Filmmaker Spotlight: Cooper Raiff5/19/2024 During his spring break as a student at Occidental College in 2018, Cooper Raiff stayed on campus and decided to shoot a 50-minute short called ‘Madeline & Cooper’. After uploading it to YouTube, he used social media to try to connect with Jay Duplass, one of his favorite filmmakers. Raiff used the old internet tactic of challenging someone to click on a link by saying “Bet you won’t click on this YouTube link”. As luck would have it Duplass not only clicked on the link but watched it to completion. Not only did Duplass watch it, but he saw enough promise in Raiff to set up a meet-up. That meet-up turned into a partnership and that partnership turned into the fully realized version of ‘Madeline & Cooper’ called ‘Shithouse’. With Duplass guidance ‘Shithouse’ proved to be the big winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the 2020 South By Southwest. Not only did this catch the attention of those that attended the virtual festival, but it caught the attention of actress Dakota Johnson, who produced and starred in Raiff’s sophomore effort ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’. The follow-up film was bought by Apple through Johnson’s Tea Time Pictures for a sizable price tag. Would Raiff's strategy work today?
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