9 ms·

Show HN: FilmBreak is launching a fully integrated virtual film studio

37 points by corwinstephen 14y ago

wj 14y ago
Very cool. My current project is to help the production side but this is what PG was talking about in killing Hollywood. Best of luck.
- gee_totes 14y ago
  Do you need help with your project? I'm a producer and programmer.
  - wj 14y ago
    My biggest to do list is the marketing side at the moment but I'd love to have your feedback. indieintern.com Hit me at will at that domain and I'll send you a code for free months if you're interested.
pav3l 14y ago
Any project challenging RIAA's monopoly is getting my upvote. Looks very well thought through and nicely executed.
kmfrk 14y ago
Gorgeous website and great domain. Keep us posted. Your Twitter updates are a wee bit prolific, though. I'm not sure I'll want to follow one with that activity with fairly little info about the site itself. Maybe split it up into several? I see a similar thing with other accounts filled with what I call vanity tweets retweeting mentions of themselves.
- corwinstephen 14y ago
  A very good point, and something I hadn't really considered. Much appreciated!
gee_totes 14y ago
Great site -- this looks like a well-designed and well executed Wreck-A-Movie [0] Have any projects started raising money yet? [0]http://www.wreckamovie.com/ http://www.wreckamovie.com/
- corwinstephen 14y ago
  We have one project currently in talks for financing, and several that found us after completion and used us for distribution. We're hoping to continue the momentum!
benkant 14y ago
Stop saying "awesome".
- kleiba 14y ago
  Agreed, I not only found that irritating in the video, it also makes the product seem less professional to me. But then again, it's hard to make everyone happy.
hjkl 14y ago
I really hope this site works out. Posted a few of my films: http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/framed-baby-photos http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/framed-baby-photos http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/strange-human-custom http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/strange-human-custom http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/signatures http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/signatures
wasd 14y ago
Really cool website and idea. I'm a programmer and film maker. It took me a few glances to find the "What is Filmbreak" button because the center of attention isn't at the top of the page.
swalsh 14y ago
I was thinking about making almost exactly this several months ago. I'm glad to see it made. I completely believe this to be the path towards killing the evil that has become hollywood.
jawngee 14y ago
I'd like to give you some advice if you are ears. I'm the former CTO of Massify, which set out to do exactly what you are doing, and we did it to a certain extent: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/business/media/10massify.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/business/media/10massify.h... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/business/media/20adco.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/business/media/20adco.html http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2008/12/first-internet-created-feature-film-debuts-next-month/ http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2008/12/first-internet-... Massify started out as an idea for a viral video site, but after a lot of pivoting turned into a virtual production studio similar to what you are doing with your site. One of the biggest problem for Massify was monetization. You seem to have the underpinnings of that covered with your distribution channels and your deal with godigital. I wish those things existed when we did (2007) and I wish our CEO at the time had the forethought and leadership to pursue those kinds of deals. That was actually the biggest problem we had (the CEO). He attempted to pivot us in so many different directions when it was apparent that monetization was going to be a hard problem to solve that we all eventually got sick of it and quit on the same day. It also had been 2+ years and I think we were all kind of burnt out (so much so that I refuse to do any kind of web development any more). Another major problem we had was user acquisition. It's such a niche that I always thought it was silly to concentrate on the number of users and not focus more on getting distribution in place. Of course, I think we were a couple of years ahead of that curve. Had we held on awhile longer, I think we would have been in a prime spot to really make a success of it because we were the only site like that around at the time. We also had a lot of awesome technology sitting in the wings waiting for the non-technical part of the team to do something with it. But, instead, a lot of pivoting and a lot of money burning. So much money burning. Anyways, love the site and good luck! Looks like you are off to the right start.
- corwinstephen 14y ago
  This is really helpful. Thanks for the advice. It'd be great to keep in touch, and perhaps even meet up at some point. There's no sense in us making mistakes that have already been made!
wtracy 14y ago
So, are you hiring? :-) (Full disclosure: I've been kicking around a very similar idea myself, but never got past setting up a landing page: http://www.mediaindie.com/ http://www.mediaindie.com/)
erichocean 14y ago
Wow, an Internet film distribution company with an integrated "HypeMeter"! If you want to know why Hollywood isn't very innovative, it's because this is what passes for innovation in Hollywood these days. Here's a movie studio that actually innovated: Pixar. See if you can spot the difference. "HypeMeter" indeed.
- corwinstephen 14y ago
  As we all know, Hacker News is a community based around the idea that comments should be either positive, or at least constructive. Since your comment is neither of those things, my first instinct was to scold, however, I decided first to do a little research. Your stack overflow profile led me to discover what was once called Fohr, which seems to be a company you founded with the hopes of becoming "the next Pixar." Considering you also mentioned Pixar in your comment above, I'm sensing something of an obsession. But regardless, I've decided not to harass you for your bad-taste comment, because I assume it's due mostly to you feeling bitter over the fact that Fohr was not successful, but some other company in the same space might be.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
    - corwinstephen 14y ago
      "Here's a movie studio that actually innovated: Pixar." If we're not competing with Pixar, and we're not competing with Fohr, then what are you doing implying that they were successful where we failed? You made the association, not me.

