Show HN: I Made My First Movie About a Tech Startup for $2,045 [video]

Years ago, I was part of a small tech startup that went through the usual rollercoaster. When it all ended, I couldn’t stop thinking about how surreal it had been: the long nights, the weird meetings, etc.

A friend of mine, who used to work in the film industry in Thailand before also moving into the tech world, had gone through similar ups and downs as a founder: burnout, crises, and the familiar feeling of questioning why we build things at all.

So we decided to make something just for the sake of building: our first movie.

It was entirely self-funded with $2,045. No investors and zero financial motivation. We simply wanted to create something we actually love!

With our entrepreneurial background, we knew getting attention for an art project would be really tough. Therefore we tried to use our startup mindset as a competitive advantage.

For example, a co-working space location that normally rents for $1,500/shooting day (we needed 4 days) became affordable when we made a deal with a smaller co-working space. We offered them photos and footage of the prodouction which they could use for their social media marketing.

During editing, we ran into something unsatisfying and we realized that Art doesn’t obey objectivity, it thrives on (personal) interpretation.

Trying to “A/B test” scenes or endings didn’t work. The feedback was all over the place.

But, once we defined a clearer target audience, it became easier to decide which voices to listen to.

Now we’re in the promotion stage, again thinking like a startup: using our network, creative outreach, and unconventional channels to get the word out.

Our movie is a fictional story inspired by real experiences and not the glossy "founder journey" version.

Here is the trailer on Youtube, would love to hear what you think of the trailer (good or bad).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ottt_qTr2No

Thanks for reading, any feedback is genuinely appreciated.