4 years, 6 months ago

Heya Andy,



Cool to see the site is running. I uploaded a placeholder/test project mostly without a hitch.



Here are a few things that came up:

1) Even after registering it wasn't clear where to create a new project. It might be helpful to have the 'New Project' link in more places than just under 'my profile'.

2) When filling out the project info the film budget accepted commas but then used the first one as a decimal.

3) When adding video the "Accepted Formats" link wasn't working.



Will there be any info about registering scripts with the Writer's Guild (wga.org)? I can see writers being wary of producers watching the site for ideas.



(e.g. inktip.com, a script placement service, requires scripts to be registered before they'll accept them.)



I can't wait to really use the site.

4 years, 10 months ago

Whats the latest of FL?

4 years, 10 months ago

An independent feature I'm working on would definitely find this useful. We're shooting in Vancouver in September then El Salvador in October. Financing is in place for production but we're trying to raise more for post-production and marketing/distribution.



Would FilmLot allow for that? Raising funds for a specific part of the project (e.g. X dollars for a writer to work two weeks for a spec script)?



I'm taking a leave from my day job to work on this film so anything to increase the project's chance of success would be very cool.

4 years, 11 months ago

On May 8, 2007, 2:30 pm Tarzan said:



Welcome to Calgary and CH Andy. Hope you like it here!

Andy,



whats going on man. dont see much activity happening on the forums.



- Also whats the update on FF???

- are we solely using the wiki to keep track of all assignment and project launch date. When is the launch date??



Also, I had a couple of ideas I wanted to share with you. Namely a portfolio section where new, upcoming and eager filmmakers can showcase their portfolio. You provide the portal...and users simply post their video off youtube or something and showcase it off your website.



I think something like this will drive traffic to your site.



Ping me sometime when you get a chance, got a coupla more ideas that I wanted to discuss with you. but before that I'd like to know which direction is this project heading towards atm.



Good luck bud!

5 years ago

Welcome to Calgary and CH Andy. Hope you like it here!

5 years ago

Kudos Andy for all of your work. Seems like filmchamp is taking off...

5 years, 3 months ago

Hi,



I kind of forgot what the bug was, or if I even wrote it. I remember something with a link in a frame or something.. in any way, I haven't had any problem with the PM system lately, so I think it is either fixed, or I never had problems with it.



Julius

On August 8, 2006, 12:17 pm ThatTeriGirl said:



Hi there Julius

Just checking to see if you're still having that framing bug regarding our PM system.



Thanks

5 years, 4 months ago

Andy, I like your commercial. -g

5 years, 4 months ago

Super awesome! Love your dedication dude. I sent the link out the team here to forward to friends.

5 years, 4 months ago

Great job Andy! Kudos for doing a promo that heightens people's awareness of fundable films.



I'm definitely looking forward to this working.



Comment in general...perhaps to DonH...I don't know what, if anything, we should have received for being one of the first to pay our $ for the Market Test. I haven't received any acknowlegement short of the debit to my account for the 30 $. What is supposed to happen next?

5 years, 5 months ago

That's great!

5 years, 5 months ago

Hey that's awesome, Andy! I'm definitely going to post it wherever I can.

5 years, 5 months ago

Here's the first unofficial Fundable Films commercial. Tell me what you think.



Link to the Promo



Spread it around!







P.s. I was trying to embed the video but it wasn't working

5 years, 5 months ago

Well, we're going to get a sponsorship spot on Escape Pod podcast. We'll start for 2 weeks and see how it goes.



Thanks to Andy for arranging that! We've spent two weeks driving traffic via google adwords, so it'll be interesting to see how a sponsorship in a more targeted space does.

5 years, 6 months ago

On November 20, 2006, 7:18 pm AndyDoan said:



If you want to get some valuable traffic buy some ad space on the Slice of SciFi podcast ( http://sliceofscifi.com ) and the Escape Pod Podcast ( http://escapepod.org ). These are two shows focused on amateur creative works and the audience is already dialed into this type of media. I have a pretty good working relationship with the producers of these shows and I can arrange the deal for you if you'd like. I'm even willing to produce the spot!

Hey that'd be swell. Could you find out the price? I searched the websites for info on advertising to no avail. I don't know what we have for a budget outside adwords, but I'll do what I can.

