Ten years ago last week we released "Camp Takota," which helped kickstart a glut of influencer-led movies as part of a billion-dollar investment (read: lit on 🔥) into creator-led content. Everyone from small reality show producers to MCNs to wireless carriers to every movie studio and even Neflix got in on the action. They were mostly misfires. The true godfather of creator-led movies is Evan Weiss who sold the "Fred" franchise into Nickelodeon but "Camp Takota" proved you didn't need theatrical or a big cable sale to do good business. There are a lot of reasons why the success of our movie (and to some degree, AwesomenessTV's "Expelled") was never really repeated. If there's interest I will post a hot take on why I think that is (shout-out to Marc Hustvedt and team for collecting 100,000 emails at the movie's VidCon announcement, that was insane and drove a lot of ROI). Probably the biggest lesson I learned from "Camp Takota" was that you should take credit for your part in successes because everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) will do the same, and because it's hard to fact-check who did what, they will reap the benefits while you stay silent. I'm pretty sure even the guy who made our breakfast burritos at Craft Services got a three-picture deal at Lionsgate. Tell your story! Get those flowers!
Did you know there are almost 40 movies starring creators?! I put together a complete list of scripted feature films that got made because of the creators attached. Check it out and let me know if I missed any: https://lnkd.in/g4d7cZJ6 I'll save my review of Airplane Mode for another post !! 😳 via Forbes ty Gil Kruger of Best Regards Media for a second set of eyes on this! #creatoreconomy #creatorsmakingmovies #filmmaking
I, for one, would love to hear your hot take on why the success of Camp Takota was never repeated...
I remember the launch so well and the incredible role you played!!
if you don't take credit, someone else definitely will ! people don't realize how hard it is just to get a film made let alone released.