Kickstarter backers pledged more than $300 million for a variety of projects, from an app that tells you when it will rain to a bus stop construction in Athens, Georgia. But as my colleague Ki Mae Huessner pointed out in GigaOM’s post on our favorite Kickstarter projects of the year, there are certainly some questions about the platform’s success.

Plenty of projects don’t hit their deadlines and entrepreneurs have sometimes struggled to meet the demand for scale from backers. However, as Om Malik wrote in his interview with founder Perry Chen, Kickstarter is a visual representation of the crowd funding movement that’s providing new ways for entrepreneurs and makers to access capital. At GigaOM’s Roadmap conference in November, Chen said he has no interest in selling Kickstarter or taking it to an IPO.

Here are some of the most interest pieces of information from the Kickstarter year in review, which can be viewed in full here:

• More than 2 million people pledged $319,786,629 and successfully funded 18,109 projects
• More than $274 million was actually collected via funded projects
• Of the more than 2 million people who backed a project, 452 people backed more than 100 projects
• Music had the most projects funded (5,067) but games had the most money pledged ($83 million)
• Only 17 projects raised more than $1 million
• 10 percent of films at Sundance were funded through Kickstarter, and a Kickstarter-funded film was nominated for an Oscar, and a Kickstarter-funded opera came to the Kennedy Center
• Kickstarter funds the world’s first pizza museum

And here are the categories Kickstarter used to break down the funding:

And here’s Kickstarter CEO Perry Chen speaking at our RoadMap 2012 conference in November:

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Indie Game‘s story began on the web, thanks to Kickstarter funding, and covers a topic near and dear to the Internet’s heart: the rise of the independent video game designer.

So while, according to co-director James Swirsky via email, the theatrical release and an earlier sold outscreening tour were profitable ways of building word-of-mouth about the film, making the film available online was extremely important to him and co-director Lisanne Pajot, as “that is where our audience is.”

“We wanted to get this film into the hands of those people who want to see it the most as quickly as reasonably possible,” he added. “Which is the main motivation behind the very tight release windows we’re working within.”

Indie Game‘s digital release will come through three platforms — one expected, two unconventional. The film, like many independent films before it, will be available on iTunes, but it’ll also be released by VHX as a direct DRM-free download — the second-ever project to be distributed by VHX, following their release of Aziz Ansari’s comedy special last April.

The story of how Indie Game ended up working with VHX couldn’t be more webby. Via the film’s extremely active Twitter account, the filmmakers mentioned they were looking for a distribution platform — instantly, Andy Baio (@waxpancake) connected the two:

Check the date stamp on that tweet — it’s less than two weeks ago. Only nine days after making contact, Indie Game‘s deal with VHX was solidified. “A new record for us, and a trend we hope will continue,” VHX co-founder Jamie Wilkinson said via email.

There’s no exact date yet on when the VHX for Artists platform will be officially open for all, according to co-founder Casey Pugh, but “it will be soon,” he promised.

In addition to iTunes and VHX, Indie Game will also be distributed through Steam, Valve’s video game distribution platform. That’s right, a gaming platform. According to Swirsky, with the exception of a zombie film created by Valve employees several years ago, Indie Game is the first film to ever receive major release through the popular service.

However, the decision to work with Steam made sense for Swirsky and Pajot, because of the film’s deep connections with the independent gaming community. “From a pure distribution standpoint, we can not get any closer to our core audience that being listed side by side with the games that are featured in the film,” Swirsky said. “If you like and bought Super Meat Boy, Braid, World of Goo, etc, there’s a good chance you might be interested in the backstory behind those games, and games like them. Steam brings us to the core of our most relevant audience in a very unique way. It’s kind of amazing.”

Across platforms, the cost will be $10, though those pre-ordering on Steam can purchase it for $8.99. According to Swirsky, “When it comes to sales and knowing their consumer base, Steam is second to none. They know their stuff. They know how to effective launch, maintain and promote the products within their system. When they suggested debuting with a pre-order pricing incentive, it made a lot of sense to us.”

