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Kickstarter From The Front Lines: The Video

Wed, 30 May 2012 13:34:00 -0400

“It’s all about the video. Make an awesome video.”

This is probably the most common piece of advice you run into when researching effective Kickstarter campaigns. And it makes sense. The video is going to be the centerpiece of every Kickstarter, the first thing most people see, the thing people share and the primary metric by which your project and, more importantly, by which you yourself will be measured.

But saying “Make an awesome video” is a lot like saying, “Get lots of people to give you money.” It’s not wrong, but it’s not super helpful, is it? It doesn’t tell you how to do anything and probably very few people set out to make terrible videos on purpose.

Prior to beginning our shoot, I watched just about every Kickstarter video for a feature film ever made (and a lot for other projects as well) and was surprised at the lack of awesome. I don’t mean to be unkind, but even the really successful campaigns were primarily built around videos of men and women sitting in chairs talking to the camera which is to say, they were mostly pretty boring. The ones that struck me enough to back the project were usually a little more exciting. My personal favorite video I’ve yet seen belongs to Bess Rogers, and I think it was probably one of the key pieces in her campaign being 267% funded.

I also watched a ton of brilliantly awful videos. A blog called Shitstarter is a great resource for seeing all kinds of ways in which you should not shoot your video. (God, I hope we don’t end up on Shitstarter.)

I obviously can’t tell you what your video should be, and trying to figure out what makes something go viral is a lot like trying to understand madness with reason. Which, as BKV taught us, is like searching for darkness with a torch. Nobody knows why anyone watches anything.

And, at this point, I can’t even tell you if our video is effective since our project doesn’t launch for another 24 hours.

All I can tell you are the things I tried to accomplish with our video and you can take from that what you will.

I approached the video much the way I would approach a pitch meeting with network or studio execs because, really, what’s the difference? You guys are the men and women in suits who can greenlight us now. And you all deserve at least the same respect.

First and foremost I wanted to make people like Craig (the director of “Love Letter”). This movie doesn’t exist yet, so without a product to sell I needed to sell us. I decided to focus on selling Craig because the director is generally seen as the author of a film (which is horseshit but whatever) and people will be primarily investing in him and his vision more than anything else. Making Craig likable isn’t a very difficult task, he’s a genuinely nice guy and he smiles easily and warmly. So I told him to bring the charm hard and trusted that he would and could (he did). But I did write every single word he would say in the video to control how he’s perceived as much as possible. I tried to make sure he came across as funny and lighthearted especially. People like to laugh and they like people that make them laugh. And it’s my belief that people would rather fund a person they like than an idea they like. I do fully believe that people are investing in artists, here. Not in art. I could be really wrong about that, though.

I also wanted to give people an idea of the tone of the movie in which they would be investing, so I built a narrative out of our pitch that gave Craig the chance to be very playful inside a world similar to the feature we’re trying to create. Our movie is a darkly comic thriller, so I wrote in a body count, but made sure there’s a laugh in every drop of blood. Giving people a synopsis and maybe a little biography is good, I think, but if you can also make them feel what the movie will feel like, you’ve engaged them in their headbones and in their heartbones and that’s a double whammy. Throw in the empathy (soulbones) one might feel toward an artist who clearly cares about his work and you’ve got the trifecta. We did make the video more broadly comic than the movie will be, and shot something PG for what will be an R rated film, but these seemed like fair compromises to reach a wider audience.

I wanted to keep it short. I said a maximum of five minutes and we came in just over four. I feel like five minutes is pushing the attention span of people on the web. Even so, I made sure to write a script that moved quickly and is tightly paced.

But building a funny, short, charming movie won’t do you much good if you don’t get your key information across. So we laid out the basic story of the film, using stick figure animation to make the presentation more dynamic, and made sure to include a call to action. That is to say, “Please back us, please spread the link.”

