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SH - Chapter 77: Preemptive marketing
🕑 Added 2025-12-20 16:49:09 +0000 UTC[Comment Section – First vlog on the channel]
@rexplee:
I never thought seeing Owen talking straight to the camera would feel so weird and so natural at the same time. It’s like finally meeting the guy who made all those shorts. Great vlog, bro.
@magunas109:
More surprising than the price was how calmly he paid for everything
@christiantiensuu:
Matt is way too much energy, if they keep doing vlogs, he has to keep showing up.
@misstristy1:
The part where Matt runs out of frame yelling “I want to touch an Alexa Mini!” had me crying laughing.
@shadowstray:
Matt’s video-game-style intro was the best moment of the video.
@marlenahervan:
Me: “Ok, Second Take uploaded a video. Another viral short coming?”
Also me, 10 seconds later: “A vlog!? What is happening!?”
@johnRoyMan:
You don’t buy an Alexa Mini LF and over 50k in lenses to shoot a short that’s a few minutes long… There’s a bigger project here. I can smell it.
@jejebshi:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
@sLavicgirl:
I can’t believe the director of Paranormal Activity moves like he’s had seven coffees. This man needs a documentary of just him explaining things at fast-forward.
@anneshakles2:
Owen has such a calm vibe, and Matt seems to live at 1.75x speed by default. Great duo.
@marymenfield22:
Please let Sophie appear in the next vlog!
@anthony21:
Stuff’s coming… if after spending more than 200k you don’t do anything, you’re an idiot
@francisaudivisualphy:
This isn’t gear for a YouTube channel. This is studio-production gear. Owen, are you about to make a feature film?
…
On Twitter there was also a lot of movement after the vlog premiered, it spread like a TV episode: clips, screenshots, edits, and memes.
A user made the first viral thread:
@bradyfilms17:
“I can’t believe Owen Ashford uploaded a vlog buying gear like he’s about to shoot a Marvel movie. What is this guy planning?”
…
The thread exploded.
Thousands of replies, edits, indie-film conspiracy theories, and more serious debates about Alexa Mini LF vs. RED, which one was better.
Many people shared screenshots of the moment Matt walked into AbelCine as if it were a filmmaker’s paradise.
But the king of the clips was another moment: the technical explanation Owen sped up in the edit, where Matt talks about Alexa vs. RED at 2x, 3x, and 4x speed, set to the track “Dry Out” by DJVI, one of the songs from Geometry Dash.
While all of that was happening on Twitter, Reddit forums were analyzing every detail of the vlog in a more serious way, almost like an advanced class.
On r/Filmmakers, the pinned post read:
Posted by u/ryanlensstudio_1 • 4h ago:
Did Owen Ashford just reveal his next project without saying a single word?
“I just watched the new Second Take Films vlog and I don’t know what to think.
In total, Owen spent $265,735 on gear. An Alexa Mini LF, a set of cinema lenses that cost more than my car, professional-level lights, sound equipment, and more.
This doesn’t look like an upgrade. It looks like pre-production.
What do you think he’s planning?
Honestly, to me, this feels like the beginning of a big project.”
💬 COMMENTS:
u/LGDussans74 · 3.1k upvotes
“With that kind of gear, you can shoot a full feature film. There’s no way he’d buy an Alexa Mini just for short films.”
u/Maks_borisoff · 2.9k upvotes
“It’s absolutely a complete professional package, except for a few things that still aren’t low-end at all. He could easily shoot a fifty-million-dollar movie with everything he bought.”
u/lizy1.1 · 2.85k upvotes
“Given how much he must be making from Paranormal Activity, it makes sense that he can now finance something much bigger and spend that money on gear like it’s nothing.”
u/robbSty · 2.6k upvotes
“Matt looked like a kid at a theme park in the store, but behind all that energy, the gear choices were very serious.”
u/kaizen_official · 2.5k upvotes
“My theory: he already has a script and a plan. The vlog is the softest way of saying he’s planning something.”
u/lexi0000 · 2.5k upvotes
“This is the first time I’ve seen someone buy an Alexa with the same calmness I buy bread lol.”