To Swirsky and Pajot, each platform has its unique advantages. Steam, as previously mentioned, delivers the film to the most passionate portion of its fanbase. With iTunes, he says, it’s “a juggernaut. We always wanted this film to be there. They bring an audience and ease of purchase/viewing that we could only dream of with this film.”

And working with VHX, Swirsky says, “allows us to continue the direct conversation with our audience that we’ve been having since Day 1. It’s all on our site, it’s all under our control, it’s as personal as delivering the final film to the end audience as we can get digitally. VHX is doing some really exciting things. We’re really proud to be a part of it all.”

“It’s truly a great film. It also perfectly aligns with our beliefs on the future of film,” Pugh said. “Crowd-funded on Kickstarter and self-released on VHX. This is where the film, video and television business is going and it’s only the tip of the iceberg.”

Between the three platforms, Swirsky and Pajot are hopeful to not only make up the actual production budget of the film, but also compensate themselves for the two years they spent making the film. “The film is very much on track to make back its budget. But that’s a budget that doesn’t include paying ourselves for the past two years. If we go by that budget, we still have a little ways to go. But it should be worth it,” Swirsky said.

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As an independent filmmaker, Kevin Smith at one time claimed ownership of the most profitable independent film of all time; Clerks cost $27,000 to make and made $3.9 million at the box office. So following financial flops Zach and Miri Make a Porno and Cop Out, the gory action-horror film Red State was said to be a return to Smith’s indie roots.

In short, Kevin Smith has gone full circle from independent filmmaker to faltering Hollywood movie maker, and now back to the independent world. However, he’s returning with a fan base of millions, and a plan to stay profitable thanks to their dollars.

(Warning: NSFW for language)

For years, Smith has found a lucrative side business in live speaking engagements around the United States, which he films and edits into feature-length compilations (which he then sells on DVD). And Smith has something similar in mind to start spreading the word about Red State: Beginning March 5 in New York City, he’ll tour around the nation with the film, charging “probably six, seven, maybe 10 times” the normal cost of a movie ticket, according to Slashfilm. Then, on Oct. 19 (the 17th anniversary of Clerks‘s theatrical premiere), Red State will officially launch in theaters.

Red State cost a little less than $4 million, which is well above the $27,000 his first film cost. But if the “road tour” goes as planned, Smith will have made $1.5 to $1.7 million of that investment back before the movie officially premieres in October.

As summarized by Vulture, Smith’s outlook is as follows:

The movie took 25 days and cost $4 million to make. If he sold it for $6 million, it would still take $20 million to market. But since that $26 million doesn’t go back to the movie team or the studio or the distributor, you have to make $50 million just to get to the profit line. And it would have to make twice that to be considered profitable.

Deadline reports that exhibitors didn’t take Smith’s message very well, which seems to have been something Smith was deliberately aiming for based on a blog entry dated Jan. 4:

Some people have asked if we’d sell the flick to Harvey, should he make an offer. All I’m saying is I hope Harvey’s in the room when that first Sundance screening ends…

But I hope Fox Searchlight is there, too.

And Lion’s Gate.

And maybe even an adventurous studio or two.

And some exhibitors, too – the lifeblood of the movie biz that rarely gets shouted-out.

Come one, come all to a fun-filled, fast-paced after-show that’ll be needed after that Red State screening.

Turns out, he wanted them all there so that he could tell them exactly what he thought of them.

As Smith told Crave Online:

This time it’s not enough to just make the movie. We have to learn how to release the movie because true independence isn’t making a film and selling it to some jackass. True independence is schlepping that sh*t to the people yourself and that’s what I intend to do.

Thus, Smith plans to completely eschew traditional advertising, instead focusing on pushing the film across his own platforms: This includes a Twitter account followed by 1.7 million and his SMODcast podcast.

