Zak Forsman talks to Karen Worden of @filmcourage about using Crowd Controls and OpenIndie in combination.
OpenIndie gets “MAN AS HELL” at DIY DAYS NYC
OpenIndie was asked to participate in the DIY DAYS incubator on April 3rd 2010 where Kieran & I spent the whole day reviewing the strengths and challenges of introducing OpenIndie to the world.
The tail end of the day was spent preparing and rehearsing this presentation that I then gave to the DIY DAYS participants. It felt great to just let loose with the crowd screaming at the top of our lungs, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” The message was very well received.
Afterwards Kieran detailed the incubator experience saying, “We arent the OpenIndie that went into the DIY DAYS Incubator.” It was a truly transformative experience.
So lets get this ball rolling guys. Lets build phase 2. Lets get investors on board who can fund this effort so we can do it right.
If you know anyone who should be a part of the OpenIndie effort, please send referrals and suggestions along via twitter or our help and suggestion site.
And please join the site and start requesting films or add your own film.
Arin Crumley
OpenIndie Co-Founder
CREDITS:
Filmming was done by Alex Liss, Mike Hedge & Raffi Asdourian. The scene is from Network copyright by MGM Home Entertainment and we are using under fair use law. The music in the “request” video is by our friend Drew Danburry. That video is a part of the Four Eyed Monsters Case Study Presentation we originally gave at Power to the Pixel 2007.
We are incredibly pleased to announce that Saskia Wilson-Brown is joining the OpenIndie team as a consultant in the role of filmmaker outreach. As many of you will know Saskia is an independent media advocate, producer and strategist for indie film, festivals and filmmakers. Her recent experience at Emmy-Award winning Current TV as the head of filmmaker outreach and with events such as the Slamdance Filmmaker Summit and Cinema Speakeasy means Saskia has stacks of experience in the relatively new world OpenIndie inhabits. Finally, and most importantly, Saskia is a known and respected figure in the indie / DIY filmmaking world and really gets what we’re trying to achieve here at OpenIndie.
Saskia’s role will be to engage with filmmakers and discuss ways in which OpenIndie can help with their distribution strategy. This is a process that we hope will augment and enhance the 1 hour consultation provided by Christy Dena after filmmakers start using OpenIndie. Arin and I are delighted that both Saskia and Christy have agreed to be a part of OpenIndie, we’re really building a rockstar team and are incredibly excited about the future.
If you’re a filmmaker and you’d like to know more about OpenIndie, how it works and what it would mean for you and your film please feel to reach out to Saskia either via email saskia AT openindie DOT com or twitter @saskiawb
Lance Weiler introduces OpenIndie and Arin.
Some time shortly after Sundance ‘10 we were fortunate enough to be asked by Mr Lance Weiler of the Workbook Project, Head Trauma and many other notable projects to take part the DIY DAYS NYC Startup Incubator.
DIY DAYS is a roving series of conferences for those who create and it’s part of the WorkBook Project an open resource created by Lance to support the community. The purpose of the incubator was to subject OpenIndie to the scrutiny of a room full of experts in various fields relevant to our business and what we’re trying to do. During a four hour process the group discusses various salient issues and then produce a presentation or pitch to be delivered to the conference attendees at the end of the day. Arin and I jumped at the chance to put OpenIndie under the nose of such respected folks in the industry for such a concentrated amount of time and the process began.
In the week leading up to the conference neither of us knew exactly what to expect but Lance kindly set up a Skype call with Matt Johnston of Kinetic Fin who was our Entrepreneur In Residence and facilitated the conversation on the day. He immediately set Arin and I at ease and got us really excited about the potential for the day. In just a one hour conversation Matt equipped us with a shared metaphor for how to think about what we were trying to achieve, drew out of us some key issues we wanted to address and gave us really valuable feedback about the challenges that he felt were ahead of us.
