Taking the “Balls Out” of Indie Movie Piracy

Greetings Denizens of the Internet,

I am writing this as a producer of the indie movie “Balls Out” that was just released on June 19th in theaters and VOD. Immediately upon its release, it made its way onto all the top torrent sites in full HD quality. We’re not stupid, we knew that as soon as the movie was out it would be up to download for free online. What we didn’t expect was just how popular it would be on those sites. We’re one of the most pirated movies right now in terms of how many people are currently downloading, and seemingly the only independent film currently on the list. That matters because while the other movies currently featured on those sites have already made millions of dollars in theaters, we have a very small theatrical release and have to count on VOD to make our investors’ money back. (More money was probably spent feeding the Raptors on the set of Jurassic World than was spent on our entire film, and they were CG* characters. *CG = Not Real.)

We made this movie two summers ago in Austin, TX under the title “Intramural,” and set out to create the type of movie where any silly stupid thing could happen because it was a world where silly stupid things happened, the type of world where the fun and camaraderie are high but the stakes are low — not unlike the world of intramural sports itself. We finished the movie and not only did we achieve what we set out to, it actually turned out better than any of us could have ever imagined. I personally love the movie so much that it feels weird to say I worked on it.

Apparently we weren’t the only ones who loved the movie, as we were accepted into the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival (which was amazing) and the festival programmers and audiences seemed to love the movie as well. We followed up Tribeca by winning “Best Guilty Pleasure” at the Seattle International Film Festival, and shortly thereafter were picked up by a major distributor who subsequently decided to release our film “Intramural” as “Balls Out.” I’m not saying this information to brag, only mentioning it to show that this isn’t just a lowest common denominator comedy like some have assumed because of how it is now being marketed. (Which has already been written about HERE and HERE.)

THIS ISN’T ABOUT THE MONEY. Ok, it kind of is, but not because any of us are trying to get rich off of independent movies. In fact, if I were to put an hourly wage to the amount of money I made on this movie, it was less than I made as a 19-year-old employee at Blockbuster Video (a place where people paid money to rent movies, for those too young to remember that time). The thing is, I don’t care about making money off this movie. I was lucky enough to have the time of my life making a movie I love with the people I love and it turned out to be exactly the type of movie I dreamed of being a part of since before I even had pubes. To me that’s more valuable than anything. (The experience of making this movie, not the pubes, although those were cool to have during that time.)

We may have gotten picked up by a well known studio, but we made this movie without their involvement at all. Our investors are not multi-millionaires instagramming photos from their private jets while on their way to ride elephants in the Sudan (not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Like most independent films of which I am aware, a lot of our investors are family members and close friends who just happened to have enough money saved up and were willing to take a chance on us. The most important thing is that the people who believe in independent movies enough to invest their money into original, non-studio funded projects are able to get their money back. If they don’t at least break even, it just makes it that much harder for us, and other independent filmmakers, to make movies in the future. In our case, it could also make for some very uncomfortable Thanksgiving Dinners.

If you downloaded our movie off of a torrent site and hated it, then none of this matters to you. It just means that a group of guys who made a movie you didn’t like might not get a chance to make another movie that you’ll probably also not like. But if you downloaded our movie, and you thought it was funny and entertaining, it does mean that the guys who made that movie might not get the chance to do another one that you may also enjoy.

The same goes for all the independent films being made right now. None of the filmmakers I know are getting rich doing this, they are doing it because they love making movies and entertaining people. It’s unbelievably hard to get any kind of movie made, let alone one worth watching, and if people don’t support the filmmakers doing original work then we’ll be forever stuck watching sequels and spin-offs and sequel spin-offs of tie-ins until the end of time. (Or until our robot-overlords ban the production of motion pictures).

SO WHAT AM I ASKING YOU TO DO? What I’m asking you to do is actually pay to watch our movie, or any independent movie that you find online. I know that is sacrilegious to ask in this modern internet age, but in the case of independent films like this, it really does matter whether you pay for the movie or not. If you really must torrent it, go ahead and torrent it and treat that like a free rental. BUT if you end up enjoying it, PLEASE go to iTunes, Amazon, Xbox, or wherever, and pay to rent or buy the movie afterwards.

I’m not the first person to write something like this. In fact, filmmaker Ti West wrote something on this topic far more eloquently a few years back. You can read his article here.

To make all this as easy as possible, here’s a link to buy the movie on iTunes. Here’s the link to our official website which has direct links to buy it on many other platforms if you don’t like iTunes. For those of you who still want to torrent it, you know where to find it. I’m not going to help you out there, but I do hope you enjoy the movie regardless. If you don’t enjoy it, that’s cool too, we know this movie isn’t for everyone.

Indie filmmakers spend years of their lives and make many sacrifices to create these movies that you get to choose whether or not are worth your valuable time and hard earned money. At the end of the day all we filmmakers want is for people to see our movies, but the hard truth is that unless those movies make the investors’ money back, future movies like them won’t get made at all. I know it sounds ridiculously cheesy and infomercial-y, but the truth is you really can make a difference for as little as $6.99.

Thank you for reading!



- David Ward

Ralph Smyth Entertainment

Producer of Balls Out (formerly Intramural)