This document summarizes the production and distribution strategy of the European surf documentary "The Old, the Young & the Sea". It discusses how the film was financed through sponsors and crowd funding. Footage was shot over two years in France, Spain, and Portugal with a small crew. The film was distributed through film festivals, screenings, online platforms, and television to build an audience. It ultimately gained widespread media coverage and commercial success through an innovative self-distribution model relying heavily on social media and community engagement.

1. Building an Audience - Case Study
The Old, the Young & the Sea
A movie about the people of the sea
Nomad Earth Media 2012 - 2016
@andreasjaritz
more at: www.oldyoungsea.com
photos by: www.stefanleitner.com

2. The Old, the Young & the Sea
European Surf Documentary
This is a case study about the production and hybrid
distribution strategy of our first feature length documentary.
Let’s start it with watching a trailer!
1ST
EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
1ST
EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA

3. Trailer
Official Trailer

4. The Old, the Young & the Sea
European Surf Documentary
It’s a vivid snapshot of the European
Atlantic Coast, its habitants and visitors.
Not just another surf movie.
1ST
EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
1ST
EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA

5. Festival Circuit
Digital Distribution
TV Distribution
2016
The Production
Let’s talk about the timeframe
Concept
April 2012
EURO
LINES
EURO
LINESA European Surf Documentary
1st
Shooting
June 2012
2nd
Shooting
Nov 2012
Prep
Trip 2
Sept 2012
Teaser
1ST
EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
1ST
EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
Post
Production
Premiere
Nov 2013
Trailer
2010 - 2011
Ideas

6. Movie making is a 50/50 business
in the self-distribution model
50 % is making the movie, and 50 %
is delivering your movie to the
right audience.

7. The Financing
Every movie needs (at least)
some money to be done
So let’s keep the the lights on…

8. EURO
LINES
EURO
LINESA European Surf Documentary
First Concept
The Old, the Young & the Sea
so we came up with a little concept
to „impress“ first sponsors and partners
Link to a low res version of our very first film concept

9. No chance without a
comprehensive concept!
Creating a paper the includes a treatment,
cast, crew, goals, and a timeframe are essential
to outline your project and set others on fire.

10. Financing
public
10 %
sponsors
10 %
own pocket
ask mom & dad
uncle Fred
your bank clerk
and take all your savings
80 %
total production value: approx. 250.000 €
(if you count the countless hours…)
total real budget: approx. 60.000 €

11. The Shooting
April - June 2012 & Sept - Nov 2012
in France, Spain, Portugal

12. Shooting

13. The Gear
Shooting like the pros… haha

14. photo camera - most professional gadget
Since we worked with one friend who is a professional photographer
we worked with (for that time) industry standard gear.

16. Outcome Photo Project
The photo project was an essential part
of the movie’s overall distribution strategy

17. www.stefanleitner.com

18. www.stefanleitner.com

19. www.stefanleitner.com

20. www.stefanleitner.com

21. video camera - seriously shooting a movie with that?
Yes, we shot our movie which was supposed to be screened
in cinemas with a Lumix GH2 ‚consumer‘ camera.

24. The Old, the Young & the Sea
Spending less than 3.000 Euros on the whole
video and recording equipment we to
shoot for cinema …

25. First Teaser

26. The Crew
You need a special delta force

27. Producing & Direction
this boy is
Andy Jaritz
and he is
Mario Hainzl

28. Stefan Leitner Roman Königshofer Sebastian FunkHarald Brettermeier
Photographer DOP Cinematographer Co-Direction

29. and a whole army…
web designers/developers
graphic designers
digital image technician
translators
sound/foley artists
music composers
motion graphic designers
translators/proof readers
distributors
technicians
more cutters
friends & families
We owe them our deepest respect!

30. The Community
Nomad Earth: 4180
OldYoungSea: 5800+
private/consumers: 1.500+
business/media: 400+
Everything had to be built up from zero.
Never under/overestimate your community!
But these are numbers you can work on (in the future)

31. How we built an audience
1ST
EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
1ST
EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA

32. Crowdsourcing
Let the crowd tell you the title of the
movie in a Facebook app

33. 130+ film titles were submitted in
a custom Facebook App
We built up our first FB fanbase
Media started contacting us
The Old, the Young
& the Sea
The resulting title:
The project received first exposure
in the international surfing scene

34. …or let the community vote
We activated our community with a
Vote-Your-Favorite-Character game.

36. We need a logo!
We wanted a visual anchor reflecting
the movie’s theme and feeling and to
make people remind the movie.
So get me that logo!

37. beautifully done by Verena Michelitsch

38. And what about a website?
We need that thing too!

39. www.oldyoungsea.com
Webdesign by Stefan Leitner

40. it all began with this one…

41. Strategic partnership with a cause
Besides creating a beautiful movie we wanted
to raise awareness for ocean conservation
1ST
EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
1ST
EUROPEAN
SURF DOCUMENTARY
THE OLD,
THE YOUNG
& THE SEA
x

42. Parts of the movie featured
interesting ocean conservationists
from the NGO Surfrider Foundation
Europe.
Mutual benefit: Surfrider spread their
message through strong stories in
the movie, we got access to the big
Surfrider community in Europe.

