Posted by Roger Jackson on 07 May 2014
Ransom Notes
“I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes.” So said legendary Madison Avenue ad executive Phil Dusenberry. I think of that quip when I’m asked “What movie subject will make the most money on VOD?” What type of film can you write & shoot quite cheaply – and which can pay out thousands of dollars a month, every month, way into the future? The answer: documentary films that are directly and intensively reflective of the American populace — addressing topics that touch almost everyone.
Read more…
Diary of a film startup part 48
Posted by Roger Jackson on 15 April 2014
Filmmakers frequently upload their movies to Kinonation after they’ve submitted to Amazon’s CreateSpace service. This is a truly excellent service for book authors, musicians and filmmakers to self-publish their creative work and make it available on Amazon.com. And in the context of films, a good way to make DVDs available without upfront expense.
Posted by Roger Jackson on 02 April 2014
Quality Control
At Kinonation we’ve automated much of what has traditionally been manual. Films are uploaded to us instead of shipped on hard drives. Digital movie assets are stored in the cloud instead of locally at our office. Transcoding and metadata authoring is triggered automatically and happens in the cloud, replacing the existing process of “guy in a room for a day” — which is expensive and error-prone — with cloud computers that rarely make mistakes. But one very much human element we retain is QC — quality control.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 18 March 2014
We’re often asked what makes Kinonation different from other VOD distribution companies. While we are both a content and a distribution venture, we tend to regard ourselves as – above all – a technology company. And it’s technology innovation that allows us to do things a little differently. Here’s what we’re building for filmmakers – 9 points that define our business philosophy and operational goals.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 12 March 2014
As a filmmaker, Twitter is awesome and allows you to interact with filmmakers and Hollywood types who would otherwise be inaccessible. This is a good thing!
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 10 March 2014
The indie film industry is cannibalizing itself. Manohla Dargis is right – there are too many films in the ecosystem. And this oversupply didn’t just happen. John Sloss warned back in 2007 that the industry’s problem was not a shortage of films, but a shortage of eyeballs (Mark Gill issued a related warning in 2008). But the industry’s response to this warning has been to make more films. This is creating an economically valueless cycle where unprecedented “cheap” money is flowing into the industry and films are being made at their highest rate ever. Meanwhile the percentage of indie films (let’s say films made for less than $5 million outside of the studio system) that are financially successful has not increased, and the amount of money people make from these films has actually decreased.
Read more…
Vod Myths
Diary of a film startup part 45
Posted by Roger Jackson on 06 March 2014
At Kinonation we talk to dozens of filmmakers every week, and often discuss myths about Video-on-Demand. Here’s my top ten…
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 18 February 2014
Got Spanish Content? We just closed a deal with Spanish VOD outlet CineClick and have already started delivering movies to them. For films to be eligible they must either have Spanish language dialog, or Spanish subtitles or dubbing. For most Kinonation filmmakers, the best solution to make your film eligible for Spanish and Latin-American outlets is to invest in Spanish subtitles.
Read more…
Posted by Philipp Seul on 11 February 2014
As reported by Jörn Krieger on , Germany "has woken up from its deep sleep" and is getting ready to embrace VOD. The number of VOD outlets there is increasing to now reportedly around 50.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 08 February 2014
The video-on-demand (VOD) market is set to grow from $21.08 billion in 2013 to $45.25 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 16.5%, says a study from MarketsandMarkets.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 04 February 2014
In my last post I wrote about Closed Captions and recommended you get them made by ZenCaptions. Now Amazon Prime has announced that captions are mandatory from March 1st. It’s already mandatory for iTunes. And has long been a requirement for Cable TV video-on-demand. It makes sense, it’s a good thing for people with hearing difficulties, and it makes your film more viable to watch in a noisy cafe or bar. At $1/minute it should be a no-brainer…get it done.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 22 January 2014
Previously: Blockbuster Trends
Many video-on-demand outlets require Closed Captions. This is true in the USA and increasingly elsewhere in the world, for example in the UK and Australia. And while it is not yet a mandatory requirement for all films submitted to Kinonation, we very strongly recommend it, not least because without captions a film won’t be eligible for delivery to iTunes. This has generated many questions from filmmakers, which I’ll try to answer here.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 11 December 2013
