Online Collaborative Site Features Project Management Tools and Easily Shared Rich-Media Porfolios
Movidiam wants to change how creative content is produced. Movidiam's co-founder, George Olver, says it's a bespoke social network for filmmakers that's been cross-pollinated with a project management tool for short- and long-form production work. Envisioned as a streamlined way to let agencies, freelance filmmakers and brands connect and organize projects online, Movidiam's promising core features include online call sheets, video review, asset upload, interactive feedback and templates for storyboarding and creative briefs.
In a connected and mobile age of "permanently democratized" filmmaking, says Olver, remote freelancing is becoming the norm. Movidiam wants to connect this network of go-anywhere professionals with global opportunities, fed by the demand for a continuous stream of quality content being pushed out by brands to screens and devices. "Think of it as a sort of dashboard to administer content production," he says.
Olver and his co-founder Alex Vero run Pendragon Productions in London and have been working around the world with agencies and brands for the past 10 years. Pendragon books "the very best talent on a global level," says Olver, "and we know how to crew up and crew down very quickly. But, being in that business, we wanted to try to do something about the pain points in the process, which have to do with visibility and access. We thought we'd create Movidiam to streamline a lot of the production workflow and production processes."
A sample filmmaker profile on Movidiam
Currently in a pre-registration phase, Movidiam is reaching out to filmmakers looking for ways to increase their visibility and connect with productions across the globe. Later this year, Movidiam will be inviting a number of those on the pre-registration list to have a look around the application and review its many features. The goal, says Olver, is to put their recommendations into the final version. "We definitely want the community to help us build this project," he says. Once the network launches into the public beta, both filmmakers and agencies can come on board for free and create profile and portfolio pages.
The service aims to create a rich "testimonial credit system" that goes beyond the scrolling credits at the end of a film and the list-based freelance clearing houses on the Web. "We've taken the best examples out there and put our own layer on top of that," says Olver. "There are lots of these talent and freelancer sites that are list-based and not very graphical. We've really tried to give it a a look and a feel that will appeal to filmmakers."
He does not see the new network as a replacement to Vimeo or YouTube either. "What we're really doing is collaborating around people and highlighting people's skill sets and roles and associations with projects. If we look at the last 100 years of the film industry, the credits that roll at the end of a film are very un-dynamic. At Movidiam, we're hoping to create a really visual interface so that camera teams or producers can see who has worked on projects and clients and agencies looking to find unique talent can easily navigate it."
An example of a project page on the Movidiam site
Those testimonials will help good work be recognized and shared within the network's framework. "We know that the barrier to create websites is extremely low," says Olver, "so, without being elitist, we're trying to let the work celebrate itself and let people build collaborative teams on the basis of portfolios. If you've done work, we want to make sure you get credit for it. Our testimonial credit system is verified by both parties. If I was a producer paying the bills, I could request credits of a new hire or I could give credits to someone I'd already worked with."
For now, Olver and Vero are not actively inviting brands to pre-register. "Until we have built a significant filmmaker community, we want to be low-key to brands. But even at this stage, we've seen a number of brands pre-registering. Brands are so hungry for content that they are very, very aware of any video platform that's being built. The live beta, however, will be solely about the filmmakers." You can pre-register by entering your email address on the network's splash page here.
A portfolio page that connects projects and filmmakers on Movidiam
