December 18, 2025 • 44 mins
In this episode, Jeff breaks down one of the biggest frustrations indie filmmakers face today: distribution. From being ghosted by distributors to getting lost on YouTube with no revenue, the traditional paths are tougher than ever. But there is another way—taking control of your own destiny.
Jeff sits down with Allison Yazdian, CEO of Uscreen, a platform that lets creators build and run their own streaming services without the tech overwhelm. Allison shares how filmmakers, fitness instructors, educators, and thousands of creators are using Uscreen to own their audience, monetize directly, and build real communities around their work.
Together, they explore the realities of subscription vs. transactional models, how much content you actually need, what pricing looks like, and why email lists and marketing are the real secret weapons. Jeff also reveals his new initiative: a collective streaming platform and marketing support system designed specifically for indie filmmakers who don’t want to go it alone.
This is a must-listen for any filmmaker ready to break away from the old system and finally build a sustainable, audience-driven career.
Jeff sits down with Allison Yazdian, CEO of Uscreen, a platform that lets creators build and run their own streaming services without the tech overwhelm. Allison shares how filmmakers, fitness instructors, educators, and thousands of creators are using Uscreen to own their audience, monetize directly, and build real communities around their work.
Together, they explore the realities of subscription vs. transactional models, how much content you actually need, what pricing looks like, and why email lists and marketing are the real secret weapons. Jeff also reveals his new initiative: a collective streaming platform and marketing support system designed specifically for indie filmmakers who don’t want to go it alone.
This is a must-listen for any filmmaker ready to break away from the old system and finally build a sustainable, audience-driven career.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're an independent filmmaker. You've made an epic film and
you want to release it, obviously to audiences worldwide, so
you try to find a distributor. Sometimes they go just
sometimes they don't give you the right deal. It's very frustrating.
You want to put it on to say, a platform,
a streaming platform. So maybe you'll go on to YouTube,
but you'll get lost on YouTube, you think, or you're
(00:21):
not going to get any revenue because you don't have
a YouTube channel. So you're really sort of confused, maybe
a little bit frustrated because you don't know what route
to take. There is another route, the one that I
like best, and that is taking control of your destiny
and doing it yourself. But that can be overwhelming. Starting
(00:42):
basically your own streaming platform, it'd be like making Netflix
for yourself. One, you don't have enough content really to
do it. Two it would be technologically too difficult to
actually pull it off. But can you do it? Yes,
you actually can, because there are companies that do this
for you, and when you discover them, it could change
(01:02):
the trajectory of your whole career and of your content.
And today my guest is the CEO of one of
the best companies that does that, creating streaming platforms for you.
Hold on to your seats. This is a great one.
If you want to be a successful indie filmmaker, you
need to know a lot about not just the production
(01:25):
of movies, but the business. We are going to tell
you the truth and reality of what really happens in
the indie film business. Hi, everybody, welcome back to Indie
Filmmaking Truth and Reality. I'm your host, Jeff Deverett and
today we have a very special guest, Alison Yasden. Did
(01:46):
I say that right?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's perfect?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay? And she is the CEO of u Screen TV.
She's going to tell you more about it. But you
Screen I happen to be a client you. Screen is
a platform that is designed to help content creators like me,
you release your content yourself, take total control of your destiny,
and actually operate your own streaming platform so you can
(02:09):
kind of build your own for lack of a better term,
Netflix for yourself without having to build it. As a client.
You basically have, you know, a subscription, whether it's monthly
or annual or whatever at different levels and how much
content you have and how sort of in depth you
want to get and you could build your own community
and run your own streaming platform. When I discovered this, like,
(02:33):
this is the this is self distribution on steroids. This
is basically saying I don't have to go through all
the other streaming platforms anymore. I can focus my audience
and drive my audience to my own streaming platform, hopefully
get them as subscribers and or maybe just a transactional view,
and monetize without having to go through several levels of distribution.
(02:56):
So hopefully I kind of describe that, right. But Allison,
welcome to the show. Thank you for coming.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
On, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, first of all, tell us about you first, and
then tell us about the platform.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Okay, great. So I am the CEO of U Screen
and that's spelled with the letter you for anyone who's
googling us uscreen dot tv. And my background is very
much geared towards supporting entrepreneurs. So I won't go into
too much detail here, but a lot of the companies
(03:27):
I've spent time with have been very much focused on
helping entrepreneurs realize their dreams. I've done that at technology businesses,
focused on dentists, on real estate agents, on Creators and
now at U Screen, I feel like it's really all
coming together because essentially we service entrepreneurs, video businesses, creators
(03:49):
from a lot of different walks of life, a lot
of different verticals who all have this dream, who all
have this vision of really getting their content, their ideas,
their skills out into the world. But to your point,
it's not as easy as one can hope it would be,
and we really try to make it as easy as
possible by building the technology, building the tools not only
(04:13):
to help them host a video catalog and be able
to monetize through subscription, but also just to manage that
entire business so that these entrepreneurs can continue to invest
their time in what they love doing, which is building
those communities and really putting their content out into the
world and helping them to scale their impact.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah. So I call this taking control of your destiny
and of your business, and it's very overwhelming for independent
filmmakers to even think about doing this. Often I'll say
to them, you know, at least have your own YouTube
channel so that you can control that, but you can't
control the revenue stream or the subscription base. You can't
get any of the analytics that's right. You're removed from
(04:53):
basically controlling sort of the business side of it, although
your content is out there in a big way. And
so sometimes I'll say, you know, create your own website
where you can stream, but that is not as efficient
as having sort of a streaming platform. But when I
discovered your company, I said, Wow, this is exactly what
I've been looking for, the ability to build a streaming
(05:14):
platform without actually having to build it right. Because you know,
as a content creator, what do I know about technology.
I don't want anything to do with that. It's going
to cost me way too much and I'm not going
to get it right. So when I went onto your
platform for the first time and I explored it, I
was blown away just how exactly on target it was
for a content creator like myself. I have nine films,
(05:37):
all of which we'll go there. So it's funny. I
just met you last week. I mean I knew about
your company, had being a client for several months now,
and you the U Screen had a summit last week.
It was called U Screen Connect Connect and they do
this sort of once or twice a year, and they
invite creators to come and they introduce all of sort
(05:57):
of the new technology. And it was great because you
meet other creators at the at the summit, it was fantastic.
There were a lot of fitness people. I noticed a
lot of fitness people because let's say you're a pilates
or a yoga instructor and you're doing weekly classes or
even daily classes, whatever, and you just don't want to
put your stuff up on YouTube. You actually want to
create your own community. So imagine this gives them the
(06:19):
ability to have their own streaming platform which they can
build an audience and have subscribers. And all of them
were there, and you know, a lot of them spoke
and it was super enlightening, and I feel like your
platform is giving people a whole new lease on being
a creator content. I mean, a content.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Creator's that's absolutely right. I mean, I think you know, YouTube,
they just celebrated their twentieth anniversary and really sort of
changed the way people consume content. First it started on
computers to mobile and now they're sort of number one
on the living room television sets. Because it's opening up
this opportunity for creators across the world to be able
(06:59):
to get their content out there. Before YouTube, it was
so difficult I mean, this is everything you teach to
get your content out there. And YouTube plays a very
important part in this ecosystem where it's a great way
for creators to start to build an audience and get
discovered and really get their content out there. And a
lot of the creators who work with us, and we've
(07:20):
launched thousands of creators, over three thousand TV and mobile
apps that we've launched, we serve nearly sixteen million end users.
A lot of the creators who end up coming over
to Uscreen, they're ready to take it to the next level.
So maybe it's going really well on YouTube, they're making
some ad sense revenue, they're building a community, maybe they're
getting some brand deals, but they want to take it
(07:42):
to the next level where they start to own the data,
they start to own the audience, they start to own
the revenue, and subscription revenue is such a beautiful way
to be able to sleep better at night. It's passive income.
You have a direct relationship with that audience. You're giving
them the content that they want more of. You're building
the community within the app that really allows them not
(08:02):
only to connect with you and have direct access to you,
but to connect with each other. And that's a very
like minded group if they're willing to pay a subscription
fee to sort of join the community. And our whole
thesis is, how can we help you take your skills,
how can we help you take your content and really
create that sustainable revenue behind it. And you're absolutely right.
(08:25):
We have a ton of fitness instructors because I think
consumers are really used to paying a subscription fee for fitness.
They go to classes, they join gyms, and this is
just sort of the digital extension of that. But when
I start to look in and dig into a lot
of who our customers are, it really runs the gamut.
(08:45):
We have filmmakers, we have pro wrestlers and stock car racers.
We have a community called yarn Hive of women who
like to yarn together, a lot of coaches, educators, breath work,
you name it, anytub and they don't have to have
these massive communities that they build on YouTube. They just
have to have an engaged audience who are really there
(09:07):
for them and for each other. And so we've really
tried to make it as simple as possible. We've built
the foundation, we built the technology where we can help
them get their video catalogs live quickly. We can help
them with all of the monetization because there's a lot
that goes into getting someone to give you their email,
put down their credit card, and we're constantly optimizing it.
(09:30):
We have a team of over one hundred people, and
we're even building out a lot of like CRM and
marketing automation features, and there's so much more behind it,
so that when a customer decides to work with us,
not only are we giving them the tools and the
technology to launch the streaming platform, but also to manage
it and then and this is a lot of what
you saw at our summit last week at Connect. There's
(09:53):
also a lot of the skill and the coaching behind it.
