Now I haven't been able to find any substantial links to line up with what I've been told, but I've also had issues just finding links about the DVDs themselves....except for this Facebook post:
"You asked for it, so you get what you deserve!
Fifteen dollars will get you a Season One DVD of the series with many bonus features. Also, all monies will help fund sSeason 2!"Now IMDB has an estimated budget of $150,000, which is a lot of DVD sales! Now the interview makes it seem like DVD sales weren't that big of a deal because of the up-front costs before Season 1, but if those sales were enough to fund Season 2 and part of Season 1, at that point a sunk cost, pretty much that means there was more than enough for Season 2, which again begs the question.....why didn't we get an entire Season 2?
As far as the podcast interview, here is the painfully-extracted transcript portion (emphasis mine):
Host Dwayne Johnson:"Now a lot of your finance comes through the DVDs and such, correct?"
Tim Gooch:"That’s a very small part of it I would say, uh..its its Ken, you can feel free to stop me and tell me to shut up at any point in time. Season 1…"
Ken Whitman:"Stop and shut up…oh wait a second, now wait…go ahead..."
Tim Gooch:"ha, ha, ha…Season 1 was where we exhibited a lot of our start-up costs because it was us trying to get things in place. We had to purchase materials, had to get the ball rolling, so Season 1 probably cost us I would think it was probably what? Three times what Season 2 cost us? In terms of…"
Ken Whitman:"Yes, yes"
Tim Gooch:"…out of pocket expenses. We then, we then still had a similar amount of sweat equity from all the actors and crew, but it was from an, from an actual out of pocket standpoint it was dramatically less for Season 2 than, than for Season 1. Um, but..but far as recouping costs from..DVD sales have helped defer the cost of Season 2..and and a little bit of the costs of Season 1, but its pretty, its pretty fractional because the startup costs were pretty significant in that, in that first season."
Ken Whitman:"Now were, we will push a little more marketing on Season 2, uh and then of course try to push even a little bit more on Season 3. Uh, but when, when one is doing a web series, I mean the main thing that Tim and I set out on a goal was we’d like to develop a crew, we’d like to develop uh, you know actors. We’d like to get people that we get comfortable with, that we can work with for future projects. And, you know, everything is a learning process. And Brother Barbarian, you know, is is basically a start for Tim and I. As we, we actually are working on other products and, and, and acting in other, uh, things, but that we can’t talk about right now. But, you know, this was, this was dipping our toe in, I mean as far as Ken and Tim being, uh uh team or a production team and building the people that we want to work with in the future. And so as though we, we may not have, you know made a tremendous amount of money off of this project, it is the starting point, you know what we plan on doing in the future."
You read it here, Brothers Barbarian Season 2 was Ken Whitman's "warm-up" to building how he wants to work and getting more money. Since he didn't send out a full Season 2, or the DVDs, I have to think this is foreshadowing for the "current" slate of Kickstarter films. The Castles & Crusades is MIA and the KoDT:LAS DVD deadline is in a few short days.
I've posted before that Tim Gooch seems to be a stand-up guy, so please don't take his name and words in this post to be contrary to that. If anything I'd be asking how the relationship between Tim Gooch and Ken Whitman goes these days. He's listed as the "Director of Photography" for KoDT:LAS, but word on the street is they are through...because of Ken Whitman. Maybe this is just me, but if your friends don't want to work with you.....
Because past performance is and indicator of future expectations (this isn't the stock market), I wouldn't be holding my breath on those projects/products filling anytime soon, or at all.
Just for the record - and I want to make this very clear - Tim Gooch is a wonderful guy, an ethical, creative guy with a lot of talent. He has nothing to do with Ken's Kickstarters. He merely has been on-hand in Kentucky to be persuaded to help Ken film and produce movies. Tim is talented, so it is no wonder Ken wanted him to be involved. But, Tim has been, and continues to be a man of ethics. He is a friend because of his character, while Ken can no longer be considered my friend because of the falsehoods he has told. Tim Gooch has never lied to anyone. Tim Gooch has never taken anyone's money. Let's make that very clear because it's unfortunate that his name has been connected with Ken's. Yes, creatively they have worked together. I am not going to reveal private, personal information about Tim's feelings about the matter - or about Ken, but I stand by Tim Gooch and trust him. I cannot say the same about Mr. Whitman.
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