A new studio is betting that it can help take digital creators and independent filmmakers to the next level, providing investment, production capabilities and partnerships to help develop new intellectual property.
The studio is Further Adventures, founded by YouTube veteran Steven Beckman, and producer Ben Stillman (The Imitation Game), and the goal is to seize a gap that they believe exists in between major studios, which are taking fewer and fewer risks, and bootstrapped indie filmmakers.
Beckman and Stillman tell The Hollywood Reporter in an interview that they see connective tissue between the worlds of independent film and creators.
“I think what’s been amazing to see over the past decade is the way in which the creator economy has just exploded,” Beckman says. “At the same time, I think the way in which those creators are reaching audiences has obviously evolved: YouTube is the new TV, creators aren’t just reaching audiences on mobile phones, they’re reaching audiences through on the TV screen in really meaningful ways. I think what that means is that creators need support developing more premium content, developing longer-form storytelling, developing more original IP in order to meet audiences where they are, both on YouTube, but also off YouTube as well.”
“We are looking at independent filmmakers who’ve made short films, writers who want to be directors, but then also, as Steve said, this incredible ecosystem of creators who have honed their craft in the digital space,” Stillman adds. “Really we are just looking for storytellers at a time that most studios are betting on sure things, filmmakers who’ve done it before, storytellers that are tried and true, there seems like there’s more opportunity than ever for creators, for filmmakers who just need the chance, and we want to be that company that that’s identifying them and giving them the infrastructure, the resources, whether that be development, production investments, to have those opportunities.”
Further Adventures will work with filmmakers on the festival circuit, as well as digital creators, to help them take short films and adapt them to features, or take digitally native content or creators and find a way to bring it to film or TV screens.
Among the filmmakers working with the company are Walter Thompson-Hernández, whose short If I Go Will They Miss Me won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and is now being adapted into a feature with Further Adventures; and Ramzi Bashour, who also has received support from Sundance Labs, and whose short The Trees has won several festival awards. Further Adventures has partnered on his feature debut, Tomahawk Springs.
The company is also working with Andrew Rea, whose Binging With Babish YouTube channel has more than 10 million followers.
“I’ve worked with him at YouTube for many years, and have been a huge fan of everything that he’s been doing,” Beckman says. “And I’ve always seen that he’s brought such a cinematic quality to what he’s doing on his YouTube channel, even though what he’s been doing has been cooking related content and food driven in nature. And in speaking with him, I learned that he’s always wanted to be a feature filmmaker. He loves what he’s doing on YouTube, but has always wanted to transition into feature filmmaking. I think he’s been waiting for the right company to help him kind of shape that feature film and kind of take this idea that he has actually take the screenplay that he’s written to develop it, to produce it, and to make it happen, and to make it a reality.”
Further Advenutes is helping Rea develop that project, Old Soul, which is described as “a metaphysical action-thriller about an ageless, body-shifting consciousness in search of love and meaning.”
“I love what I do on YouTube — but my professional aspiration and lifelong dream has been to make a movie” Rea says. “Old Soul is a deeply personal story I’ve been developing for years, and Further Adventures is giving me the support and creative partnership to take it to the next level. We were waiting to find the right partner, and when we met with Further Adventures, we knew we had found the kind of company that can enable creators to bring their dream projects to fruition.”
Further Adventures currently has more than 10 feature films in development, including three Black List scripts, with the throughline being a bet on creative risk-taking from people on the cusp of reaching the next level in their professional careers. Budgets range from about $1 million to $30 million-plus for ideas set up at a larger studio.
“I think in both the creators we’re looking to work with and the filmmakers, we’re looking for authenticity and unique voices and perspectives in an era of content,” Stillman says. “Where those original storytellers who have something to say, who have a unique way of saying it, and that we can work — whether it be short-form or long-form, to bring that vision to reality.”
“We’re focused on identifying new IP anywhere and everywhere,” Beckman says. “There’s a lot of discussion around contraction and other things, but we see huge opportunity, and we’re excited to lean in and work with the partners that we’ve identified to date, and work with the next generation of storytellers to help them elevate what they’re doing.”