Blockbuster Trends
At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster had 9000 stores worldwide. All but 50 of the remaining 350 stores will close by next year. 2004 was a peak year for DVD revenues — close to $30 billion globally. In 2014 it’ll be less than $16 billion and falling fast — certainly VOD has yet to make up the difference. Our investor projections — culled from disparate sources — predict worldwide VOD sales hitting $40 billion by 2024, with DVD (Blu-ray, Ultra HD, etc.) still alive but shrunk to maybe $2-3 billion. Who knows…ten years is a long time, but for sure VOD will have long eclipsed DVD. This is good news for indie filmmakers for the simple reason that those 9,000 Blockbuster stores had limited shelf space, with very little reserved for independent titles. Whereas VOD platforms have, essentially, unlimited shelf space. Meaning more — even most — indie films will get distribution. Now we just have to figure out how to match each film with its natural affinity group, wherever on the planet that audience may be.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 13 November 2013
This is Part II of Expert Tips from composer (and Kinonation co-founder) Klaus Badelt. Klaus has scored over 80 films. His work spans Hollywood blockbusters such as Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Catwoman, Poseidon, Rescue Dawn, 16 Blocks, The Recruit, K-19. And a ton of US and European indies, including documentaries, shorts and even video games.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 30 October 2013
Some directors believe that music is a full 50% of a film. And that there are fundamentally just 3 or 4 “true” creative inputs to the movie — the writer, the director, the composer…perhaps the editor. Whatever the numbers, movie music — that skillful combination of score and song — has the potential to turn a good story into an amazing audience experience. But how do you musically super-charge an indie film when you don’t have the budget to hire a top composer?
Read more…
UK's MovieScope Mag
Q&A with Kinonation's Roger Jackson and 2 Others
Posted by Roger Jackson on 21 October 2013
With changing audience viewing habits demanding a new approach when it comes to distribution, many are heralding Video on Demand as the future of film. But is VOD really a financially realistic and sustainable business model, or does the illusion of choice mask minimal returns? We asked three leading experts for their opinions on this essential issue. Click Here to Read
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 17 October 2013
Hot Springs Doc Fest
I’ve spent the past 4 days at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. I’m on the jury for Best Documentary Feature, so I’ve been watching and debating and selecting from a pool of outstanding films. Hung out most nights with the amazing Freda Kelly — secretary & confidente for The Beatles for ten years. Her film “Good ‘Ol Freda” opened the festival to a standing ovation.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 17 October 2013
Cutting Checks
We’re now cutting checks to filmmakers for Q2 2013. Very satisfying. It takes a while, since VOD outlets tend to pay 60-90 days after the end of the quarter that the film made money. And then Kinonation has to process the cash, take our 20% and PayPal the rest to the content owner. Not simple, not fast — but we’re doing it and this month will see payments to some of our amazing filmmakers. How much can you make? It’s hundreds at a minimum if you do nothing or if your film just isn’t very good. It’s thousands if your film is good, genuinely impressive. It is tens of thousands if your film is outstanding. And that’s the bottom line — how do you make your film, and the marketing & distribution of your film — outstanding rather than just festival average?
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 16 October 2013
Before I dive into the final part of the Marketing Plan, a quick Kinonation update. We’re now delivering 3 or 4 films a day to video-on-demand exhibitors. That’s a thousand films a year. Not bad, and we’re just getting started. For me the best part is when people respond to films we distribute. One of the dozens of Kinonation films that went live on VOD in August was “Good People Go to Hell…” It’s an honest, objective and entertaining doc about hard-right Christianity. My favorite online review: “Great movie. Great education about a world I didn’t know much about. Though I don’t share their views, I love listening to people that have passion for what they believe in.” Kinonation isn’t the director, obviously, but there’s enormous satisfaction from helping filmmakers get their films seen, worldwide. That’s what we do. That’s what we love.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 16 October 2013
Here’s Part II of our 19 point plan…
This post was going to be Part 2 of 2. But I try to avoid overly lengthy posts. And feedback over the past couple of weeks has convinced me to focus this post on just a couple of points: VOD Windowing, and Facebook Marketing. So… here are points 11 & 12 of the 19 point plan, with the final 7 to follow in a fortnight. It’s not bait & switch, just that, as the Dude said, “new shit has come to light.”
