We’re living through a defining moment in indie film right now, thanks to the massive success of both Backrooms and Obsession.

These two films are being compared for obvious reasons. 

For one, both filmmakers are very young (Backrooms director Kane Parsons is only 20, and Obsession director Curry Barker is just 26).

Not to mention, both Kane and Curry came from the YouTube world. And here they are breaking box office records, surpassing big studio films like Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.

I’ve heard a lot of filmmakers discussing these two films as if they shared the same path. But in reality, they each had a completely different trajectory.

Obsession took more of a traditional micro-budget / low budget route. Yes, Curry Barker was already releasing shorts on YouTube (which is surely what helped him land financing)… But the film itself was produced like most other scrappy indie films.

It was shot for $750K with no major studio attached. 

And fun fact: Obsession shares some of the same crew and locations as a couple of my own films. The DP (Taylor Clemons) served as a gaffer on my feature Psychosynthesis. And the main house location was the exact same house we used for Teacher’s Pet.

Just to illustrate the point that this was a true indie film. Not a far cry from what most of you reading this newsletter are doing yourselves.

For all the filmmakers knew, the final product could have been released on YouTube or Shudder. They didn’t know it would go to TIFF, get sold for $15MM and get major worldwide theatrical distribution. The outcome is insanely impressive, but the origins are as humble as any other indie breakout hit.

Backrooms had an entirely different trajectory. Director Kane Parsons came from a VFX / 3D background, and his YouTube channel primarily consisted of his own hand crafted, ambient short film work.

One of his films titled The Backrooms (Found Footage) – which he made while still in high school – racked up 83 million views. The virality of that film is what landed it on the desk of A24 executives who eventually would green light the movie.

Being more of a studio project, the budget on Backrooms was about $10MM – much higher than Obsession. It was also made with a star studded cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor and Mark Duplass. Not to mention, legendary producers like James Wan and Osgood Perkins.

Both Parsons and Barker made incredible movies with the resources they had available to them. Further proving the point that great films can be made in infinite ways.

I think the mistake filmmakers lately have been making is assuming that YouTube is the common denominator between these two films.

And don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of YouTube. I’ve released entire features on YT, and my biggest short film to date has over 4 million views on the platform.

But the real takeaway isn’t that posting your films to YouTube equals commercial success.

The lesson is that an intense dedication to your craft is what it takes.

YouTube happens to be an outlet right now that people are taking advantage of. But the reason these filmmakers broke out of YouTube is because their ideas and execution were so strong.

Countless filmmakers have tried to raise $750K and failed. Curry Barker was able to, not because he was a “YouTuber”, but because he put in his 10,000 hours and wrote an awesome script. And the films he made along the way earned him an audience that proved he could command attention.

Kane Parsons is one of thousands if not millions of people posting their Blender videos to YouTube. But he was so obsessed with his world and so talented at what he did, that it was his film that went viral. Not one of the countless others. And when A24 knocked, he knew his material inside and out and gave them confidence to invest in him.

The one real similarity between Kane Parsons and Curry Barker is not that they posted to YouTube. It’s that they created massive volumes of work.

Kane released dozens of shorts on his channel before making a feature. Curry has over 500 videos on his YouTube channel. They were both clearly obsessed with their craft, which is ultimately what led them to make great work.

So by all means, post your material to YouTube. I’m certainly going to keep doing it too.

But know that the real secret is the same as it’s always been. Hone your craft over and over again so you can make work that stands out.

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