5 years, 6 months ago

If you want to get some valuable traffic buy some ad space on the Slice of SciFi podcast ( http://sliceofscifi.com ) and the Escape Pod Podcast ( http://escapepod.org ). These are two shows focused on amateur creative works and the audience is already dialed into this type of media. I have a pretty good working relationship with the producers of these shows and I can arrange the deal for you if you'd like. I'm even willing to produce the spot!

5 years, 6 months ago

Hey that's great Andy, kudos for your initiative. It'd be great to mention the survey - we've had a couple of filmmakers filling it out, but mostly film lovers.



Response in is great so far - there's definitely interest in getting an "inside view" of filmmaking, both to make comments and suggestions and to make investments (average response says they have about $350 per year to invest). There is also a unanymous agreement (so far) that a compile-your-own-shorts dvd service would be very attractive.



We are driving traffic by buying Google adwords. We're getting good results but it would be great to see more people visiting and giving us feedback. Anyone who knows anyone interested in filmmaking should pass along our URL. And if you can find any forums - post a link! I'll be doing the same.



cheers ,

Don Holmsten

5 years, 6 months ago

I've decided to take matters into my own hands with the promotion of FundableFilms.com. Not to say that CH isn't doing a good job, I'd just like to help them out where I can.



I started by talking about the project on my podcast Spaceship Radio ( http://spaceshipradio.com ). The next step to heightening the awareness of the project is to put together a 30 second radio spot to be played on my podcast as well as a few others. That's where the rest of the community comes in.



If you have any ideas for this mini production or if you'd like to lend a hand let me know. I'll be gathering it all together this week-end as I'm aiming for the recording to take place this Sunday night.

5 years ago

Good work

5 years, 3 months ago

BTW here's the links



Fundable Films Wiki: http://trac.cambrian...m/fundablefilms/wiki



Fundable Films Google Group: http://groups.google...group/fundable-films

5 years, 3 months ago

Here's a report about the progress that has been made on Fundable Films out the view of the Cambrian House community.



We've assembled a small group of dedicated individuals both from in and out of the CH community.



We've debated the feature list and next steps our Google Discussion group. This group is open to all CH community members, if you want to join please drop me a line andy@fundablefilms.com



We've created a wiki and added a number of documents and posts to it detailing the proposed specs of the Fundable Films beta test.



We've debated a name change. To date it seems as though we've settled on calling it either Fundable Films or Film Funder (don't you love journeys that take you in a complete circle?)



We've downloaded the Robinhoodfund.com source and started to rip useful features from it's code base to integrate into ours.



So far we have been using Google Groups for discussions about the project. The reason I decided to do this initially is because I wanted to quickly integrate people from outside of CH and bring them into the collaboration efforts. Also Google Groups makes it very easy to post and comment on discussion threads as you can do it from any email client (perhaps this is a feature request for CH?).



Since the creation of the wiki I have now seen a few errors in my decision. For one my ability to canvass the CH community for input is restricted to those who have opted into the Google Group (did I mention that it's open to everyone?). This somewhat limits the the community interaction.



The second problem is recruitment. How can people become engaged in the project if they don't know what's going on with it? To the casual member FF may appear dead in the water. Part of the power of crowd sourcing is in getting as many people involved as possible. So far the password protected discussion group and the hidden wiki haven't helped in this matter.



Unfortunately the active members of my little group seem fully entrenched within the Google Group structure and I don't think I can talk them out of using that tool set. So in order to remedy the problems that I have listed above I will be making daily/weekly/monthly reports to the CH community about FF progress. This will be done in the hopes of engaging CH members who might have joined after the Golden Hammer tournament and to refreshing the minds of the CH vets. It's the least I can do for the community who made Film Funder possible in the first place!

5 years ago

i did like the name fundable films though

5 years, 1 month ago

This new logo has better animation possibilities...

5 years, 1 month ago

Most people are aware of this already but we have officially changed the name of this project from FundableFilms to FilmChamp.



We explain what the new name means to us in this forum post.



Changing Our Name - FilmChamp



For whatever reason FundableFilms never had that ring for me. It felt more like a tag than a title. FilmChamp rolls off my tongue easier and it sounds better when pronounced with my thick Canadian accent.



Another reason why FilmChamp works better for us is because the name itself has a broader meaning. Fundable or funder really pigeon holes the functionality of the application. If we wanted to add features outside of the funding space we would have to attempt to rebrand the entire service or come up with a separate name for each function.



I'd love to hear feedback on own new name.

5 years ago

good book by the way..

5 years, 1 month ago

Thanks for the tip Christine!