While the forums were full of debates about the vlog, Owen’s gear, and his next move, Twitter kept pumping out memes, and the professional outlets began to make their own moves as well.
Variety didn’t take long to publish an article with the following headline:
“Owen Ashford Acquires Alexa Mini LF Camera and High-End Gear. Is a New Project on the Way?”
The body of the article expanded further:
“The investment of more than $265,000 is far too large to remain limited to short films. Those familiar with industry standards recognize that Ashford is assembling a typical, standard production package.
If Paranormal Activity was his starting point, this equipment could be his calling card for a second project on a much larger scale.”
The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, and other outlets quickly followed with articles covering the same story.
Owen read all the comments on the video from his new home.
He was no longer in the East Hollywood apartment, the one he paid $1,850 a month for, with just one bedroom, a not-very-spacious living room, and barely any room to store equipment.
Now he was living in Studio City, on the other side of the hill from busy Hollywood: a four-square-mile district in the San Fernando Valley, known for its tree-lined residential streets, trendy restaurants, and immediate proximity to studios like Warner, CBS, and Universal Studios. It was a much quieter, cleaner, and safer place.
His new apartment was a huge step up, almost three thousand dollars more per month, but he could afford it without any stress.
$4,800 a month, in a building less than a year old: modern, elegant, with clean lines, large windows, and luxury finishes.
It had two large bedrooms, one of them dedicated entirely to his workspace: a large desk with a new PC, space for lights, storage for all the new equipment, and shelves filled with books he’d been buying to improve his screenwriting craft, not to create new stories, but to transfer them more effectively and, why not, refine them into more polished versions.
The living room was much larger, and the kitchen had a marble central island. The building featured a full gym, 24-hour private security, underground parking, and immaculate common areas. It was a very noticeable upgrade in status.
He had moved in just days after returning to Los Angeles. In fact, he’d already been looking for a new place even before traveling to Georgia to shoot The Spectacular Now.
Studio City made sense: his family lived in the residential area, just a five-minute walk away. That detail mattered.
And in this same building was where Jenna lived. She herself had recommended it when she found out he was looking for a place in the area. She’d been living there for months and spoke so highly of the building that Owen didn’t even bother looking at other options.
He knew Jenna wouldn’t give a good review if the building didn’t deserve it.
'Almost sixty thousand dollars a year in rent,' Owen thought, finally setting the mouse aside and stopping his scroll through the vlog comments.
It wasn’t cheap, but he could afford it. After finishing the shoot for The Spectacular Now, he received $207,000. Before that, his net worth already stood at $228,250, so when he added both amounts together, he reached $435,250.
There was still more.
In October, thanks to YouTube AdSense, he earned $65,000. Less than in September, the month when One-Minute Time Machine and Lights Out were uploaded, but that made sense, considering he hadn’t posted any new videos.
That same month, he landed a sponsorship worth $28,000, split between an Instagram post and a mention on Twitter. That pushed his total up to $528,250.
From that figure, expenses still had to be deducted: rent for the previous apartment, the deposit for the new one, and smaller outings, like when he went to the movies with Elijah, Jenna, and Grace to see the Marvel film.
After all of that, the final number came out to $519,600. More than half a million. But there was still the biggest expense left to subtract: the $265,735 spent on the new cinema gear.
$519,600 − $265,735 = $253,865.
He still had more than a quarter of a million dollars liquid in his account.
Owen had uploaded the vlog for two very clear reasons.
The first was simple: it had been far too long since he’d posted anything. He didn’t have any short films in production, and even though his channel continued to grow by inertia thanks to his existing shorts and Paranormal Activity, he didn’t want to leave it completely inactive.
He knew he was about to make a massive purchase of cinema equipment, and then he thought: why not document it?
A close, spontaneous video, showing a bit more of who he really was beyond films and short projects, could work.
And it did.
People received it even better than he had imagined. They loved the dynamic, the jokes with Matt, and the friendship between the two of them.
