Andre, the filmpreneur
Now that you’ve met Phil, I’d like to introduce you to his counterpart.
Say hello to Andre.
Unlike Phil, Andre is not a traditionalist, but a filmpreneur.
He chooses to build his life from the ground up around an entirely different set of principles.
(If you pay close attention to this page, you may even pick up a few juicy tactics to use in the journey ahead.)
Let’s dig in.
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For starters, Andre doesn’t dive into his first feature right away.
He doesn’t even start with a short to use as a “calling card.”
Instead, he buckles down for a few months to learn the fundamentals of niche marketing and entrepreneurship.
He’d rather be creating, sure.
But Andre knows these skills will be crucial for the journey ahead, and that their value will just compound over time.
So he spends the time upfront to acquire them.
With new skills in hand, Andre gets to work on his dream.
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As a lifelong martial artist, it doesn’t take long for Andre to find a niche idea he’s excited about—Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
But he knows that excitement is only half the battle.
He’s also gotta research the niche to make sure it can support him financially. So he does.
He finds and makes note of dozens of BJJ communities, forums, blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, and influencers circling that topic.
He even spots a few documentary films floating around the niche.
Clearly there’s a huge demand.
But Andre wants to make thoughtful narrative films. And he’s still not sure if the niche will care about a fiction project.
So he starts small, and runs a test.
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Over a long weekend, Andre and a few friends from the local dojo put together a micro film.
It’s a dark comedy about a BJJ instructor who resorts to a life of crime. It’s just 3 minutes long. Nothing fancy.
A few weeks later, after cutting it together, Andre releases it online.
First, he posts it in a few prominent communities he’s been participating in.
But he doesn’t just post the film and run. He asks for feedback. He asks if this is the kind of thing the community wants to see more of.
It doesn’t take long until his notifications light up with enthusiastic responses. He struck a nerve, and people want more.
He posts it in a few more places, just to be sure.
After seeing his views climb into the tens of thousands, and seeing the same gleeful responses, he’s sold.
He even adds an email signup form, and has over a hundred signups by the end of the week.
At this point, Andre’s got all the evidence he needs to go ahead with a bigger project.
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So he gets into the process of writing his debut feature.
It’s a continuation of the project he made earlier. A dark, yet comedic crime drama—his favorite subgenre.
When he tells people about it, he says, “think Fargo, but with a BJJ instructor instead of a car salesman.”
Andre knows that raising money for a project like this is a long shot.
And he knows he doesn’t want to spend months, or years, trying to get this thing financed through traditional channels.
So he makes the decision early on to keep the budget as low as possible.
And to fund it out of his own pocket, instead of taking on investors.
The goal, much like with his micro film, is to test the market, and minimize risk.
If this film’s a hit, he’ll go bigger on the next one. If it’s a flop, he hasn’t wasted too much time or money.
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Instead of writing something tough and expensive to produce, Andre writes for the resources he has on hand.
Plus he understands something important about the nature of niche media.
He knows that A-list celebrities or flashy production value aren’t required to delight BJJ fans, and earn their business.
He just needs to tell a relevant, heartfelt, entertaining story that fits his niche like a glove.
So he spends more time in those BJJ communities as he writes.
Sometimes he shares scene and character ideas, and occasional bits of the script, making note of what resonates and what doesn’t.
He tweaks the characters, plotlines, and themes to mirror what people in the niche care most about.
After three months, the story is razor sharp, and it’s something he feels confident in producing well on a shoestring budget.
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After a few weeks in pre-production, it’s game time.
Much like his buddy Phil, Andre’s a master of stretching a dollar. He makes a $7K budget look damn near 700K.
The performances are solid, and the dailies look great. After 10 days on set, the film’s in the can.
Post production takes a bit longer than he’d like, as Andre’s doing most of it himself.
But a little over a year after embarking on this journey, he’s got his debut feature.
And he’s damn proud. It's a quality piece of work.
Andre knows that the battle isn’t over, though. In fact, it’s just getting started.
Now it’s time to launch this film, and Andre’s got a few tricks up his sleeve.
But let’s back up real quick.
Because I forgot to mention something important earlier.
While Andre was in production and post, he carved out time for another crucial activity.
Pre-marketing.
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Andre’s email list had grown to several hundred people on the back of his initial micro film.
But he knew that wouldn’t be enough to launch his new feature profitably.
So during production, Andre carves out 30 minutes a day before heading to set. And he keeps that habit going in post.
He spends that time connecting with influential people in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu niche.
He connects with bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers.
He connects with gear manufacturers, popular athletes, and dojo owners.