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 15 October 2013
We continue to ramp-up deliveries of Kinonation films — we’ll have 100+ movies live on beta partner VOD outlets by the end of August. So now I have 100 producers asking about VOD marketing. I’ve been working on a marketing plan — not a gimmick, but an actionable, effective system to really launch a film, every time it goes live on any VOD outlet. The “launch” metaphor is apt, I think, because a film needs a booster-rocket to get things rolling. VOD outlets are driven by algorithms — you need maximum thrust in the first days live to get a film onto their best-seller list. Today, writing this post, I decided to nix the “secret plan” thing — it’s not like it’s rocket science anyway — and share pubicly.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 13 October 2013
At Kinonation we get asked certain questions all the time — important issues that deserve thoughtful answers. Bottom line: the world of video-on-demand is new, developing fast, rather complex and full of nuance. Thus, there are no dumb questions. Here are the most frequently asked.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 12 October 2013
Hulu
Hulu has been much in the news this past week. Owned jointly by Fox, Disney and Comcast, it was on the auction block and expected to fetch north of a billion dollars. But the owners changed their minds, and decided instead to invest $750m in a global expansion. Which makes sense — they have great TV content from the parent companies, supplied on a “day after air date.” They have a brand with a fair amount of global recognition. And they have an impressive technology platform.. Hulu have already expanded internationally into Japan, so it makes sense to invest in the rest of the world. Bottom line: they’ve built a highly scalable platform and user experience, and VOD is catching on fast in Europe and Asia, so now’s a great time to launch Hulu Global.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 11 October 2013
Ted Hope recently asked me to write about what we might have done differently at Kinonation with the benefit of a year’s hindsight. Mistakes made, lessons learned, what worked, what didn’t…
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 10 October 2013
Progress Bar
If you’ve submitted a feature or documentary to Kinonation, you were probably a little overwhelmed at first by all the metadata that’s required. We just made the process much easier by including a real-time Progress Bar, with a dynamic list of what required metadata is still missing. We’ve also radically simplified the process. Check it out, the sooner you submit (or complete) a film, the sooner we can get it distributed.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 09 October 2013
Crystal Ball
I thought I’d use this post to think about the future and some of the trends that will affect films & filmmakers, particularly in the video-on-demand space. I don’t want to sound like the pompous visionary. I’m not a visionary and I have no crystal ball — merely informed opinion. This is not what WILL happen, but what I think may happen. And much of what follows may be stating the obvious.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 08 October 2013
Who Pays What?
At the recent Artist to Entrepreneur (A2E) summit at the SF Film festival, a frequently asked questions from filmmakers was “How much can I expect to make from VOD?” The question was greeted with stony silence, mostly because the data just isn’t out there in a meaningful, predictive way. That is, there aren’t enough proxies. A proxy for your film would be a film in the same genre, similar level of name talent, similar marketing budget — and perhaps comparable subject matter for documentaries. In short, a film with much the same chances in the market. That’s a proxy, and they just don’t exist. Or rather, the data isn’t being made public. Why? It’s not a nefarious conspiracy, it’s simply because no one has an incentive to release this data — and anyway there’s no much of it to begin with. So I thought it would be useful to shed what light I can on how much you might expect to make from various types of VOD outlets — ad supported, subscription, transactional, etc. The BIG caveat here is that KinoNation is just getting started, we’re only delivering films to a handful of “beta test” outlets, and so far films have only been live for a month or so — not nearly enough to make revenue predictions.
Read more…
London Calling
Diary of a film startup part 27
Posted by Roger Jackson on 07 October 2013
London Calling
I’m in London talking to most of the UK video-on-demand outlets. Being English myself doesn’t seem to confer any advantages. It may even cause suspicion — the Brit who abandoned ship and washed up in sunny California, and now he wants our business…screw him. That’s still the attitude here, at least among some. LOVEFiLM (yes, that’s how they write the name) just told me that while they’ll happily ingest KinoNation films, they’re much more interested in — and focused on — television content. I like that level of honesty, and I’m not surprised. The lion’s share of VOD revenue on platforms like Netflix, Hulu and LOVEFiLM right now is being generated by TV shows, rather than movies. But movies on demand is still a big — and growing — business. Big enough for us to disrupt!
