On the surface, you wouldn’t think of YouTubers as being the most reserved of people, but talking into a webcam doesn’t necessarily reveal all your secrets. Which is why the documentary Please Subscribe, directed by Dan Dodi, aims to illuminate the realities of what it’s like to create content for the YouTube community: chasing viewer numbers, aiming for ad dollars and dealing with the basic loneliness of the job.
But while Please Subscribe‘s target audience is the digital community, the film will first be seen someplace relatively unexpected: movie theaters.
For one night only, Please Subscribe will be distributed theatrically, specifically, Tuesday February 5th at 7:30 PM. “Anytime you make a movie, your number one goal is to make it into theaters. So [this] is pretty cool and pretty important,” Dodi said via phone.
“We wanted it to be more of an event,” Dodi said about the decision to go one night only.
According to David Wengrod of Screenvision, which is handling the theatrical distribution, Please Subscribe will be available in 217 theaters nation-wide, including San Francisco and New York. You can even see it in Hawaii.
“We have a pretty good national footprint,” Wengrod said via phone. “If we’re getting people who don’t normally go to see a movie on Tuesdays — people who normally experience stuff through their computers — then we’re a success.”
Following the theatrical premiere, Please Subscribe will be released via Chill Direct on March 22 — Screenvision requested a 45-day window. The film will cost $ 7.99 for a DRM-free file — but it’s currently available for pre-order at $ 6.20, 20 percent off.
Grace Helbig of Daily Grace, one of the eight YouTubers profiled in the film, got involved because it was an opportunity to expose those who might not be familiar with the YouTube community to what. “It’s important because it’s a such huge industry and it’s growing so fast — so it’s important for people to understand what’s happening,” she said via phone.
“It’s a deeper and more personal perspective on what it means to be a YouTuber,” Helbig added.
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