Tag Archives: innovation

CineCoup goes public and why you should care

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CineCoup just went live and you should care.

I blogged about CineCoup.com last November and last week it opened to the public with 90 projects, each vying for $1,000,000 and guaranteed screenings at Cineplex.

CineCoup is applying the tech accelerator model to film-making in Canada. Over the next three months, they’ll be challenging the teams to complete a number of ‘missions’ which the public will then rate.

That’s right — you’ll decide the fate of the filmmakers.

This is a fresh model for film financing in Canada. Other than direct crowd-funding, I don’t know of anything else here that shifts the power from industry insiders to the general public. After all, why not ask the audience directly what it wants to see, rather than leaving that decision to committee after committee?

My take: Sign up! Visit CineCoup often. Watch and rate the trailers. Add projects to your watch lists. Follow along for the next few months. Get involved.

Disclosure: I’m providing some production management services to Transmission by Tyler Moore and Clay Bartel.

Seed&Spark: an innovative take on crowdfunding, audience building and dissemination

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Those New Yorkers continue to innovate!

Seed&Spark has put a couple of twists on crowd funding:

  1. Rather than pitching for a sum of money, they ask filmmakers to create a ‘gift registry’ of the things they need to make their movie; and then patrons can give cash OR lend the items.
  2. You get green lit at 80% of your goal.

This is a cool idea for towns that might be resource-rich but cash-poor. It also might get people more ‘invested’ in your project, helping to build your audience. They say:

“We started Seed&Spark because we want to make films but we wanted a healthier environment in which to make them. We believe that the art of storytelling is about expanding imagination, shining a light on the world inside and deepening empathy for the world outside. In the current political and economic climate where many consider the arts a luxury, we believe artists are responsible for teaching their audiences why they are essential. Films are not just art, they are business ventures. They require the seed of an idea and the sparks of human and capital investments to bring them to life.”

Seed&Spark is also an online film streaming site. Earn between 20 and 80 cents for each view of your short, three times that for features.

Between now and February 15, 2013, they’re selecting the next dozen projects to launch on the site.

See their video; read their guidelines.

My take: I love the concept and the curated aspect to this. It’s film specific which differentiates it from every other crowdfunding platform out there. The challenge will be to scale it up. The lending option seems to keep it local; can this work for projects in other cities or countries?