Lastly we wanted to make sure our production values were tight. And this was all to do with Craig’s genius. He took my script and he elevated the hell right out of it, adding explosions and other great set pieces. He found a working production set, built it up with his own walls and things, got a bunch of college kids to intern as extras etc. If I could brag on him for one more beat, he not only killed it in front of the camera, bringing the charm-sauce in a big, bad way, he also directed the hell out of it and, because our DP dropped out only days prior to our first day of filming, he lensed the whole damn thing, too. This meant he was lighting a shot, setting the camera and running around in front to act all while presiding over the chaos of a set. And then doing it again. All day. For three days. That’s right, we shot three roughly 8 hour days for our four minute Kickstarter video. Craig killed it. As did everyone involved. Everyone should do the best they can with their video, obviously, but if you’re trying to get people to trust that you can make a good movie, it seems extra crucial to make a good pitch video that shows off writing, production and post-production talent.

Speaking of which, we brought in animators and special effects artists to elevate the production even further in post. And boy did they

All in we spent around two months and a little bit of money on the video. Honestly, I think we nailed it. Tomorrow we find out if I’m right.

It’s not an exaggeration, I don’t think, to say that this campaign will live and die with the video. There were a great many other preparations that went into this thing, and I’ll try to cover as many as I can in the coming days, but I wanted to focus on this to start.

If you have any questions about specifics of launching a Kickstarter, just let me know and I’ll address those as best I can.

Tomorrow shit gets real.

E

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Follow me on Twitter or here on my Tumblr for further updates and whatnot.

Our Kickstarter launches this Thursday, May the 31st

Kickstarter From The Front Lines: Preamble

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:28:00 -0400

I’m going to try to keep a journal of my experience with running a Kickstarter for a new feature film titled “Love Letter” which I have co-written and am producing. The hope is that if this thing is successful other artists, engineers and entrepreneurs might find something valuable they can take to their own crowdsourcing campaign. And if it is unsuccessful hopefully they (you?) can use this as an example of what not to do.

I am in no way trying to pass myself off as an expert on crowdsourcing, on filmmaking or on anything at all. That’s important to know. What I am is a dude who’s raising money through Kickstarter for the first and likely only time, just trying to sort this out as it comes.

I’ve known for several months that I wanted to try to Kickstart our new movie and in that time I’ve read just about every word written on crowdfunding and found almost all of it useless. I’ve gleaned some nice advice here and there, which I will try to pass on in the coming days, but most of it is the same common sense regurgitated with varying degrees of self-important snark and derision. A healthy amount of the articles I’ve found claim things in their titles like, “Guarantee Kickstarter Success” and then go on to say virtually nothing. Almost all of them include a sentence very similar to, “If you don’t already know how to do this you shouldn’t be doing it at all.”

I can’t say I’ll necessarily do any better at offering practical information, but I for damn sure won’t pull that shit.

Before we begin it is important, I think, to mention that, to paraphrase Everlast, where you end up usually depends on where you start. At least it seems that way to me. This isn’t to say a successful Kickstarter can’t be run if you’re not already famous, that’s exactly what I’m trying NOT to say, and we’ve seen plenty of examples of lesser known people being successful, just that we play by different rules.

Most of the media that surrounds Kickstarter focuses on what Malcolm Gladwell calls, “The Outliers.” It makes sense from the medias perspective but it also makes the articles largely useless to me except as a fan. As I write these opening remarks Amanda Palmer’s latest campaign has 67 hours before close and has currently raised $979,410 off of 20,408 backers. By the time I post this she will surely have crossed the million mark.

This is uncommon.

I do not mean to denigrate, lessen or obfuscate her success in any way, I really don’t, but the rules are different for her. Different than they are for me, at least. And probably different than they are for you.

Her Twitter currently reaches 556,693 people. She is a well known quantity. Her husband is a VERY well known quantity. His Twitter currently reaches 1,720,884 followers. And that’s just one root of a tree with many branches. I doubt CNN will report on our project. This isn’t whining. I’m happy for AFP. Good for her and, maybe, good for all of us in the end. I just want you to know where I’m starting. Engaging people is a whole other sport for me.

My Twitter, which is active and carefully maintained, currently reaches 228 people. I have a very small and fairly ardent following based on my first feature film but I am in no way famous. The director of the film we are Kickstarting has a total of 23 followers on his Twitter. To be fair, though, he has never once tweeted.

Anyway.

This is how we begin.

-E

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Follow me on Twitter or here on my Tumblr for further updates and whatnot.

Our Kickstarter launches this Thursday, May the 31st

One More Thing

Thu, 24 May 2012 21:02:33 -0400

I’m finally reading the Steve Jobs biography, after letting it sit on my desk since Christmas. And I’m really fascinated by it, and the story is masterfully told. But it does make me wonder. Is it possible to come to know a person more without coming to like him less?