5 years, 1 month ago

Hey all -





I met with Don last night and we got to chatting and I recommended he read the book Long Tail by Chris Anderson. Since FilmChamp is for indies that indicates a long tail play to me.





If you don't have time to read the entire book, at least read pages 147-149. Here are some points that stuck out for me that I think could be relevant for FilmChamp:


successful Long Tail aggregators need to have both hits and niches


if you just have products at the tail, you find that customers have no idea where to start because everything is unfamiliar to them


you need to offer products at both the Head (hits) and the Tail so customers can start in a world of familiar products then use filters and searching to let them explore into the Tail (niche)


compare MP3.com with iTunes: the problem with MP3.com is that it was only Long Tail





I told Don I would send his way but then I thought - hey, the rest of you might be interested too...





Go FilmChamp!

5 years, 1 month ago

And after you warned me about that error before I uploaded the plugin!



It should be fixed now.



Techguy!

5 years, 1 month ago

You're getting the following error on your FilmChamp Blog

Warning: in_array() [function.in-array]: Wrong datatype for second argument in /home/fhlinux173/f/filmchamp.com/user/htdocs/blog/wp-content/plugins/BAStats/BAStats_logger.php on line 114



You can fix it by going to the admin pages and



Options --> Stats --> Update Options



Essentially it needs to update the database with the default BAStats options.

5 years, 1 month ago

Thanks Techguy!



Yea Sellaband has been on me and Don's radar for at least a month. Their success to date caused the site to be blogged about on Techcrunch recently.



We'll defiantly be keeping an eye on them!

5 years, 1 month ago

I don't know if you've seen the website SellABand It's a quite a bit different model than films, but I think there could be some parallels and some interesting ideas you could use for FilmChamp. Their method of having a band raise funds is awesome. I think it could work well for the film industry too.

5 years, 1 month ago

We now have an official FilmChamp Blog.



http://filmchamp.com/blog/



If anyone wants to contribute please sign up at



http://filmchamp.com...blog/wp-register.php

5 years, 2 months ago

Agreed - have you ever seen a good way to disambiguate a tag that is very similar to another? So for instance, when someone puts in "explosion", the system notes that there is already an "explosions" tag that is in popular use and asks the user if he/she wants to use that tag instead? I have a couple of ways to do that with ColdFusion, using a Verity search index, but I don't know if there are any OS indexing engines available for PHP.

5 years, 2 months ago

Sorting the categories/tags by popularity would be a good way to keep that in check.

5 years, 2 months ago

Yea I can digg that Don!

5 years, 2 months ago

I think the drop downs should be tag based - at least that should be the goal. I like del.icio.us use of tags - offering suggestions as you are typing, it helps keep things somewhat standard while allowing the crowd to build the categories.

5 years, 2 months ago

Bench Marks for Fundable Films.



By March 30 2007 users should be able to:



Create an account

verify email address

Login to account

manage and edit profile

view RPs

view FF Blog





Registration should include:



Name:

E-mail:

Zip/Posal Code:

Display name:

Are You Human: Captcha

Terms and Conditions Check Box



Profile Management Should include:



Name:

Gender:

Date of Birth:

Picture:

Bio:

Website URL:

Profile Picture:

Favorite Genre:

Favorite Indie Film:

Favorite Director:

Occupation:



There are a couple of drop down menus here that I'll need help populating.



Favorite Genre: SciFi, Drama, Comedy, Mystery, Animated Kids, Animated Adult, Exotica, Educational, Documentary,



Occupation: Writer, Film Maker, Director, Producer, Distributor, Film Student, Effects Specialist, CG, Animator, Actor, Editor, Non film related,



If I've missed something please feel free to add it. I'd also like to hear comments about the above listed benchmark requirements.



Once this list is complete I'll be adding it to the Wiki!

5 years, 2 months ago

Here's the RSS for the log.



http://fundablefilms.tumblr.com/rss



I've been posting everything that I can find to this feed. It's very interesting.

5 years, 2 months ago

Here's an application I heard about on the "This Week in Tech" podcast. It's basically a stripped down blog application where you can easily post media of all kinds.



I'll be posting to it as a form of promotion for Fundable Films but I'm also seriously grooving on the UI. They have spent a lot of time and energy making the public display highly customizable. I would love to allow our users to customize their project workbooks a little.



http://fundablefilms.tumblr.com/

5 years, 2 months ago

That's a a great idea! I'm sure we can find room for that on the page somewhere.

5 years, 2 months ago

It looks awesome really user friendly!



What about a related projects link?

