Ten years ago we released a strange little lo-fi sci-fi feature called Ghosts With Shit Jobs.
In the future, jobs still suck — but in whole new ways. By 2040 the economy has flipped and North Americans are a cheap labor pool for wealthy eastern markets. (Trailer here.)
For those in Toronto we’re doing a small in person screening at the community-powered Eyesore Cinema (Fri. Nov. 11th, 8pm, $5 cash at the door) followed by a q&a chat with some directors and actors, hosted by Mike Wood of They Might Be Movies. If you’re out of town or not into enclosed spaces there will simultaneously be a watchalong where you can chime in with comments and such! After the watchalong it’ll live on YouTube for anyone to watch for free with English, French, and Spanish subtitles. Update: Watch it for free via http://ghostswithshitjobs.com.
Looking back on it, it was a pretty wild ride. We made it with $3931 and 7309 hours of volunteer time, debuted it at Sci-Fi-London (where it won the Best Feature award), went on to tour it in person to 25 cities around the world (even Asia itself!) and in the end distributed $32,071 in profits (almost 10x our investment!) to the 52 people who contributed hours. Ars Technica bafflingly named it one of the sci-fi films every geek must see and we received many other kind words about our funny little flick:
“Excellent… science fiction is not dead. It’s just moved from the cinema to the internet.” -Wired
“…sheer delight…” — The Guardian
“Brilliant… will leave you emotionally shaken, your brain teeming with weird new ideas…” — io9
“Ingenious – a gripping science fictional movie that uses cleverness, not CGI, to paint a vivid and satirical future” -Cory Doctorow
“The Future of Employment Is Bleak in Ghosts with Shit Jobs” -The Atlantic
“immensely successful… undoubtedly a cause for celebration” -Creative Applications
“Is this $4,000 “lo-fi sci-fi” the future of Canadian Filmmaking?” -Art Threat
“An amusing and clever mockumentary…there but for the grace of the stock market go us all.”-Twitch Film
The positive attention our movie got — despite its flaws — showed mostly that the world was hungry for this kind of thing. A movie that was absurd and thoughtful and made in an idealistic way. Our next collaboration, Haphead, got better funding and had much higher production values — but didn’t make nearly the splash that Ghosts did. It also saddled us with higher expectations and crushing amounts of paperwork.
So to anyone who watches this and says — I could do better — we hope you do! We’re rooting for you! We hope you comb through our process blog and final accounting and glean some knowledge. We hope you take inspiration from this ridiculous project and make something unexpected and unhindered and unhinged. All the fun uns!
Thank you to everyone who made this happen and thank you to everyone who watched.
Well done, Jim! I was so lucky to play a small part in such a fun project.
I watched both films and also Infest Wisely. I contributed to the crowdfundings and liked the two latter projects.
I was curious about The Internet Wants, but that never happened (having done a few shorts and contributed to a few more, I understand how hard that can be).
I felt Haphead was simply the one that took the biggest swing and in a way, even though it was a step up in many ways, it was the one that showed the biggest gap between what it felt like it wanted to be and what it actually was.
Still, I think the communal you did a great job and I wish you had had more success and continued making films, because there was something special about all those projects. I do not think I could do better but also, I kind of think you could do better now, simply because the technology has improved and that helps.
I am a proud backer of Ghosts With Shit Jobs and it remains one of my favorite independent scifi movies! It’s shocking that you made that happen on such a small budget!