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 06 October 2013
Films Are Flowing
The KinoNation tech team has now finished the automated delivery module for our three beta outlets — Hulu, Amazon and Viewster. Which means film packages are flowing — more rapidly every day — to those outlets. And it won’t be long before we add all the other video-on-demand outlets we’ve done distribution deals with. But with that success comes other problems — notably films that get rejected at the Quality Control (QC) stage, either at KinoNation QC, or at the outlet QC. So this post is about how to avoid having your film be a QC casualty. It’s like a theatrical distribution deal — there’s a list of deliverables, and they have to be exactly to the required spec, with zero wiggle room.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 05 October 2013
Update for Beta-Testers
Klaus and the coding team have been pulling late nights on one of our toughest tech challenges: building the system that does the automated delivery of films to video-on-demand outlets. Right now we have a backlog of film orders — for iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, SnagFilms, Viewster, etc. — that we’ve been delivering manually. That’s hugely time-consuming and inefficient. It takes several hours to prep one film for a single outlet. Not just the custom transcode, but the custom everything — metadata, images, file naming conventions, FTP delivery, etc. But it’s good to do this manual work a few times — in the same way it’s good to hand wash a pile of really dirty clothes to appreciate the genius of a washer-dryer! Now we’re days away from having an automated delivery system for our three beta VOD outlets, Hulu, Amazon and Viewster. And then we’ll scale it up to five then 10 then fifty global VOD outlets. What does automated mean? It means that the “several hours” manual job (even more when I’m doing it) of authoring custom metadata and image files take just a few seconds. And it’s way more reliable than me. It means we’re getting close to the point where a filmmaker can upload her film, get it reviewed and selected by several (and ultimately dozens of) VOD outlets, then automatically delivered to them and in front of audiences — in less than a week. (Of course, how quickly the outlet says yes or no is out of our control.) So we’re building KinoNation as fast as we can, and working through the catalog to get all our films delivered. And our Private Beta is still open for feature film submissions – now’s a great time to jump in.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 02 April 2013
Comparison Shopping
Last week I had a discussion with a Netflix executive that convinced me of the importance of online VOD guides. Sites like Can I Stream It in the US, and Find Any Film in the UK. Netflix see them as a huge threat, since these sites make it super easy to discover which video-on-demand platforms have the film you want to watch. And which ones don’t. The reality is that Netflix don’t have most films. Here’s an example: “Bella” is one of my favorite films. Click here, scroll to the third film, and click Availability. All the major VOD outlets have it — except Netflix. But Netflix do have the physical DVD. So why can’t you stream it from them also? Maybe they haven’t got around to it. Or maybe the distributor (Roadside Attractions) think that if it’s streaming on Netflix or Amazon Prime (subscription services) it’ll cannibalize their VOD sales on Vudu, iTunes, Amazon, etc. And maybe they’re right, but there’s little data to support that. On all these platforms, note the divergent prices. Now let’s look at “Bella” in the UK via Find Any Film. It’s only available on iTunes. None of the UK video-on-demand outlets have it — LOVEFiLM, Blinkbox, Virgin, Sky, HMV. Why not? Probably because it’s so bloody difficult, expensive and slow to get films on to VOD platforms. So perhaps Roadside Attractions just hasn’t bothered.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 25 March 2013
Countdown to Launch
We’re getting close to the launch of KinoNation, when we’ll remove the beta login requirement, open the service to all filmmakers, announce to the press, etc. Probably early April. Yesterday we released to our 100+ beta testers the latest version of the film uploader and metadata capture. It’s now much slicker and easier to upload, and we can capture a huge amount of essential metadata that’s required by the video-on-demand outlets. For example, we need four hi-resolution poster images in various sizes and aspect ratios, in order to meet the different delivery specs of iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, et al. And at the risk of sounding like a broken record: if you want people to discover and watch your film, you should be prepared to invest time (and maybe cash) on really great poster art. And it must be highly readable. That’s easy when it’s a full size poster on the side of a bus shelter. More difficult when it’s this size. Even tougher when it’s this size. Think big title, bold & arresting art — an image and title so compelling that consumers just HAVE to click.