5 years, 2 months ago

Here's a more complete layout for the Fundable Films "Project Workbook"







Full Size Image



Here's a larger image of the "Project Workbook Status Window"









Here's the RSS to the album that I'll be uploading all of my concept art to. RSS

5 years, 2 months ago

These layouts will turn into a feature and function list eventually.

5 years, 2 months ago

Here's another rough draft.







I still need to add a lot of the features but this is a bit better than my scribbles!

5 years, 2 months ago

Well, our search for a graphic designer is over!!! Well done, Andy.



I think it's probably good for our first version. By the time we have a full-release I wouldn't mind seeing even more info on the home page - really make it a useful destination. Add things like a 'latest forum posts,' updates to the workbook, the first paragraph of the most recent blogs etc. I know I really appreciate getting a preview of the active areas when I'm on a site - FaceBook does this well.

5 years, 2 months ago

Here's a very rough layout of how I see the project workbook page shaping up.





Full Size



I'll be making a nicer one soon. I just wanted everyone to see how I spend my time at work on a Sunday.

5 years, 2 months ago

I think it's very important to allow for the use of more than one video hosting site now considering how willing YouTube has been to remove material from their directories. It won't matter that we have a policy of non censorship if our film makers can't host their trailers and video blogs.

5 years, 2 months ago

I think that at this point we're only looking for services that offer hosting and embedding. I'm hoping that most of our film makers will have the ability to edit and upload digital video.

5 years, 2 months ago

just wondering



are we looking for services that offer:



- Video hosting and embedding





- or service that offer the above plus the ability to edit the video (something like http://www.jumpcut.com)

5 years, 2 months ago

I agree with Andy. Members very likely already have video up on one or another service. They should have the option of posting in their area just like they would to a blog or their own website.



We will also want to have our own hosting for the video we use ourselves throughout the site. It would be good to research the best choice for our video. The preview clips, I believe can be handled by CustomFlix, if we use them to fulfill the orders from the store.

5 years, 2 months ago

I think it important to give our users choice where ever possible. Some users might be opposed to YouTube or Blip for whatever reason. We might also want to support less known or new service on the market.



Is there a standard with these video sharing ventures?

5 years, 2 months ago

I was just listening to the latest This Week in Tech (TWiT) and the panel were talking about BlipTV. They were saying it's much more robust than YouTube as far as what it'll let you do (or rather, help you to do) and more friendly with regard to the code it generates to allow you to embed the video on your site.



I haven't done any actual research, so I don't know anything about them, but I'm planning on taking a deeper look in the next couple of days. In the meantime, if anyone has any experience or knowledge of them, do share.



One consideration is that we probably want to use a stable service that won't be bought out or changed appreciably in the next year or two, since we'll be automating this bit as much as possible.



More later,

<doug/>

5 years, 2 months ago

That sounds great, Andy. We should have the entrance through http://www.fundablefilms.com - start to train people to go to that domain. I love it!

5 years, 2 months ago

One of the first things that I would like to do as we get going is put together a blog associated with FundableFilms. For the last couple of weeks I have been book marking and digging articles that relate the independent film scene and I think it's time to give all that data a home.



It'll likely just be a Wordpress implementation that I'll attempt to skin with the FF look and logo. I'll allow anyone working on the project post news, reviews and general commentary about the idie visual media world.

5 years, 2 months ago

The Twitter profile editor is super easy and super effective. With a couple click you can add and delete friends and change the look and feel of your public profile. I suggest everybody take a look.



If you have a profile be sure to visit mine @ http://twitter.com/AndyDoan



I think it would be a cool feature to allow film makers to customize their project pages depending on the kind of project they submit. Once it's built and functioning for film makers we could allow all site members limited profile editing functionality for their own public profiles.



Of course this stuff would come somewhere down the road but it may serve us well to keep it in mind from an early stage.

5 years, 2 months ago

Ok sounds good.



What's the first feature you think we should roll out?



I think we should roll out the ability to create a profile and submit a project (or project application) first.

5 years, 2 months ago

For the RPs, we can update the accts manually through an admin page form. Everytime a pledge comes it's recorded and someone updates the accts daily. By the time we release the full version 1.0 we will need to have the process automated. I'm hoping that'll be in June.



As for rolling it out slowly, it will be slow. We're not going to be doing a huge advertising push or anything. I think we should contact all the filmmakers we know and try to get a good dozen films up. We'll gradually get more and more pledges but it'll take a while (and a marketing campaign) before it overwhelms us.



