The film screened at 21 festivals in 2014 and won several awards.
Griffin also did a full director's commentary on the making of the film on Youtube. He shot the film entirely on the Panasonic GH3 micro four-thirds DSLR.
"It’s been 18 months since I released Sriracha, a 33-minute documentary about the iconic hot sauce. This was a passion project — I was curious about my favorite condiment, and wanted a short film on my reel. The goal wasn’t to make money, but after spending $12,728 on production, then $27,807 on merch and distribution, the film has so far generated $76,677 in revenue, or $100 per day."
Learn more about how the film started with an idea and became a successful documentary:
The 73 second trailer on Vimeo that helps sell the film.
5 Lessons Learned from my Profitable Indie Documentary
Griffin details what he learned from using different publishing platforms (Amazon, Vimeo, Hulu, and Youtube).
At the very end of the article, he also lists the revenue and profit margin totals for the first 18 months of distributing the film.
In a world where indie films fight to break even, I’m proud that Sriracha has turned a $36,141 profit so far. But considering the opportunity cost of eight months of producing/shooting/editing, and 18 months as a part-time marketer and DVD shipper, that’s a lot of freelance income I turned down to make this film.
The real return on investment is bringing a film to life that I wanted to exist, and the unexpected opportunities that result from a passion project. Within a year of its release, Sriracha landed me a documentary filmmaker job at Bloomberg News.
