*not actually Netflix. The expression "Netflix, for indies" is a simplification and this project has nothing to do with Netflix*

Introduce yourself

Good day! My Name Is Justin and I am a film industry professional and avid film supporter. When I am between productions, I do business analysis as a side hustle and love the art and science of improving businesses in every aspect of the value spectrum, from cost-cutting to user experience modelling.

As someone with a great deal of experience/knowledge/connections in both the film industry and technology platforms, I have decided to take my side hustle passion of product development and apply it to the film industry in a meaningful way that grows both of the economies I am involved in.

The dream is to stimulate both the technology space and the film space by creating jobs through the creation and funding of content which by extension creates more jobs. My goal here is to put both of my passions into the loving act of introducing a new solution for both of my communities.

Introduce your cause

As a member of the Directors Guild, I get invited to a lot of functions. One of those is pitch sessions. At these pitch sessions, brave and entrepreneurial industry talent pitch their ideas to a panel of people (producers, directors, actors, production accountants, etc... basically a bunch of film industry professionals).

These candidates had to compete in a cut-throat competition against dozens or even hundreds of others to get in front of the panel as finalists. The pitch for all the money and resources that they need to make their concept come to life. To put that into perspective, it is already hard enough to raise money for a viable business that will actually make money, never mind a creative project that may make no money at all!!

Can you imagine going through that?

In March 2019, I was at one of these when I was struck with the inspiration to finally build a solution to fund these great film concepts. Because not everyone gets their project funded even after making it to the finals, I thought that was really sad. I spoke to the panel and they agreed there isn't enough money going to the creation of films, even when there are so many great ones to fund.

The independent and short film sector suffers the most from this. I want to change that.

I thought to myself, "What if I used my expertise in the technology space to create a solution for the film space? What if I created a content streaming service and used the money from subscribers toward the creation of more content through the funding of these film projects?"

As I was leaving, I said to one of the panellists that I'll be working with:

"NETFLIX FOR INDIES, and we use the money to fund projects for producers that miss out on funding from other programs. Think about it and I will reach out to you later."

...The seed was planted in our minds, and I started brainstorming — I started creating. A couple of months later, I reached out to him with a prototype/wireframe of the platform (basically just a shell that doesn't really function outside of graphics, buttons, some scrolling and text).

This will create a massive solution for content creators that would otherwise have to beg organizations, bigger film producers, friends/family, and crowdfunding platforms for money.

This will represent another wave to the greater boom of the new media streaming content creation era.

Say what the money is for

As agreed with other stakeholders on this project, half of the money generated from subscription fees will go to indie/short film/web-series content creators and the other half will go toward our lean-as-reasonably-possible operations costs. We will have salaries but only after prioritizing the growth of the platform and only at minimally comfortable living wage standards determined by the economic conditions of North America.

We want to eventually have a huge platform so that we can fund as many projects for as many producers as possible. That being said, we will be keeping costs and salaries as low as possible to aggressively expand and market the platform. Look at how Amazon is re-investing as much of its revenue as possible back into its services. We want to take the same approach and bootstrap this platform into an enormous solution for content producers and fans that view their creations.

We need the money from this initial round of funding so that we can pay a web developer to work with us. We also need to pay for more marketing to promote this campaign, and we need an additional 15% for a contingency fund in the event that something surprises us and we need to pay for it if the project is to continue.

Ask for help

We need your help to make this happen, since this platform is being built for potential users like yourself in the first place. Here's the thing with this project: I know that there is a market for this because I literally work in content production. This would be an economically stimulating project since it will create a lot of jobs, so I went to the National Research Council and they said they would likely work with my stakeholders and I. However, they want to see that there is at least some interest in it happening, regardless of specific market research numbers and fancy charts and graphs.

Our web developer said it would be more feasible a project if we can get some people to more directly indicating they are interested — instead of just saying "yeah sure, I'm totally in!"... So we are asking people to put their money where their mouth is by giving us $2 at the absolute minimum, as an indicator to take to government organizations and say "hey, people gave us money because they want us to build the platform so you should back us, too."

That puts us in a stronger position when we have that sort of interest and not just emails. People will give their emails left and right, so to filter through all that and get a more tangible indication of interest, we need to show that people aren't just interested in seeing us win, but they're BETTING ON IT. Do you see how helpful that will be for a business case if we were to apply for a grant?

So if you aren't down with giving us $100, then at least give us the minimum at $2 so we can get a small victory from the use of crowdfunding. That, and obviously spreading the word is incredibly helpful, too!

Really, those things we ask for are amazing ways that you can make a huge difference on the project.

Be personal, detailed and optimistic

Folks, I want to see movie magic happen for emerging film producers. I want to reach out to the 4 candidates from the last pitch session and say "hey, remember that pitch session you were in where only 2 of the 6 candidates got funded? Well, now we are building a platform to raise funds for smaller films and soon your project will be funded, too." That is movie magic!