We have a whole coaching division that will help a
new customer think about how do you market this, how
do you think about retention, What is your content strategy,
what is your pricing strategy so that this can be
as successful as possible, so that you can build out
that sustainable revenue stream.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Okay, so I'm going to represent because I am an
indie filmmaker and I'm sold on the platform ready, I'm
already a paying customer of the order of business and
I'm very happy about it, very happy. I mean, I
have lots of work to do, because I have to
now that I've seen all the features and functionality in
the platform, I have to do a lot more. But
I'm going to represent the indie filmmaking community, and I'm
(10:33):
going to ask the questions that they would ask if
they were sitting here, right, Okay, So in no particular order,
one of them is, I've only made one movie, and
does it make sense for me to have kind of
my own streaming platform with just one movie? Like is
that cost effective and affordable and in terms of time
and everything, or do I need to have a certain
(10:54):
amount of volume to make it sense? Makes sense of it?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
So if you have one movie, subscription is probably not
the route for you. And you had sort of highlighted
this earlier. But we can set it up where it's
sort of like a pay per.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
View a record transactional.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
It's transactional, and so we do makes more sense, right,
And so we do have customers who start that way
where maybe it is one video that they are making
and able to monetize, but also we're helping them collect
email addresses.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Right, So that is by the way, that's who I am.
I'm only accessing the transactional side right now. Exactly, I'm
not even bothering with this subscription because I don't have enough,
which I'll talk to a little later on.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
That's exactly right. So, yes, like we have sort of
like a product for that group, and we are seeing
really interesting There are some creators who are sort of
coming together because they know that as individuals maybe they
don't have enough content, but if they come together that
there may be a way for them to set up
a subscription with a lot more content. I think that's
(11:57):
what's what a lot of our customers really love about
Screen is that there's a lot of different applications and
use cases all under the guise of how do we
help people get paid for the great work that they're doing.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Right, Okay, So if they were doing subscription, it would
be like going to an Apple or an Amazon or
where people would say, spend four ninety nine for rental.
You guys would manage that transaction. You know, you take
a transactional fee like all the other platforms do, but
it's a very fair fee. I would get my data directly,
I see who my customer is. There's a lot of transparency.
(12:28):
The dashboard is fantastic. I'm talking as a customer already
know all this.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I love this. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Okay, now you said something that's really interesting and actually
segues into where I want to go. Okay, so as
an individual with one film, it's going to be difficult.
It doesn't almost make financial sense to access. I mean
that was Let me ask this question before I go
into this. What are the various price points? I mean
I know them, but do you want to just talk
to more or less the affordability of your platform for
(12:53):
a content creator?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Sure? I mean, essentially, we do have different packages that
are very much self serve. If you want to put
some content up and start monetizing it, you can actually
go and set up an account and start doing it immediately,
and we even have folks who can sort of show
you how to do it make sure you can make
the most of it. As creators get deeper into this
(13:17):
and really want to build these subscription businesses, we can
also sort of build custom packages for them where maybe
they want to launch mobile apps, or maybe they want
TV apps, maybe they want to do live streaming a
couple of times a month, or just take take advantage
of different features that we offer, and we basically can
put together these customized packages for them where we lead
(13:39):
them through an onboarding process a migration process. So depending
on maybe if they do have a big catalog of
video sitting somewhere, we can help kind of get all
of that ingested, including the metadata to go live. Our
packages range anywhere from one ninety nine, although we might
be doing a holiday promotion coming up soon in December,
(14:00):
one ninety nine per month, and it could go again
depending on how big the catalog is, et cetera, could
range into like the thousand. Right.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Okay, So filmmakers, right now we're saying two hundred dollars
a month, one ninety nine a month. I mean, how
much revenue am I going to make? Am I going
to even make that amount to you know, to make
it affordable? And how much do I share it? Do
I get the whole amount or what is the transactional
fee when something happens. Let's talk transactional, not subscription.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, for non subscription transactional, we charge a five percent fee,
So basically you're keeping ninety five percent of it and
you will get access to a lot of tools that
will help you from a marketing perspective. So to your point,
you know, I wish it were If you build it,
they will come. But you have to put a really
solid marketing effort forward. And there's things that we can
(14:48):
actually do to help you generate interest and give you
tools and techniques to be able to drive.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
And you were talking Daniel, one of your your I
don't know if he's chief of marketing whatever, was talking
about different email campaigns, different social media campaigns, different and sharing.
You know, a lot of creators were sharing ideas on
what they do to kind of get the word out,
the message out exactly. Okay, so this is kind of
where segue. So now a lot of people I know
talking to my audience. I know who they are. I'm
(15:14):
one of them. All Right, is it affordable two hundred
dollars a month? Do I need to really manage my
own platform? It seems like a lot of work, It
seems crazy. But then you said, maybe some creators get
together and do this. So the one thing that we
didn't have enough time to talk about at the summit
because you're the CEO and you were busy and everybody
needed your attention. So I'm so glad that you came
(15:34):
onto the show because I'm going to ask you this
in front of my own audience. Okay, So the major
initiative that I am taking so I run this platform
called the Indie Film Community, and my my U screen
platform is called Indie Film Stream. It's not Devrett Media,
it's not my compani, it's not just my films. The
(15:55):
idea behind it is I can help other creators put
their place, put their films onto the platform, and we
can work as a group. Because I know that a
lot of indie filmmakers have one or two films, aren't
going to want to do go it alone and don't
want to spend that kind of money. So I'm saying,
no problem, let's do it as a group. It makes
way more sense to do it as a community. Now
(16:16):
at some point, if you outgrow that, then you just
go to Loane, But until you get there, it could
be a way more cost effective way to do it.
So I've been inviting filmmakers to say, hey, do you
want to try this, We'll put you on the platform.
I'm basically going to give them all the revenue so
that it's transparent and completely flow through because it's in
(16:37):
some ways. It's a test for me. So that's how
I'm managing that, and filmmakers out there. If you're interested,
I'll provide more details on how to become part of
that so you don't have to go it alone. You
don't pay the monthly fees. You'll pay something you know
fair is fair. I'm not going to pay the whole
burden of everybody, but it'll be way more cost effective.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
All right.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
The key is marketing, and I talk about marketing at nausea.
My audience is so tired of listening to me talk
about marketing. But now think about this. Now you've got
your own platform, You've got your own Netflix basically, all right,
you are part of a streaming platform. And if you
can drive, build and drive your audience to your own platform,
(17:17):
you can keep all the revenue less than five percent
transaction fee. You could be way, way, way more effective
and successful and build a whole community to the point
where you don't have to rely on YouTube anymore. You
don't have to rely on on a distributor getting you
on on any of the SVOD platforms, which likely aren't
going to happen, or how about all the AVOD platforms.
(17:38):
The Pluto's the two b's all this where Yeah are
they great? They have big audiences. Yeah, but you don't
see any money. You don't monetize. Okay, you get a
little bit here and there, and there's these missing legends
of some people making some real money, but not a lot.
Most filmmakers aren't getting anything, and whatever they're getting, it's
getting lost in two levels or three levels of aggregators
and distributors and all this kind of stuff. So the
(18:00):
idea of bypassing all that, controlling your platform and controlling
your audience and having direct access to the audience albeat.
It might not be as big an audience, but it's
an engaged audience that you can connect with. But to
be successful, it's all about marketing, getting people to know
about it and to want to come there because you're
asking them, say, in the transactional model, maybe spend five
(18:21):
dollars to watch a movie. I personally believe if you
do a good job marketing, you will be able to
drive that traffic. What is your experience being, Allison, and
not just from this business, from all the businesses you've
been in, because marketing is universal cross every business. I
don't care what business you're in. You need to tell
your customers that you exist, and you need to get
(18:42):
them excited about your product offering. So talk to us
about marketing, Like, that's the struggle for indie filmmakers.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's really interesting because we
are working in a time where social media really does
create an opportunity for anyone to create a brand around themselves.
So even if you think about like the next generation
of talent like actors and actresses, more and more of
(19:13):
them are crossing over because they're building these social media
profiles and followings. And so my advice, and this is
advice I'm giving myself, is it's never too early to
start to build your own personal brand, right, and so
that is posting regularly on various social platforms, being super
(19:35):
authentic and telling your story. This is how you are
going to start to build that community before you even
have something to sell, right, Like, maybe down the road
you may have that film and you want to drive
someone to go and transact and watch it. Yes, of
course you want to start marketing at them, But in
my mind, it's almost a little bit too late. If
(19:56):
I'm in film school right now, I'm going to start
building up up a social audience. I'm going to start
posting super authentic content. And yes it's so super daunting.
Some might call it very tough, very tough, but this
is how you are going to start to build an audience.
If it's a quick selfie video telling them what you're
taking in classes, behind the scenes, as you're starting to
(20:19):
build and film the actual movie to start to build
interest in it. These types of tactics, first of all,
are free, okay, Like you're going on these social platforms,
it's giving you this pedestal. You're going to start to
build engagement in who you are and in the film.