37 points by corwinstephen 14y ago

wj 14y ago

Very cool. My current project is to help the production side but this is what PG was talking about in killing Hollywood. Best of luck.

gee_totes 14y ago
Do you need help with your project? I'm a producer and programmer.
- wj 14y ago
  My biggest to do list is the marketing side at the moment but I'd love to have your feedback. indieintern.com Hit me at will at that domain and I'll send you a code for free months if you're interested.

pav3l 14y ago

Any project challenging RIAA's monopoly is getting my upvote. Looks very well thought through and nicely executed.

kmfrk 14y ago

Gorgeous website and great domain. Keep us posted. Your Twitter updates are a wee bit prolific, though. I'm not sure I'll want to follow one with that activity with fairly little info about the site itself. Maybe split it up into several? I see a similar thing with other accounts filled with what I call vanity tweets retweeting mentions of themselves.

corwinstephen 14y ago
A very good point, and something I hadn't really considered. Much appreciated!

gee_totes 14y ago

Great site -- this looks like a well-designed and well executed Wreck-A-Movie [0] Have any projects started raising money yet? [0]http://www.wreckamovie.com/ http://www.wreckamovie.com/

corwinstephen 14y ago
We have one project currently in talks for financing, and several that found us after completion and used us for distribution. We're hoping to continue the momentum!

benkant 14y ago

Stop saying "awesome".

kleiba 14y ago
Agreed, I not only found that irritating in the video, it also makes the product seem less professional to me. But then again, it's hard to make everyone happy.

hjkl 14y ago

I really hope this site works out. Posted a few of my films: http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/framed-baby-photos http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/framed-baby-photos http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/strange-human-custom http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/strange-human-custom http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/signatures http://www.filmbreak.com/projects/signatures

wasd 14y ago

Really cool website and idea. I'm a programmer and film maker. It took me a few glances to find the "What is Filmbreak" button because the center of attention isn't at the top of the page.

swalsh 14y ago

I was thinking about making almost exactly this several months ago. I'm glad to see it made. I completely believe this to be the path towards killing the evil that has become hollywood.

jawngee 14y ago

I'd like to give you some advice if you are ears. I'm the former CTO of Massify, which set out to do exactly what you are doing, and we did it to a certain extent: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/business/media/10massify.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/business/media/10massify.h... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/business/media/20adco.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/business/media/20adco.html http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2008/12/first-internet-created-feature-film-debuts-next-month/ http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2008/12/first-internet-... Massify started out as an idea for a viral video site, but after a lot of pivoting turned into a virtual production studio similar to what you are doing with your site. One of the biggest problem for Massify was monetization. You seem to have the underpinnings of that covered with your distribution channels and your deal with godigital. I wish those things existed when we did (2007) and I wish our CEO at the time had the forethought and leadership to pursue those kinds of deals. That was actually the biggest problem we had (the CEO). He attempted to pivot us in so many different directions when it was apparent that monetization was going to be a hard problem to solve that we all eventually got sick of it and quit on the same day. It also had been 2+ years and I think we were all kind of burnt out (so much so that I refuse to do any kind of web development any more). Another major problem we had was user acquisition. It's such a niche that I always thought it was silly to concentrate on the number of users and not focus more on getting distribution in place. Of course, I think we were a couple of years ahead of that curve. Had we held on awhile longer, I think we would have been in a prime spot to really make a success of it because we were the only site like that around at the time. We also had a lot of awesome technology sitting in the wings waiting for the non-technical part of the team to do something with it. But, instead, a lot of pivoting and a lot of money burning. So much money burning. Anyways, love the site and good luck! Looks like you are off to the right start.

corwinstephen 14y ago
This is really helpful. Thanks for the advice. It'd be great to keep in touch, and perhaps even meet up at some point. There's no sense in us making mistakes that have already been made!

wtracy 14y ago

So, are you hiring? :-) (Full disclosure: I've been kicking around a very similar idea myself, but never got past setting up a landing page: http://www.mediaindie.com/ http://www.mediaindie.com/)

erichocean 14y ago

Wow, an Internet film distribution company with an integrated "HypeMeter"! If you want to know why Hollywood isn't very innovative, it's because this is what passes for innovation in Hollywood these days. Here's a movie studio that actually innovated: Pixar. See if you can spot the difference. "HypeMeter" indeed.

corwinstephen 14y ago
As we all know, Hacker News is a community based around the idea that comments should be either positive, or at least constructive. Since your comment is neither of those things, my first instinct was to scold, however, I decided first to do a little research. Your stack overflow profile led me to discover what was once called Fohr, which seems to be a company you founded with the hopes of becoming "the next Pixar." Considering you also mentioned Pixar in your comment above, I'm sensing something of an obsession. But regardless, I've decided not to harass you for your bad-taste comment, because I assume it's due mostly to you feeling bitter over the fact that Fohr was not successful, but some other company in the same space might be.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
  - corwinstephen 14y ago
    "Here's a movie studio that actually innovated: Pixar." If we're not competing with Pixar, and we're not competing with Fohr, then what are you doing implying that they were successful where we failed? You made the association, not me.