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Caine's Arcade

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Caine's Arcade
Directed byNirvan Mullick
Release date
  • April 9, 2012 (2012-04-09)
Running time
11 minutes
CountryUnited States

Caine's Arcade is a short documentary film by Nirvan Mullick released in April 2012 that featured an eponymous arcade created by then 9-year-old Caine Monroy out of cardboard boxes and everyday objects. The boy ran his arcade from his father's auto parts store in Los Angeles during mid-2011. Mullick was inspired to make the documentary after unexpectedly coming across the arcade while getting a part for his car, discovering the level of commitment, work, and thought Caine had put into the arcade, and becoming Caine's first customer. In the course of filming the documentary, Mullick arranged for a flash mob from social media sites to come by the arcade, increasing the awareness of the arcade.

The film, on its release to Vimeo, soon became a viral video. Numerous people donated money towards Caine's college fund. Subsequently, schools around the world have recreated similar cardboard arcades, and from the positive response, inspired Mullick and the team behind the film to start the Imagination Foundation, a non-profit group aimed to find and foster creativity and entrepreneurship in children across the world.

Background

Before 2011, Caine had spent weekends with his father George Monroy at the store, during which he had tried selling goods, including yard signs for supporting sports teams and snacks and drinks from vending machines. He found little success; Monroy's store was in an area of East Los Angeles with little foot traffic, and his store was more a physical warehouse for sales made over the Internet.[1] In summer 2011, Caine found many of the discarded boxes from the store and asked for his father's permission to create the arcade in the front, which George supported. Caine built and designed all the games himself, creating a ticket and prize redemption system, originally using some of his old toys such as Hot Wheels cars and then into items bought at dollar stores as prizes.[2][3] Caine would operate the arcade "machines", retrieving balls and dispensing tickets to the player.[4] During a family vacation to Palm Springs, Caine had asked for a t-shirt, with "Caine's Arcade" on one side and "Staff" on the other to be made for him, despite not knowing what "staff" meant at the time but knowing that he had seen that word used in other places.[1]

Because of the store's location along an industrial park, the arcade had no customers until Mullick, who needed a new door handle, went to George's shop. While there, he saw the arcade and talked to Caine about it. Mullick was particularly impressed with some of the basic business fundamentals that Caine implemented, such as offering a $2 "Fun Pass" that offered 500 plays of the games, compared to the four plays one would have gotten with just one dollar.[5] Mullick proceed to buy a funpass and play the games, unaware that he was Caine's first customer, only learning this after speaking later with George, who had said that even one customer made Caine happy.[5]

Documentary

After speaking about the arcade with a friend who was organizing a DIY Days event at UCLA, Mullick imagined that a documentary on the arcade would not only be successful but would also draw more customers to it. He consulted with George on the concept and got permission to film. Mullick organized a flash mob event in October 2011 on Facebook, which ultimately was linked through Reddit.[5] George arranged to take Caine out for pizza in the afternoon, giving the crowd of more than a hundred time to gather and construct signs. On their return, the crowd cheered on Caine, who was surprised and elated at the demonstration.[5] Mullick worked to prepare a 14 minute rough cut of the documentary, which premiered at the UCLA DIY Days event later that month. Caine was in attendance, and set up his arcade.[citation needed]

Mullick released the final 11-minute documentary to the video site Vimeo on April 9, 2012, as well as posting it to popular sites including Reddit and Boing Boing.[6] The documentary soon propagated in viral video fashion, with over 1 million views the first day, and more than 5 million views within the first five days.[5] In addition to numerous responses, several emotional video responses were received, which Mullick described as "This is the video that is making grown men cry."[7]

Mullick is exploring making the short documentary into a feature film after completing other projects related the short film's success and influence;[8] Mullick has stated that he has received offers from film publishers to create the feature-length film.[9]

Impact

Following the release of the documentary, Caine was invited to speak at a class at the USC Marshall School of Business, the youngest entrepreneur to speak there.[10][11] Caine was also the youngest speaker at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.[12] The Massachusetts Institute of Technology invited Caine to participate in a summer program, while the University of California Los Angeles has offered to help design a course curriculum for Caine when he is ready to attend college.[9] Business journals such as Forbes and Fast Company have highlighted the factors that made Caine's arcade work that can be applied to any developing business, such as Caine's perseverance and optimism.[4][13] The arcade was temporarily displayed in the Exploratorium in San Francisco.[11] Caine continues to operate the arcade on Saturdays to a steady stream of guests, more than five months after the documentary's release.[6] Other nearby businesses and local musicians have worked to create a street fair-like environment around the arcade on the days that it is open.[11] Caine was offered a full-scholarship to attend Colorado State University after Mullick and Caine spoke in Denver at the 2013 Colorado Innovation Network Summit.

