You might recall that when he dropped by the Nerdist Podcast, Colin Hanks mentioned that he was working on a documentary about Tower Records, the chain that grew from a local operation in Colin’s home town of Sacramento into a massive worldwide retail giant before going bankrupt in 2006. He’s moving forward with that project, “All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records,” and he’s hoping for some help to finish this film from, well, you.
Here’s the deal: Colin is looking to raise $50,000 by July 15th and has set up a Kickstarter page to do it. He’ll take any amount, but $5 will get you a “Thank You” mention in the credits, and larger amounts will get you swag or DVDs or other incentives along with the credit. $2,000 will get you a private screening in New York or L.A. (travel and accomodations not included).
Colin, who has put up his own money to get the film off the ground, says that the money raised through Kickstarter will go “towards the small nuts and bolts of filmmaking. These monies will help pay for various production and post production costs; including things like equipment rentals, additional personnel, and travel to locations to conduct interviews.”
So, yeah, your help is needed. If you’re interested in helping or learning more, click here to see the Kickstarter page. You can keep up with the movie’s progress at its Facebook and Twitter pages, too. And if you remember when going to Tower Records was special, when you’d go on the day new releases got delivered to look over the arrivals and see what was in the cardboard boxes at the end of the aisles, when buying music was a life event rather than an impulse click, this project is for you.
Good to hear from you, Dermot.Three things: No-one got to me’ but my cscecionne did. No-one was more disappointed to close the blog because I do believe it has an important role. But when a very personal and malicious vendetta becomes evident, CapeInfo’s reputation for balance and integrity is at stake.
Project just met its funding goal. 865 backers totaling $51,000 plus in less than a week.
This was not the biggest project in Kickstarter.com history for total funding, but may be a record for the number of donors in such a short time.
They have reached their basic request, but there are still have 38 days to go in the funding cycle so additional pledges are still welcome. Might allow film makers to enhance the project.
I know that in the old video game “Crazy Taxi”, one of the stores that you could drive by was a Tower Records. It’s weird that I remember that for some reason. 😛
I worked at Tower in DC for a few years….it was a fun place to be and I made a lot of friends there. Gone are the days when we used to celebrate music through commuinty. Now, everyone is on headsets and no one shares, much less TALKS about music anymore unless it’s being shoved down our throats through celebrity journalism–meaning you’re not seeing any real artistry anymore. I’m proud to be a VIP Sponsor for this effort!
I saw at least one other comment saying they heard about it through Nerdist. 🙂
This project is getting major action at Kickstarter.com. In the first 24 hours there were over 380 donors totaling over $20,000 pledged, which is approx 40% of the project goal. Nerdist effect?
Of course he can get the money himself, he’s just doing it as a promotional thing. An excellent idea.
I just hope it’s not too…pouffy. Throw in a sex scandal or two. I’m sure those guys had a cocaine phase. Yeah, that’s what the people want. And then, the fall. Throw in some jugs and ya gotcha self a picture.
So glad he took Big C’s advice and went to Kickstarter.
Well said in your retorts Perry! I was happy to kick in. Great project plus some fun rewards.
I miss the Tower Records on Rt 17 in Paramus, NJ. You could get ‘zines there that you couldn’t find anywhere else. It was a fun hangout.
I miss that Tower Records on Sunset. I forget how many times I used to go there back in college.
Wow – I was catching up on my podcasts this weekend and just listened to the one with Colin Hanks! Very timely. Sounds like a great project and something he feels passionately about.
Regardless of Colin’s father, the qualities of movies would be vastly better if it was group funded (like kickstarter) for most movies. How many of you would put money towards another Focker movie vs Kick Ass 2?
No hassles against any of the actors in the Focker movies, I just can’t stand the premise.
My first two jobs were at the now defunct Warehouse and Tower records. Good times. I’ll gladly donate a few bucks to support this project. Colin Hanks seems like a pretty cool guy. That he’s trying to do this on his own shows the level of passion he has for the subject.
Is it odd that his dad who’s a huge history buff and has a special place in his heart for pop music of the early 1960’s in America (“That Thing You Do!”) hasn’t helped his son get this project off the ground? Absolutely. But then again, maybe he likes/respects that his son is trying to make his own way. Whatever the case may be I think this is a worthy venture.
@gary sure he has a dad with money, but i presume that if he would have used daddy’s money you would have had something to say about that method as well.
i digress, I donated 25 bucks and i scratched something cool off the bucket list! name in credits! woo! i hope he reaches his goal and the movie gets made. nostalgia is running rampant lately! gah D: everything mundane and taken-for-granted seems so rosy in my mind right now. memoriesssss in the corner of my miiind
man thats the same exact tower on watt that i used to hang out at when i was just a punk ass little teenager. such a bummer, i’m going to try to donate whatever i can to this project!
Thanks for posting this, Mr. Simon.
The more people that know about this, the better.
I think its awesome. The “rewards” are in my opinion very appropriate for the donation levels IMHO. Another project I was interested in offered absolutely nothing for donating anything under $100. If you go for the DVD level, that is essentially just pre-ordering the DVD. Pretty good deal all around no?
If you are not interested in the project, don’t support it. If you want to be the “typical internet” and bitch and moan about it…. well thanks for wasting all of our time.
@Ben: I don’t think that supporting a creative project and caring about “important matters” are mutually exclusive, unless you refuse to go to movies or watch TV (other than, of course, C-SPAN) or do anything other than brood over war and hunger and politics, in which case, yeah, donations to Kickstarter projects aren’t your thing.
@Gary: I think it’s unfair to assume that any child of a celebrity has instant access to millions of dollars. You don’t have to be a celebrity spawn to know what asking Dad for money is like, and without getting into specifics here, you can go back and listen to Colin talking to Chris, Matt, and Jonah and you’ll get an idea of what his story is. Most actors, writers, and producers aren’t really able to just pull out their checkbooks and finance a project, let alone one that’s really a labor of love that isn’t likely to be a smash box office hit. Plus, it doesn’t take much of a donation to reach a level where you’re getting the movie on DVD, so you can do it and get something more for it than a credit if you want. And if you don’t, then, um, don’t.
@tedder: What I like about it is that it doesn’t take much of a donation to get something back, and you get to participate in projects where the creators KNOW you’re helping. There are lesser projects there, but you can pick and choose and help ones you like come to fruition. Everybody wins!
It’s ridiculous how sad and nostalgic that video makes me…but yeah, what Gary said. With all that’s going on with domestic politics; one, two, three wars being waged simultaneously, I’m going to give any spare funds (as if I had any) so that a movie star kid can make a documentary about a record store?
I think not.
Just donated 45 to the project this is going to be amazing I really hope colin is able to do this it sounded absolutely amazing
Thanks PMS! I love Kickstarter. Between cool documentaries (Tower Records, 12 O’Clock in Baltimore), cool software projects (unlogo) and cool gadgets (nano wristwatch, Coffee Joulies), what doesn’t Kickstarter do for us? It’s like Kiva for upper-class people 🙂
We must all help Colin Hanks. I can not imagine any other source of funding he could possibly find. I mean it is not as if his father is Tom Hanks who is worth roughly 500 bazillion dollars. Oh wait, his father is Tom Hanks? Never mind.