You Don’t Need Millions of YouTube Followers to Make Your Movie: Celina Ringel’s New Guide for Indie Filmmakers
According to the CinemaDrame News Agency, the staggering success of the horror film Obsession, directed by popular YouTuber Kiri Barker—which is on the verge of crossing the $300 million mark at the box office against a modest $750,000 budget—has created a widespread belief that the new generation of filmmakers must possess an army of millions of online followers to ever be noticed. However, independent filmmaker and writer Celina Ringel is directly challenging this notion with the release of her new online guide and manifesto, Start the Engine.
In her comprehensive guide, Ringel emphasizes that filmmakers should never wait around for permission, massive budget injections, or to be discovered at major festivals. Drawing from her own experiences producing three feature films alongside her husband—including the successful release of their comedy Me, You & Him without a massive social media following—she argues that the key to modern success lies in establishing a direct line of communication with the audience and building a dedicated community around the project. She believes that, unlike traditional cinema which historically kept the filmmaking process hidden, today’s audiences crave authentic, tangible reality, vulnerability, and even the artist’s mistakes along the creative journey. According to Ringel, this ongoing dialogue has become an integral part of the art itself, mirroring how Issa Rae originally cultivated her core audience through a simple web series long before creating her hit show Insecure.
