This past April, Markiplier went to GoPro‘s booth at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, hoping to see its first interchangeable lens cinema camera, the Mission 1 Pro ILS, ahead of its Sept. 2 release date. They wouldn’t show it to him.
So he bought enough GoPro stock to make him its biggest single shareholder.
“I saw the stock and where it was, I was like that seems undervalued,” Markiplier–aka Mark Fischbach—told Bloomberg. “It’s just something I’ve been cooking in the background; I want the company to succeed.”
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Fischbach also began reaching out to GoPro after NAB Show, asking it to let him try the ILS. Eventually, months later, GoPro invited him to its offices, gave him an ILS, and agreed to sponsor his channel.
The resulting YouTube video is a gushing 14-minute endorsement where Fischbach–clearly genuinely over the moon about the ILS’s capabilities–says he believes this camera could be the future of filmmaking.
As I wrote in April, Fischbach’s experiences making and trying to distribute his $50 million box office success Iron Lung left him very aware of the many hurdles indie filmmakers have to overcome. On the distribution end, he worked with YouTube to become an official aggregator–a position that will allow him to advocate for other creator-made and independent films to be listed for sale on Google’s video platform.
The ILS comes in on the production side. It originally piqued Fischbach’s interest because it costs just $699.99; now he says it has a shot quality that surpasses the $7,000 RED Komodo-X he used to film Iron Lung.
“It’s because I care about tools being accessible for people,” he said in his video about the ILS. “The entry level into the cinema world cannot be $7,000, because people cannot afford $7,000. There is a way that you can get access to [the Komodo-X] by renting the equipment. But the rental fee for it would still be more than [the ILS] costs to buy.”
He pointed out that while putting his review video together, he was browsing RED’s site and came across a camera handle–just the handle, not the camera–that costs $699, the exact same price as the entire ILS.
“I love this camera,” he said. “I love what it represents. I love that it opens up a whole world for people to get access to cinema-quality things. And make no mistake–this is cinema-quality.”
Fischbach says if he were filming Iron Lung now, he would use shots from the ILS in place of shots he originally filmed with the Komodo-X. “And I will put [shots from the ILS] in my movie when I make more in the future,” he adds. “I will be using this extensively.”
Other reviews for the ILS concur with Fischbach; some reviewers wonder if this could be the camera that saves GoPro from going under.
Because Fischbach was right–GoPro stock is cheap right now. During its IPO in 2014, GoPro sold shares for $24. This year, shares were generally under $1, and sank to an all-time low of $0.57 after dismal Q2 results and a SEC filing that admitted there was “substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
After news emerged that Fischbach now owns 8.5% of GoPro, stock prices surged 33%, to $1.39/share.
All this being said, Fischbach didn’t buy GoPro stock to take charge of the company. His stake in GoPro is passive, according to an Aug. 20 SEC filing that shows Fischbach owns 13.5 million shares.
But his position as an endorser of the ILS could make him a key figure in GoPro’s future. Fischbach is one of YouTube’s biggest creators and a $50 million box office filmmaker who is notoriously critical of brands and selective about his partners. Having him on its side as the ILS launches might give GoPro the leg up it needs.
