Making Minimalism - Episode 5

Key Takeaways

this person was on an exercise bikee watching me read in the Salt Flats and then she flips the screen around and holds it out and shows me reading and I can see this look on her face like she's clearly [Music] emotional we started this project 3 years ago one email set the wheels in motion it took us all over the country speaking with thousands of people who'd been affected by this thing called minimalism when I first push record on my camera in early 2013 I had no idea where it would take us none of us had any expectations but just a mission to try to leave something meaningful behind I think ultimately that's been the best part is I'm really grateful we've had this opportunity to get this message in front of more people so after several years of hard work we finally had a movie but that didn't guarantee success for us so Josh and Ryan worked their asses off to get this into theaters and to get the word out about the film we did a theatrical release in the summer of 2016 and associated with that we also did a 15 City Tour they weren't alone Sean Harding was instrumental in handling many of the technical and logistical hurdles for the entire distribution run Jessica Williams helped to get the word out leveraging an online community of minimalists to take action and Sarah mini LED the pr front to book Josh and Ryan on as many media Outlets as possible the world premiere would be in New York City I wasn't sure what to expect as I was pacing around the venue I decided to step outside for some fresh air as I turned around the corner to my surprise there was a line of people wrapped around the block I honestly couldn't believe it I I was shocked they started to pour into the seats that night and eventually around the country it was hard to believe that after all those hours working alone in my apartment just struggling day after day we were now showing this to thousands of people the minimalist growing audience helped us to get the word out and make our theatrical run a success with one of the largest opening weekends for an independent documentary in 2016 in total the film made over $260,000 from our theatrical release after the Distribution Company takes a cut and the theaters take theirs we were left with just enough money to break even from our original investment next up we released minimalism online through iTunes Vimeo and Google Play then shortly after that after a lot of negotiating we finally landed a deal with Netflix but to be honest we didn't have very high expectations for it I think it was Real Testament to my own ignorance like I didn't realize how many people actually watch Netflix and apparently it's a lot apparently Netflix is popular just the massive reach I mean just through traffic there's not even a way to click I mean no body's on Netflix and clicking to go to theminimalists.com but the number of people who are going to Google searching ending up there just was mindboggling more people than we could have ever imagined watched our film people go you got to check out this documentary I watch that documentary The minimalists there's a cool little movie out called the minimalists I was at the gym the other day this person was on an exercise bike watching me read in the Salt Flats and and and she looks up at me and she looks down at the screen and she looks up at me and she looks down at the screen and then she flips the screen around and holds it out and shows me reading and I can see this look on her face like she is clearly emotional so I go to go to her and I'm just like hey how you doing she's like that's you isn't it I'm like yeah it is so I hope you enjoyed the film she goes oh my God you have no idea the emotions that I'm experiencing ing right now and I just looked at I myself I'm really grateful that you're experiencing that amen I hope it makes a difference just recently Netflix picked up our movie for an international release translating it to over a dozen languages looking back to my original journal entry I'm reminded how far I've come since the beginning of this project it may not win any awards or be seen by many people but it's the biggest step I've made towards something meaningful something with a real purpose I'm going to give this film everything I have so I I just want to thank you guys for for going with your gut on this and and and working with me and uh honestly this has been one of the best opportunities of my life you know you're welcome for having faith in you dude but like if it wasn't for your efforts your hard work dude over the the past several years man like this would not have come to fruition so thank you man and it evolves each time we learn lessons failures and we say okay I could have done this better and successes we tweeze out that success and bring it forward it's grinding but doing it together makes the process a lot more enjoyable you might not know where your journey is going to take you but that should never stop you from taking the first step I'm wrapping up making minimalism with one final episode it's going to be a Q&A so ask any questions that you have in the comments below and we'll get to them in episode 6 thanks for watching