The vlog had already passed three million views in a week. By the end of November, it would probably reach between four and five million in total.
That meant more than fifteen thousand dollars from that single video alone, income that, beyond being welcome, allowed him to keep the channel alive without needing new short films for the time being.
On top of that, the content fit perfectly with the channel’s style: professional cinema gear, technical explanations from Matt, unboxings with tests, and more.
Many users commented that they learned a lot from the video about filmmaking equipment, almost as if it had turned into an unintentional tutorial.
But the second reason was even more important than the first: expectation, curiosity, and rumor.
Now everyone was wondering what his next project would be.
Media outlets, forums, followers, film professionals, everyone assumed Owen already had something ready. How could they not? No one spent more than two hundred thousand dollars on cinema gear capable of shooting an expensive feature film if there wasn’t something big on the horizon.
Without saying a single word, Owen was already building marketing for Good Will Hunting.
Pre-emptive marketing, before there was even a rumor, a title, or a cast announcement. He remembered one of the forum comments: “All that gear is to get ready for pre-production.”
A mistake.
Pre-production wasn’t about to begin. It had existed for months already. Since September, Owen had been working on the script and on everything he could advance without spending money, and there was a lot.
During that time, he finished the complete script breakdown for Good Will Hunting.
That meant a scene-by-scene breakdown: the exact locations (interior, exterior, day or night), the number of actors needed in each sequence, special props, wardrobe requirements per character, vehicles, and more.
That document, organized, meticulous, and critically important, was already finished. He had also decided where to shoot. It would be in Boston, just like in the version from his original world: Harvard, MIT, the streets, the atmosphere…
That context was impossible to replace without losing part of the essence. It was a story that depended on that place.
Some films could be moved almost anywhere without greatly affecting the narrative, like The Spectacular Now, but Good Will Hunting was not one of them.
What did change was the date.
In his past life, the film had been made in 1997, and when it was released, it was contemporary. But he couldn’t set it in that era in this world.
It would be brutally expensive: cars, signage, clothing, technology, set dressing, and more. Every detail from a period more than twenty years ago would raise the budget by several million dollars.
He preferred to avoid that cost. So he decided to bring it into the present day. It meant more work in the writing, adding smartphones, social media, small changes in how people communicated, but it was an acceptable sacrifice that required only hours of work, not millions of dollars.
Owen had also put together a preliminary shooting plan, a tentative filming schedule that, for now, lasted four weeks and a few extra days, not quite reaching five.
It was very similar to the schedule for The Spectacular Now. That document was already complete and ready.
Another fundamental piece was the initial professional budget.
He researched SAG-AFTRA salaries, standard rates for directors and actors, and the costs of the technical crew. He added daily catering, production insurance, transportation, permits, locations, post-production, and all associated expenses.
The final number the spreadsheet returned was:
$11,955,490
A twelve-million-dollar budget, with an estimated margin of error of around 10-20%.
It had been exhausting work. This was a twelve-million-dollar movie, far more complex than anything he had ever done in his life.
Paranormal Activity had cost $20,000. It had a single location, four actors in total, and two of them appeared for less than fifteen minutes. His short films were also projects on a much smaller scale. But this was a different level entirely.
Owen had managed to move forward thanks to hours of reading, courses, tutorials, production books, and the experience he’d gained from his previous projects. Even so, doing everything on his own had been a huge challenge, though a satisfying one, now that he looked back on the path.
What part of pre-production was still missing?
The executive side of pre-production, the part that couldn’t move forward until the money from Paranormal Activity came in. But once that money arrived, he could launch official pre-production in less than 48 hours, because nearly 80% of the work was already done.
The documents were ready. The estimates were ready. The schedule was ready. All that remained was to turn the machine on.
'First thing is to hire a director…' Owen thought.
It was essential to have the director on board from the start. In Hollywood, nothing truly moves until the director signs on. Unfortunately, this time Matt was out. This would be the first project they wouldn’t do together.
Literally.
