Photo “CHINESE FOOD OPEN” rights attributed to mag3737 on Flickr
A few weeks ago, Rupert over at chapterplay.tv blogged about OpenIndie and raised some really interesting questions which at the time I replied to in the comments. However, I think it’s worth answering one of them in particular on here as well.
What does the “open” in OpenIndie mean. You’d be right to be thinking along lines of open source software. I think it’s also important to think in terms of transparency and opening the relationship between filmmaker and audience. A lot of our values, especially mine as a developer, come from admiration and use of open source software. Crowdsourcing is fundamental to what we’re doing. Filmmakers are crowdsourcing audiences and screenings. We are crowdsourcing our startup funding and will be asking users and filmmakers on the site to shape the future of the site. In that way the community contributes to the site in the same way that developers contribute to open source software.
As for actually making our code and data open source, we very much admire the approach that Automattic have taken with Wordpress and I would certainly like to make our entire code base open source one day. This isn’t something that’s going to happen over night, or any time in the near future for that matter. We have some very definite goals for phase one and two and if/when we do open source openindie’s code, it will need to be prepared and planned carefully.
In terms of our data we’re strong proponents of Data Portability and will be making our data available via our API which is planned, at the moment, for development during phase three. During this process we’ll be making as much data available as humanly possible to allow anyone, anywhere in the world to build application using our data. All salient data is geo-locatable, meaning that every piece of data in our database which could potentially be mapped, can be. We hope this will bring with it fantastic opportunities for audiences and filmmakers alike.
I hope that gives you an insight into our thinking behind the name OpenIndie and don’t forget if you’re a filmmaker or film fan there’s still a way you can get involved. Simply, visit our Kickstarter campaign for phase two and donate. $100 gets you a filmmaker account to go live in phase two and $1+ gets you a user account where you can request and screen films.
For all the latest on what’s happening with OpenIndie, follow us on Twitter:
@openindie | @arincrumley | @kieranmasterton
Kieran Masterton
OpenIndie Co-Founder
As I write this I’m on my way from Bath in the south west of England up to Leeds in the North to sit on the Open Cinema panel at the Leeds International Film Festival. Having planned to spend the next four hours doing OpenIndie development I find myself on the train without a particularly important Gem installed (Paperclip for all you geeks out there). Anyway, this Gem is vital to the next stage of development so hopefully I’ll be able to grab some connectivity at the venue and install what I require for the return journey.
Unable to code, I thought it would be a good opportunity to write a blog post to help demystify some of what’s happening next with OpenIndie, but also to tell our 100 OpenIndie filmmakers how they can prepare for the site launch.
Thanks to the 226 people who donated, as of November 30th 2009 I will be commencing full time development of OpenIndie.com. Having said that I have been developing an OpenIndie prototype in my evenings and weekends for about eight months. However, as I’m sure many of you will appreciate, it is extremely hard to create a consistent product in a few hours here and there. It is time to re-write the code I have already written in Rails and start 12/14 hour coding days for the next three months.
In the next few weeks, fulfillment will begin for all types of rewards we offered, $1 user accounts, $15 Four Eyed Monsters CDs, and $100 filmmaker accounts. A simple Google form will be sent to everyone who donated and claimed a reward, these forms will differ depending upon the reward you’re eligible to receive. For $1+ rewards it will be as simple as name and postcode, while filmmakers will need to give more information like address and film details. You will also be given the opportunity at this point to nominate someone to take the filmmaker account in your stead.
So, with that said, how should you prepare for OpenIndie.com filmmaker membership? Obviously, we will need things like a poster image, a link to a trailer for your film on either Vimeo or YouTube. Likewise, any feed URLs from social media sites, for example Twitter accounts etc. will also aid OpenIndie in pulling in the maximum amount of content about your film. But these are things you are likely to already have to hand.
You will also be given the opportunity, around Chistmas time, to upload any existing lists of fan names, email addresses and postcodes you may have. These people will then become part of our private beta invitation list for the March 1st launch. So you may want to set up your own Google form to collect this kind of information from your fans. One of the keys to OpenIndie is its geo-centric abilities and in order to maximise the chances of your film being a success on OpenIndie it is extremely useful to have an email address and an associated postcode. While it isn’t vital to have postcodes - all we really need is a list of email addresses and we’ll ask the users for their locale - it makes the process smoother for the user and they are therefore more likely to stick around and use OpenIndie.
Note: if you do not have permission to pass user’s details on to a third party we can not endorse you uploading this kind of information to OpenIndie. However, if you are in this position you will be given a unique OpenIndie URL that you can email to your fan base explaining how OpenIndie will help them see your film.
Finally, please if you have any questions at all about the process, or about the progress of development or about how your $100 is being spent, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. I can be contacted via Twitter @kieranmasterton, email kieran AT openindie DOT com or Goole Wave kieran DOT masterton AT googlewave DOT com
Photo credit: Blue Sky on Rails by ecstaticist
So, in my very first blog post about OpenIndie, on my personal site kieranmasterton.com, I stated that I was going to be building the site in PHP, specifically, the Zend Framework. So why the sudden change of heart and will this impact upon our March 1st deadline?
