Melissa Joan Hart has learned from failure

Not every Kickstarter film-funding effort ends in multimillion-dollar success like Zach Braff’s recent campaign or that achieved by the cast and creators of the canceled show Veronica Mars.

Just ask actress Melissa Joan Hart, who failed in her efforts to raise $2 million for a romantic comedy in which she was hoping to star.

Turns out fans of the ‘90s child star – best known for the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV movie and series – weren’t so interested in watching her play a single thirtysomething forced to attend her sister’s wedding solo in Thailand. The project was titled Darci’s Walk of Shame.

Her month of fundraising efforts on the crowd-sourced site Kickstarter prompted its own walk of shame, nabbing only $51,000 in pledges and shutting down early.

Hart appeared to be taking the long view – disappointed but encouraged by what she learned in the process.

“It’s a gamble. The whole thing is a gamble,” said Hart, who has a book out later this year and recently spoke about the trials of a Hollywood career.

“We didn’t launch it correctly. What we failed to do was let the fans know exactly what the project was. If we were to go back, what I would do is either shoot five minutes of the movie or have a full cast. We thought we could do it based on ‘Hey, here’s Melissa. You’ve liked what she’s done, check out what she’s going to do next.’”

Unlike the funding for Braff’s follow-up to Garden State or the reunion of Veronica Mars, Hart’s project lacked a nostalgia factor.

“You can help me do a funny, sexy part,” Hart pleaded to her fans in a video for the project. Hart said the video wasn’t enough to convince her fans to reach for their wallets.

“We didn’t give them the two things it takes to sell a movie: a poster and a trailer,” she said. “I really think that’s where we missed the boat.”

– Los Angeles Times