And that podcast is about to have a much larger audience thanks to AOL’s new web series AOL Late Night, which will compile segments from The Adam Carolla Show, Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, and SMODcast into a nightly video series. (SMODcast is traditionally an audio podcast, but for the first time, according to an AOL spokesperson, cameras will be on hand to capture the podcast recordings.)

The road trip Smith is planning for Red State is decidedly old-school, but he’s still taking advantage of the state of media in 2011, where one guy’s personal brand can be a more effective marketing tool than the studio system — when it comes to targeting a specific audience.

Smith may have struggled inside the studio system, but he now recognizes the value of niche content — and it’s a niche he created himself: an amalgam of stoners and lapsed Catholics, loyal men and women who enjoy comic book references and dick jokes. He even considered a fan-funded model for financing the film — one he regrets not pursuing.

Is what Kevin Smith achieved with Clerks still possible today? No, Smith says, telling Crave that “When you’re spending four times, five times the amount to market a movie or open a movie than you are to make it, that’s not an inspiring game at all. No kid can get into it now. I look at the f*ckin’ film world now and I’m like there’s no way I would’ve tried it. I wouldn’t have tried Clerks today because it’s impenetrable.”

But back in 1994, if you wanted to be a filmmaker — heck, a visual storyteller of any kind — you had exactly two options: Go to Los Angeles and New York and slowly but surely work your way up in the system, or get a whole bunch of credit cards or private investment, write a movie you could shoot in one location on the cheap, and pray to God that you could sell it to an independent distributor or get it into Sundance.

And now, look at how the world has changed. Clerks today would be a web series, and while it might still hook fans with its sharp dialogue, explicit sex talk and low-fi aesthetic, it wouldn’t have nearly the same impact. What Clerks represented in 1994, though, is what independent web content represents today — the ideal that if you have an original voice, you can find an audience to connect with your production, whether that production be a 16mm black-and-white movie, or a five-minute YouTube vlog.

Picture courtesy of Flickr user Ian Muttoo.

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The Sundance Film Festival is a showcase that draws about 50,000 people to Park City, Utah — all toting cell phones, tablets and computers, and all expecting to use them without any trouble. The sense of tech entitlement (remember the outrage at AT&T after South by Southwest in 2009 when folks couldn’t use their iPhones?) is only getting worse. For example, it’s becoming more common at large conferences and product launches for presenters to ask reporters or folks in the audience to turn off their personal hotspots or pause their video streaming in order to cut down on glitchy demonstrations or so people can share the connections responsibly.

A recent study by Root Wireless showed that at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the influx of people created huge congestion problems that resulted in less reliability and slower speeds, especially during afternoon hours when everyone was likely to be online (see chart, showing performance).

The problem is simple: Wireless — whether cellular or Wi-Fi — uses the airwaves, and one can only cram so many bits into a single megahertz of bandwidth. So if you have enough people in a small space trying to get their bits through, their connection slows or stops. New technologies are always trying to boost the amount of data a given chunk of spectrum can hold, but to think that you can cram a few thousand people into a small area and serve them all perfect 10 Mbps or even 1 Mbps connections is like expecting gravity to suddenly stop working so we can all fly.

The IT folks at Sundance know this, so they did three things to boost connectivity for the attendees at the film festival. First, they brought in about a dozen Comcast business lines, ranging from 100 Mbps to 22 Mbps, to provide about 300 Mbps of total backhaul capacity. They also bullied AT&T into trucking in extra cellular capacity in the form of COWs (Cellular on Wheels) or COLTs (Cellular on Light Trucks), and they got 45 Wi-Fi access points from Ruckus Wireless to create a monster hot-spot.

The end result is that the excess cellular equipment provides more spectrum for those who want to make phone calls and send texts, while the Ruckus access points handle interference and sharing the airwaves for the myriads hopping on Wi-Fi. Justin Simmons, associate director of IT at Sundance Institute, said he’s already seeing 40 gigabytes sent in a 24-hour period over the network, and the festival hasn’t even started yet. He’s convinced that people will still tap out the network as the demand for connectivity is pretty much infinite, but at least this year, people will be able to use the Sundance apps created for iPhone and Android devices.

