Saw this at Tribeca, closing night - it's a solid film. I'm a huge fan of the way that he just goes out and makes his films, without waiting for anyone else to give him permission. I wish him the best with this one and many, many more!

Agreed, Shane, and one of the reasons I've been tracking Burns so much the last two years, perhaps the front edge of the next wave of DIY filmmaking. Financing, marketing and distribution have been the kicker in indie film world for years. He takes care of financing by the stories he chooses to tell (small casts, minimal locations, no travel costs, short script, tight shooting schedule). Distribution is all the digital platforms available to all filmmakers. Where Burns differs from Regular Joe Filmmakers is he has a name. Burns can get on Good Morning America to promote his movies. He has enough of a following he can use social media to good effect. That is still an issue for unknown filmmakers, and may be always come down to the uniqueness of story concept, performances of actors, buzz movie generates, and so forth. But as discussed, Burns is carving some sort of path through all this, hopefully expanding the playing field.

Very intriguing and very cool. But yes, in terms of the non-star filmmaker, would be much tougher to do without the social media base and ability to draw publicity to the film. How is he into profit though from the get go? Are you just saying bc the budget is so low he'd only need like 2000 rentals/buys?

Yes, Vince, his out of pocket costs are so low that Nice Guy Johnny was into profit almost from Day 1. There was production cost $27K. Then no marketing dollars. No out of pocket distribution dollars. Assuming he had some net or gross participation deals with talent, that could cut into his own profit, but in terms of the movie being in the black, yes, NGJ was there from early on after its release.