(20:39):
And people love this notion of building in public right
if it's if it's building a company, if it's filming
a movie. If they see you're behind the scenes footage,
if they start to understand who you are as a person,
they're going to start to root for you and rally
for you. And then when it's time to say, okay,
the movie is ready, now you can go and see
(20:59):
it year, you're probably going to get a lot more
engagement than if it's the day it launches or a
couple of days before. You start to try to build
that interest now ideally, and you are sort of alluding
to this. I think again, this is why a lot
of our creators want their own platform is because you
may see who follows you, but you're not necessarily guaranteed
(21:20):
to be able to reach them, right Like, it's you're
very much beholden to the algorithm. And sometimes the algo
will love a post, and sometimes they won't. And so
the goal is to start to build an email list.
Right now. We help our customers do that, and we
help them broadcast emails and messages out to them even
based on where they are in their life cycle. But
(21:41):
as soon as you can start to have your own list,
it's really worth gold. Even in a world where SMS
and all these other things take hold, Like email still
has a massive.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Operations connection with your audience exactly. That's what it is,
and it might be something else, it might not be
email in the future, but it's still connecting directly.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
A way to reach that correct and so that is
probably like the cheapest way to market, Like if you
don't have these big blockbuster budgets to put behind a film,
is just to start to build that grassroots interest on
social so then when it is time to send them
over to the platform to watch the film. They're going
to be a lot more vested than if they see
(22:20):
your post for the first time, saying come watch them.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Okay, fair enough, so I know my audience. Ye again,
I'm one of them.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
So here's what they're thinking right now. They're thinking that
sounds all good and fine. But you're the CEO of
a come big company, and you have presence and you
have a story to tell. I'm just kind of a
lowly filmmaker's made of film or not yet or trying
to make a film. Who am I? How am I
going to build an audience? I you know, I'm I'm
just it's going to be very daunting. So here I
have some advice. I say, look at at the very least,
(22:48):
everybody's got fifty people, like you've got family, You've got
friends who will at least watch your film. So I say,
if you're going to send your family and your friends somewhere,
send them to your own platform. Yes, don't send them
to you too, Okay, send them to your own platform,
because fifty people can each tell ten people, you know,
if they want to support you. Those fifty can each
tell ten all of a sudden, that's five hundred, and
(23:11):
those five hundred can each tell ten or five. Then
that's and that's how it's going to grow. And I'm
not even sure. And the socials, you know, yeah, obviously
try hard do your best on the socials, but a
lot of people are overwhelmed by that as well.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
I of course, and I'm overwhelmed by I'm overwhelmed by
it as well. And my marketing team is like, you
need to put yourself out there more like I get that.
I will also say, arguably, filmmakers are some of the
best storytellers in the world, and what does really well
on social is telling a story.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Fair enough, But filmmakers are focused on content creation for
sort of storytelling as opposed to this is what they
would call marketing and marketing. I know. For some reason,
it's like the cabber shoes. You don't want to tell
your own story or get.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
You get a little Well, worst case, you could start
a social channel not for yourself, but for the movie
that starts to show bts or other things. I could
build it, but I completely hear.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Okay, So so part two, Part two of what I'm
going to do on your platform is I am going
to and I'm constantly pushing my clients and indie filmmakers
to understand and do more marketing. But we have come
to the conclusion over years and years of talking about
this ad nauseum saying I get it. Filmmakers don't want
(24:27):
to do that. They understand and appreciate that it has
to get done. Kind of like a studio would never
make a film and not release it, you know, big time.
But a studio has a marketing department, all right. Indie
filmmakers do not have marketing departments. So what this platform
is the reason I became a client is because not
only are we going to use this to deliver the
(24:47):
films directly and get that mailing list, but we're actually
going to support it with a basically a marketing department
for indie films. That's really where my sort of my
focus is on, is working with filmmakers and actually doing
their marketing campaigns because they're not going to know how
to do it. They're not going to want to do it.
Marketing is what the other people do, it's what the
(25:08):
business people do. Filmmakers are the content creators. They just
want to make the content, all right. So we're gonna
do the marketing. Now, we're going to charge for it, okay,
because it takes a lot of time and effort, just
like making a film does. So we're going to charge
a fair price. But we're going to become the marketing
department for all these indie filmmakers. And then we're going
to say, okay, we're going to send that audience that
(25:31):
we're marketing to to this platform so that you can monetize.
So it's going to be kind of a closed circuit
type of thing and hopefully you can start to build
your own audiences. Do you think that's viable?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I mean it's a big, I mean big task.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
It's I mean it's scale right, I mean, I think
that's it's just the next evolution of where everything is headed,
where people are able to own their distribution, which was
not available you know, I say, twenty years ago, even
ten years ago. But there's a lot of support that
(26:10):
anyone needs to be able to do this right, and
so to be able to have access to a firm
who specializes in this that can help with the marketing
and help with some of the logistics. I mean, it's
a lot of how we view it as well. Like,
we want to handle a lot of the technology eutely
so that our creators can focus on what they do best,
which is telling stories, creating content, having an impact on
(26:32):
their communities. So I think it's it's very viable.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Okay, good So because for year, when I first became
a filmmaker about I don't know. I made my first
film thirteen or fourteen years ago, and I'm super entrepreneurial,
and I've always said, gosh, I just wish I could
release it myself, but it's too expensive to build that
type of technology. Then you know, then you two and
all these platforms came along and said, Okay, I wish
(26:56):
I could. I could do this, but I can't control it,
and I can't get the analytics I want, and I can't,
you know, kind of monetize it the way I want.
And then I saw Pj's video years ago, and by
the way I teach at to film schools, I remember
maybe five years ago he did this video. He's the
he's the founder of your company. And I've shown it
in every class ever since, because I say, this is
(27:19):
the ultimate and self distribution, this is the ultimate in
taking control of your destiny. It's not for everybody because
it's super entrepreneurial and but this is the ultimate goal
and you attach marketing to it and you have that. Okay,
now I'm going to go in a little different direction.
And you addressed it at the conference, and so I
know that you're thinking about it. Everybody's thinking AI. What
(27:42):
is AI going to do? How is it going to
change things for your business, for our business, for your
world in general?
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's a great and I sort
of said this when I when I brought it up
at the conference last week. It's hard to not have
the discussion about AI. And it almost feels like it's
a buzzword or a fad. It's not a fad.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
It is a fit.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
It is here and it's evolving rapidly. And my take
on it is that generative AI agentic AI. It is
evolving at such a fast pace that in the next
couple of years we're going to look back on today
twenty twenty five and feel like things were so primitive,
just like when we look back two years ago. It
(28:25):
feels that way. It is accelerating rapidly, and it's very
easy to dismiss it or just to you know, not
be happy about it and sort of ostrich and put
your head in the sand. My take is you cannot
fight progress.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
It's certainly not technology.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Especially, and it is what it is, and it's better
to be part of understanding it, mastering it, leveraging it
to advance business, to advance content creation, to advance anything
in your life, versus ignoring it. Because the future of
the world is not going to be replaced by AI.
(29:04):
The future of the world is going to be led
by people who embrace AI. And so when you think
about companies, when you think about businesses, and this is
a huge, huge focus for us at USCREEN. It's all about,
now that this piece of technology is available, how can
we leverage it to supercharge our business? And that is
finding ways to take administrative tasks work that was very cumbersome.
(29:31):
How do we actually leverage AI to help us be better,
better at serving our customers, better at delivering products, just
better at growing the business. And we take a very
similar approach when we think about how we can bring
in artificial intelligence to help our customers. And it's interesting because,
especially with content creation, there seems to be a little
(29:51):
bit of a dichotomy. I think there's a school of
people who are all about, let me leverage AI in
any way, shape or form. That's AI videos, that's AI storytelling,
any AI content creation. And there's a lot of people
who've sort of like drawn a hard line around storytelling.
Content creation is for the humans, and I don't want
AI to be involved. Our take is, let us at
(30:14):
least help with something that everyone agrees with, which is
that cumbersome, boring administrative task. How do we infuse artificial
intelligence within the U screen experience to really help our
creators get their content out there faster so that they
don't have to spend as much time tagging content, building
a catalog, et cetera. We do that. We also think
it can help create a much more personalized experience for
(30:36):
their end users. So if you think about a consumer
logging into a video catalog where there's hundreds, if not
thousands of video for artificial intelligence to deliver them the
exact right video at the right time, versus what happens
now if you log into Netflix, you take twenty minutes
just to figure out what to.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Watch, and sometimes you come up with nothing exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I mean, it's almost like going back to win. It's
overwhelming and so we think there's a lot of opportunity there.
Now we are seeing I mean, you look at what
open ai has come out with with Sora, and there
is a lot of dollars going into a lot of
different startups in the AI space who are building some
pretty incredible pieces of technology that I mean truly it's
(31:20):
mind blowing. And you know, I think these are the
conversations we're having with our customers, which is, how can
we support you? How can we help you? It's hard
for us to draw that bright line because we have
customers who are embracing digital twins. They want to have
an AI version of themselves that their community can have
a conversation with.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
And so I haven't even heard of that digital twins.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, exactly. I mean there's that's the thing. There's this
whole gamut out there. My advice to anyone, to friends,
to family, to people who work for me is if
you are not already experimenting with AI, and that is
you know, opening up chat, GPT, opening up Claude with
perplexity and just starting to understand and it's potential, and
that is truly level one out of maybe ten different levels.
