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When Camp Takota premieres Feb. 14, it won’t be in a movie theater. Instead the movie from producer Michael Goldfine (Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain) will be found only online.
To hear Goldfine tell it, distributing the movie online made sense because of the cast’s YouTube celebrity.
“Part of me was thinking I could go the traditional route and make an independent movie, but it may or may not get made,” he says. “I hunkered down and thought to myself and said how could I take the idea for this movie and get it directly to an audience. I set out to find people who could help me get that vision out there.”
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The result is Camp Takota, which follows Elise (Grace Helbig), a twenty-something who returns to her old sleep-away camp as a counselor after facing problems in her personal and professional lives.
Helbig (Attack of the Show) is probably best known for her YouTube show Daily Grace. Staring as her long-lost camp friends are YouTubers Hannah Hart, creator of the My Drunk Kitchen series, and Mamrie Hart (no relation), host of You Deserve a Drink.
With a combined 3.5 million YouTube subscribers, the three women have leveraged their fans to promote Camp Takota. Goldfine attributes their online popularity with boosting the profile of the film.
“We have been selling a movie based on trust,” he says. “It could be coming out in 10 years or it could never be coming out. The trust that we built up is an amazing testament to Camp Takota and the girls’ relationships with their fans.”
Goldfine’s RockStream Studios produced the film, which can be pre-ordered on CampTakota.com for $9.99. Fans can also purchase Camp care packages for up to $300 that come with friendship bracelets, branded T-shirts and personalized messages from the cast.
“The fans wanted it,” Goldfine says of the merchandise. “I actually listened to what they wanted and built those packages around it.”
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