Hollywood or bust…

So, Hollywood is a closed shop. To make it there, you need wealth, incredible connections. Or both?

Well, maybe in days gone by.

Fede Alvarez’s decided to take a short cut. Harnessing the power of that phenomenon you may have heard something about (social media), he shot a little video, uploaded it onto YouTube, sat back, and waited to see what sort of response it’d get.

It helped him (a modest producer from Uruguay), get a seat at Hollywood’s top-table without the years of begging, lip service, crappy b-movies featuring those faded stars and talking dogs…

How I hear you cry?

He simply uploaded a short film to YouTube in November 2009, which came in a fraction under 5 minutes. And cost about $100 a minute. And people found it. They told their friends, who told theirs (etc. etc, repeat to fade). And it became a hit.

Pretty quickly, it got in front of some big studio types, and they began to tap him pretty swiftly…

His short film has that Hollywood-esque Will Smith / Independence Day / Earth be doomed’ness about it. Giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.

Compared to Su-bo’s 120 million views, it’s racked up a somewhat modest 1.5 million views on YouTube. But, it’s helped him secure an offer of  $30m (£18.6m) to make a Hollywood film.

Bargain.

Iain G. Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And loves the power going to the little guy…