As I am based in the UK I Skyped into the conference on the day. I initially thought this would be fine as Arin and I are used to Skyping all our conversations. However, as the day went on the Skype situation became increasingly frustrating from my point of view. While I felt I had a great deal to contribute to the conversation the Skype lag caused me to start talking and discover I was interrupting someone. I also got the impression that the folks in the incubator found it hard to understand what I was saying due to the distortion. As a result of these issues I didn’t personally feel like I was as useful as I could have been and this was really frustrating. However, that shouldn’t reflect negatively in any way upon either the folks taking part in the incubator or the people organising DIY DAYS, it was something that always had the potential to be a problem.
The day began with Matt laying out the format for how we’d proceed and everyone introducing themselves. Our group of experts was made up of:
Matt Johnston - Entrepreneur In Residence (COO at Kinetic Fin)
Karol Martesko - Film Industry Expert (SVP / General Manager at Babelgum Film)
Brian Newman - Business Development (Founder at Sub-Genre and former CEO of Tribeca Film Institute)
Joseph Williams - Design
Bradley Farrell - Branding (CEO at Kinetic Fin)
Karin Chien - Producer / Distributor (The Exploding Girl (2009))
I’m sure you’ll agree this is a formidable team of experts and I for one was really nervous about the potential feedback they were going to have about OpenIndie. I can say, again from my perspective, that the feedback and discussion was incredibly constructive and while the process could have turned into a group of industry experts picking holes in a new platform that didn’t happen at all. This was partly down to the fantastic people Lance and his team had found to help us but also because whenever someone criticised it was always constructive. Nobody said “this sucks” or “you’re kidding yourselves” arguments were reasoned and based on years of experience.
In short, the group’s feedback was incredible and I would go as far as to say that the process has been totally transformative for OpenIndie. Some key takeaways from the day were that we need to improve our messaging, we’re not yet effectively explaining, clearly and concisely, what it is we do and how we do it. Our filmmaker bias was also very evident. This, in some respects, is natural because Arin is a filmmaker and our source of financial support has come from filmmakers. However, we need to reorientate the business to focus upon to the audience requesting films and the hosts organising screenings. This isn’t to say that the filmmakers aren’t vitally important but the focus upon generating an audience and screenings will benefit the filmmakers most in the long-term.
We were also challenged about our $100 per film per year fee and some good discussions came out of the suggestion to open the site to all for free or to curate the films on the site. Right now that $100 a year is our only source of revenue and is paying our hosting costs etc. However, all three options are still on the table and you will know as soon as we do about how we plan to proceed. The decision we make on this topic will depend greatly upon the level of success we have in the search for investment.
The day ended with Arin giving a fantastic presentation that Matt and Joseph helped us put together. It was impressive to see how Matt took the salient points from our discussions and drew them together with us into a presentation that was incredibly successful. At one point Arin had the whole audience on their feet shouting “I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE” a phrase made famous by the 1976 film Network and repurposed by us in our fundraising campaign in November last year.
Upon reflection, I think the day broke us down and built us up again. It drew out of us our biases that were clearly holding us back in many respects. It made us rethink our business model and reevaluate the decisions we’d made. It enabled us to compare OpenIndie to businesses that we would never have drawn comparison with previously. And, it brought to our attention an entire world of potential competitors that we hadn’t considered in our planning. I think the term transformative is very apt, we aren’t the OpenIndie that went into the DIY DAYS Incubator. We’re more knowledgeable, refocused and have a better understanding of our priorities moving forward.
We would like to thank Lance for this incredible opportunity and his entire team at DIY DAYS NYC for volunteering and making this vitally important event possible. Finally, we would like to thank Matt, Brad, Karol, Brian, Joseph and Karin for your time, your knowledge, your support and your incredibly constructive criticism. We’re very fortunate to have been afforded this opportunity.
We’re seriously excited about the future of OpenIndie and the potential for this platform. We hope you guys are too!