Anybody who’s earned the attention and trust of his target audience, he reaches out.
Of course, not everybody responds. But many do.
They’re thrilled about the prospect of a BJJ movie. And after seeing early screeners, most are enthusiastic to spread the word when it’s ready.
Some of these partners agree to promote the film outright, no strings attached.
Others agree to promote it on an affiliate basis, where they get a commission for each referral.
Through this small handful of connections, Andre can now reach hundreds of thousands of people at the snap of a finger.
His personal audience might be small, but his reach is substantial.
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There are a few other things I forgot to mention about Andre’s launch strategy.
For starters, he decided early on that festivals would be a waste of time and money for this project.
He also knows that, if this project is a success, he’d love to make a few more BJJ-themed projects in the coming years.
It’s a niche he’s come to love being part of, and a topic he’d love to explore further.
For that reason, he’s dead set on owning his customer relationships, which rules out selling from Amazon or iTunes.
Andre decides to sell this project from Gumroad, so that he’ll have the contact info of every person who buys or rents.
Finally, Andre creates a premium package of the film.
It contains all the usual stuff—a BTS featurette, deleted scenes, interviews with the cast, etc.
But it also has exclusive interviews with influential people in the BJJ niche, and a 30 minute instructional video on a particular technique used in the film's climactic scene.
Andre prices the film itself at $10. And the premium version at $50.
Launch day is coming.
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Andre kicks things off with a “soft launch” to the people on his email list.
These are his biggest fans and earliest supporters, and he wants to reward them.
Plus he wants to test all his systems to make sure everything works.
To Andre’s surprise, nearly half his list buys the film within a few days. And a sizable percentage opt for the premium package.
Even with a tiny list, he’s already raked in two grand—more than his buddy Phil made in total after years of marketing and traditional distribution.
But Andre’s just getting started.
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The next morning, Andre reaches out to his army of influential voices.
“The coast is clear,” he tells them. “Release the Kraken!”
On the first day alone, with just a handful of posts from influencers, over a 1000 sales come in.
The film is profitable within two weeks of its release.
Over the course of the next few weeks, influential people continue to talk about and recommend the film, and it becomes a hot topic in all the niche communities.
For someone in the BJJ niche, Andre’s film is everywhere. It’s inescapable.
Which is a good thing for Andre, because people are absolutely loving the film. His work to tailor it to the niche paid off in spades.
Of course, there are a few haters. There always are. But overall, the response is positive and overwhelming.
For weeks, Andre wakes up each morning to find new sales notifications in his inbox.
Even after he takes his foot off the gas with marketing, the sales keep trickling in, as people recommend it organically.
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All told, Andre pockets just short of $25K during the month of the launch.
And several of his affiliates come away with commissions of $5K or more. They’re keen to do business with him again on the next one.
Andre is thrilled.
It's not life-changing money, sure. But for a first feature, this was a smashing success.
He enjoyed making it. It was a story he cared about, in a style he enjoyed. And the audience loved it.
Plus he didn’t need festivals, a distributor, a sales agent. He didn’t even need to go through an aggregator.
Instead, he made something a targeted group of people wanted, and he sold it to them. No gatekeepers required.
Even better, throughout the launch, Andre’s email list swelled to 6100 people, nearly all of them happy customers.
One of the gear manufacturers who’d initially turned him down reaches out now, and offers to sponsor his newsletter.
Andre’s niche media business is starting to take off.
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Over the next few years, Andre makes two more projects.
He’s already done a dark dramedy in the style of Fargo, so he decides to mix it up.
For his second project, he goes pure action comedy. It’s a buddy cop movie with a BJJ spin. His audience eats it up.
His third project is a radical departure from the previous two.
He crafts a documentary series, profiling various people who’ve been at bad places in life, but found strength and community in BJJ.
Both projects are successful creatively and financially. His audience continues to grow with each.
Andre’s delighted and surprised at the level of creative freedom he has within the niche.
As long as he speaks to the BJJ community in a meaningful way, he can make films in any genre, format, or style that he wants.
But more than that, Andre’s amazed at all the different ways he can monetize his audience beyond selling films.
He’s got more newsletter sponsorships. He sells BJJ gear as an affiliate. He partners with someone to produce an online course. He’s even made a few promotional videos for companies in the niche, and gotten paid well for it.
Not to mention his films and premium packages sell more over time, as the niche itself grows.
Five years after embarking on this journey, Andre is now making a healthy living from his original work.
And every year, he seems to earn more than the last.
For Andre, life is good.
And now we come to the fork in the road. You have a choice to make. Turn the page to choose your destiny.