The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator

Wed, 23 May 2012 01:17:00 -0400

Edgar Wright is a hero. He’s a certified, ridiculous genius. His new project “The Random Adventures of Brandon Generator” may be the internet’s raison d’être (that’s right, bitches, I can be pretentious in multiple languages!). If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a neo noir motion comic web series…thing, about coffee and writers block and coffee and madness and coffee and coffee. It’s drawn by Tommy Lee Edwards, narrated by Julian Barratt, he of The Mighty Boosh, and most importantly written by Edgar Wright and…you.

The audience writes prose, leaves voicemails and draws monsters and things on Brandon’s notepad and Wright takes these contributions and weaves them into the story and, more than that, uses them as a scaffold to construct the narrative. The result is REMARKABLE. I know this because I’m totally remarking on it right now.

Anyway, it’s fairly pointless to keep talking about a thing when you could just go watch it and be much better for it.

What I do want to do, though, is present the two prose entries I wrote for the second episode. Neither made it into the story and that really is fine. I TOTALLY misunderstood what they wanted out of prose entries and instead of building on themes present in the first episode and presenting ideas that could move Brandon forward I wrote completely random shit that amused me. And since these things will probably never find their way anywhere else I thought I’d just go ahead and post them here in case you guys might enjoy them.

First was something that was just meant to feel weird and noir. I think I nailed it but, then again, I usually do think that.

She was as blonde as she was brunette, you just couldn’t tell under all that red hair. She spoke French with an Irish accent and she floated, which wasn’t at all the strangest thing about her. Once, while making love, she recited the periodic table to me.

Second was a thing that made me laugh.

Kangaroos cannot hop backwards. I remember reading that. I’m sure of it. So either my mind is playing tricks on me or this kangaroo is. And, either way, he’s got a gun.

Anyway. Brandon Generator is good fun. You should all watch it.

Oh, Boy

Mon, 21 May 2012 15:07:14 -0400

Sometimes ambition means that your mailbox is quantum super positioned. Schrödinger’s career is in there. The next chapter of my life is both alive and dead inside a tiny, tin box until I open it and look. And mostly it’s bills and the new Rolling Stone. So I’ll open it again tomorrow. Bring on the awesome

Last night, talking about Johnny Carson on American Masters, Joan Rivers said, “Everyone stabs...

Thu, 17 May 2012 02:00:24 -0400

Last night, talking about Johnny Carson on American Masters, Joan Rivers said, “Everyone stabs everyone in the back in this business.” It’s not true, guys. That’s just something people who stab people in the back say.

Robert Downey Jr. Can't Wear the Suit Forever

Tue, 08 May 2012 21:50:13 -0400

I don’t believe that there is an actor more viscerally connected to a character in modern cinema than Robert Downey Jr. to Tony Stark. Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman was fine but I can separate those two with ease. But RDJ is Tony. Tony is RDJ. They are one.

But he can’t wear the suit forever.

Whoever comes next is obviously going to be compared to Downey, and that person will lose, because losing is what happens when you are compared to Robert Downey Jr. So what I’m thinking is, why bother getting a good actor just to lose? Why bother getting an actor at all?

Why not just give it to me?

I would look GOOD in that armor.

E for Iron Man.

Awesome Day 2012

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:43:26 -0400

As longtime heroes know, today, the 24th of April, is my birthday. But that’s not important, what is important is that it is also, not by coincidence, Awesome Day. It is the one day each year that I ask you all to set aside just for awesomeness. The fact that this thing isn’t on mainstream calendars baffles me. If you’re new to the concept I’ll explain by way of reblogging in just a sec, but for the heroes old and new alike, please do take this day and honor it with kindness and greatness and, you know, awesome. Honor it in ways big or small, however you like. Be great for yourself, for a friend, for a stranger, just be great. I know you’ve got it in you. I see it every day.

I love you all. Happy Awesome Day everyone!

From Awesome Day 2009:

So Awesome Day is upon us once again. For those who are new to my ramblings or those who do not catalog each of my glorious syllables in a special, perhaps gilded, mind-drive (for shame!) Awesome Day is part of my continuing, global and lifelong mission to turn things I hate (in this case my birthday) into things that kick ass (in this case Awesome Day).