(32:04):
You are going to start to feel left behind because
you are going to be walking around the land where
there's a lot of other people who are using AI
to supercharge their lives. If that's meal planning, travel planning,
managing their calendars, managing their entire lives. I think it's
better to embrace it and really think about how you
can harness it to make your life easier.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah, and I think you'd agree with me that, you know,
in the creative world, the world of you know, because
I have a law degree in intellectual property, so there's
all kinds of intellectual property issues and all this kind
of stuff in that world. Creators aren't thrilled about it
because you know, they want humans watching humans and that
kind of stuff. There's lots and lots of issues and
(32:45):
discussions about this, But I do agree with you that
you kind of got to get on that train and
then kind of figure it out. I talk about it
as the train has left the station. It's a freight train,
it's going one hundred miles an hour, and you're standing
on the track saying stop. It's just going to run
you over right, all right, So there's got to be
another way to embrace it. And we're not sure what
it is. But it's funny every time I talk about
AI in one of my podcasts, I think this is
(33:07):
going to be dating itself because AI is moving. It's
such a fast rate that you know, like you mentioned Zora,
there's going to be fifty other platforms like that.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Absolutely, I mean, and there's going to be a lot
of companies who launch and then don't make it, and
there's a lot of investment going into it. But I
think everybody agrees that there is a world and I'm
an optimist, but there is a world where artificial intelligence
can make a lot of the problems of society, maybe
(33:35):
not eradicate, but at least make them a lot less significant.
And I think that's there's tremendous potential for everyone to
understand that, and even in your personal life, to make
it make your life that much.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah, there will be applications that are good, some that aren't,
but we'll see how that all plays out, right, Okay,
So last sort of question and direction, now that you've
you know, kind of met a lot of the creators
in who you deal with, and you're very involved in
this world, this entrepreneurial world. If you were a young
filmmaker and I know you don't come from that world.
(34:08):
And I say, filmmaker, let me see content creator having
spoken and seeing sort of the experience of who your
clients are. How would you point people like I teach
at two film schools, and you know, every year semester
there's fifty new, aspiring, bright eyed students who are looking
at the future. I mean, I'm a big advocate of
your company obviously and of your platform, right and I
(34:29):
think that's the direction to go, but it can be daunting.
And you know, and I know you have young kids.
I mean, what do you think the future is and
sort of the direction that they should content creators should
be thinking about. Now that we've talked AI and all
this other stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, I mean I think the keyword for me, I
mean there's probably a few, but the keyword is authenticity.
And so this goes to like broader themes that I
think are going on in society right now. Not to
get a little abstract, I like this and.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I think it's very relevant to say.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Atich if you will, but you know, I feel like
like it or not, a lot of people's attention have
moved from a physical, analog world right where everyone knew
their neighbors and everyone had a different community places that
they would go maybe over the weekends or after school
or what have you, or office space to world where
(35:21):
a lot of people's time and attention is on screens,
if it's with work, if it's on the little screen
when they're passing time, if it's watching TV, et cetera.
And what that means is that there is this massive
opportunity for content creators to create content that will speak
to an audiences. And I think, what's happening And I
(35:42):
think again, it goes back to the testament of YouTube,
where there's a lot of niche audiences out there. There are
a lot of people who have very specific interests where
it may not have gotten covered on like a cable
TV show, but is now because YouTube, you can have
an end of one watching your content. There's going to
be someone who's going to want to see it. And
so what's going to make those niche audiences want to
(36:05):
view your content is if it feels authentic and if
it feels like you're telling a really great story. Because
there's going to be people out there who are going
to look for that connection. They're going to look for
that community and so my advice is is if you
have an idea of content that you want to get
out in the world, or a story you want to tell,
just do it. It doesn't have to be perfect. I
(36:27):
think that's the other thing too, Like you think about
filmmaking twenty thirty years ago, like it had to be
final cut, ready to go out, tons of time, editing, etc.
For long form. Now it's more about you got to
get the content out there. You can start to get feedback,
you can start to get reactions, and you just have
to put it out there. And if you look at
(36:47):
a lot of content creators who now have fifty seventy
hundreds of millions of followers, they'll even say, like, for
years I was doing this and no one was really
paying attention, but I knew that there were people who
liked it. And then it sort of took on a
life of its own. And I'm not saying this is
the path to get to one hundred million followers, no, no,
I know, but I think it is like, have confidence
(37:08):
in what you're putting out there. It is a little bit.
You have to have courage, you have to be bold,
you have to get it out there, be authentic, to
you tell you.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Have a voice, and be it your voice.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
And even on like a YouTube or social platform, you
can start to understand what your audience cares about. You
can look at engagement rates, you can look at their comments,
you can have them, you know, complete polls within the
platform to understand what sort of content they want. And
I think that's my other piece of advice is like
listen to your audience, understand what they're interested in, and
continue to get that content out there. Because people's attention
(37:41):
are on these platforms and they are looking for your content,
so why not sort of put it out there for them?
And I truly believe that a lot of our content
creators who've been really successful in you Screen, not only
do they have this incredible content, but their community that
they've built really feels like they have a connection to
the content, to the creator that is portable that they're saying, Okay, yes,
(38:05):
we have this relationship on YouTube, We're going to sort
of take it to the next level on a U
screen platform.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
So I felt that because I'm, you know, in the
fitness worlds super competitive. There were lots of fitness people
at your summit last week, yes, but they all seem
to have their own sort of voice, persona authentic you know,
even though half of them are teaching the same thing exactly,
they just have their personality, they.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Have their own angles, right, and it is It is
interesting because I've worked with many different like Pilates instructors,
and I have my favorites, and they're all teaching me
to do the exact.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Exactly Piloates is Pilates, but just how you kind of
as our business, we say there's the story, and then
there's how you tell the story exactly. Yeah, so the
story can be the exact same, you know, the lessons
and plotias, but it's how you deliver it that's exactly right. Yeah, Okay,
I'm going to give you one time. I'm going to
first plug what I'm doing and then I'm gonna let
you plug it. Even though I think we've already done
(39:00):
a lot of accolades for uscreen, what Alison's talking about
I think is revolutionary. I think their company's doing great things.
I'm a big fan, obviously, and I didn't bring her
on to say that, all right. I brought her on
because I wanted to have this discussion. What I'm doing
is I'm creating a community so that you don't have
to go it alone, all right, So that we can
do your marketing for you, so we can do your
distribution for you, which is basically driving it to a
(39:22):
community that you're going to own and be able to
make it sustainable and monetize. And I think that's the future.
I think that everybody, all these indie filmmakers are getting lost.
I love YouTube. I think it's a great platform, and
I think it's done fantastic things for the world. But
as an indifilmmaker, you kind of get lost on it
and you really don't make any money. And that goes
(39:42):
for to being Pluto and all the big streaming platforms,
which are all fantastic as a consumer because you can
access a lot of stuff. It's just hard for an
indie film to break through. So this would be maybe smaller,
but you don't have to go it alone. I'm creating
that community where we can do it together. We can
basically act like a studio, do it as a studio
would do it. Have a marketing department, have a legal department,
(40:04):
have a piracy department, have a distribution operation where we
can get our own analytics and monetized directly. So that's
my pitch for why I'm going down this road, and
you get the final say and you can pitch you Screen.
I'm not sure you could do it any better than that.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
No, I mean, I appreciate all of the kind words
that you said, and personally, I am just so inspired
by every single one of our customers. And you know,
after spending some time with you on Friday and hearing
you today, it's just it is inspirational to hear how
much you care about this next generation of filmmaking because
(40:40):
it is truly a craft, it is truly an art,
and you know, the whole notion of distribution is getting
turned upside down.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
It's a disaster. It has been for decades, That's the truth.
Just nobody has has said it out loud, That's right.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah, And so just to hear what you are building
and knowing that you Screen can be a big part
of it is really what gets me in our entire team.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I could not do this without a platform like you Screen.
I'm not saying you're the only ones. There are other ones.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Were the best.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
You are the best. No, I did my research, like
I teach this stuff. I know where your competitors are.
Because I teach that to my students. I say, here's
the competitors in this space. This is the one I chose.
Here's the reason why that's right again, now you know,
I mean, I'm feeling privileged that you came on the show,
but not for that reason. I'm just being honest. I'm
your customer, like I'm already paying customer yours, and I
feel good about it. But you can't do this alone.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
It's two.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
This is ridiculously I mean, think about your technology team,
what you guys do. You've created the ability for creators
like us to have our own Netflix. I mean, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
When I discovered that, I said, hip array, this is
exactly what I was aiming in. And you're right about
the indie film filmmakers. Like I spent most of my
life in distribution. I was on the other side of that.
I was the guy who was not, you know, giving
the fairest deals to filmmakers and everything. I didn't know
any better. That was my world. And when I became
an indie filmmaker and I saw sort of the daunting
(42:05):
task in the road that they had to go and
all the challenges it's overwhelming. It is just it's such
a turnoff for creators. I just want to pave a
new path for them. And everybody says, oh, distribution's broken.
I say, no, guys, distribution's all broke. It never was working.
It was never working. I can tell you thirty years ago,
I would have said the exact same thing. It was
(42:26):
never working. It works for the studios because they have
their own marketing department, they have their own distribution channels.
