The youngest Brian Epstein Biopic “Mida’s man“A film about the Beatles manager, did not debut on a platform like Netflix or Amazon, but on a startup that describes itself as a“ Shopify for Filmmacher ”. So what, maybe you ask?
The answer is that the new platform, Olyn, claims to offer a new model for film and video distribution that is based on the power of social recommendations to spread “à la carte” streaming content. Although every production size – from Hollywood blockbusters – can use the platform, the company claims that it could be a player for the independent film industry that tends to fight the marketing budgets of the larger films that are distributed on mainstreaming platforms.
Olyn, founded by Ana Maria Jipa, Jeremias Buiro, Kiran Thomas and Malcolm Wood in California, enables the filmmakers to keep up to 90% of their income and at the same time make access to streaming experience accessible. Instead of films that are sold on platforms such as Netflix, the model is related to the filmmaker’s marketing budget, combined with influencers, film critics and content manufacturers who act as sales partners by embeding purchase links into their content, blogs and social channels.
This peer-to-peer approach eliminates the platform as a middle man and transforms the film distribution into more commitment in e-commerce style.
Jipa, CEO and co-founder of Olyns, said Techcrunch that the company made the equivalent of a full-blown streaming platform available. “We offer all the technologies that implied: from DRM, 4K streaming, casting, a full target page that presents the film in the same way as it could appear on Netflix or Apple TV, as well as all other tools such as geo-stargeting, Analytics and public data. They advertise their film with PR, journalists, bloggers, film critics, etc., ”she said, adding that a recommendation of someone you trust contains far more weight than a suggestion of an algorithm on a streaming platform.
Olyn also gives filmmakers analytics on the number of spectators, e.g. “Filmmakers can spend years doing a film, but never get to know their audience or do not own them at all. So we see this as a very powerful tool. It becomes an audience that you can address directly for your next films and then grow from there, ”said Jipa.
The question is whether Olyn can compete with the comfort and scope of the most important streamer? While its model offers much higher sales shares for filmmakers, this also means that the weight is set up on the shoulders of production teams in order to promote marketing and partnerships.
Perry Trevers, producer at Studio PowThe Olyn used to distribute “Midas Man”, the platform sees as a helpful step in the right direction. “Olyn enabled us to think beyond traditional platforms and let us go to our own streaming service (…), it is about strengthening filmmakers, marketing and distributing films that are the success of e-commerce (… ) reflects the direct success of e-commerce, it is an opportunity to keep control of our work and redefine how films reach your viewers, ”he said in an explanation.
One of the most urgent topics in the film industry is piracy. Many users turn illegal sources just because a film is not available in their country. Jipa argues that Olyn’s global reach can help combat this problem, because if someone can pay for a film and watch it immediately, do so much more likely.
Olyn’s entry into the film stream came partly when an entrepreneur and filmmaker Wood came as a co -founder of the platform, which originally started as a way to catalog physical assets. Wood started his own film “,”The last glaciers“On the platform.
“Independent filmmakers have already taken the financial risk of producing their films themselves. Studio Pow is self -financed. They created the film “Midas Man”. You have the freedom to be able to do these rights to whom you want. You have concluded a contract on the British market with Amazon, but you were of the opinion that it was more profitable to head the US market with Olyn as a tool, ”he said.
Wood feels best as a “Shopify for filmmakers with a transfer link”.
He noticed that the average film at Amazon in Great Britain only receives around 2,000 views per year. “So there are a number of films that get millions of views, but the majority of the films fall under the 2,000 view mark,” he added.
Large streaming services usually offer a Lump-Sum license agreement, which means that filmmakers receive a one-off payment, regardless of how often their film is viewed. Olyn turns this model upside down by monetizing filmmakers directly on the basis of the audience.
“With Olyn, a filmmaker can still sell his rights to the US market and use it to show the film, but also benefit from it, for example, to consume Asia directly,” said Wood.
But could the platform be used by the film industry for adults to distribute pornography?
Jipa recognized the challenge: “At the moment this is not the tone we want to determine and it would be easy to attract this category,” she said. “At the beginning we set the tone by ensuring that the films presented on Olyn are of high quality.”
“But in the long term we want to create a space in which filmmakers, not the platform, decide what is being distributed,” she added. “We don’t want to act as goalkeepers. Our vision is to enable the filmmakers to have full control over what they distribute and finally switch to a complete SaaS model. “
So far, Olyn has only increased a small amount of funds -a total of 2.8 million US dollars -in a combination of 1.8 million US dollar of the US VC company Hard yaka And a number of angel investors.