To give you some background. I have been coding in PHP for almost 11 years. I started with Perl but quickly moved to PHP in 1998 when I learnt of its simplicity, ease of development and the growing support it had in the Open Source community. This shift from PHP to Rails I believe to be no different. I am by no means a puritan when it comes to languages. I know that some people become very attached to their language of choice and will defend it to a fault. However, I have always seen the language I use to serve a purpose. The right tool for the job etc. However, that isn’t to say that I’ve given Microsoft ASP.NET MVC framework even a cursory glance. Yes, I’m prejudice but you have to have some ideals and mine are Open Source through and through.
So, why Rails? Why not Django or something else? Simple. As I did with PHP I can see a natural movement growing. There is a community, a support mechanism which I have to say seems a lot less elitist - in my experience - than the PHP community, which all too often suffers from a superiority complex. I believe knowledge is for sharing and PHP developers are losing sight of this in my opinion. From a technical perspective, I have also been very impressed with both Ruby as a language and Rails as a framework. It is a pleasure to work with Ruby after dealing with a idiosyncratic and inconsistent language like PHP. Like PHP, Rails is Open Source - which, for us, is simply vital. Ruby is a pure OO language, while - lets be honest - PHP is faking it. PHP is, I’m afraid, flawed by design. All this isn’t to say that I don’t have a soft spot for PHP. It has served me well and there are still MANY instances where I would build something in a PHP framework (read Zend) over Rails. However, I think Rails is the right tool for the OpenIndie job.
I need to be agile, and given the crowdsourced, user-influenced nature of the site, I need to be flexible. Rails delivers. I need to build this thing quickly, quick to market, build new features, remove features, and maintain a DRY approach at all times. Rails delivers. I gave myself a week. A week of evenings and one weekend to play with Rails and decide if I was comfortable enough with the language and the framework to build OpenIndie in three months. And the outcome was a resounding, yes!
For anyone else looking to move from PHP to Rails, buy this book Rails for PHP Developers - you won’t regret it.
Kieran Masterton
OpenIndie Co-Founder
The last month and a half has been unreal. We have “crowdfunded” a project in 30 days that I have been planning, designing and developing in my head for the last year and that Arin has been envisioning for almost five years. This is really happening, and it couldn’t be happening without the incredibly generous donations of all those filmmakers and fans who put their hands in their pockets for the campaign. So thank you, you’re enabling us to make this site a reality.
In other news, I have been invited to speak at the Leeds International Film Festival by Nic Wistreich of Netribution who is organising a panel on Open Cinema. After some uming and ahing over dates and whether my current employer would be eminable to my having the day off, I eventually confirmed that I would be speaking at the event on the 12th.
The panel is made up of Nic Wistreich representing Netribution, Peter Gerard - Director of Just to Get a Rep, Cube MicroPlex from Bristol, Louis Le Prince Centre - Leeds, Vancouver Underground Film Festival and of course myself, representing OpenIndie. It should be a great event and an interesting discussion so if you’re in the area get tickets and come along, it’s free!
First you get mad - then build OpenIndie
OpenIndie, in the first instance, is a user generated film screening site with the aim of democratizing distribution. Development will take place over a number of phases but ultimately using the site users can discover and bookmark films they’re interested in, request a screening in their area and put on a screening of any film on the site. Likewise, filmmakers can add their film to OpenIndie, and upload and promote their film via social media. Plus, in terms of exhibition anyone, from an individual or a group of friends, to theatres, venues, film clubs and festivals will be able to measure demand for a film in their area, screen a film and share their revenue with the filmmaker. We’ve developed this model with Arin’s experience of self distribution in mind and believe that this site can not only change the way that filmmakers distribute their films but also help make independent film production a sustainable enterprise. The key to OpenIndie is that anyone can screen any film!
Q: Why do you need $10,000 to start the website?
A: While Internet users are used to getting a lot of for free, developing a site as big as openindie.com and paying for the hosting is expensive. The money is needed to pay for Kieran to dedicate his time to OpenIndie full time. Likewise, in order to sustain a site this size server costs will increase exponentially as the quantity of films and users on the site grow.
Q: What type of films can become one of the first 100?
A: Any. Whether you have made a feature, a short or a documentary of any kind you’re welcome to donate $100 and be a founding filmmaker.
Q: Are you only looking for American filmmakers?
A: Absolutely not! We’re looking for anyone who wants to self distribute their film. Wherever you are in the world. Whatever language your film is in. We want you to be part of OpenIndie.
Q: What if my film already has a distribution deal in a specific territory?
A: Many of the filmmakers signing up to OpenIndie will still have their full theatrical rights. However, we understand that some may have been able to secure distribution deals in one or two territories where their film was successful. With this in mind we have devised an “OpenIndie License” where filmmakers retain their full theatrical rights but it allows filmmakers to specify where in the world user-generated screenings can take place.
Q: Do I have to allow users to download and screen my film?
A: No, filmmakers will have full control over whether their film is available to screen. If you’d like to use the site to just gather demand for a film, then that’s fine. However, we believe to get the full benefit of the site filmmakers should embrace the opportunity to have anyone screen their films.
Q: So what happens at the end of the 10 months?
A: The ten months is purely a time frame we have put in place which will be a point where we will re-assess how OpenIndie is working out for the 100 filmmakers and make decisions about where to take it in the future. The 10 month period starts on the 1st of March 2010. And, as some people have asked, it is most certainly not a time where we will be kicking the original 100 filmmakers off the site. If anything this will be the point where we decide what is working and what isn’t, evolve some features and release new features to the community.