Now they're totally vertically integrated, their own streaming platforms.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Think of you as an indie filmmaker. You don't have that,
you need it. Now we're gonna have it. We're gonna
have our own SVOD and TVOD streaming platform because of
U Screen, and we're gonna have our own marketing department.
And that is going to be a major breakthrough. That's
a game changer for indie filmmakers. Hopefully they'll come on board.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
I couldn't agree more. It's all being democratized now. Now
you have access.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Exactly exactly, and you don't have to go it alone.
That's the secret, because going alone is just almost impossible. Yeah,
all right, Allison, thank you so much for coming on
the show.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Thanks, I really appreciate it was sort.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Of last minute notice, but good luck with the platform.
I look forward to obviously engaging a lot more. And
by the way, I was overwhelmed at the summit. I
just had no idea how much functionality your platform has.
So I'm gonna have to figure out.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
I'm gonna have to figure out we offer a lot
of different fews.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
We're gonna have to hire somebody, honestly to help me
navigate all that because because I know what I know,
and I know that I'm just not good enough to
manage all the functionality.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Well that's I mean, not to get into AI, but
like we even want our customers to be to log in
and for us to be able to recommend here based
on what we're seeing, go take advantage of this one feature.
So I think we're here to help you and we
want to make it even more usable. But it is
a pretty sophisticated piece of technology that we've built very
(43:56):
thoughtfully over the last ten years. That's really a testament
to the founder PJ and the co founder Nick and
the entire teammate.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
You scream, okay, well, good luck with it, and I
look forward to engaging a lot more in the future.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Thank you so much for having me. It's great to
see you.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Thanks a lot, thank you.
You're an independent filmmaker. You've made an epic film and
you want to release it, obviously to audiences worldwide, so
you try to find a distributor. Sometimes they go just
sometimes they don't give you the right deal. It's very frustrating.
You want to put it on to say, a platform,
a streaming platform. So maybe you'll go on to YouTube,
but you'll get lost on YouTube, you think, or you're
(00:21):
not going to get any revenue because you don't have
a YouTube channel. So you're really sort of confused, maybe
a little bit frustrated because you don't know what route
to take. There is another route, the one that I
like best, and that is taking control of your destiny
and doing it yourself. But that can be overwhelming. Starting
(00:42):
basically your own streaming platform, it'd be like making Netflix
for yourself. One, you don't have enough content really to
do it. Two it would be technologically too difficult to
actually pull it off. But can you do it? Yes,
you actually can, because there are companies that do this
for you, and when you discover them, it could change
(01:02):
the trajectory of your whole career and of your content.
And today my guest is the CEO of one of
the best companies that does that, creating streaming platforms for you.
Hold on to your seats. This is a great one.
If you want to be a successful indie filmmaker, you
need to know a lot about not just the production
(01:25):
of movies, but the business. We are going to tell
you the truth and reality of what really happens in
the indie film business. Hi, everybody, welcome back to Indie
Filmmaking Truth and Reality. I'm your host, Jeff Deverett and
today we have a very special guest, Alison Yasden. Did
(01:46):
I say that right?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's perfect?
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay? And she is the CEO of u Screen TV.
She's going to tell you more about it. But you
Screen I happen to be a client you. Screen is
a platform that is designed to help content creators like me,
you release your content yourself, take total control of your destiny,
and actually operate your own streaming platform so you can
(02:09):
kind of build your own for lack of a better term,
Netflix for yourself without having to build it. As a client.
You basically have, you know, a subscription, whether it's monthly
or annual or whatever at different levels and how much
content you have and how sort of in depth you
want to get and you could build your own community
and run your own streaming platform. When I discovered this, like,
(02:33):
this is the this is self distribution on steroids. This
is basically saying I don't have to go through all
the other streaming platforms anymore. I can focus my audience
and drive my audience to my own streaming platform, hopefully
get them as subscribers and or maybe just a transactional view,
and monetize without having to go through several levels of distribution.
(02:56):
So hopefully I kind of describe that, right. But Allison,
welcome to the show. Thank you for coming.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
On, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, first of all, tell us about you first, and
then tell us about the platform.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Okay, great. So I am the CEO of U Screen
and that's spelled with the letter you for anyone who's
googling us uscreen dot tv. And my background is very
much geared towards supporting entrepreneurs. So I won't go into
too much detail here, but a lot of the companies
(03:27):
I've spent time with have been very much focused on
helping entrepreneurs realize their dreams. I've done that at technology businesses,
focused on dentists, on real estate agents, on Creators and
now at U Screen, I feel like it's really all
coming together because essentially we service entrepreneurs, video businesses, creators
(03:49):
from a lot of different walks of life, a lot
of different verticals who all have this dream, who all
have this vision of really getting their content, their ideas,
their skills out into the world. But to your point,
it's not as easy as one can hope it would be,
and we really try to make it as easy as
possible by building the technology, building the tools not only
(04:13):
to help them host a video catalog and be able
to monetize through subscription, but also just to manage that
entire business so that these entrepreneurs can continue to invest
their time in what they love doing, which is building
those communities and really putting their content out into the
world and helping them to scale their impact.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah. So I call this taking control of your destiny
and of your business, and it's very overwhelming for independent
filmmakers to even think about doing this. Often I'll say
to them, you know, at least have your own YouTube
channel so that you can control that, but you can't
control the revenue stream or the subscription base. You can't
get any of the analytics that's right. You're removed from
(04:53):
basically controlling sort of the business side of it, although
your content is out there in a big way. And
so sometimes I'll say, you know, create your own website
where you can stream, but that is not as efficient
as having sort of a streaming platform. But when I
discovered your company, I said, Wow, this is exactly what
I've been looking for, the ability to build a streaming
(05:14):
platform without actually having to build it right. Because you know,
as a content creator, what do I know about technology.
I don't want anything to do with that. It's going
to cost me way too much and I'm not going
to get it right. So when I went onto your
platform for the first time and I explored it, I
was blown away just how exactly on target it was
for a content creator like myself. I have nine films,
(05:37):
all of which we'll go there. So it's funny. I
just met you last week. I mean I knew about
your company, had being a client for several months now,
and you the U Screen had a summit last week.
It was called U Screen Connect Connect and they do
this sort of once or twice a year, and they
invite creators to come and they introduce all of sort
(05:57):
of the new technology. And it was great because you
meet other creators at the at the summit, it was fantastic.
There were a lot of fitness people. I noticed a
lot of fitness people because let's say you're a pilates
or a yoga instructor and you're doing weekly classes or
even daily classes, whatever, and you just don't want to
put your stuff up on YouTube. You actually want to
create your own community. So imagine this gives them the
(06:19):
ability to have their own streaming platform which they can
build an audience and have subscribers. And all of them
were there, and you know, a lot of them spoke
and it was super enlightening, and I feel like your
platform is giving people a whole new lease on being
a creator content. I mean, a content.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Creator's that's absolutely right. I mean, I think you know, YouTube,
they just celebrated their twentieth anniversary and really sort of
changed the way people consume content. First it started on
computers to mobile and now they're sort of number one
on the living room television sets. Because it's opening up
this opportunity for creators across the world to be able
(06:59):
to get their content out there. Before YouTube, it was
so difficult I mean, this is everything you teach to
get your content out there. And YouTube plays a very
important part in this ecosystem where it's a great way
for creators to start to build an audience and get
discovered and really get their content out there. And a
lot of the creators who work with us, and we've
(07:20):
launched thousands of creators, over three thousand TV and mobile
apps that we've launched, we serve nearly sixteen million end users.
A lot of the creators who end up coming over
to Uscreen, they're ready to take it to the next level.
So maybe it's going really well on YouTube, they're making
some ad sense revenue, they're building a community, maybe they're
getting some brand deals, but they want to take it
(07:42):
to the next level where they start to own the data,
they start to own the audience, they start to own
the revenue, and subscription revenue is such a beautiful way
to be able to sleep better at night. It's passive income.
You have a direct relationship with that audience. You're giving
them the content that they want more of. You're building
the community within the app that really allows them not
(08:02):
only to connect with you and have direct access to you,
but to connect with each other. And that's a very
like minded group if they're willing to pay a subscription
fee to sort of join the community. And our whole
thesis is, how can we help you take your skills,
how can we help you take your content and really
create that sustainable revenue behind it. And you're absolutely right.
(08:25):
We have a ton of fitness instructors because I think
consumers are really used to paying a subscription fee for fitness.
They go to classes, they join gyms, and this is
just sort of the digital extension of that. But when
I start to look in and dig into a lot
of who our customers are, it really runs the gamut.
(08:45):
We have filmmakers, we have pro wrestlers and stock car racers.
We have a community called yarn Hive of women who
like to yarn together, a lot of coaches, educators, breath work,
you name it, anytub and they don't have to have
these massive communities that they build on YouTube. They just
have to have an engaged audience who are really there
(09:07):
for them and for each other. And so we've really
tried to make it as simple as possible. We've built
the foundation, we built the technology where we can help
them get their video catalogs live quickly. We can help
them with all of the monetization because there's a lot
that goes into getting someone to give you their email,
put down their credit card, and we're constantly optimizing it.