Read more…
Outlet Soup
Diary of a film startup part 22
Posted by Roger Jackson on 07 March 2013
Outlet Soup
It seems like every few days there’s an announcement of another video-on-demand platform. We’ve been tracking them since we started 6 months ago. I have a spreadsheet listing them all — where they are, what type of films they want, deal terms, ownership, traffic ranking, etc. As of today there are 163 on my list, and I’m sure I’m missing a few. What does this mean? How is it possible for even a fraction of these platforms to thrive and prosper in a VOD ecosystem dominated by large incumbents with established brands, pre-existing audiences and deep pockets? Netflix has 27m subscribers in the USA and is rapidly expanding in Europe and Latin America, with 6m+ non-US subscribers already. Amazon has a multi-billion dollar VOD war-chest and has gobbled up LOVEFiLM in the UK and Germany. Hulu is closing in on a billion dollars in annual revenue, and already has 3m subscribers for Hulu Plus. And Vudu is owned by Walmart. Oh, and Dreamworks and Technicolor just launched their impressive VOD platform, M-GO. Even Microsoft is getting into the VOD game with Xbox Live Movies. Of course, from KinoNation’s point of view, this expanding system just makes our service more valuable, since most filmmakers want their movie available on as many of these services as possible. So I’m busy signing deals with as many of these 163 outlets as possible.
Read more…
Delivery Begins
Diary of a film startup part 21
Posted by Roger Jackson on 02 March 2013
Distributing the Betas
We’ve started delivering films to video-on-demand outlets. That may not sound like much — we could have done it 3 months ago by sending them a hard drive. But these are highly complex — and automated — deliveries, with literally hundreds of variables in the transcode presets, the type of poster image, the metadata fields, the trailer, the subtitles or closed captions…an error in any element will get the film rejected by the very rigorous Quality Control (QC) at the outlets. We’re impatient to get the films live so we can share some links with you — but we’re sanguine also. Even after a film gets to Amazon or iTunes or any other outlet it can take up to 90 days to go live — like it or not, that’s the reality we face.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 05 February 2013
It’s now exactly 6 months since we started building KinoNation. We’re very close — a month or so — from opening the platform to the world. We now have deals with all the major US video-on-demand outlets, plus several non-US outlets. And doing more deals every week. There are never less than 2 films being uploaded to us at any time, and we have well over 100 movies in the Private Beta. We’ll have a representative at Berlinale and the European Film Market next week, and I’ll be in London in the spring to cement a series of deals with VOD outlets and content owners there. We have big — but also realistic — plans for 2013.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 24 January 2013
Less of a diary post this time, more of a rumination on Hollywood, video-on-demand, and long-tail movies. Klaus and I decided to build KinoNation because we want to make it super-easy for indie filmmakers to distribute their films to the medium that is rapidly replacing DVD. Along the way we’ve come to realise there are also many well known films that remain almost impossible to watch “on demand” — fuelling consumer frustration that can often only be solved by breaking the law.
Read more…
New Year Update
Diary of a film startup part 18
Posted by Roger Jackson on 09 January 2013
What a difference a year makes. This time in 2012 I was working for an humanitarian assistance NGO, just back from a village solar power project in Tajikistan, and about to fly to West Africa to set up a veterinary aid project in Mauritania. That contract ended in July, and by August I was fully committed to online film distribution and KinoNation. Quite a contrast.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 18 December 2012
We’re far enough along with development to have a clear work-flow for content owners. I’ve had lots of requests for this. So now’s a good time to explain the step-by-step flow for a film submitted to KinoNation. Right now we’re still in “beta-testing” mode, but expect to launch this more complete service in January 2013.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 11 December 2012
Train to Stockholm
We get amazing indie films submitted to KinoNation almost every day to our Private Beta launch. Here’s one that’s beautifully shot, with a theme of cross-border connectivity that will, I think, appeal to many video-on-demand platforms. Keep submitting movies!
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 07 December 2012
Hello, A quick progress report for everyone involved in the KinoNation beta test:
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 06 December 2012
50 Ways to Sell Your Movie
KinoNation now has a library of almost 100 feature films and documentaries in our Private Beta. As I spend time showing some of these films to various US and international video-on-demand outlets, I am more and more convinced of the need for a step-by-step template that helps filmmakers with the the business of selling & marketing their films. So last week I spent some time creating a “back of an envelope” plan for a section of KinoNation where filmmakers can be guided through a series of fifty steps to give their film a better chance at finding an audience. The idea is to have one page on KinoNation.com for each of these fifty steps, along with an overall Progress Bar — so a filmmaker can review what percentage of this marketing checklist has been completed. This is deliberately rough — I just want to get the discussion started.