We can roll out features over the few months before we launch 1.0. Kind of like Cambrian House is doing by enabling the basis of a working environment with svn, wiki, forums etc. But nothing on RPs yet. It's better that we have the working platform now rather than waiting for all of it to be done at once.

5 years, 2 months ago

I think for the first couple of months we can get away with films being sorted chronologically.



RP to filmmaker transaction is simply, we write a check - no need to automate this at first.



And the controversy flag, I think should be added later as well.



The Submit Project, I think, is almost like creating a profile, but for the project. So that should be easy to include in the 1st rev.

I agree with these comments for the most part but there's a few points I would like to elaborate on.



When I mentioned the RP to film maker transaction I wasn't talking about cash, I was talking about transferring the RP itself. I thinking that this will have to be some sort of secure transaction. RPs will have to sit in the film makers account until he/she has raised the requested amount.



I was wondering if we might want to limit the amount of project submissions as we launch so as not to defuse our budding community too much. Perhaps we could have the project submit function ready and roll it out slowly. We could allow projects in based on a projects:user ratio for the first few months. Maybe provide an project application so that we could allow projects best suited to our community until it's big enough to take every submission. I think Cambrian House limited idea submission until their big launch.

5 years, 2 months ago

Yes we are doing the site in PHP, and I would be proud to have you as part of the team!



We'll be breaking things down a bit more and sorting out tasks some time in the coming week. The project log will be a big part of our initial offering.

5 years, 2 months ago

On March 8, 2007, 8:04 pm AndyDoan said:

Film Maker Progress Log (project owner blog)

I'd be interested in possibly helping out with the project owner blog. I've wanted to play around with Wordpress MU. I think that might fit your needs as long as you are doing the page in PHP. If not, then maybe I'm not much help.

5 years, 2 months ago

On March 8, 2007, 8:04 pm AndyDoan said:



Here's a quick list of features that I would like to see ready for the beta launch. Please feel free to add or subtract items from this list. Once everyone has their say we'll put a beta feature list up on the wiki and start breaking down tasks.



Register / Log in Framework

Basic profile management

RP purchase framework

Project Directory

Sortable Project Directory

Individual Project Discussion Forum

YouTube integration

RP to film maker transaction framework

Controversy Flag framework (perhaps V1.1?)

Film Maker Progress Log (project owner blog)

DVD sales

General Project comments

Submit a Project - I don't know if we should struggle to make this automatic with V1.0. Perhaps we should gather a few people who are willing to have their projects included in the beta launch and hard wire them in at the start. After we launch we can slowly release new projects until the fully automated functions are in place.

I think for the first couple of months we can get away with films being sorted chronologically.



RP to filmmaker transaction is simply, we write a check - no need to automate this at first.



And the controversy flag, I think should be added later as well.



The Submit Project, I think, is almost like creating a profile, but for the project. So that should be easy to include in the 1st rev.

5 years, 2 months ago

Here's a quick list of features that I would like to see ready for the beta launch. Please feel free to add or subtract items from this list. Once everyone has their say we'll put a beta feature list up on the wiki and start breaking down tasks.



Register / Log in Framework

Basic profile management

RP purchase framework

Project Directory

Sortable Project Directory

Individual Project Discussion Forum

YouTube integration

RP to film maker transaction framework

Controversy Flag framework (perhaps V1.1?)

Film Maker Progress Log (project owner blog)

DVD sales

General Project comments

Submit a Project - I don't know if we should struggle to make this automatic with V1.0. Perhaps we should gather a few people who are willing to have their projects included in the beta launch and hard wire them in at the start. After we launch we can slowly release new projects until the fully automated functions are in place.

5 years, 2 months ago

http://www.adogsbrea...view&id=83&Itemid=35



Here's an article by the guy behind A Dog's Breakfast, one of a very few indie hits. David Hewlett talks to independent film makers and tells them to look at the market before turning on the cameras. A good lesson for anyone putting together a business plan, but one often forgotten by young first time film makers.

5 years, 2 months ago

Here's the text of an interview I did for Comic Book Bin http://comicbookbin.com today.





1.



Can you give a brief background on yourself?





My name is Andy Doan, I live in St Thomas Ontario Canada. I work full time as a shipping clerk at a local auto parts factory, but in my spare time I do a bit of web design and programing for small businesses.



