matter of a couple of thousand dollars to make the limit, maybe he'll chip in the remaining himself? He seems like the person to do so.

[karelm 2,914]

6 hours ago, Thor said:

I don't know how rich Christopher Young is at this point, but if it's just a matter of a couple of thousand dollars to make the limit, maybe he'll chip in the remaining himself? He seems like the person to do so.

 

They're not allowed to chip in the difference to fund their project.  "Pledging to your own project is not allowed by either Kickstarter or our payments processor. Doing so violates our guidelines and may lead to suspension of your project."

[Richard Penna 3,694]

Interesting. I'm sure there's a good reason behind that (stopping some sort of misuse); I just can't immediately think of what it is.

[Thor 7,512]

Indeed. Strange rule.

[Andy 4,138]

Probably because the backers could then say, well if you’re rich enough, why didn’t you finance the whole thing yourself? Or, you could’ve pledged more. 

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

36 minutes ago, karelm said:

 

They're not allowed to chip in the difference to fund their project.  "Pledging to your own project is not allowed by either Kickstarter or our payments processor. Doing so violates our guidelines and may lead to suspension of your project."

 

34 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

Interesting. I'm sure there's a good reason behind that (stopping some sort of misuse); I just can't immediately think of what it is.

That is a bit weird... maybe it's some kind of anti-money laundering thing. Then again, it's not unusual for investment funds to have cornerstone investors or for the investment manager/adviser putting in an initial investment so it almost seems perverse that Kickstarter would prevent someone involved in providing an upfront investment or saying they will fund an "up to" amount to achieve the target.

 

The again, if CY isn't actually named on it (other than it being his music) perhaps he could. I have said before that, given that most mainstream Hollywood composers probably have quite a few quid to their name, they could probably quite easily fund a lot of this stuff themselves, or at least be a cornerstone investor.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

I figure the rationale is that campaigns should ask for a realistic amount of money. There's nothing stopping you from running a campaign that will use $10k of your own money plus whatever amount your backers end up contributing. But the Kickstarter money has to come from the backers.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

6 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I figure the rationale is that campaigns should ask for a realistic amount of money. There's nothing stopping you from running a campaign that will use $10k of your own money plus whatever amount your backers end up contributing. But the Kickstarter money has to come from the backers.

Actually I hadn't thought of it like that... so effectively they can put in their own money to the project, but it can't come through Kickstarter as such. Going back to my investment fund analogy (yes, I work in investment funds, albeit at the admin end, hence using it as a frame of reference), a fund is effectively a closed system where all money raised is on the terms outlined in the prospectus for the fund. However, Kickstarter is a closed system with its own rules but presumably it doesn't prevent funding outside that system.

[Mr. Hooper 1,793]

It would be a heartbreaker if it stalled now with just $4000 left to go. But he'll just start again and set the goal a bit lower, and pay more out of his own pocket.

[Tom Guernsey 2,286]

24 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

It would be a heartbreaker if it stalled now with just $4000 left to go. But he'll just start again and set the goal a bit lower, and pay more out of his own pocket.

Agreed... although I have to admit that I would probably feel quite reassured if there was an "up to" amount that the backers would be willing to finance for their own project. If it's fully funded, great, but at least you know that provided it gets to a certain point, it'll definitely be funded and the people behind it have skin in the game (as they say...).

[Richard Penna 3,694]

38 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Going back to my investment fund analogy (yes, I work in investment funds, albeit at the admin end, hence using it as a frame of reference), a fund is effectively a closed system where all money raised is on the terms outlined in the prospectus for the fund. However, Kickstarter is a closed system with its own rules but presumably it doesn't prevent funding outside that system.

 

I'd go further - it's impossible to prevent any additional outside funding unless it were in the T&Cs that any product directly resulting from KS were not permitted to use any other source of funding. IMO that would be wrong of them to dictate, and I also don't see how they would ever know or check. Particularly if it's a company involved that decides to get public funding for a specialist product line, they're going to be using some of their own resources and costs. Hence I'd be amazed if KS somehow thought they could dictate the entire funding structure of a project.

 

I can picture creators who have decided they can put a bit of their own money in but need public help with the rest, so they set the project goal to XX thousands with the knowledge that if they hit the goal they can realise the project using whatever they've privately decided to invest. If the project goes over its goal - great, the creator doesn't need to put any of their own funds in.

[GerateWohl 4,370]

Someone should ask John Williams to  fund it additionally.

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Actually I hadn't thought of it like that... so effectively they can put in their own money to the project, but it can't come through Kickstarter as such.

 

It would be a waste of money from the creator's POV anyway, because they would have to pay Kickstarter fees for the funds they send through the Kickstarter campaign effectively back to themselves, instead of using them directly.

 

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Agreed... although I have to admit that I would probably feel quite reassured if there was an "up to" amount that the backers would be willing to finance for their own project. If it's fully funded, great, but at least you know that provided it gets to a certain point, it'll definitely be funded and the people behind it have skin in the game (as they say...).

 

But that's what the campaign goal basically is anyway: The minimum amount you need to make the project come true. Hasn't stopped successful campaigns from making ten or more times their asking amount. The only real implication of the asking amount is that if you don't make it, nobody has to pay anything (because by definition, you wouldn't have enough to fulfil your promised minimum goals).

10 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Suddenly it has only 5000 to go.

This looks promising!

 

Less than $4k now. I've started believing in it again.

[Yavar Moradi 2,599]

401 backers and $46,333 (only $3,667 left to go) with almost two whole days still left? Yeah, I'm very optimistic indeed. Usually the last two days see the biggest traffic on a campaign after the first day.

 

Yavar