Read more…
Early Results
Diary of a film startup part 14
Posted by Roger Jackson on 05 December 2012
Quarter Million Views
I thought I’d share some results — as in numbers — for a feature that is having a nice run on YouTube Movies. The film is called Time Expired, and won a silver award for Comedy Feature at WorldFest Houston. It was submitted to KinoNation last week. And in fact the master ProRes file (71GB) is currently being uploaded by the filmmakers to our cloud storage servers. What immediately caught my attention is that Time Expired has almost a quarter million views on YouTube Movies since it was placed there by director Nick Lawrence 12 months ago. That’s the full length (93 mins) movie, not the trailer — an average of 20,000 per month, and accelerating. Nick has kindly agreed to share the extensive stats that YouTube provide. It’s interesting and quite instructive, I think, as YouTube Movies becomes an increasingly significant — and profitable — option for indie filmmakers.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 04 December 2012
First Looks
This is an important week for KinoNation. Well, every week is crucial for a startup, but this feels extra critical. We’re submitting our first tranche of films to several video-on-demand platforms. We haven’t finished the dashboard for our VOD partners yet — that’s scheduled for December — so the submission process is old school. That is, we’re sending them a spreadsheet with details of films, trailer, IMDb link, festivals & awards, and the all-important written pitch. The results & feedback from these submission — whether VOD platforms accept 10% or 30% or 65% of the films we show them — will give us the early data we need to solidify our business model. I’ll keep you posted.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 03 December 2012
Twice as Fast
We’ve made big strides at KinoNation over the past week. Klaus has been pulling late nights building the cloud-based Transcoding Engine. This automatically encodes films to the specs for each of dozens of VOD platforms. It’s complex work that’s normally done manually at encoding houses — and costs several hundred dollars per film. It’s a non-trivial challenge, so I was pretty psyched to see it working — and to see how fantastic the encoded films look! Not wanting to get too techy, but this means the huge ProRes files being uploaded by filmmakers are auto-checked on completion, queued and then transcoded into the Preview version that VOD platforms can watch and review. And then decide “yes, we want it” or “no thanks, not what we’re looking for.” So that brings us several steps closer to completing version 1.0 of KinoNation. But — we definitely want the Upload piece of the puzzle to be faster. So far the longest upload is 19 days. That was a documentary — 95GB file — from New Zealand. The shortest upload was 12 hours. That’s a feature from New York — 80GB file — uploaded from a Manhattan post facility with a fiber-optic uplink. Most uploads take 2-5 days. These are huge files. So far we’ve had over 50 full-length films uploaded, and no one has complained about the elapsed time. Bandwidth at the filmmaker end is, well, what it is. And the process is completely painless for the user. But faster would be definitely be better. So we’ve come up with an ingenious solution to double (or even triple) the Upload speed. That new technology went live today and is already being tested by filmmakers. It solves the bandwidth problem by allowing the film to be uploaded from multiple locations, simultaneously. Here’s how it works: Your master ProRes file is on an external hard drive, probably. Start the upload to KinoNation from, say, your home computer. KinoNation kicks out an email with a unique re-upload link. Now simply copy the master ProRes file to a second hard drive. Then take drive # 2 to a different location. Maybe your office. Or your mother’s house. Anywhere with a computer. Click on the link, login to KinoNation, select the movie file on the drive, and click “Resume Upload.” The new Uploader software does the rest, making sure each location uploads different parts of the movie, and then putting it all together at the end. It checks for 100% integrity of the movie file, it seems bullet-proof so far, and your movie gets to KinoNation in half the time. Or even faster, since there’s no limit to how many locations you can add — the only factor is how many hard drives you have, or maybe how many willing friends. We’re really excited about this technology, not least because we’re very filmmaker focused, and the more rapid the upload, the better the experience. Plus it’s now more viable for filmmakers in low-bandwidth developing countries to get their movies to us. Feel free to try the new Uploader system as part of our Private Beta trial.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 02 December 2012
Ranking System
Consistent feedback from VOD platforms: it’s tough for them to decide whether to accept — or reject — an independent film. And how useful it would be to have some sort of independent films ranking system, to give them some indication of how well a movie might perform on VOD. We agree. So we’re building it. We found the perfect person to create what is quite a complex real-time algorithm — an indie filmmaker with a math PhD from Harvard.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 01 December 2012
3 Months In
We’ve been at it for three months now. Building a platform like KinoNation from scratch is an enormous amount of work, and like most start-ups we have limited resources. But we’re having fun, meeting a ton of really great people in the indie film world, and making rapid progress. Most important, we’re increasingly certain that KinoNation is a viable business, and we’ve been able to validate (prove) most of our early assumptions.
