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

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

#21

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:57 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…

Also - and obviously - let me know if your "single" status changes :-)

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

#22

Post by marcamillion » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 12:59 AM UTC

Sounds like an awesome idea...definitely tech/infrastructure heavy. I can see you easily burning through a ton of cash on this.

If done properly, could be an awesome service...but it seems so easy to mess it up and end up flaming out.

Don't mean to be a downer, just encouraging you to be cautious and make sure the product is extremely easy/straight-forward to use for the consumer.

Done right, and priced right, I would definitely use this.

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

#23

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 1:00 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…

Definitely - baby steps, but there is a TON of simplification/guiding that can be done for users around story.

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

#24

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 1:05 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…

Your email isn't in your profile - but definitely ping me - would love to talk!

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

#25

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 1:06 AM UTC

marcamillion wrote: post #22

Sounds like an awesome idea...definitely tech/infrastructure heavy. I can see you easily burning through a ton of cash on this. If done properly, could be an awesome service...but it seems so easy to mess it up and end up flaming out. Don't mean to be a downer, just encouraging you to be cautious and make sure the product is extremely easy/straight-forward to use for the consumer. Done right, and priced right, I woul…

I've thought about the infrastructure issue a lot. The nice thing is that our value add is in the "create." We can hand off the "host" on videos that aren't profitable by just posting them to youtube or elsewhere...where they will still have value for the user, and where we can still generate some ads from them...

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

#26

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 1:08 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…

I fixed the wording to make it a bit more precise, thanks.

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

#27

Post by myoung8 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 1:10 AM UTC

fapi1974 wrote: post #5

eggnestceo wrote: post #3

Wow, offering an equity split when you are already so far along. Makes me think, why start my own company. I could just jump on a promising startup that has already done a good deal of hard work. Easier and less risky.

A really good point. Much risk has been taken out, but I feel pretty strongly that a really strong core team is created when there is real equity in play. I've put in plenty of time and money, but they're not worth anything until we win. I like my chances of winning better with a well incentivized team!

Very little risk has been taken out until you've found product/market fit. Unfortunately, ideation and fundraising don't eliminate risk, they're the easy parts.

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

#28

Post by OstiaAntica » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 1:17 AM UTC

fapi1974 wrote: post #24

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…

Your email isn't in your profile - but definitely ping me - would love to talk!

I didn't have a major role. RedZep had a great team, some funding, and vision, but the tech was really hard and they were ahead of their time. They set up a storefront digital studio, and the idea was that you'd do all the preproduction work online (script, music, backgrounds, transitions), and then go into the physical studio for an hour to do the shoot in front of a greenscreen. The plan was to disrupt traditional video production by using the web to squeeze all of the labor out of that process, and to make it easy to publish and host that video online. (Back when hosting video was EXPENSIVE). Then go nationwide with the model. Again, this was years before YouTube and webcams, when it was kind of hard to publish video online. It obviously failed, I don't know those details, I was working for a tech partner that failed first in early 2001. Yeah dotcom bust!

You can google Red Zeppelin Digital, there's still some web mentions and press releases. The principals are all local so you might reach out to them, heck you might find your cofounder!

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

#29

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 1:20 AM UTC

fapi1974 wrote: post #24

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…

Your email isn't in your profile - but definitely ping me - would love to talk!

Ahhh - yes, definitely quite different. What was it the man said? "I'd rather be lucky than good." Go 1999!

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

#30

Post by fapi1974 » Wed, Mar 23, 2011, 1:21 AM UTC

myoung8 wrote: post #27

fapi1974 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A really good point. Much risk has been taken out, but I feel pretty strongly that a really strong core team is created when there is real equity in play. I've put in plenty of time and money, but they're not worth anything until we win. I like my chances of winning better with a well incentivized team!

Very little risk has been taken out until you've found product/market fit. Unfortunately, ideation and fundraising don't eliminate risk, they're the easy parts.

Touche. Hence the equity :-)