Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe by Les Blank

Werner Herzog, arguably one of the most famous directors of film and documentary, had his own funding problems. When making his film Fitzcarraldo, Herzog ran into funding problems and decided to have a fundraiser to eat his own shoes. You heard that right. Werner Herzog ate his own shoes for money, and you can still watch him do it in the documentary on Amazon Prime by Les Blank called Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.

It's kind of disgusting, and I'm amazed that he actually ate his soup-soaked shoes, but he did, and he did it for funding upfront because he believed in what he was doing. That conviction paid off because he started getting paid for his amazing ideas.

Many years later, he made the film “Lo and Behold” about the birth of the Internet, and Netscout, who funded the project, benefited big time. A case study showed a 10x increase in its annual brand impressions from approximately 30 billion during the year the film was released. That equated to a spend of approximately $20 million in earned media on a fairly low-budget documentary.

It was a documentary that shocked me a little, actually a lot, but gave good reason to fight for what you believe because sooner or later if you hold out for what you believe you will get paid. 

Keep going!