Awesome Day is the day each year when I ask each of you to do something wonderful, something divine, either for yourselves or really anyone. Tell that barista that you’ve had your eye on that she ensorcels you, jump the fuck out of a plane and flip physics a bird as your chute unfurls behind you and you quietly make gravity your bitch, throw a last-minute Awesome Day party to wallow in fellowship or just take yourself to a spa or a baseball game and remind yourself that shit need not be as fast as all this. As small as all this.

It’s the day I hope we each remember that life is not simply for living, it is for being alive. The day when we declare that the damn Buddhists got it all wrong. We should not be here now; we should be extraordinary here, now.

We live lives of mortgages and classes and car pool lanes, we exist, evanescent, between bus stops and borderlines and we can’t go balls-out all day everyday. It’s like driving Excite Bike with the B button; you can only do it for so long before you get pulled over for overheating. But on April 24^th we line our world-entire with those little arrow things that allow us to do whatever the fuck we like. On Awesome Day we remember that we are infinite. On this day we are each of us risers.

Get a beverage of your choice and awe some folk!

765 Words About “No Strings Attached” vs its Script “Fuckbuddies”

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:46:00 -0400

I’ve been hearing for, I dunno, hours about how genius Elizabeth Meriwether’s OG script for “No Strings Attached” (née “Fuckbuddies”) is so I decided to finally get my hands on a copy. And you know what, yeah, it’s pretty damn dope. This wasn’t a surprise since Ms. Meriwehter’s show “New Girl” is one of the best things on the TV. It’s so nectar. And, because comparing and contrasting is fun, (Shut up, it is. Do a blind taste test of every tequila on the market and tell me if you aren’t having fun by the time you take your fifth or sixth shot.) I went ahead and watched “No Strings.” And, honestly, the movie isn’t bad.

It’s not genius but most things aren’t and “No Strings” has its moments. I was particularly into the final shot, to be honest. A little cheesy, maybe, maybe a lot cheesy but romantic comedies are made of cheese and you love cheese and you know it so stop acting like that’s not why you’re there. The final shot (SPOILERS) turns on the idea that, maybe, for some people holding hands is more intimate and more daring than fucking and that’s cute and sweet in context. And, sadly, it’s a sentiment to which I can relate.

Natalie Portman seemed like an odd casting choice given the tone of the character in the draft I read, but I’ve written a movie about a huge, athletic, African-American man and if Natalie fucking Portman told me she wanted to play that part I would say I wrote it with her in mind and that’s perfect and also I like your shoes!

And the character Ashton Kutcher plays is meant to be an ugly, hairy jewish guy and that’s just how this shit goes and fuck it. The game is the game. And the game is out there and it’s play or get played. And, if nothing else, this is probably the only essay on “No Strings Attached” you’ll ever read that references “The Wire” so I got that goin’ for me. Which is nice.

Probably that should be “essay”.

Anyway.

I understand that scripts go through massive changes before they land in your eyeballs and earballs in the form of a movie. That’s axiomatic. What I don’t understand is why they would change some of the shit they changed. Some revisions make sense from a marketing standpoint and some actually made the story better, making characters beyond the principal couple into actual, whole people. Ish. Some changes make sense. Some are fucking crimes against cinema.

Two crimes, in particular, need to be pointed to directly, I feel, because they are simple keeps and what the fuck?

Crime the First was when Eli (who would go on to be played by New Girl’s very funny Jake Johnson) said to Adam (Kutcher) that Emma (Portman) has bat eyes.

I’m not entirely sure one needs a new slug line when walking a character from the inside of a frat house to the same room in the same frat house but, whatever, that line is gold and so fucking out there.

But Crime the Second is the one that made me want to print out the .pdf of the script so I could throw it across the room for being so damn good. And also burn the movie to disk to throw it across the room for missing something so damn good. Much like those last two sentences, excising this stuff makes no sense and what follows are some of the most genuinely funny lines I’ve ever read.

This from a scene where the two are fighting, natch.

Followed closely with:

It’s the “Impossible” I think, that makes it art.

