SWIPE: The Online Dating Movie
It’s romantic. It’s comedic. But as anyone who has ever dated online will tell you...
This is no romantic comedy.
The feature film SWIPE captures the online dating experience. The real online dating experience. The highs and lows. The dimly lit bar rendezvous, the booze-soaked hookup. The manic thrill of hitting it off with an attractive stranger, the pitiful low of experiencing rejection through a phone.
What does SWIPE look like? Watch the six minute proof-of-concept short below for the answer.
SWIPE
Watch the short film (6 minutes). This proof-of-concept short doubles as the first six minutes of the feature script.
What is Swipe?
SWIPE is a sleek, polished, ready- to-shoot feature film script most succinctly summarized as “Tinder: The Movie.” The script chronicles the romantic fortunes of the modern single, swapping out the rote, standard trappings of the romantic comedy for the harsh, sobering realities of modern romance.
Accordingly, SWIPE takes its cues from real life more than it does any movie genre. These days, boy does not simply meet girl. These days, boy pulls out his phone and meets a hundred girls.
The title “SWIPE” refers to the thoughtless flick of a finger used to navigate online dating apps. The movie SWIPE examines the consequences of this gesture. What happens to our humanity when we can order a lover as easily as we can order a pizza?
Pitch Deck
Read the official pitch deck (16 pages, X minute read). Discover the story, characters, and world of SWIPE, then get an idea of what production would entail.
Why Swipe?
Since Tinder launched in 2012, the popularity of online dating has skyrocketed. Swipe apps have sunk their teeth into nearly every demographic in a big, bad way. 75% of adults aged 18-24 claim they’ve used Tinder, and dating app popularity among persons aged 25-34 nearly matches that figure.
49.7 million Americans use dating apps, a number that nearly matches the US population of 54.4 million singles. Every month, 13.5 million new global downloads swell their ranks. The average dating app user spends 90 minutes a day swiping—nearly 10% of their waking lives! What existing IP commands that kind of attention?
Combine this passion with the availability of affordable, high engagement advertising within the apps themselves, and SWIPE has a massive potential audience and an obvious way to connect with them. Furthermore, the low cost of production (which requires a single star, no CGI, no stunts, and little-to-no set construction) means low risk and massive profit potential.
Benjamin Yackshaw
Writer, Director, Producer, Editor, VFX Artist.
Hey there! My name is Benjamin Yackshaw. I’m the filmmaker behind SWIPE, the artist who put together all the material on this website, and an online dater extraordinaire. By day, I run the marketing department of an Ohio-based software company. At night, I don my cape and cowl to write, direct, and produce short films (you can find my work scattered throughout this website).
For years, I’ve expected someone to adapt the Tinder experience for the screen. Attempts have come in the form of scattered horror concepts and romantic comedy montages, but no one has taken a shot at the naked, unadorned premise.
Eventually, I realized such a movie wouldn’t happen. Why? Because established Hollywood insiders don’t have to date online! Sometimes, it takes a nobody to bring a story to life, and in this case? Well, I think I might just be that nobody.
Over the past four years, I’ve suffered the slings and arrows of the swiped, punctuated only by the momentary joy of the odd, fleeting connection. I’ve become intensely familiar with the ways normal people look for love, and I’m so, so ready to shine a light on them. Let’s get freaky.
Contact Ben
Fill out the form below to get in touch with Swipe creator Benjamin Yackshaw.