“The last couple of years, cell service got worse and worse, and last year was even more so,” said Simmons. “We had an iPhone app, and it didn’t work because the 3G network didn’t work, and we didn’t have public Wi-Fi.” In a wrap up meeting to discuss the festival, the lack of connectivity was a huge problem. “People expect connectivity, and when they come to the festival, they need to have it here and it affects their customer experience,” said Simmons. “Plus when we push an iPhone app playing video that doesn’t work, it makes us look pretty bad.”

Unfortunately, it’s likely that even with the efforts taken to improve the situation, there will still be complaints over speeds that IT can’t solve today. It’s just a sobering reality about wireless broadband and crowds. Convenience comes at a price, and generally, the price is slower speeds and more uncertain connections.

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But, despite a post on the YouTube blog and pickup from various tech blogs, very few users have actually taken YouTube up on the offer. Based on a quick look through the movies that were made available, it appears that YouTube viewers rented the five films less than 1,500 times in total, or an average of 300 times each. At $3.99 a piece, that means the indie films generated less than $6,000 in total sales over the course of the weekend, or about $1,200 per movie — and that’s before YouTube took its cut for hosting the files.

That’s bad news for the films involved, and could be bad news for YouTube, which is looking for new ways to monetize videos through sales and rentals. While the films are independently produced and haven’t generated the same amount of buzz as some Hollywood blockbusters, the low view counts are surprising, given the buzz before the film festival and prominent “featured” placement from YouTube.

The good news for YouTube is that it’s still expected to become profitable this year. In a recent research note, Barclay’s Capital analyst Doug Anmuth suggested that YouTube would add to Google’s bottom line for the first time in 2010, with revenues growing more than 55 percent year-over-year to $700 million.

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Sundance is cooperating with Ustream for live streams from the festival. It will stream the opening day press conference with founder Robert Redford and festival director John Cooper on Thursday, followed by a accoustic live concert on Saturday as well as a number of awards ceremonies during the following days. Check below for the full program.

Thursday, January 21st: Opening Day Press Conference with Founder Robert Redford and Festival Director John Cooper; 1:00 p.m. PST/ 2:00 p.m. MST/ 4:00 EST. 45 minute to 60 minute live stream from the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah.

Sunday, January 24: Composers Night Concert at the Sundance House; 7:30 p.m. PST/ 8:30 p.m. MST/ 11:30 p.m. EST. 60 minute to 90 minute live stream from the Sundance House Presented by HP in Park City, Utah.

Tuesday, January 26: Official Short Film Awards Party; 7:00 p.m. PST/ 8:00 p.m. MST/ 11:00 p.m. EST. 90 minute to 120 minute live stream from the Jupiter Bowl in Park City, Utah.

Thursday January 28: Breakfast with the Filmmakers of NEXT; 9:00 a.m. PST/ 10 a.m. MST/ noon EST. 45 minute to 60 minute live stream from theSundance Film Festival Online Production Studios at Silver Star in Park City, Utah.

Saturday January 30: Official Closing Night Awards Ceremony; 7:00 p.m. PST/ 8:00 p.m. MST/ 11:00 p.m. EST. 90 minute to 120 minute live stream from the Racquet Club Theatre in Park City Utah.

One should also note that while the film premieres won’t be streamed live — for obvious reasons — the festival site is featuring a ton of short interviews with film makers that are worth checking out as well.

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Google has been playing with the idea of movie and TV show rentals for a while. In fact, Google Video initially featured an option to rent movie downloads, but the offer was quickly scrapped after it failed to take off. Reports about renewed efforts to jump on the VOD bandwagon surfaced last fall when the Wall Street Journal wrote about talks with Lion’s Gate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros..

