Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted • Hacker News Board

Re: Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted

#11

Post by aantix » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:46 AM UTC

Keyframe wrote: post #8

fapi1974 wrote: post #2

Would love feedback on this post - no mercy expected!

I'm actually in real movie studios and around that world every day. I realizes this is a consumer product, not a directorial production. I'm having trouble grasping this concept: 'You provide an outline of topics for each clip you need'... are you suggesting your client (average consumer, I guess?) would be well prepared to have an entire editing session in their mind and prevized the whole montage in their head befo…

Not sure if you have played around with the movie trailer functionality in iMovie 2011, but I believe the original poster's vision is similar to this.

Essentially iMovie provides an outline of the "production"; it requires you to fill in the actor names and makes suggestions for the different types of shots needed "Add a two second action shot here", "add a 3 second romantic shot here". Even the generic segway text is already in (but editable by the user).

The videos that the user chooses are perfectly synched with a pre-chosen orchestra background track. E.g. as the music tempo picks up, one of your action shots are chosen.

It really makes for a compelling end production; definitely check it out.

Re: Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted

#12

Post by tjarratt » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:46 AM UTC

This sounds an awful lot like the business model in "Be Kind, Rewind". That said, it's also a lot more promising.

Good luck finding a partner and growing the business, I've been saying for years that the movie industry needs some disruption. Just make sure that if you sell, you sell for enough to make yourself not feel bad when the studios inevitably kill your product.

Re: Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted

#13

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:48 AM UTC

gridspy wrote: post #7

fapi1974 wrote: post #2

Would love feedback on this post - no mercy expected!

Exciting idea. I'd jump on board if I was "single" and in the US. I love the viral nature of the service - you have to tell your friends about it so they will contribute their clips to your movie. It would be cool if you had some great placeholders and the author of the clip could edit and cut a placeholder full version. That way as each friend drops their clip in they can view the whole and adjust their part. Making…

I just addressed this with Keyframe. The shining light on a hill is a full toolbox that could be used to create a full on movie. We'll start simple - but my sense is that people will be able to take it quite far within the constraints we establish. All of the above will make awesome premium features...great feedback!

Re: Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted

#14

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:50 AM UTC

aantix wrote: post #11

Keyframe wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually in real movie studios and around that world every day. I realizes this is a consumer product, not a directorial production. I'm having trouble grasping this concept: 'You provide an outline of topics for each clip you need'... are you suggesting your client (average consumer, I guess?) would be well prepared to have an entire editing session in their mind and prevized the whole montage in their head befo…

Not sure if you have played around with the movie trailer functionality in iMovie 2011, but I believe the original poster's vision is similar to this. Essentially iMovie provides an outline of the "production"; it requires you to fill in the actor names and makes suggestions for the different types of shots needed "Add a two second action shot here", "add a 3 second romantic shot here". Even the generic segway text i…

I've been following the iMovie templates closely! Two things for me are that 1) Few people like using iMovie, and; 2) it isn't social. Those are two of my strongest hooks - this is something that doesn't require learning a tool, and you do it with your friends - it's participatory.

Re: Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted

#15

Post by Keyframe » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:50 AM UTC

aantix wrote: post #11

Keyframe wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually in real movie studios and around that world every day. I realizes this is a consumer product, not a directorial production. I'm having trouble grasping this concept: 'You provide an outline of topics for each clip you need'... are you suggesting your client (average consumer, I guess?) would be well prepared to have an entire editing session in their mind and prevized the whole montage in their head befo…

Not sure if you have played around with the movie trailer functionality in iMovie 2011, but I believe the original poster's vision is similar to this. Essentially iMovie provides an outline of the "production"; it requires you to fill in the actor names and makes suggestions for the different types of shots needed "Add a two second action shot here", "add a 3 second romantic shot here". Even the generic segway text i…

I haven't played with it myself, but I've seen a video of a presentation of it - and that's something I had in my mind when I wrote that... I thought op was trying to do something similar, but online. A brave task with lots of work, but might be explosive if done right IMO.

