At 20 he became the youngest director to sign with A24.

And he wasn’t a nepo baby.
He was a YouTuber.

Kane Parsons is the latest YouTuber-to-A24 success story following hits like Talk to Me and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.

His debut film, Backrooms shattered records by making over $10,000,000 in previews.

But it originally started as a YouTube series.

Just a teenager at the time, Parsons leaned into the budget limitations of YouTube.

By utilizing Blender mixed with Adobe After Effects, the series has a signature low-budget found-footage look. The scruff added to the realness, and the creepypasta lore had inbuilt fans from sites like reddit and tumblr.

This winning combination became a YouTube hit, and is soon to become an A24 darling.

Film Theory invited me to cover the Backrooms pop up in LA where a line was wrapped around the block. Many fans braved the almost 90 degree heat to explore the Back Rooms for themselves and be a part of this YouTube phenomenon.

The youngest of the fans loved cinema, but when pressed they watch YouTube more. “YouTube. It’s right there” says a young fan gesturing to his phone.

As for the horror of the Backrooms pop up, I can confirm that it was indeed scary, but more than scary it was interesting.

With YouTube as his original distributor, Parsons technique has always been to slowly draw audiences in rather than to be shocking or sensationalist. Backrooms super fans will know that unanswered questions are more fascinating than the usual YouTuber trope of reaffirming the click.

With yet another YouTuber taking over cinemas this summer, perhaps we have to stop calling them creators and start calling them directors.

And perhaps it was never the creator economy after all.

It was farm-to-table filmmaking.

Someone told me writing this could kill my career.
I did it anyway.

Two years ago, I bought www.thecreatoreconomygirl.com.

I wanted to write about the people shaping the creator economy.

The creators.
The executives.
The taste-makers.

I even wrote sample articles.
But I was told publishing them could create problems.

So I waited.
For permission.
For the right timing.
For someone to tell me it was okay.

But three years later, I realized nobody was coming.

There is no savior.
No permission.
No studio greenlighting you.

And I think that’s what every creator has to realize.

Nobody is coming for you.
No one will tell you yes.
Now.
Good.
Publish.

The only one publishing you is you.
And the only one publishing me is me.

So welcome to The Creator Econonmy Girl.

Published by me, your friendly Creator Economy Girl.

Tomorrow’s article?

The Back Rooms and how one creator went from Blender tutorials to a $79M opening weekend.

All because he had the audacity to upload.

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