43. No (surf) movie without sponsorships
How we implemented brands
REEF Crossmedia Branding

44. Portrait photos of Reef team rider on our website

45. Logo placements in pre-rolls, website, social media

47. Logo placements in FB headers

48. Events/Keynotes
Filmfestivals
Screenings
Brand integration on events

50. branded products and stories

51. Branding in the movie’s pre-roll on Reelhouse

52. Talking to the media - media relations
We pro-actively got in touch with media outlets
around the globe on a regular basis. Pitching
story ideas, photo sets and offering interviews

53. PRESS RELEASE
The Old, the Young & the Sea
Search for meaning and surf culture on the Atlantic
»The Old , the Young & the Sea« is a vivid
documentary road movie about the people
and lifestyles of the "European Leg" – the
classic European surfing route along the
Atlantic coast from southwestern France
through northern Spain to the Portuguese
capital Lisbon. The film paints a colorful
portrait of the European surf culture and
ignores at the same time the typical boarders
of the genre classic surf movie by taking a
glimpse at matters beyond the sporting
aspects.
The film crew leads the viewer into the heart of
a vibrant European coastal culture with diverse
personalities and lifestyles: from surfing pros
and pioneers to environmentalists and marine
biologists to postmodern nomads and
dropouts living the legacy of the hippie
culture. As different as their personal life
stories may be, what unites them is their fascination for the sea and a close, deep relationship to
nature. "We do not just show spectacular surf scenes and impressive landscapes. Our film is
intended to capture the diversity of European culture and raise awareness of important
environmental issues - and lust for travel", says producer Andreas Jaritz.
During the trips at the coast the seven-member crew lived a total of more than four months in two
camping buses. They’ve made more than 150 interviews and had a production expense that blew
the usual minimalist budget of indie films. "The shooting tours can be characterized by what the
fascination of travelling means to us: To not know now, where you’ll be tomorrow," describes
director Mario Hainzl their approach. "Many of the interviews were also spontaneous encounters,
some of them resulted in lasting friendships."
Since its world premiere »The Old, the Young & the Sea« has been screened worldwide in 15
different countries and has won 8 film awards.
We created a comprehensive
press kit which we could easily
send to journalists
We setup a media relations mailing
list updating journalists one-by-one
and with newsletters.
We offered variations of stories and
different angles of already published
material to create news value and
reach more media outlets.

54. more promotional activities

55. We just kindly asked people to
rate the movie on IMDb

56. We sent newsletters regularly
(When we had something to say)

57. Movie Poster & Screening Flyer

58. We also experimented with
a new movie experience:
Online Live Screenings

59. Merchandise
In addition to the movie we
also created a series of ‚by-products‘
to round up the whole experience

61. The Photo Exhibition
We created a series of 4 exhibitions
in cooperation with the Spanish Tourism Board
Photos by Stefan Leitner

62. Exhibition España Verde
The Old, the Young & the Sea
Prague - Budapest - Bratislava - Vienna

63. Direct-to-Consumer Distribution
How people could and can watch the movie

64. On festivals and screening events…

65. … which we promoted on Facebook
together with local partners (e.g. surf
shops) and screening tour sponsors.

66. Distribution Map
Television
self-distribution
theaters DVD download

67. The Status Quo
What has happened and what’s the outcome?

68. Media Coverage - Selection
Austria Europe Worldwide
media coverage: 250 in print/online/tv

69. visitors www.oldyoungsea.com: 130.000+
130+ screenings, 26 festival selections,
11 film festival awards, 26.000 audience in theaters
IMDb rating: 9.0/10.0
250 video embeds, articles and features
across the web, print, tv
3000+ Downloads, 3 TV stations, 500+ DVDs
teaser & trailer plays: 130.000+
on reelhouse, vimeo, youtube, mpora & other players
OldYoungSea newsletter: 2.000+ subscribers
Facebook fans: 5800+

70. The bottom line
We found a (hard) way to break into the industry
by leveraging Social Media
We were able to recoup most of our initial cash investments
A considerable audience can only be reached
trough ‚self-distribution’ if you go a lot of extra miles
Making the movie = extreme amount of work,
sweet, blood and perseverance
Our promotion had a focus on digital media but
the majority watched the movie the old school way: in theaters
The acceptance to pay and watch movies on self-distributing
platforms like Reelhouse is steadily growing

71.
We were able to keep the lights on and
to find financing for a new production…
and the best part:

72. our next adventure…
beyond.oldyoungsea.com/

73. Thanks for your attention!
www.oldyoungsea.com
Nomad Earth Media
If you have enjoyed this case study
please share it with your friends
#oldyoungsea #nomadearth
office@nomadearth.com
twitter: @andreasjaritz
medium: @andreasjaritz