And the worst part is that scene is still in the movie. They kept the idea of Adam wanting more and Emma getting hinky about it and them having an inappropriate fight in public. They just decided to get rid of the genius and replace it with Natalie Portman pushing Ashton Kutcher in the chest a whole bunch. I imagine the meeting where they changed that line going something like, “I dig this scene but is there any way it could be, like, a lot less funny and maybe way more boring?”

If Hollywood ran physics they’d have said to Einstein, “I like what you’re doing here, but what if, instead of E being equal to MC2 it’s equal to something a little more accessible. Throw in a little something for the flyover states, you know? And also I’d like science to give me a boner.”

-E

What I Watched Last Week

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:23:00 -0500

I’m going to try to keep a short diary of the movies I watch each week, mostly so that I can look back over it in coming years, but also to help motivate me to watch more and better movies. So far I’m not off to a GREAT start, but I’m working on it. So…what i watched this week: Our Idiot Brother. This Means War. All Star Superman. The Woman In Black. Bronson. In a Lonely Place.

To list the television I watched would get too long and embarrassing. If you really want to know just ask or, if it’s easier, just think about all the shows where someone who isn’t police solves a crime and assume I saw it.

Also, I don’t do movie reviews because of screw that, but I will say that Tom Hardy’s performance in “Bronson” was HUGE. One of the best I’ve ever seen. It was really something.

I’m more or less out of the comic business at this point. The...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:17:00 -0500

I’m more or less out of the comic business at this point. The Cutting Room isn’t dead so much as it’s in a coma while my partner and I try to figure out how to kill it. But I imagine every once in a while when a comic is easy and I have some time on my hands I’ll throw one out there for the giggles and the whatnot. This is one of those times. It’s a super relevant comic, too, because it relies on a basic knowledge of a cartoon that’s been off the air for a decade and an ad campaign that’s been gone even longer, probably. Enjoy!

Late Night Rant:

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:57:53 -0500

I get asked for advice and help with writing a lot. Often these questions come with links to other advice with more questions. “Is this true?” “Is this how you do it?” “Should I just put my shit in a drawer because it can’t possibly be any good?”

When you search for general writing advice online, nine times out of ten the advice presumes you suck and are an idiot who is kidding him or herself. This presumption, like all writing, says much more about the source than the subject. Sorkin and Moffat and Whedon aren’t sitting at home handing out advice anonymously on internet forums. They just aren’t. And they aren’t trolling you. They will never try to break you down just for funsies. And I bet they never googled how to be a writer.

I Don't Believe in Judging A Person's Worth Based on Aesthetics. But...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:14:20 -0500

If there exists a more attractive human than Yvonne Strahovski I don’t think my brain could process the sight of them. They would just appear to my eyes like a spinning beach ball floating in the air.

My Christmas Presents This year for my Christmas presents I...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:58:40 -0500

My Christmas Presents

This year for my Christmas presents I decided to recreate the covers of Iconic comic books but switch out members of my family and friends for the heroes. I then had them printed up and framed. These things were a pretty big hit and I had a lot of fun making them, so I thought some of you guys might like to see them. And if not, it’s a big internet. I bet there’s something out there you’d like.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I love you all. Even you.

I'm Going To Try To Make 2012 The Year of Getting All My Holes Filled!

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:43:00 -0500

Maybe I should explain. I have huge, egregious holes in my film knowledge. We all do. For me pretty much if it happened before 1980 and wasn’t made in the US or UK I probably haven’t seen it. I’ve been aware of and embarrassed by this for some time but the laziness that created the holes maintains them. But no more! I’m fixing this shit, dammit. But I need your help. Tell me, please, what movies you feel a human MUST see. If I haven’t seen it I’ll add it to the list. It’s that easy. I’m going to do my best to watch the top 100 films this year. Please don’t feel like you have to suggest all foreign or classic films, suggest the Matrix if you want. I’ve seen that one, but if I hadn’t that would be insane and in need of fixin’. The point is, I could just go to the AFI top 100 list, but I’d rather watch the stuff that actual, whole people think needs to be watched. Suggest genre films, indy films, blockbusters, your wedding video, I don’t care. Whatever. Anything you think is genius, or that means the world to you or whatever.

I’ll give you some examples. “In a Lonely Place” is up first. I’ve been meaning to watch that thing forever. Looks genius, I just haven’t done it. “Goodfellas” is going on the list. That’s right, I haven’t seen “Goodfellas.” I don’t know how it happened but it did and now I have to fix it. Hell, suggest Transformers 3, if you want. I’m not going to watch it, but I’ll appreciate the help nonetheless.