I have been a avid fan of TV, movies, books and comics for as long as I can remember. I grew up with G.I. Joe, Transformers, Spiderman and StarsWars. Currently I own a 7000 book comic collection and my monthly subscription is up to 30 books a month. I used to be a big Marvel guy but as I get older I find myself more and more drawn into the DC universe. I try to watch at least one great SciFi movie per week. Lately I've been watching a lot of public domain black and white films.





2.



IdeaWarz ? interesting concept. How did you find them ? I watched the video presentations on the site via YouTube. Is it OK to add these in the body of the article? Can you tell us the story from the point of being the first winner on IdeaWarz to the day you answer this question for the Comic Book Bin? Basically your story from October to now.





I found Idea Warz via BoingBoing.net. From the time that I won Idea Warz till now has mostly been filled with me accepting the fact that my dream will become a reality. I've had to move it from an idealistic concept into the real world of business models. We've had to determine who we're making the site for and figure out what we will be able to offer in it's initial release.



One of the most important things that has happened since October in the increase of momentum. After a successful market test a few months ago we've continued to gain interest and supporters. We'll be ramping up the enthusiasm a little more as we move closer to the end of March and the beta release.





Read the rest from the Comic Book Bin website

5 years, 2 months ago

On March 3, 2007, 12:12 pm jill said:



Relax, I'm not going to talk about securities laws. ;-)

Dang, and that is what I was hoping you were going to talk about.

5 years, 2 months ago

Relax, I'm not going to talk about securities laws. ;-)



However, in terms of broadening the CH community I see this as an example of a place where tasks could be constructed to attract world-wide expertise. Define the questions and throw them out as tasks. Even making up the questions might be a kind of task!



There may be no takers in the early days but as CH gathers steam the community should get bigger and more diverse. Interesting and varied challenges will bring all kinds of different people to the table.



Nowadimean?



Cheers,



jill

5 years, 2 months ago

All good points. That makes me thing the Royalty Points is probably a name we don't want to use for the project. It sort of implies that you're buying equity in the film. In fact, even though I love the term, we might want to consider avoiding the word "share" (like Film Shares, etc.) for the same reason.



Maybe we could call them Frames? You could buy a Film Frame for $XX. "Investors" could be termed Frame Angels or something. Angels usually drop money into a project without expectation of any fixed return. That'd help us steer clear of any weirdness around investment.



There may be better ideas, but it's just a thought. Better than calling them FundableFilms Happy Land Fun Bucks.

5 years, 3 months ago

Thanks for the comments,



Don's right on this, we really have to down play the fact that people will be investing in films because no equity will be exchanged. The film maker will retain 100% of the rights to their film and will not be able to be held to any legal repayment schedule. RPs will not have any cash value after purchase, they only represent a transaction between the funder and the producer.



The only reason that a film maker would try to repay his funders is because he was so pleased with their support and hopes to seek it again with the next project. Transactions within the network should be fueled by the need for reputation, respect andnotoriety rather than those nasty old SEC laws anyway.

5 years, 3 months ago

Hey, jrh330 (catchy name!)



Thanks for your input. I think coming from the Hollywood Stock Exchange perspective you'd be really cautious about the SEC. But, there are a few ways to get around it.



The way http://www.SellABand.com does it is to share the revenue generated from their site. So, in our case (if we follow the model) the money doesn't actually buy them a piece of the entire film, just a piece of the revenue the FundableFilms site makes by selling digital downloads and DVD's.



There hasn't been a hard decision yet on the mechanism. It's possible we'll just ignore the implications until an authority does or doesn't take any action. Personally, the crime of supporting independent film is certainly defendable.



I think the model will have to be quite loose. For instance, the money will be promised (like http://www.fundable.com) rather than a formal contract (like http://www.prosper.com) Again, that's my opinion - these things haven't been finalized.



DonH (Cambrian House staffer - liaison w/ FundableFilms)

5 years, 3 months ago

This is a great idea, but one that I've heard float around Hollywood for a while.

I used to work at the Hollywood Stock Exchange (http://www.hsx.com, if it's still there) and one of the goals of the company was to get users to be able to become investors in film. Moving from the play-money on the site to the real cash of film financing.

The big issue was that the Security and Exchange Commission would see it as being an investment in the same way that people are engaged in funding a start-up company or buying stock. There has to be a full prospectus and a real understanding of how much of a share each contribution will buy the user.

If people are "contributing money" because they want to see the film made and no one is expecting to get any return on the investment that they are making it would put the whole thing in a different light, but as long it is viewed as an investment I don't think there is no easy -- and LEGAL -- way to work around this.