Kieran Masterton
OpenIndie Co-Founder
Photo credit: Raffi Asdourian - “Packed Audience for Openindie”
Photo credit: Raffi Asdourian - “True Passion”
Arin doing his motivational speaker act at DIY DAYS NYC - “I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE”
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Arin and Matt Johnston taking part in the OpenIndie Q&A after our Incubator pitch at Saturday’s DIY DAYS NYC.
Recently Mark Mapstone from Mediasnackers.com interviewed Kieran for their series of Podcasts on social media, some interesting questions were asked - check it out!
The Conversation (1974)
We have had an amazing first three weeks, we have over 500 users, over 100 filmmakers, 40 films available to request, and hundreds of requests have been made. We have had almost 80,000 page views and for the most part the site has remained stable. While these are by no means staggering figures in the world of web applications we are very proud that the site has been so well received and so many people are already using the site. And, once again we thank you all for your continued support.
In this blog post we just have a few things we’d like to highlight that we’re taking part in in the coming weeks. First up, OpenIndie Co-Founder Arin Crumley is speaking The Conversation, a conference which describes itself as:
“In March, pioneers at the forefront of change in cinema, video, digital media and technology are gathering again to share ideas, insights, and innovations. Our focus for this second edition of The Conversation are the opportunities created by social media, the Web, digital distribution, and an increasingly engaged audience.”
Arin will be taking part in one panel and one workshop. The first session at 9:45am is a panel entitled “What I’ve Learned About Attracting an Audience through Social Media” where Arin is joined by the likes of Ryan Werner, VP of Marketing at IFC Entertainment and Nina Paley, Director, “Sita Sings the Blues”.
The workshop takes place at 2pm and is entitled “Social Media Consults” here Arin and Sean Fitzroy (Founder, Cineshift), Leah Jones (Founder, Natiiv Arts and Media) and Lance Weiler (Filmmaker, “Head Trauma” and Editor of The Workbook Project) will discuss techniques for generating awareness for your project using social media and take part in a Q&A. As well as all those highly knowledgeable folks all these lovely people are taking part in various sessions at the event:
- Ira Deutchman, CEO, Emerging Pictures and head of Columbia University’s Producing Program
- Brian Newman, Founder, SpringBoardMedia
- Peter Broderick, President, Paradigm Consulting
- Hunter Weeks, Director, “Ride the Divide”
- Brian Chirls, CrowdControls
- Scilla Andreen, CEO, IndieFlix
- Adam Chapnick, CEO, Distribber
To name but a few! The Conversation takes place tomorrow March 27th and is actually sold out so if you’ve already got tickets and would like more information and full details on the days schedule check out The Conversation’s website.
We’d also like to mention DIY DAYS NYC which is happening at The New School, Manhattan, New York, on the 3rd of April. The day is presented by The Wookbook Project and video below describes perfectly what you’ll get out of the day:
DIY Days from Sabi Pictures on Vimeo.
OpenIndie is incredibly fortunate to have been asked to take part in the DIY DAYS Incubator which takes two media startups and exposes them to a think tank of experts from various industries to help us think about our models and to craft a presentation which will be made to the conference attendees at the end of the day.
We have already had our first taste of this process via a Skype call with Matt Johnston our Entrepreneur in Residence and DIY DAYS organizer Lance Weiler. Even in a one hour conversation Matt, who is COO at Kinetic Fin a social media consultancy based out of NYC and SF, has given us great advice and filled us with confidence about the process ahead of us at DIY DAYS. We’re really looking forward to the day and thank Lance and his team for the opportunity.
Right, what’s next? Well late next week you should expect a site update which will push a number of bug fixes and feature changes live. These should include the much demanded maps widget, email login and screening approval process for filmmakers and two new films available to screen on the site.
As always, if you have any questions, suggestions of problems please do not hesitate to start a discussion on our help site.
Kieran Masterton
OpenIndie Co-Founder