So…yeah. Please help. Here’s how to get in touch with me:

email: ethan [at] 207pictures.com

Twitter: @ethanhunter

Facebook: TheEthanHunter

Call or text me if you know my number.

or, just use the ask a question/suggest a film section of this website.

Thanks so much, guys. I appreciate it.

Advice

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:54:06 -0500

No joke. The words of advice that most commonly run through my mind run in Alec Baldwin’s voice. “Shoulders back, Lemon. You’re not welcoming people to Castle Frankenstein.” Thrice a day, give or take.

A fairly close second is the sound of my Dad’s voice saying, “Never call to an inside straight.”

I guess what I’m saying is I have shitty posture and possibly a gambling problem.

Happy holidays,

Mutant Battle Turkeys!

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:33:00 -0500

Yesterday my three year old nephew Batman and I made some turkey-shaped treats. We were meant to make these things a little closer to Thanksgiving but we’re busy, man. There’s lots of pants pooping and needless destruction and cartoon watching to be done. And Batman has stuff to do, too. So yesterday we finally got to it. These delicious little bastards consist of rice krispies treats, fudge stripe cookies and candy corn, basically. Bats took a kind of surrealist approach, making some kind of mutant porcupine turkey thing. And just mostly ate his ingredients. Because Bat’s takes a kind of surrealist approach to life, which I totally dig.

I made Larry.

I absolutely cannot bring myself to eat him.

And a good, messy time was had by all. Baaaawwwww.

Yuletide Studies

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:27:00 -0500

Christmas is a lot like college. It’s a little bit magic. A little bit unreal. A little too white, probably. A little expensive but sometimes money just shows up in the mail. And you drink more and eat more than you should if you were in the real world but you aren’t so no worries. And a dorm room and a bottle of Aristocrat vodka, that’s mistletoe gone wild. It comes just before the unwrapping.

Watch My Beard Grow! We’ve come to the end of No Shave...

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:40:00 -0500

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Watch My Beard Grow!

We’ve come to the end of No Shave November and I wanted to share my progress. Starting with a clean shave on Hallowe’en, thus the Eleventh Doctor costume, and running through today, Nov 30, 126 pictures in 22 seconds take you through the growth like magic or possibly biology.

If I’d planned ahead I’d have taken 207 pictures. Next time.

And, of course, I took a couple of seconds in the middle to support Community with my darkest timeline goatee.

Some Quick Thoughts On The Occupy Movement From A Dumb Guy Who Doesn't Really Understand Things

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:18:00 -0500

And forgive me if this sort of thing has been said before.

My parents’ generation grew up in the shadow of the bomb. It hung over them and terrified them and they protested. They did not trust the people at the triggers and they saw no need for a weapon system that could end everything and they had to do something. And so they protested.

The bomb was an idea as much or more than it was anything else and the better idea was not killing millions of people. So en masse and not infrequently in handcuffs they offered their better ideas. They put flowers in the barrels of guns and had lots and lots of sex and they said life was the better idea.

The bomb that hangs over my generation is the future. And the future is an idea as much or more than it’s anything else. It’s not as tangible as a bomb, sure, but more volatile and every bit as dangerous in the wrong hands. And we do not trust the people at the trigger so we are protesting.

The biggest difference I see is our lack of mutually assured destruction. Back in the day If we dropped a bomb, then someone would retaliate and vice versa. Murder was the same thing as suicide in those days and that’s a powerful deterrent.

But we don’t have that kind of assurance. We know we don’t. We’ve seen what happens when the triggermen knowingly, deliberately detonate the economy and government and, with them, many, many tomorows. What happens is WE pay to clean it up. We bail them out and they walk away burdened only with the weight of our cash in their pockets.

What Occupy is, to me, is the better idea. The better idea is fairness and decency and trust. The idea is that maybe the one percent shouldn’t be cheating their way to making the world a small, brutal mess for the ninety-nine percent.

The better idea is life.

The triggermen are on Wall Street and Occupy is saying we’d like it if you didn’t murder us. And if you do pull the trigger, you won’t find us on our knees. You’re going to look us in the eye while you do it.