Independent producer John Paul Rice believes firmly that in order for indie films to be successful, everyone involved in the project - from investors, crew, actors and the audience - must have a passionate personal reaction to the story told by a film. By drawing on their pre-existing networks and creating powerful new ones through social networking sites, Rice and production company No Restrictions Entertainment managed to bring the compelling story of One Hour Fantasy Girl to a wide and growing audience.

The film centres on one of LA's ‘fantasy girls', a young woman who is struggling to escape poverty and an abusive past by becoming a dominatrix. Rice tells other indie filmmakers - "Don't wait for Hollywood to tell you when you can make your film. Tell the story that you believe in. Be passionate, measured and reasoned in your approach. Dream big but plan and work in reality one step at a time. A major key to the success of executing this film was that Edgar [Michael Bravo, writer/director] and I mapped out what we needed to do week-by-week, 6 months before the first day of shooting."

This commitment to meticulous planning paid off when it came to finding investors for the film. Initially intending to self-finance, Bravo and Rice personally invested US $40,000 in OHFG, and planned several versions of the film in case they weren't able to secure further investment. Identifying potential investors within their own pre-existing networks of friends, family and business contacts, and extending contact to people recommended by those in their networks, they pitched OHFG to groups. Rice describes the approach being along the lines of "‘If I can get four other people to put in X amount each, would you invest X amount in our movie?' They say ‘yes', we get signed letter of intent, then on to the next person with the same pitch". Using this approach, the project found 20 investors who contributed a total of US $160,000.

Finally securing US $200,000 in finance, the producers now turned to the creation of a passionate audience through social networks. By reaching out to members of sites including MySpace, Facebook, IndieGoGo, YouTube and Twitter, OHFG quickly built up a fan base - people who were drawn to the film after being invited to watch and comment on the clips available online. By focussing on their key demographic of young women and often sending personalised ‘thank you' messages, the film had over 4000 friends on MySpace in just 7 weeks. "Word-of-mouth is key to this process as it is probably the most powerful and effective form of communication," says Rice. "It used to be the slowest but the internet and mobile technology has completely broken that barrier."

In order to continue growing their social network fan base and reward existing fans, the producers made the bold decision in March 2009 to upload the first 15 minutes of the film, first to the OHFG website, then to their MySpace and Facebook pages. Rice reports that traffic to OHFG's website "is up 27.52 %over the previous month with the average time spent on the site at three minutes per visit, versus an average of 50 seconds from all previous months combined. For the video sharing sites, MySpace is at approximately 1,000 plays within two months, which is fairly healthy considering the trailer has had over 8,200 plays since first posted mid-October 2008. Facebook has had approximately 2,000 plays." With the availability of the first 15 minutes of OHFG, Rice says there has been an increase in the number of DVDs sold as well as an increase in the number of fans, feedback and dialogue on their social network pages.

The producers are currently self-distributing the DVD through their website, with most of their traffic coming from their social network fan base of around 16,000. The film will also likely be distributed via streaming distributors in individual countries such as Australia, the UK and Germany. OHFG is already available for rent in many independent video stores in the US (like Old Bank DVD) and with plans in place to connect with anti-domestic violence organisations across the US, the film has proven highly successful at tapping into the power of networks to spread its uplifting message. Successful theatrical screenings of the film have been reliant on groups of social network fans, and future screenings are also being organised to capitalise on the interest of fans who are part of the film's social network.

With this success, Rice and Bravo are eschewing film festivals in order to concentrate on marketing the film and producing their next projects The Boy Who Couldn't Say No, a sequel to OHFG and the coming-of-age drama The Magic Stone. With the experience they have gained, they have decided to begin marketing the sequel before shooting. "Our goal is to make the film making experience our fan's experience as well" says Rice. Their track record with OHFG has also significantly improved their ability to secure financing, with requests for their next film's business plan already coming in from investors.

"Based on our experience, it seems that independent filmmakers who use social networking to promote their work will have a higher chance of success in recouping their investors' money, thus enabling them to make another film," says Rice. "Social networking, combined with a film maker's marketing savvy for their product, has created the opportunity to engage a larger demographic of a film's audience and create fans through experiences that could not have been achieved the same way before. I think we are just at the beginning of what is possible in this area."