The Indie Film Web Revolution Part 1: Interview with MyMovieNetwork
This is Part 1 of an ongoing series examining websites designed for indie film producers.
Unlike director-oriented sites like YouTube, MMN is outstanding in the way it encourages filmmakers to put not just their films online, but their entire production ‘company’ as well. Perhaps best described as a social networking service for the professionals, amateurs, friends, and students who make indie films happen, MMN is much more than a quick internet diversion: it’s a great vision of how the web can build professional artistic communities.
How does it work? MyMovieNetwork co-founder Ben Pinkhasik gives us a quick tour…
Adam Rosadiuk (AR): Can you explain for me, briefly, where the inspiration for MyMovieNetwork came from?
Ben Pinkhasik (BP): We’re passionate about community and technology. MyMovieNetwork had its humble beginnings as a small website where one of our founders liked to post films. Together with a group of friends and supporters, he planned a community for filmmakers and entertainment industry members to showcase their talent, have all their work in one spot, network, receive peer feedback, and generally improve their exposure. This ambitious project has kept our small team committed to this community.
AR: What do you think are the big challenges facing indie producers using the web to get exposure and further their careers?
BP: The biggest problem I see is that your message is being diluted by all the nonsense that is now out on the web. How much bad material do you have to go through before you find that gem? A lot. We don’t know who the true indie filmmakers are anymore; anyone with a camera calls themselves a filmmaker.
The current web audience is also a problem. People watching this content on the web just can’t sit through a dramatic short film. They are looking to be quickly entertained; usually they get a quick laugh or two and they click-on. Who notices a camera angle, the lighting, the skillful acting in a web film? Not many. MyMovieNetwork.com offers a context where these sorts of things get noticed, and the people responsible for them get exposure.
AR: One of your mottos is “Give credit where credit is due.” I think a lot of producers are concerned about what happens to their films once they go online. How do you see MyMovieNetwork helping to give credit?
BP: We’ve rarely seen a film online that lists all the people who worked to make that film happen. The idea behind “giving credit where credit is due” is less about protecting content and more about making sure that everyone who worked on a project is recognized. When MMN members upload a film, they are asked to provide email addresses for everyone who contributed to that film. When the owner of that e-mail address joins the site as a member, their profile is automatically linked to that film. All of a sudden a network is created. Click on a member’s profile, and you can see all the projects they’ve worked on, in whatever capacity. We make it easy to give credit to everyone.
Every video sharing site has a rating system, but MMN lets you rate every aspect of a film (lighting, costuming, cinematography, etc.). This is a very important way to give credit where credit is due. So, for example, while the film may be average, the costuming might really be a work of art. With our system, the costume designer gets to stand out, people can contact the costume designer through a private message or through our “Scouting” section, offer congratulations, feedback, and future work.
AR: Your “Scouting” section is great. Can you tell me how it works?
BP: Scouting is a fantastic feature on the site. It’s a straight forward concept: members looking to work on a project announce their availability (where, when, skill set) and producers looking for talent contact them directly through our site. If you’ve done your networking, and you’ve contributed to a number of films on MMN, the producer looking at your profile will have immediate access to your entire body of work, as well as what other people are saying about it. Scouting has been a great success and people are constantly adding themselves and searching and sending private messages so they can work with each other.
AR: What are your favourite film and video web sites? How do you see MMN fitting in with them?
BP: There are many sites out there, and a lot of them do unique things to help the cause of indie film. Your site [IPEX TV], for example, is designed to help producers break into the international licensing industry, and that’s a great and specific service. We encourage all filmmakers and artists to post on all social networks and video sites and to get as much exposure as possible. We have a feature on MMN where you can link during the upload process to your youtube/myspace/ifilm/etc. video and it will play right on our site. We don’t care where the video is hosted; we just want to provide exposure. The MyMovieNetwork tools (films, profile, scouting, forums, blogs, news, film contests, job board and much more) really complement all these great sites. We feel MMN offers the best total online experience for our niche community of filmmakers and entertainment industry professionals. Or goal is to help all this online exposure actually mean something, and to encourage future projects and collaboration.
AR: Thanks so much for your time, Ben.
BP: My pleasure.
Independent Producers • Indie Film • Indie Websites • Interviews •