It’s unclear when more high-profile partners will become part of the offering, but Google has announced that it aims to gradually open up rentals to other partners, including content providers focusing on “health and education”, and that these content providers will be able to decide the duration, pricing and local availability of their rentals.

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IPTV to Grow 32 Percent Annually Over the Next Six Years; cable and satellite growth rates will slow as IPTV services forecasted to reach 79 million subscribers by 2014. (ABI Research)

Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Rose Create 24 Hours at Sundance; the online reality show is backed by mobile streaming company Qik, and follows four “social media mavens” as they compete in a set of challenges around the famed film festival. (CNET)

Google Officially Launches SpotMixer Service; service lets people automatically convert text ads into video spots that can be aired nationally. (Google Traditional Media Blog)

More than 2 Million Requests on DTV Coupon Wait List; too bad the program ran out of money. (Broadcasting & Cable) (See who the big losers will be should DTV be delayed over at GigaOM.)

Sony Pictures TV Acquires Embassy Row; purchase also brings the digital assets including the YouTube entertainment series Poptub. (The Hollywood Reporter)

ABC Puts Daytime Online; now you can watch full episodes of The View and General Hospital at ABC.com. (emailed release)

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Pure Digital Ranked Fifth on Deloitte’s 2008 Fast Technology 500; maker of the Flip Digital video camera made the list of fastest-growing companies in North America with reported revenues of $54.6 million in 2007, an increase of 44,667 percent from 2003 revenues of $122,000. (emailed release)

ConAgra and MSN Partner for Comedy Series; The Working Lunch aimed at building buzz for the Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers line of foods. (AdWeek)

YouTube Brings Back Project: Direct; short film competition requires the use of a red phone prop, winner gets a trip to the Sundance Film Festival. (YouTube Blog)

Joost Appoints Jason Gaedtke to CTO; can his technical guidance help the once high-flying startup regain some of its lost luster? (emailed release)

ExtendMedia Launches OpenCASE 3.0; product manages the publishing and delivery of digital content across PCs, televisions and mobile devices. (release)

BoinxTV Now Shipping; video tool for podcasters comes in either a sponsored edition ($199) or an ad-free edition ($499). (The Apple Blog)

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In the first episode, Robin pitches the web series to his professor as an investigation of “the dynamic between teacher and student, how this relationship both benefits and hinders an education within this film program.” His professor’s response? “I’m asking you to do something different…we are not here to feed your website.” Robin embarks on the project anyway, and the remaining eight episodes chronicle the personal and creative battles of Robin and his classmates as they navigate an educational system that seems at best indifferent to, and often actually an aggressive barrier to their success.

The effect of the episodes is cumulative. On their own, they seem to be just fragments, but taken together, they accurately reflect the tangle of emotions produced by any close-knit, intense creative environment. The heightened state is made a bit more explosive by Robin’s professor, whose extreme detachment and apparent aversion to active instruction enrages the students. (At one point, Robin complains “This is like the Seinfeld show––it’s a class about nothing.”) The frustration of producing art in this environment bleeds into other aspects of his subjects’ lives; as the woman at the center of episode four (Robin never tells us his subjects’ names) tells Robin, “Everything is about cinema.” Later in the episode, she starts crying in front of the camera, and immediately drops a cinematic reference to being filmed with tears on her face. She’s apparently crying because her professor/adviser has failed to flirt with her, and Kinoland hits its emotional and narrative peak with this scene.

The first six episodes of Kinoland are the strongest. Toward the end, the series seems to veer away from Robin’s stated goal of interrogating the relationship between teacher and student, and by the end of episode nine, the show seems to be moving away from, rather than towards, a definitive conclusion. But the episodes that do take on issues of power and authority in the film-school environment become fascinating, in the wake of summer‘s Sundance win and ensuing festival success, as a portrait of the filmmaker’s earlier struggles to forge an identity in a surprisingly demoralizing academic environment.

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