Local film shines spotlight on northern stars of social media

A videographer in Sault Ste. Marie is hoping to put digital content creators from northern Ontario under a spotlight he feels hasn’t been shone before.

Zack Trunzo and his colleagues recently assembled the finishing touches on “Creator Economy,” a feature-length film that takes viewers behind the scenes of three creators from the Algoma region who are making it big on social media.

Joe Robinet, Hanna Ellis, and Eythan Henson are the subjects of the documentary, each of whom offer a variety of content while boasting incredibly large audiences on several different platforms.

Trunzo believes there are misconceptions in the social media industry that suggest people who live in smaller and less densely populated areas like the Sault can’t make it big online.

He admits that sentiment was a driving force behind the idea of this piece, which he directed and produced.

“The main goal is to share with people that there are creators in northern Ontario,” he said. “They’re able to create this content and reach almost a global audience essentially, where you weren’t able to do this even ten years ago.”

“With the internet now, you can have a million followers and subscribers and create stuff that you’re passionate about and share it with the world,” he continued. “Sometimes that leads to making money, and sometimes it doesn’t.”

And the numbers don’t lie.

Robinet, an Algoma-based creator who makes bushcraft tutorials and other content in the outdoors, has more than 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube.

Henson, who readers may remember as the April Fool's jokester that convinced Saultites they’d be getting a Costco, has more than 1.1 million followers on TikTok.

Ellis, a locally renowned artist and dressmaker, has 44,000 followers on Instagram. Her work has been featured in Vogue magazine.

“It was really interesting talking with all of them,” Trunzo said. “Unless you’re friends with them, and even if you are, they’re really low-key about the following they have.”

“With these three contrasting interviewees, there’s obviously different ways you can go about creating content,” he added. “Whether you want to monetize it or not — you can, but you don’t have to.”

Trunzo graduated from Sault College’s digital film and production program in 2017.

For the past three years, the self-identified “camera nerd” has been working with Accretive, a video-based platform operating inside Village Media’s headquarters that help companies and corporations tell their story.

But his passion for documentaries and personal projects never disappeared.

Once he secured more than $36,000 in funding from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation to make Creator Economy — one of seven projects that received millions of dollars from the government — it was all systems go.

“I was basically going to do this whether I got the funding or not as this was a passion project,” he said. “But the NOHFC were gracious enough to support it, which meant we could increase the overall production value with better equipment.”

With help from colleagues Jimmie Chiverelli, Parth Pandy, and Drew Armstrong, among others, Trunzo shot most of the film over the course of two weeks last summer before his team entered months of post-production.

Now, he’s excited at the thought that his work could provide a confidence boost to talented individuals who have the potential to make a name for themselves.

“The main goal is to inspire people,” he said. “Inspire them to go out and create — no matter where you live or what kind of equipment you have. You can do it with your phone now, and there’s all sorts of very accessible, affordable equipment you can use to create stories.”

“You can do this living very rurally in northern Ontario, whereas ten years ago you’d have to move to Toronto or Vancouver,” he added. “I hope this next generation goes out and makes stuff.”