("Day Bird" by Broke For Free)
- Hey, guys, we're at the Alamo Drafthouse
in Austin, Texas.
This is South by Southwest Interactive,
and I'm here with Burnie Burns,
one of the founders of
Rooster Teeth Productions.
Now, Burnie, Rooster Teeth
has a long history in content,
but what I'm really excited
to talk to you about
is the fact that you
came out with your first
feature-length film in
theaters, Lazer Team.
- Right, yeah, that was this year.
We released it in January of 2016,
and we thought, okay, let's make a movie,
and that's the hard part,
and then once we're done,
we'll show it to everybody,
and they'll love it.
Well, making a movie is what
gets your foot in the door,
and then you start the process of trying
to get the movie in front of people.
- And that's the really exciting thing
that I want to talk to you about
because this is potentially a huge change
for filmmakers and creators,
something where they can get
in touch with their audience
on a much more direct level,
and there's this interaction
that really drives the entire process.
So, for example, with Lazer Team,
that was partially crowdfunded, right?
- Very significantly, yeah.
So when we set out to do it
and were telling the audience
we wanted to make Lazer
Team, we made the decision
to make that Rooster Teeth's
first ever crowdfunding campaign.
And I've always said, from
a business perspective,
you can't tell people how
they have to support you.
You just got to make
your content available
in whatever format that
they want to see it,
and there's a lot of people
who just like crowdfunding,
and it's a language that they understand
of perks and rewards.
So we started a crowdfunding campaign.
We raised over a million
dollars in the first weekend
and broke our goal, and
then by the end of 30 days,
we had the set the record on Indiegogo
for the biggest project ever.
We raised two and a half million dollars.
- And you even got to
reach out to the audience
and allow them to take control of the fact
of they could get the movie
into their own theaters.
You partnered along with Tugg, right?
- We knew we wanted to
release it in theaters,
but a two million dollar sci-fi movie
is not something that's gonna
get a 3,000-screen release.
We were gonna have a very limited release,
but we wanted to give
other people the ability
to make their own screenings,
and so then we discovered Tugg,
which is a service where
someone can sign up,
they can request a
screening of Lazer Team.
And then if, usually it's
about 50% of the seats,
if they can fill that, then
it confirms the screening,
and then it's able to sell out after that.
And we set the records
there as well on that.
Our community's always been amazing.
- And I know that Lazer Team was also
a YouTube Red partnership there as well.
Can you talk a little
bit about what it's like
working with YouTube Red and how that has
blossomed into yet another
way to reach your audience?
- That was really fortunate on our behalf.
When we were gearing up to
release our first ever feature,
then suddenly at that point in time
one of the biggest companies in the world
is launching a video
subscription platform,
and they want to fund
high-end productions,
and our movie's sitting right there.
We know that's where a
lot of our audience is
that watches online content.
We know that they're trying to take
the community to the next level.
And then from a business perspective,
I know that Google wants
this thing to work,
and so there's gonna be a
lot of marketing behind it,
and marketing is so important
to movies of this size,
just letting people know that they exist.
- I see this as sort of being a new era
of creation and filmmaking.
You've really kind of been a
trailblazer in that respect,
so I'm sure a lot of creators are gonna be
thanking you over the years,
and I have to thank you
for being here to do this interview.
I really appreciate it.
- Well, thank you, for having me
and thanks for covering Lazer Team.
- Fantastic.
Well, guys, that's it for now.
Remember to check out
Now.HowStuffWorks.com every day
to see the coolest stories
going on right now.
Burnie Burns, thank you so much.
- Thank you, appreciate it.
- Have a great show.
- Enjoy Austin while you're here.
- I sure will. More tacos.