Mullick had created a college fund for Caine to which viewers could contribute, with an initial goal of $25,000, but this was quickly surpassed, raising over $60,000 on the first day,[5] and exceeded $170,000 a week following.[1] Two years later, the total fund has grown to over $239,000, with an ultimate goal of $250,000.[8] With a matching grant from the Goldhirsh Foundation, Mullick started the Imagination Foundation, a non-profit with a mission to find, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in children.[8] Mullick had not originally planned on this, though had been working in non-profit foundations before, but after three days of the video's release and the donations to Caine's college fund, he began working out the mission statement for the Imagination Foundation.[6] Mullick made a follow up film, "Caine's Arcade 2"[14] to launch the Imagination Foundation and a Global Cardboard Challenge, culminating in a Day of Play (celebrating the anniversary of the flashmob from Caine's Arcade); in two years over 100,000 kids in 50 countries have taken part in the Cardboard Challenge. Mullick is also working to create an Imagination Maker Space in Boyle Heights where children will be able to work together to build similar devices out of cardboard and other common objects, and has become an inspirational speaker.[8]

Mullick began receiving positive feedback from parents and teachers shortly after the release of the video, including video clips of similar cardboard games created by children; one such clip included actor-musician Jack Black and his children.[15] From this, Mullick worked with volunteer teachers to start the creation of an open-ended curriculum around allowing students to create something that they enjoy in the same manner that Caine approached his arcade with.[15] In September 2012, nearing the anniversary of the flash mob event, Mullick released a second video, Caine's Arcade 2, which primarily was a montage of these video clips.[15][16] As a means of launching the Imagination Foundation, Mullick arranged the Global Cardboard Challenge, to encourage creativity with cardboard, and arranged over 270 events across 41 countries, including one at Caine's Arcade.[8] A similar challenge was held in October 2013, with the aim to get more children involved in more countries.[17]

Two years after its opening, Caine 'retired' from running his arcade, partially as he was entering junior high school, but also to start a new business of a bicycle shop to help repair and remake existing bicycles.[18]

The Imagination Foundation and the Cardboard Challenge have continued to grow.

References

  1. ^ a b c Medina, Jennifer (April 19, 2012). "A Boy's Fast Fame, Built of Cardboard and Tape". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  2. ^ Gianatasio, David (April 13, 2012). "L.A. Adman Helps Bring Caine's Arcade to the World". Ad Week. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  3. ^ Lopez, Lolita; Brayton, Julie (April 11, 2012). "Caine's Arcade Goes Viral". NBC Los Angeles. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  4. ^ a b Harrison, Sam (April 13, 2012). "If You Want To Get Creative, Take A Page From Caine's Arcade". Fast Company. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Cross, Allison (April 12, 2012). "Caine's Arcade video about inventive L.A. boy raises $100,000 for scholarship fund". National Post. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  6. ^ a b c Woods, Arthur (September 17, 2012). "5 Questions with Nirvan Mullick, the man behind 'Caine's Arcade'". YouTube. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  7. ^ Goodale, Gloria (April 13, 2012). "Why 'Caine's Arcade' moves grown men to tears". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
  8. ^ a b c d e Arnold, Shayna Rose (September 17, 2012). "A Second Super Inspiring Update On Caine's Arcade". Los Angeles. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  9. ^ a b Isaacson, Andy (April 24, 2012). "The Perfect Moment Goes Perfectly Viral". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
  10. ^ Stone, Chelsea (April 26, 2012). "Young local business owner Caine Monroy shares story with Marshall class". Daily Trojan. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  11. ^ a b c MacQuarrie, Jim (June 21, 2012). "Wired Catches Up With Caine's Arcade". Wired. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  12. ^ Nudd, Tim (June 18, 2012). "Caine Monroy of Caine's Arcade Wants You to Be a Kid Again". Ad Week. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  13. ^ Maeby, Caleb (April 12, 2012). "9 Reasons Why The 9-Year-Old Founder Of Caine's Arcade Will Be A Billionaire In 30 Years". Forbes. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  14. ^ Mullick, Nirvan (September 13, 2012). "Caine's Arcade 2: From a Movie to a Movement". YouTube. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
  15. ^ a b c Crotty, James Marshall (June 7, 2012). "Caine's Arcade In East L.A. Inspires Curriculum". Forbes. Retrieved September 25, 2012.
  16. ^ Frauenfelder, Mark (September 14, 2012). "Caine's Arcade 2: The Global Cardboard Challenge & Imagination Foundation". Boing Boing. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  17. ^ Gorden, Ken (October 2, 2013). "Cardboard Challenge / Global Day of Play fosters creativity at any age". Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  18. ^ Lopez, Lolita; Avila, Willian (July 13, 2013). "Caine's Arcade Is Closing as Boy Pursues New Dream". KNBC. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
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