(09:30):
We have a team of over one hundred people, and
we're even building out a lot of like CRM and
marketing automation features, and there's so much more behind it,
so that when a customer decides to work with us,
not only are we giving them the tools and the
technology to launch the streaming platform, but also to manage
it and then and this is a lot of what
you saw at our summit last week at Connect. There's
(09:53):
also a lot of the skill and the coaching behind it.
We have a whole coaching division that will help a
new customer think about how do you market this, how
do you think about retention, What is your content strategy,
what is your pricing strategy so that this can be
as successful as possible, so that you can build out
that sustainable revenue stream.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Okay, so I'm going to represent because I am an
indie filmmaker and I'm sold on the platform ready, I'm
already a paying customer of the order of business and
I'm very happy about it, very happy. I mean, I
have lots of work to do, because I have to
now that I've seen all the features and functionality in
the platform, I have to do a lot more. But
I'm going to represent the indie filmmaking community, and I'm
(10:33):
going to ask the questions that they would ask if
they were sitting here, right, Okay, So in no particular order,
one of them is, I've only made one movie, and
does it make sense for me to have kind of
my own streaming platform with just one movie? Like is
that cost effective and affordable and in terms of time
and everything, or do I need to have a certain
(10:54):
amount of volume to make it sense? Makes sense of it?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
So if you have one movie, subscription is probably not
the route for you. And you had sort of highlighted
this earlier. But we can set it up where it's
sort of like a pay per.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
View a record transactional.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
It's transactional, and so we do makes more sense, right,
And so we do have customers who start that way
where maybe it is one video that they are making
and able to monetize, but also we're helping them collect
email addresses.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Right, So that is by the way, that's who I am.
I'm only accessing the transactional side right now. Exactly, I'm
not even bothering with this subscription because I don't have enough,
which I'll talk to a little later on.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
That's exactly right. So, yes, like we have sort of
like a product for that group, and we are seeing
really interesting There are some creators who are sort of
coming together because they know that as individuals maybe they
don't have enough content, but if they come together that
there may be a way for them to set up
a subscription with a lot more content. I think that's
(11:57):
what's what a lot of our customers really love about
Screen is that there's a lot of different applications and
use cases all under the guise of how do we
help people get paid for the great work that they're doing.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Right, Okay, So if they were doing subscription, it would
be like going to an Apple or an Amazon or
where people would say, spend four ninety nine for rental.
You guys would manage that transaction. You know, you take
a transactional fee like all the other platforms do, but
it's a very fair fee. I would get my data directly,
I see who my customer is. There's a lot of transparency.
(12:28):
The dashboard is fantastic. I'm talking as a customer already
know all this.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I love this. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Okay, now you said something that's really interesting and actually
segues into where I want to go. Okay, so as
an individual with one film, it's going to be difficult.
It doesn't almost make financial sense to access. I mean
that was Let me ask this question before I go
into this. What are the various price points? I mean
I know them, but do you want to just talk
to more or less the affordability of your platform for
(12:53):
a content creator?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Sure? I mean, essentially, we do have different packages that
are very much self serve. If you want to put
some content up and start monetizing it, you can actually
go and set up an account and start doing it immediately,
and we even have folks who can sort of show
you how to do it make sure you can make
the most of it. As creators get deeper into this
(13:17):
and really want to build these subscription businesses, we can
also sort of build custom packages for them where maybe
they want to launch mobile apps, or maybe they want
TV apps, maybe they want to do live streaming a
couple of times a month, or just take take advantage
of different features that we offer, and we basically can
put together these customized packages for them where we lead
(13:39):
them through an onboarding process a migration process. So depending
on maybe if they do have a big catalog of
video sitting somewhere, we can help kind of get all
of that ingested, including the metadata to go live. Our
packages range anywhere from one ninety nine, although we might
be doing a holiday promotion coming up soon in December,
(14:00):
one ninety nine per month, and it could go again
depending on how big the catalog is, et cetera, could
range into like the thousand. Right.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Okay, So filmmakers, right now we're saying two hundred dollars
a month, one ninety nine a month. I mean, how
much revenue am I going to make? Am I going
to even make that amount to you know, to make
it affordable? And how much do I share it? Do
I get the whole amount or what is the transactional
fee when something happens. Let's talk transactional, not subscription.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, for non subscription transactional, we charge a five percent fee,
So basically you're keeping ninety five percent of it and
you will get access to a lot of tools that
will help you from a marketing perspective. So to your point,
you know, I wish it were If you build it,
they will come. But you have to put a really
solid marketing effort forward. And there's things that we can
(14:48):
actually do to help you generate interest and give you
tools and techniques to be able to drive.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
And you were talking Daniel, one of your your I
don't know if he's chief of marketing whatever, was talking
about different email campaigns, different social media campaigns, different and sharing.
You know, a lot of creators were sharing ideas on
what they do to kind of get the word out,
the message out exactly. Okay, so this is kind of
where segue. So now a lot of people I know
talking to my audience. I know who they are. I'm
(15:14):
one of them. All Right, is it affordable two hundred
dollars a month? Do I need to really manage my
own platform? It seems like a lot of work, It
seems crazy. But then you said, maybe some creators get
together and do this. So the one thing that we
didn't have enough time to talk about at the summit
because you're the CEO and you were busy and everybody
needed your attention. So I'm so glad that you came
(15:34):
onto the show because I'm going to ask you this
in front of my own audience. Okay, So the major
initiative that I am taking so I run this platform
called the Indie Film Community, and my my U screen
platform is called Indie Film Stream. It's not Devrett Media,
it's not my compani, it's not just my films. The
(15:55):
idea behind it is I can help other creators put
their place, put their films onto the platform, and we
can work as a group. Because I know that a
lot of indie filmmakers have one or two films, aren't
going to want to do go it alone and don't
want to spend that kind of money. So I'm saying,
no problem, let's do it as a group. It makes
way more sense to do it as a community. Now
(16:16):
at some point, if you outgrow that, then you just
go to Loane, But until you get there, it could
be a way more cost effective way to do it.
So I've been inviting filmmakers to say, hey, do you
want to try this, We'll put you on the platform.
I'm basically going to give them all the revenue so
that it's transparent and completely flow through because it's in
(16:37):
some ways. It's a test for me. So that's how
I'm managing that, and filmmakers out there. If you're interested,
I'll provide more details on how to become part of
that so you don't have to go it alone. You
don't pay the monthly fees. You'll pay something you know
fair is fair. I'm not going to pay the whole
burden of everybody, but it'll be way more cost effective.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
All right.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
The key is marketing, and I talk about marketing at nausea.
My audience is so tired of listening to me talk
about marketing. But now think about this. Now you've got
your own platform, You've got your own Netflix basically, all right,
you are part of a streaming platform. And if you
can drive, build and drive your audience to your own platform,
(17:17):
you can keep all the revenue less than five percent
transaction fee. You could be way, way, way more effective
and successful and build a whole community to the point
where you don't have to rely on YouTube anymore. You
don't have to rely on on a distributor getting you
on on any of the SVOD platforms, which likely aren't
going to happen, or how about all the AVOD platforms.
(17:38):
The Pluto's the two b's all this where Yeah are
they great? They have big audiences. Yeah, but you don't
see any money. You don't monetize. Okay, you get a
little bit here and there, and there's these missing legends
of some people making some real money, but not a lot.
Most filmmakers aren't getting anything, and whatever they're getting, it's
getting lost in two levels or three levels of aggregators
and distributors and all this kind of stuff. So the
(18:00):
idea of bypassing all that, controlling your platform and controlling
your audience and having direct access to the audience albeat.
It might not be as big an audience, but it's
an engaged audience that you can connect with. But to
be successful, it's all about marketing, getting people to know
about it and to want to come there because you're
asking them, say, in the transactional model, maybe spend five
(18:21):
dollars to watch a movie. I personally believe if you
do a good job marketing, you will be able to
drive that traffic. What is your experience being, Allison, and
not just from this business, from all the businesses you've
been in, because marketing is universal cross every business. I
don't care what business you're in. You need to tell
your customers that you exist, and you need to get
(18:42):
them excited about your product offering. So talk to us
about marketing, Like, that's the struggle for indie filmmakers.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's really interesting because we
are working in a time where social media really does
create an opportunity for anyone to create a brand around themselves.
So even if you think about like the next generation
of talent like actors and actresses, more and more of
(19:13):
them are crossing over because they're building these social media
profiles and followings. And so my advice, and this is
advice I'm giving myself, is it's never too early to
start to build your own personal brand, right, and so
that is posting regularly on various social platforms, being super
(19:35):
authentic and telling your story. This is how you are
going to start to build that community before you even
have something to sell, right, Like, maybe down the road
you may have that film and you want to drive
someone to go and transact and watch it. Yes, of
course you want to start marketing at them, But in
my mind, it's almost a little bit too late. If
(19:56):
I'm in film school right now, I'm going to start
building up up a social audience. I'm going to start
posting super authentic content. And yes it's so super daunting.
Some might call it very tough, very tough, but this
is how you are going to start to build an audience.
If it's a quick selfie video telling them what you're
taking in classes, behind the scenes, as you're starting to
(20:19):
build and film the actual movie to start to build
interest in it. These types of tactics, first of all,
are free, okay, Like you're going on these social platforms,
it's giving you this pedestal. You're going to start to
build engagement in who you are and in the film.
