FEATURE
more than 65 international fi lm festivals. “We watch the fi lms we show and highlight the ones we think need highlighting,” the partners explain. “In our newsletter, Festival Scope Selects, there are fi ve fi lms plus one ‘talent to watch’ every week. We also keep track of all the fi lms all year round in terms of awards, selec- tions, releases, reviews and so on. “We emphasise our assets — our technology
Tomas Prasek
EVENTIVAL
www.eventival.com
This Czech-based outfi t markets a web-based data management and festival production soft- ware system, Eventival 2.0, that does everything from streamlining submissions to printing out bar-coded accreditation cards and simplifying travel logistics and internal communications. When unveiled in February 2011 during the
Berlinale, 10 festivals were using it as their vir- tual back-offi ce. Now more than 40 fi lm festi- vals and other organisations have deployed the system to prepare, organise and archive their events. “On average, two new festivals begin to use
Eventival every month,” says CEO Tomas Prasek. “We are experiencing growth both in terms of new territories and business segments. Currently with clients in 24 countries in Europe, the US, Asia and Africa, we see new requests for collaboration coming from the whole world. “The plan is clear and simple — to become
every festival’s fi rst choice of software to man- age the event. While this may be more compli- cated with the several largest film festivals — because there are often too many decision makers which decreases their ability to make decisions purely in the benefi t of greater effi - ciency — we think it is defi nitely doable with smaller to medium-size festivals.”
Launch date Founded in November 2008 as a UK company; in 2009 it was registered in Prague, its current HQ. Key executives Tomas Prasek, co-founder and CEO (Prague); Dawna Cha, co-founder and director of business development (Seoul). Cost to users Approximately $4,000 (¤3,000) per year for the fl agship service. Ownership structure Privately owned limited liability company (Ltd) with one investor from outside the fi lm industry. Business model Core product is provided as software as a service (SaaS) with an annual subscription. Other consulting and advisory services to festivals and fi lm-makers are charged based on the project.
FESTIVAL SCOPE
www.festivalscope.com
While working in sales and acquisitions — she at MK2, he at Celluloid Dreams — Mathilde Henrot and Alessandro Raja spotted the need for a pro- fessionals-only film platform for on-demand viewing of festival fi lms. “We felt there was a missing link,” say the co-
founders. “We came up with… a tool to help new talent emerge, programmers and film critics screen, buyers acquire and sales agents sell.” Festival Scope currently presents fi lms from
■ 34 Screen International at the Berlinale February 10, 2012
that makes viewing fi lms on Festival Scope the best option in terms of security and user-friend- liness, our complete independence and our curated approach. We have learned that in a world of overabundance, our — and our partner festivals’ — curated and selective approach are of great value.” Festival Scope developed its own specific
Mathilde Henrot and Alessandro Raja
video player that allows only one screening per fi lm, at the highest standard in streaming qual- ity, with the ability to restart the viewing exactly where the user has left off, even days later. Streaming features are designed to ensure addi- tional security for rights holders.
Scott Barber Jason Kassin
Launch date September 2010. Key executives Alessandro Raja, CEO and founder; Mathilde Henrot, founding partner. Cost to users Free. Ownership structure Privately owned. Business model The plan is to launch a yearly subscription fee per user. The price has not been announced though the founders are keen to keep it “very affordable” in order to grant access to any fi lm professionals who may need it.
intended message: this is the online highway for UK fi lm-makers, helping them with fund- ing, hiring people and kit, and post-production services. “Competition to FilmNav in the UK is not
that great,” suggests Barber. He has recently spent two years in Delhi and his eyes are set on expansion into the Indian market. “My aim is to have FilmNav established in the Big Five fi lm- making areas globally — India, Hong Kong (covering Asia), Egypt (covering the Middle East), Nigeria and obviously the US. There are always language and cultural issues, particu- larly across APAC, Africa and the Middle East markets, so it’s very important to employ local talent in key areas. Each of these regions will have their own challenges and different busi- ness opportunities.”
Launch date December 2011. Key executives Scott Barber, Nick Pye, Gita Azizi, co-founders. Cost to users Free. Ownership structure Private. Business model Advertising and sponsorship.
FILMNAV
www.fi lmnav.co.uk
This online portal for the UK film industry chose its launch date — December 5, 2011 — quite deliberately. It is the same day, in 1958, which saw the opening of the UK’s fi rst motor- way, the Preston bypass now known as the M6. Co-founded by film enthusiast and admitted road geek Scott Barber, FilmNav’s design is also based around UK road signs and icons. The
FILMTRACK and RIGHTSTRADE
www.fi lmtrack.net www.rightstrade.com FilmTrack bills itself as the world’s leading pro- vider of rights management and contract administration services with signifi cant pene- tration in the fi lm and television markets. Film- Track was initially positioned as an effi ciency tool that effectively aped the existing mecha- nisms for the IP lifecycle. Quite a bit has changed. “As we’ve migrated our software solution
itself into a browser-based model, we have evolved into an online back-offi ce storage and delivery mechanism,” says CEO Jason Kassin. “Our core business still revolves around con- tract administration and rights management. The emergent property of that data is the avail- abilities. This is the Holy Grail — what is avail- able to be licensed to whom and when? “By making such information available in a
secure context, the potential for an evolved — and potentially disruptive — business transac- tion becomes more real.” RightsTrade, a new initiative the company is
participating in that will launch at Cannes 2012, contemplates just such a paradigm shift by creating a secure marketplace where buyers
»
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88