Re: Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted

#16

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:51 AM UTC

tjarratt wrote: post #12

This sounds an awful lot like the business model in "Be Kind, Rewind". That said, it's also a lot more promising. Good luck finding a partner and growing the business, I've been saying for years that the movie industry needs some disruption. Just make sure that if you sell, you sell for enough to make yourself not feel bad when the studios inevitably kill your product.

You know, my major motivation for doing this isn't so much about the disruption, though I can see that - it's about enabling group creativity. I am not creative myself, but I the idea that you can get awesome social art by making the tools so simple...gets me very stoked indeed!

Re: Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted

#17

Post by OstiaAntica » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:51 AM UTC

I worked on a similar startup back in 2000 in San Fran called Red Zeppelin, so I can say definitively that movie studio as an online service is not an original idea. That project even had local news anchor Stan Bunger as a founder. However, the cost of developing this kind of platform today is easily 20 times cheaper, with powerful UI tools that didn't exist in 2000, and there is now a broad mass social market that didn't exist in 2000.

Good luck!

Re: Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted

#18

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:53 AM UTC

icey wrote: post #9

fapi1974 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! The product is designed with a couple nice little ratchets in mind. People see videos they like, then recognize they can participate. When they participate they invite their friends to watch them - it's instinct. That's the first cycle. The second cycle is that when people don't see a video on a topic they like, they can create one - and invite their friends to contribute. Success is premised on growing the u…

This is the part that would worry me regarding scaling: "The pieces get plugged in to the appropriate areas, combined and narrated into beautiful product that you can share on all your favorite outlets" Who does the combination and narration? The quality of the final movie is going to be a strong driver perception of your product - how do you ensure the quality stays high as you grow? Is it the users that do the narr…

"Narrated" might have been an inexact choice of words. Most of this will be webcam and mobile footage - what will drive much of the quality will be the words that are said and how they are arranged in sequence, both before and after production. So - narrative just means that unlike a shared photo or video album, or slideshow, there's people talking and it makes sense...

Re: Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted

#19

Post by Keyframe » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:55 AM UTC

fapi1974 wrote: post #10

Keyframe wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually in real movie studios and around that world every day. I realizes this is a consumer product, not a directorial production. I'm having trouble grasping this concept: 'You provide an outline of topics for each clip you need'... are you suggesting your client (average consumer, I guess?) would be well prepared to have an entire editing session in their mind and prevized the whole montage in their head befo…

You know, I have stayed away from the "MSAAS" tag in any consumer facing concepts because I feel like that will scare away the average user. The right level of complexity to consider is a wedding tribute video. Ten friends of the couple speak on a topic each: when they were young, how they met, why they're good for each other, etc. We then take those clips and put them together with great transitions, overlays, and c…

Yes, of course. Wedding, anniversaries, birthdays.. There are A LOT of template companies out there (like digital juice), comping/editing for a user is a challenging task (and might be fun to make :)), but IMO if you could provide them with a layout tool for story structure, it would be a killer. Like that imovie thing mentioned. I purposely called it a layout tool, since you need only a basic structure to hold it through, not a full blown script (at least not for initial kickoff). I'm sure you've sen Syd Field's workshops and stuff like that.

If you could hook up with some template guys (to cut down costs of making them yourself - both money and time wise), maybe hook up with guys like dramatica to devise a simpler version of structure process, and you do the tech part for comp/editing... you'd have something that nobody currently has, and online... I bet youtube guys would be interested if you lose interest in the business along the road. Of course, you could do all the steps without partnerships, but it would take a long time. Just my 2cs.

Re: Movie Studio As a Service (MSAAS) - Tech Co-Founder Wanted

#20

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:56 AM UTC

OstiaAntica wrote: post #17

I worked on a similar startup back in 2000 in San Fran called Red Zeppelin, so I can say definitively that movie studio as an online service is not an original idea. That project even had local news anchor Stan Bunger as a founder. However, the cost of developing this kind of platform today is easily 20 times cheaper, with powerful UI tools that didn't exist in 2000, and there is now a broad mass social market that d…

Would love to talk to you about the experience - can we go offline?