(20:39):
And people love this notion of building in public right
if it's if it's building a company, if it's filming
a movie. If they see you're behind the scenes footage,
if they start to understand who you are as a person,
they're going to start to root for you and rally
for you. And then when it's time to say, okay,
the movie is ready, now you can go and see
(20:59):
it year, you're probably going to get a lot more
engagement than if it's the day it launches or a
couple of days before. You start to try to build
that interest now ideally, and you are sort of alluding
to this. I think again, this is why a lot
of our creators want their own platform is because you
may see who follows you, but you're not necessarily guaranteed
(21:20):
to be able to reach them, right Like, it's you're
very much beholden to the algorithm. And sometimes the algo
will love a post, and sometimes they won't. And so
the goal is to start to build an email list.
Right now. We help our customers do that, and we
help them broadcast emails and messages out to them even
based on where they are in their life cycle. But
(21:41):
as soon as you can start to have your own list,
it's really worth gold. Even in a world where SMS
and all these other things take hold, Like email still
has a massive.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Operations connection with your audience exactly. That's what it is,
and it might be something else, it might not be
email in the future, but it's still connecting directly.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
A way to reach that correct and so that is
probably like the cheapest way to market, Like if you
don't have these big blockbuster budgets to put behind a film,
is just to start to build that grassroots interest on
social so then when it is time to send them
over to the platform to watch the film. They're going
to be a lot more vested than if they see
(22:20):
your post for the first time, saying come watch them.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Okay, fair enough, so I know my audience. Ye again,
I'm one of them.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
So here's what they're thinking right now. They're thinking that
sounds all good and fine. But you're the CEO of
a come big company, and you have presence and you
have a story to tell. I'm just kind of a
lowly filmmaker's made of film or not yet or trying
to make a film. Who am I? How am I
going to build an audience? I you know, I'm I'm
just it's going to be very daunting. So here I
have some advice. I say, look at at the very least,
(22:48):
everybody's got fifty people, like you've got family, You've got
friends who will at least watch your film. So I say,
if you're going to send your family and your friends somewhere,
send them to your own platform. Yes, don't send them
to you too, Okay, send them to your own platform,
because fifty people can each tell ten people, you know,
if they want to support you. Those fifty can each
tell ten all of a sudden, that's five hundred, and
(23:11):
those five hundred can each tell ten or five. Then
that's and that's how it's going to grow. And I'm
not even sure. And the socials, you know, yeah, obviously
try hard do your best on the socials, but a
lot of people are overwhelmed by that as well.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
I of course, and I'm overwhelmed by I'm overwhelmed by
it as well. And my marketing team is like, you
need to put yourself out there more like I get that.
I will also say, arguably, filmmakers are some of the
best storytellers in the world, and what does really well
on social is telling a story.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Fair enough, But filmmakers are focused on content creation for
sort of storytelling as opposed to this is what they
would call marketing and marketing. I know. For some reason,
it's like the cabber shoes. You don't want to tell
your own story or get.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
You get a little Well, worst case, you could start
a social channel not for yourself, but for the movie
that starts to show bts or other things. I could
build it, but I completely hear.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Okay, So so part two, Part two of what I'm
going to do on your platform is I am going
to and I'm constantly pushing my clients and indie filmmakers
to understand and do more marketing. But we have come
to the conclusion over years and years of talking about
this ad nauseum saying I get it. Filmmakers don't want
(24:27):
to do that. They understand and appreciate that it has
to get done. Kind of like a studio would never
make a film and not release it, you know, big time.
But a studio has a marketing department, all right. Indie
filmmakers do not have marketing departments. So what this platform
is the reason I became a client is because not
only are we going to use this to deliver the
(24:47):
films directly and get that mailing list, but we're actually
going to support it with a basically a marketing department
for indie films. That's really where my sort of my
focus is on, is working with filmmakers and actually doing
their marketing campaigns because they're not going to know how
to do it. They're not going to want to do it.
Marketing is what the other people do, it's what the
(25:08):
business people do. Filmmakers are the content creators. They just
want to make the content, all right. So we're gonna
do the marketing. Now, we're going to charge for it, okay,
because it takes a lot of time and effort, just
like making a film does. So we're going to charge
a fair price. But we're going to become the marketing
department for all these indie filmmakers. And then we're going
to say, okay, we're going to send that audience that
(25:31):
we're marketing to to this platform so that you can monetize.
So it's going to be kind of a closed circuit
type of thing and hopefully you can start to build
your own audiences. Do you think that's viable?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I mean it's a big, I mean big task.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
It's I mean it's scale right, I mean, I think
that's it's just the next evolution of where everything is headed,
where people are able to own their distribution, which was
not available you know, I say, twenty years ago, even
ten years ago. But there's a lot of support that
(26:10):
anyone needs to be able to do this right, and
so to be able to have access to a firm
who specializes in this that can help with the marketing
and help with some of the logistics. I mean, it's
a lot of how we view it as well. Like,
we want to handle a lot of the technology eutely
so that our creators can focus on what they do best,
which is telling stories, creating content, having an impact on
(26:32):
their communities. So I think it's it's very viable.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Okay, good So because for year, when I first became
a filmmaker about I don't know. I made my first
film thirteen or fourteen years ago, and I'm super entrepreneurial,
and I've always said, gosh, I just wish I could
release it myself, but it's too expensive to build that
type of technology. Then you know, then you two and
all these platforms came along and said, Okay, I wish
(26:56):
I could. I could do this, but I can't control it,
and I can't get the analytics I want, and I can't,
you know, kind of monetize it the way I want.
And then I saw Pj's video years ago, and by
the way I teach at to film schools, I remember
maybe five years ago he did this video. He's the
he's the founder of your company. And I've shown it
in every class ever since, because I say, this is
(27:19):
the ultimate and self distribution, this is the ultimate in
taking control of your destiny. It's not for everybody because
it's super entrepreneurial and but this is the ultimate goal
and you attach marketing to it and you have that. Okay,
now I'm going to go in a little different direction.
And you addressed it at the conference, and so I
know that you're thinking about it. Everybody's thinking AI. What
(27:42):
is AI going to do? How is it going to
change things for your business, for our business, for your
world in general?
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's a great and I sort
of said this when I when I brought it up
at the conference last week. It's hard to not have
the discussion about AI. And it almost feels like it's
a buzzword or a fad. It's not a fad.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
It is a fit.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
It is here and it's evolving rapidly. And my take
on it is that generative AI agentic AI. It is
evolving at such a fast pace that in the next
couple of years we're going to look back on today
twenty twenty five and feel like things were so primitive,
just like when we look back two years ago. It
(28:25):
feels that way. It is accelerating rapidly, and it's very
easy to dismiss it or just to you know, not
be happy about it and sort of ostrich and put
your head in the sand. My take is you cannot
fight progress.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
It's certainly not technology.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Especially, and it is what it is, and it's better
to be part of understanding it, mastering it, leveraging it
to advance business, to advance content creation, to advance anything
in your life, versus ignoring it. Because the future of
the world is not going to be replaced by AI.
(29:04):
The future of the world is going to be led
by people who embrace AI. And so when you think
about companies, when you think about businesses, and this is
a huge, huge focus for us at USCREEN. It's all about,
now that this piece of technology is available, how can
we leverage it to supercharge our business? And that is
finding ways to take administrative tasks work that was very cumbersome.
(29:31):
How do we actually leverage AI to help us be better,
better at serving our customers, better at delivering products, just
better at growing the business. And we take a very
similar approach when we think about how we can bring
in artificial intelligence to help our customers. And it's interesting because,
especially with content creation, there seems to be a little
(29:51):
bit of a dichotomy. I think there's a school of
people who are all about, let me leverage AI in
any way, shape or form. That's AI videos, that's AI storytelling,
any AI content creation. And there's a lot of people
who've sort of like drawn a hard line around storytelling.
Content creation is for the humans, and I don't want
AI to be involved. Our take is, let us at
(30:14):
least help with something that everyone agrees with, which is
that cumbersome, boring administrative task. How do we infuse artificial
intelligence within the U screen experience to really help our
creators get their content out there faster so that they
don't have to spend as much time tagging content, building
a catalog, et cetera. We do that. We also think
it can help create a much more personalized experience for
(30:36):
their end users. So if you think about a consumer
logging into a video catalog where there's hundreds, if not
thousands of video for artificial intelligence to deliver them the
exact right video at the right time, versus what happens
now if you log into Netflix, you take twenty minutes
just to figure out what to.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Watch, and sometimes you come up with nothing exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I mean, it's almost like going back to win. It's
overwhelming and so we think there's a lot of opportunity there.
Now we are seeing I mean, you look at what
open ai has come out with with Sora, and there
is a lot of dollars going into a lot of
different startups in the AI space who are building some
pretty incredible pieces of technology that I mean truly it's
(31:20):
mind blowing. And you know, I think these are the
conversations we're having with our customers, which is, how can
we support you? How can we help you? It's hard
for us to draw that bright line because we have
customers who are embracing digital twins. They want to have
an AI version of themselves that their community can have
a conversation with.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
And so I haven't even heard of that digital twins.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, exactly. I mean there's that's the thing. There's this
whole gamut out there. My advice to anyone, to friends,
to family, to people who work for me is if
you are not already experimenting with AI, and that is
you know, opening up chat, GPT, opening up Claude with
perplexity and just starting to understand and it's potential, and
that is truly level one out of maybe ten different levels.