In the long run, this is going to create jobs and opportunities in both the film space and on this platform. We will be able to help film students get on more gigs to gain experience for their resumes and we will be able to create experimental features on the platform that other companies are too mainstream to want to explore. Imagine being able to chat with the content creators while watching their film, or imagine being a content creator and having a special account to view how popular your film is, instead of just passing it off to a distributor and never knowing those details.

These are just a couple of the things we want to eventually have on the platform. Innovation is going to be one of the main ingredients for the creation of this experience for audience members and content creators.

We will have a person dedicated to curation so that not just anybody can upload content. It will be just like Netflix... but for Indies.

Netflix makes $15.79 billion USD per year (that was the 2018 revenue amount). None of it goes anywhere near smaller, lower-budget productions that have massive potential but lack the platform to gain exposure!!

That is INSANE. Can you imagine if just a tiny, tiny fraction of that went into indie/short film production? Game-changing. But they aren't going to do it — so we will.

Who will benefit?

Mainly the film scene or anyone who uses streaming platforms to watch web series or other smaller-scale productions. It will create a source of revenue that can be split equally between emerging film producers and the platform they will be able to showcase their work on.

But for me, this is a fresh start for the film streaming technology space. As a business analyst, I don't even have access to the Netflix product development team to improve the platform where it suffers. This will allow me to support the indie/short film scene while having a creative output for the vision I have for the best user experience. The developers and I are going to create a platform for film enthusiasts, BY film enthusiasts, but without any of the problems, Netflix has, and at a more reasonable price. $16 for Netflix. It used to be $8!! Inflation hasn't been THAT bad.


What will funds be used for?

My strategy is to use some of the earlier funds to pay for a few ads. That will drive more traffic to the fundraising campaign.

Once we get some momentum, I am going to pay a more experienced UX/UI Designer to work side by side with me (I am a designer but I focus more on high level product development and the overall vision, so I need help from someone who all they do is UX/UI prototyping). I will not be taking a share until the platform has 10,000 subscribers. The reason for this is that it is unreasonable to take any credit if I havent made the platform successful, and the 10K users is going to be the Key Performance Indicator that says "okay, this project is successful. You may relax a bit. BUT THEN GET BACK TO WORK!"...

I don't really expect a lot of people to understand the sacrifices that entrepreneurs and small organizations make. We do not get paid for this project and right now I am working for free because it is for a greater cause and an opportunity to be doing my dream job later on.

Anyways, the first payment to the developers will likely be around $10,000. Some of this will be used to pay a lawyer to help us develop a contract. We trust this development firm, very much, but we want to be able to have our own lawyer that looks at things and builds a contract to very specific standards, ensuring that this project doesn't fail for some legal reason we didn't see earlier.

Explain how soon you need the funds

Ideally, we want to announce this platform and do a global soft launch at the Crazy8s Film Festival that takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia this year, in early 2020. This festival is a fairly big deal and we want this platform to be a gift to film enthusiasts and emerging film creators at the ceremonies.

The platform takes about 3 months to build, but won't be fully built until it is fully paid for. With that said we want to keep the momentum going on this and hit a home run. We need the money not necessarily by any specific time, but having the platform built sooner allows us more time to do refinements before the soft launch.

Talk about what the support will mean to you

It always breaks my heart when I want to see great ideas come to fruition, but the industry is so saturated with competition that there aren't enough funds for organizations to give to emerging filmmakers. Netflix makes an unheard-of amount of money and none of that ever sees the light of day through the means that it has the potential to.

This project isn't just another streaming platform... This project is a micro-economy in the making.

It will create jobs and help more people get into the film industry by creating demand for cast & crew everywhere. Students will no longer have to chase down their first gigs, just so that they can build the experience/film credits they need for their resume.

Let's do this for our generation and future generations to come.

Share how grateful you will be for help

For me, this is going to mean the world. I have been working on this platform and getting things lined up for many months. It takes more than just posts on the internet. It takes a lot of negotiation, research and sacrifices of real work that would have paid me real money. I have been very choosy with contracts that I take because this is what matters to me and if it is a project that will pull me away from this for too long, then I reluctantly turn it down. This project is my number one priority right now and I'd rather work for free doing what I love. I get paid from a contract and simply need to be super careful with my money. That is what it takes, that is how I am going to keep trucking on. I want to get back to not living like a peasant, so the sooner this platform launches, the sooner I can stop spending all of my time on this. I don't even have time for a girlfriend!! You want me to have a girlfriend, don't you?

Please think about what you make in one hour at work, and then consider giving this cause one hour of your time.

It is my hope that I will be able to have this platform built so that we can start giving 50% of subscription fees to emerging filmmakers so that they can bring their projects to life, even when the government won't give them creative project grants.

REMEMBER: You don't have to contribute a lot of money. Even the smallest amounts can still arm us with the metrics that we need in order to approach grant administrators and say "Look, people gave us money to show that they want this thing to happen. They're betting on it and you should give us a grant so that we can finish building a great platform made especially for the international independent/short/web series film community."

Thanks for reading my business case!

Please feel free to drop me a note if you have any questions or comments. I am also willing to phonecall anyone in North America if they want to discuss the project at length, or have any ideas they want to share.  

JJN