Owen already had plans for him: Lights Out, the feature-length version of the short film. He had decided to keep the script, and Matt, who had directed the original short, was the perfect choice to direct the adaptation.
But that meant he couldn’t bring him onto Good Will Hunting.
The pre-production, shooting, and post-production periods of his first two feature films, which he would manage under his new LLC, would overlap. Not exactly at the same time, but enough to prevent a single director from handling both projects.
A director had to be present in pre-production, production, and post-production. It was impossible to split that role.
How could he finance Lights Out ($5 million) and Good Will Hunting ($12 million) at the same time, when after taxes from Paranormal Activity he would receive between $10 and $14 million?
Easy: by selling the IP of Paranormal Activity. He had already decided, and his research into valuing the IP was well underway. It wouldn’t be cheap, far from it. That decision would free him financially.
Owen set those thoughts aside and stood up from his chair. He shut down the PC, left the studio, and walked toward the living room. A few steps in, he heard the sound of the television, metallic effects, heavy impacts, a low, almost rhythmic murmur. It sounded like a battle.
When he reached the living room, he found Sophie sitting upright on the couch, her feet planted on the floor and her elbows resting on her knees. She was leaning forward, fully focused on the screen.
On the television was a video game Owen recognized instantly: God of War (2018).
The camera followed Kratos wielding his main weapon, fighting alongside Atreus.
Sophie was in the middle of a fight against one of the key bosses, her posture, the way her fingers clenched the controller, and the way she bit her lower lip made it clear she did not want to be interrupted.
Owen approached slowly, folding his arms as he watched the battle. He waited in silence until, finally, Kratos took a fatal hit and fell.
“Shit!” Sophie protested through clenched teeth. “Atreus, do something useful, you idiot kid!”
She tossed the controller aside and sank back into the couch, letting out a long sigh. Then she looked up, and her eyes met Owen’s.
“How long have you been standing there?” she asked, startled by how silent he’d been.
“For about three minutes,” Owen replied with a soft smile. “I didn’t want to distract you.”
He paused briefly, holding back a laugh.
“Though I see you died anyway.”
“Shut up,” Sophie shot back, without malice. “You would’ve died too. And much faster, by the way. I’m better than you.”
Owen let out a light laugh. “Of course you’re better than me… if you don’t wait for me and keep playing,” he said, looking at her with mock accusation. “We were supposed to be playing together, and now I find you fighting a boss I don’t even recognize.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “That’s not my fault. You lock yourself in your studio for hours and don’t come out. If I want to play, what am I supposed to do, sit around staring at the wall waiting for you?”
Owen dropped down beside her on the couch, half defeated and half amused. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “That’s fair…” Owen admitted. “I’ve been working too much. Sorry.”
Sophie laughed softly, “That’s not something you need to apologize for,” she said warmly. “If you want to work more than play video games, go ahead. Do it. Just don’t complain later if I surpass you or get further in the story.”
“That would truly be tragic,” Owen replied with a smile as he looked into her eyes. They were only inches apart. “And by the way, the hair color looks amazing on you.”
Sophie smiled, pleased, almost proud. Her once dark hair was now platinum blonde. “That’s the fifth time you’ve said that.”
“I like repeating it,” Owen answered.
Sophie chuckled softly and leaned in to kiss him affectionately. After pulling away from his lips, she picked up the controller.
“Come on,” Sophie said, leaning forward with a conspiratorial smile. “Let’s play. The save we were playing together is still there. This one’s my solo run. Today, I’m going to be your Jedi master.”
As Owen sat beside her, he said, “I don’t like the Padawan label.”
“You’ll have to put up with it until you reach a decent level,” Sophie replied, nudging him lightly with her elbow.
The screen lit up the living room again with bluish tones, and the game’s music filled the silence as they both settled in.
And so the days passed, until November 29 arrived, the day Owen would make his appearance on The Tonight Show.
Comments
BronRevo
Is Owen gonna cast himself in Good Will Hunting?
Hannibal St.Michael
I can't wait to get to the casting for GWH. Will it be Sophie, Jenna or Chelsea?
