Normal 0 Normal 0 @font-face {font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1 -369098753 63 0 4129279 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@Arial Unicode MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1 -369098753 63 0 4129279 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->@font-face {font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1 -369098753 63 0 4129279 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@Arial Unicode MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1 -369098753 63 0 4129279 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p {margin-right:0in; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->
What is Snagfilms and why did you create the company?
This is a company that I set up with Ted Leonsis who was most recently the vice chairman of the board of AOL. Ted brought in Steve Case, and Miles Gilburne, the head of AOL International. Ted produced two films, the first , ‘Nanking,’ which was shortlisted for the Academy Awards in 2007. And the second we worked on together called “Kicking It,” another documentary we took it to Sundance and Tribeca and a number of festivals in 2008 and sold it to ESPN and took it out on a limited run, did the deal with Netflix, did all sorts of things.
So both films were kind of big successes judged by the normal metrics of the independent film world. And yet the notion that a piece of content that you believed in, a film, at the end of the day through traditional distribution models reached very few people and a small percentage of what he believed to be its potential audience. And clearly had limited revenue possibilities because of it.
He did his TV deal for “Nanking,” we did the TV deal with ESPN for “Kicking It.” Still, it had limited audience and limited monetization. Still, we were the big winners. And the year that we took “Kicking It” to Sundance, they had roughly 9,000 films submitted. Of 118 in the festival, 38 of them were docs. Only 7 of us had deals coming out of Sundance. And we had 3 coming out. So if we’re the top of the food chain, what does that mean for all the rest of the filmmakers, many of whom which were every bit as good as ours?
So what’s the new idea of the service?
We felt that, first, you had to find a new way of reaching audiences and had to add an additional revenue stream or filmmakers were going to be frustrated and ultimately unable to do their work.