Read more…
Diary of a film startup part 9
Posted by Roger Jackson on 30 November 2012
Card-Counting Christians
Just back in Los Angeles after 4 days in Arkansas at the excellent Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. So great to have a deep immersion in indie film, watch back to back movies and hang out with passionate filmmakers. I loved Holy Rollers, the true story of a tight-knit group of Christians running a very successful operation dedicated to beating casinos at Blackjack. Motivated not just by their multi-million dollar winnings, but by a deep hatred of the rapacious casino industry, this is a superbly executed movie by filmmaker Bryan Storkel.
Posted by Roger Jackson on 29 November 2012
Digital Hollywood
I spent today (10/15) at the Digital Hollywood conference, an event that happens in LA a couple times a year. Attended several panel discussions. One panelist argued that the film industry today will not only follow the same trajectory as the music business — but that film now is only where the music business was at the time of the phonograph! Hmm, maybe. I certainly agree that in terms of massive disruption we have a ways to go. Had a bunch of meetings. The head of a group of angel investors suggested we pitch KinoNation “as soon as we have our MVP done.” MVP meaning “minimum viable product.” He said it doesn’t need to be pretty, it can be full of bugs and missing features, but, in his words, we need to “remove the technology risk” for people who might write a check. That is, prove we can actually build what we claim we’re building. Good timing, since we’ve just today launched the Movie Uploader and will roll it out to most of our Private Beta group over the coming days. The Beta is still open for movie submissions, by the way. Keep them coming! Meanwhile, another potential investor emphasized the importance of providing tools to filmmakers to help them market their films — he suggested a “freemium” model — meaning the basic service is free, with a monthly fee of 10 or 20 bucks for premium services. Comments…?
Read more…
New Mantra-Do More, Faster
Diary of a film startup part 7
Posted by Roger Jackson on 28 November 2012
Latest & Greatest
Lots more great films submitted to our Private Beta launch this week. The quality and diversity of the filmmaking is impressive. Every time we watch one of the trailers we’re reminded of why we’re building KinoNation — to make it simple for movies like these to actually get released, exhibited and watched “on-demand” by the global audience that undoubtedly exists for them. I talked to Marianne Hettinger, director of the delightful Mango Tango. Marianne submitted her award-winning film to KinoNation at least partly because — unlike traditional distributors — we’re not seeking a “lock-up” commitment of 10+ years. In fact, there’s no lock-up at all, beyond what is required by any VOD platform that selects a KinoNation movie. Meanwhile,Peter Anthony Farren sent us his debut black comedy Kenneth, whose life definitely isn’t going according to plan. Both films are out of the mainstream, and both have been created from that incredible mix of drive and passion that allows filmmakers like these to complete first-time features. Keep submitting your features and docs, please — there’s absolutely no cost, risk or obligation, and great upside.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 27 November 2012
Lining up Deals
Lots of late nights for the team, figuring out the “flow” of the KinoNation platform, writing code and reaching out to global video-on-demand outlets. My spreadsheet list of these outlets just keeps growing. There’s more than 100 now, and I’ve barely scratched the surface. That’s a lot of phone calls and pitches! This is a rapidly expanding market — it seems almost every day there’s a new VOD initiative. Last week Canadian cable giant Shaw Communications announced “Shaw Go” to compete with Netflix in Canada. And you’ve doubtless heard that Redbox are rolling out “Redbox Instant by Verizon” in December. It’s exciting and fast-changing and provides huge opportunity for filmmakers to reach new audiences. And it’s keeping me very busy, in each case tracking down the right person to talk to — and then convincing them that upstart KinoNation will be a source of great movie content.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 25 September 2012
More Amazing Films
