The latest Brian Epstein biopic “Midas Man,” a movie concerning the supervisor of The Beatles, debuted not on a platform like Netflix or Amazon, however on a startup that payments itself as “Shopify for filmmakers.” So what, you would possibly ask?
The reply is that the brand new platform, Olyn, claims to supply a brand new mannequin for movie and video distribution that leans on the facility of social referrals to unfold “à la carte” streaming content material. Though any dimension of manufacturing — from Hollywood blockbuster downwards — can use the platform, the corporate claims it could possibly be a sport changer for the impartial movie trade, which tends to battle in opposition to the advertising budgets of the larger films distributed on mainstream streaming platforms.
California-based Olyn — based by Ana Maria Jipa, Jeremias Buireo, Kiran Thomas, and Malcolm Wooden — permits filmmakers to retain as much as 90% of their income whereas giving audiences entry to a streaming expertise. As an alternative of movies being offered to platforms like Netflix, the mannequin hinges on the advertising finances of the filmmakers themselves, mixed with influencers, movie critics, and content material creators appearing as distribution companions by embedding buy hyperlinks inside their content material, blogs, and social channels.
This peer-to-peer method does away with the platform as a intermediary and turns film distribution into extra of an e-commerce-style engagement.
Jipa, Olyn’s CEO and co-founder, instructed TechCrunch that the corporate offers filmmakers with the equal of a full-blown streaming platform. “We offer all of the tech that means: from DRM, 4K streaming, casting, a full touchdown web page that presents the movie in the identical manner that it would seem on Netflix or Apple TV, plus all the opposite instruments resembling geo-targeting, analytics, and viewers information. They promote their film with PR, journalists, bloggers, movie critics, and many others,” she stated, including {that a} advice from somebody you belief carries much more weight than a suggestion by an algorithm on a streaming platform.
Olyn additionally offers filmmakers analytics on viewership, resembling which nation the film is doing effectively in, in addition to minutes watched, and a database of customers which have watched the films. “Filmmakers can spend years making a movie however don’t ever get to fulfill or personal their viewers in any respect. So we see this as a really highly effective device. It turns into an viewers that you may instantly deal with in your subsequent films after which develop from there,” stated Jipa.
The query is, can Olyn compete with the comfort and scale of main streamers? Whereas its mannequin presents a lot increased income shares for filmmakers, it additionally means all the load is positioned on the shoulders of manufacturing groups to drive advertising and partnerships.
Perry Trevers, a producer at Studio POW, which used Olyn to distribute “Midas Man,” sees the platform as a useful step in the best route. “Olyn has enabled us to suppose past conventional platforms, letting us turn into our personal streaming service […] It’s about empowering filmmakers to market and distribute movies in a manner that mirrors the direct-to-consumer success of e-commerce […] It’s an opportunity to retain management over our work and redefine how films attain their viewers,” he stated in an announcement.
Some of the urgent points within the movie trade is piracy. Many customers flip to unlawful sources just because a film is unavailable of their nation. Jipa argues that Olyn’s international attain might help fight this situation, as a result of if somebody will pay for a film and watch it immediately, they’re more likely to take action.
Olyn’s foray into movie streaming happened partly when entrepreneur and filmmaker Wooden joined as a co-founder of the platform, which initially launched as a option to catalog bodily belongings. Wooden launched his personal movie, “The Final Glaciers,” on the platform.
“Unbiased filmmakers have already taken the monetary danger to supply their films themselves. Studio POW is self-financed. They created the “Midas Man” film. They’ve the liberty to have the ability to promote these rights to whoever they need. They did a deal within the U.Ok. market with Amazon, however they felt that it was extra worthwhile to go direct to their viewers within the U.S. market utilizing Olyn as a device,” he stated.
Wooden feels Olyn might be greatest regarded as “Shopify for filmmakers with a referral hyperlink.”
He famous the typical movie on Amazon within the U.Ok. will get solely round 2,000 views per yr. “So there’s a bunch of movies which are getting thousands and thousands of views, however the majority of movies fall under the two,000 view mark,” he added.
Main streaming companies sometimes provide a lump-sum licensing deal, which means filmmakers obtain a one-time cost no matter what number of instances their movie is watched. Olyn flips this mannequin on its head by permitting filmmakers to monetize instantly based mostly on viewership.
“With Olyn, a filmmaker can nonetheless promote their rights to the U.S. market and use that to pre-fund the movie, however then additionally capitalize on going direct-to-consumer in, say, Asia,” stated Wooden.
However may the platform be utilized by the grownup movie trade to distribute pornography?
Jipa acknowledged the problem: “Proper now, this isn’t the tone we wish to set, and it might be straightforward to draw that class,” she stated. “At the start, we’re setting the tone by guaranteeing that the movies featured on Olyn are top quality.”
“However in the long run, we goal to create an area the place filmmakers, not the platform, resolve what will get distributed,” she added. “We don’t wish to act as gatekeepers. Our imaginative and prescient is to permit filmmakers to have full management over what they distribute, ultimately shifting to a full SaaS mannequin.”
Olyn has to date raised solely a small quantity of funding — a complete of $2.8 million — in a mixture of $1.8 million from U.S. VC agency Arduous Yaka and plenty of angel buyers.