We now have more than 40 films in the Kinonation Private Beta, with more submissions arriving every day. Among them, a couple of documentary trailers immediately had me wanting more. And that’s exactly what KinoNation seeks to do — make it super easy for independent films and docs to get video-on-demand distribution, so anyone “wanting more” can instantly rent or buy the movie from among dozens of global VOD outlets. Black Sun, a 2005 documentary by Brit filmmaker Gary Tarn, tells the tragic and inspiring story of Hugues de Montalembert, a New York City artist who was blinded for life during a vicious street mugging. On a lighter note, French filmmaker Pascal Cuenot submitted In The Tracks Of, her intimate look at the life and work of the late, great film composer Maurice Jarre. I watched this preview clip, frustrated that just as Jarre starts telling the story of his involvement with Lawrence of Arabia and his first meeting with the legendary producer Sam Spiegel…the clip ends! I desperately wanted to watch the full documentary, right away. That’s why we’re so passionate about KinoNation — the promise of instant access for consumers to rent or buy movie gems like these. Keep submitting your films, please.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 24 September 2012
Last Week
Before I write about seeking money and investors, here’s what’s been happening in the past week. We’ve had — as of writing — 18 films submitted for our private beta launch. Films come in every day and we will never tire of clicking on the trailer link and getting a glimpse into a new world. I mean that. We know what it takes to make a feature film or documentary, and the reason we’re building KinoNation is to serve the creators of films like these. Keep them coming, the Private Beta is still open, we’re looking for lots more great films. It’s really fun to watch a group of compelling and disparate trailers, then delve into the IMDb pages for each movie, and in some case have discussions with the filmmakers. A couple of examples this week. Greek director Stathis Athanasiou submitted his stunning fantasy-romance DOS. Our reaction was pretty much “wow!” Then Roseanne Liang submitted her delightful 2005 documentary Banana in a Nutshell. (which spawned her theatrical release My Wedding and Other Secrets.) Films like this that performed (or are performing) well on the festival circuit, but struggling to find video-on-demand distribution, are exactly what Klaus and I had in mind when we conceived KinoNation.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 12 September 2012
You probably know the classic movie making conundrum that indie producers struggle with: talent (or rather their agents) won’t commit to a film project until you prove you have funding, and investors won’t write a check until you prove you have talent attached. The producer’s dilemma. And, of course, all successful producers find creative solutions to that thorny issue. KinoNation has a similar challenge: It’s tough to get filmmakers fully committed without video-on-demand distribution outlets in place, and it’s hard to sign VOD outlets without a slate of films.
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 04 September 2012
Kinonation
We were determined the site would be a dot com domain — not dot biz or dot US or dot-whatever. But available dot coms are rare and we weren’t going to pay thousands of dollars to some shady cyber-squatter. Klaus found KinoNation.com — it was available, it makes sense, we like it and seems easy to remember. “Kino” is German for cinema. And “Nation” can be defined as a community of persons bound by a shared interest or passion. That seems to work. We’re also excited about the potential for this venture in China, making thousands of Chinese indie films available to the rest of the world. So the name had to sound OK to the Chinese ear (we’re assured it does) and it more or less translates into Mandarin as “Film Kingdom.” But. There’s always a “but.” In this case there’s a site in Russia, kinonation.ru where you can watch Hollywood movies — in Russian — for free. Hard to say whether they’re legit or pirated. Either way, we have the dot-com, they have the dot-ru — there’s no reason we can’t co-exist, right?
Read more…
Posted by Roger Jackson on 28 August 2012
Every movie ever made, in any language, anytime, day or night…
I joined the short films website iFilm.com in 1999 and stayed until 2006, after we sold to MTV. By then we’d also sold out our original vision, captured perfectly in this Since iFilm I’ve produced war-zone documentaries for the Annenberg Foundation, started a production company, and for the past year run humanitarian projects in Afghanistan and West Africa. But I often thought of that iFilm vision…and now, more than a decade later, I find myself the co-founder (with film composer Klaus Badelt) of a digital film startup with a similar mission. This is the first of a series of weekly guest posts as we bootstrap this new venture — ideally with a ton of critique and input from you.
Read more…