(32:04):
You are going to start to feel left behind because
you are going to be walking around the land where
there's a lot of other people who are using AI
to supercharge their lives. If that's meal planning, travel planning,
managing their calendars, managing their entire lives. I think it's
better to embrace it and really think about how you
can harness it to make your life easier.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah, and I think you'd agree with me that, you know,
in the creative world, the world of you know, because
I have a law degree in intellectual property, so there's
all kinds of intellectual property issues and all this kind
of stuff in that world. Creators aren't thrilled about it
because you know, they want humans watching humans and that
kind of stuff. There's lots and lots of issues and
(32:45):
discussions about this, But I do agree with you that
you kind of got to get on that train and
then kind of figure it out. I talk about it
as the train has left the station. It's a freight train,
it's going one hundred miles an hour, and you're standing
on the track saying stop. It's just going to run
you over right, all right, So there's got to be
another way to embrace it. And we're not sure what
it is. But it's funny every time I talk about
AI in one of my podcasts, I think this is
(33:07):
going to be dating itself because AI is moving. It's
such a fast rate that you know, like you mentioned Zora,
there's going to be fifty other platforms like that.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Absolutely, I mean, and there's going to be a lot
of companies who launch and then don't make it, and
there's a lot of investment going into it. But I
think everybody agrees that there is a world and I'm
an optimist, but there is a world where artificial intelligence
can make a lot of the problems of society, maybe
(33:35):
not eradicate, but at least make them a lot less significant.
And I think that's there's tremendous potential for everyone to
understand that, and even in your personal life, to make
it make your life that much.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah, there will be applications that are good, some that aren't,
but we'll see how that all plays out, right, Okay,
So last sort of question and direction, now that you've
you know, kind of met a lot of the creators
in who you deal with, and you're very involved in
this world, this entrepreneurial world. If you were a young
filmmaker and I know you don't come from that world.
(34:08):
And I say, filmmaker, let me see content creator having
spoken and seeing sort of the experience of who your
clients are. How would you point people like I teach
at two film schools, and you know, every year semester
there's fifty new, aspiring, bright eyed students who are looking
at the future. I mean, I'm a big advocate of
your company obviously and of your platform, right and I
(34:29):
think that's the direction to go, but it can be daunting.
And you know, and I know you have young kids.
I mean, what do you think the future is and
sort of the direction that they should content creators should
be thinking about. Now that we've talked AI and all
this other stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yeah, I mean I think the keyword for me, I
mean there's probably a few, but the keyword is authenticity.
And so this goes to like broader themes that I
think are going on in society right now. Not to
get a little abstract, I like this and.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I think it's very relevant to say.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Atich if you will, but you know, I feel like
like it or not, a lot of people's attention have
moved from a physical, analog world right where everyone knew
their neighbors and everyone had a different community places that
they would go maybe over the weekends or after school
or what have you, or office space to world where
(35:21):
a lot of people's time and attention is on screens,
if it's with work, if it's on the little screen
when they're passing time, if it's watching TV, et cetera.
And what that means is that there is this massive
opportunity for content creators to create content that will speak
to an audiences. And I think, what's happening And I
(35:42):
think again, it goes back to the testament of YouTube,
where there's a lot of niche audiences out there. There are
a lot of people who have very specific interests where
it may not have gotten covered on like a cable
TV show, but is now because YouTube, you can have
an end of one watching your content. There's going to
be someone who's going to want to see it. And
so what's going to make those niche audiences want to
(36:05):
view your content is if it feels authentic and if
it feels like you're telling a really great story. Because
there's going to be people out there who are going
to look for that connection. They're going to look for
that community and so my advice is is if you
have an idea of content that you want to get
out in the world, or a story you want to tell,
just do it. It doesn't have to be perfect. I
(36:27):
think that's the other thing too, Like you think about
filmmaking twenty thirty years ago, like it had to be
final cut, ready to go out, tons of time, editing, etc.
For long form. Now it's more about you got to
get the content out there. You can start to get feedback,
you can start to get reactions, and you just have
to put it out there. And if you look at
(36:47):
a lot of content creators who now have fifty seventy
hundreds of millions of followers, they'll even say, like, for
years I was doing this and no one was really
paying attention, but I knew that there were people who
liked it. And then it sort of took on a
life of its own. And I'm not saying this is
the path to get to one hundred million followers, no, no,
I know, but I think it is like, have confidence
(37:08):
in what you're putting out there. It is a little bit.
You have to have courage, you have to be bold,
you have to get it out there, be authentic, to
you tell you.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Have a voice, and be it your voice.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
And even on like a YouTube or social platform, you
can start to understand what your audience cares about. You
can look at engagement rates, you can look at their comments,
you can have them, you know, complete polls within the
platform to understand what sort of content they want. And
I think that's my other piece of advice is like
listen to your audience, understand what they're interested in, and
continue to get that content out there. Because people's attention
(37:41):
are on these platforms and they are looking for your content,
so why not sort of put it out there for them?
And I truly believe that a lot of our content
creators who've been really successful in you Screen, not only
do they have this incredible content, but their community that
they've built really feels like they have a connection to
the content, to the creator that is portable that they're saying, Okay, yes,
(38:05):
we have this relationship on YouTube, We're going to sort
of take it to the next level on a U
screen platform.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
So I felt that because I'm, you know, in the
fitness worlds super competitive. There were lots of fitness people
at your summit last week, yes, but they all seem
to have their own sort of voice, persona authentic you know,
even though half of them are teaching the same thing exactly,
they just have their personality, they.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Have their own angles, right, and it is It is
interesting because I've worked with many different like Pilates instructors,
and I have my favorites, and they're all teaching me
to do the exact.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Exactly Piloates is Pilates, but just how you kind of
as our business, we say there's the story, and then
there's how you tell the story exactly. Yeah, so the
story can be the exact same, you know, the lessons
and plotias, but it's how you deliver it that's exactly right. Yeah, Okay,
I'm going to give you one time. I'm going to
first plug what I'm doing and then I'm gonna let
you plug it. Even though I think we've already done
(39:00):
a lot of accolades for uscreen, what Alison's talking about
I think is revolutionary. I think their company's doing great things.
I'm a big fan, obviously, and I didn't bring her
on to say that, all right. I brought her on
because I wanted to have this discussion. What I'm doing
is I'm creating a community so that you don't have
to go it alone, all right, So that we can
do your marketing for you, so we can do your
distribution for you, which is basically driving it to a
(39:22):
community that you're going to own and be able to
make it sustainable and monetize. And I think that's the future.
I think that everybody, all these indie filmmakers are getting lost.
I love YouTube. I think it's a great platform, and
I think it's done fantastic things for the world. But
as an indifilmmaker, you kind of get lost on it
and you really don't make any money. And that goes
(39:42):
for to being Pluto and all the big streaming platforms,
which are all fantastic as a consumer because you can
access a lot of stuff. It's just hard for an
indie film to break through. So this would be maybe smaller,
but you don't have to go it alone. I'm creating
that community where we can do it together. We can
basically act like a studio, do it as a studio
would do it. Have a marketing department, have a legal department,
(40:04):
have a piracy department, have a distribution operation where we
can get our own analytics and monetized directly. So that's
my pitch for why I'm going down this road, and
you get the final say and you can pitch you Screen.
I'm not sure you could do it any better than that.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
No, I mean, I appreciate all of the kind words
that you said, and personally, I am just so inspired
by every single one of our customers. And you know,
after spending some time with you on Friday and hearing
you today, it's just it is inspirational to hear how
much you care about this next generation of filmmaking because
(40:40):
it is truly a craft, it is truly an art,
and you know, the whole notion of distribution is getting
turned upside down.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
It's a disaster. It has been for decades, That's the truth.
Just nobody has has said it out loud, That's right.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah, And so just to hear what you are building
and knowing that you Screen can be a big part
of it is really what gets me in our entire team.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I could not do this without a platform like you Screen.
I'm not saying you're the only ones. There are other ones.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Were the best.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
You are the best. No, I did my research, like
I teach this stuff. I know where your competitors are.
Because I teach that to my students. I say, here's
the competitors in this space. This is the one I chose.
Here's the reason why that's right again, now you know,
I mean, I'm feeling privileged that you came on the show,
but not for that reason. I'm just being honest. I'm
your customer, like I'm already paying customer yours, and I
feel good about it. But you can't do this alone.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
It's two.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
This is ridiculously I mean, think about your technology team,
what you guys do. You've created the ability for creators
like us to have our own Netflix. I mean, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Crazy.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
When I discovered that, I said, hip array, this is
exactly what I was aiming in. And you're right about
the indie film filmmakers. Like I spent most of my
life in distribution. I was on the other side of that.
I was the guy who was not, you know, giving
the fairest deals to filmmakers and everything. I didn't know
any better. That was my world. And when I became
an indie filmmaker and I saw sort of the daunting
(42:05):
task in the road that they had to go and
all the challenges it's overwhelming. It is just it's such
a turnoff for creators. I just want to pave a
new path for them. And everybody says, oh, distribution's broken.
I say, no, guys, distribution's all broke. It never was working.
It was never working. I can tell you thirty years ago,
I would have said the exact same thing. It was
(42:26):
never working. It works for the studios because they have
their own marketing department, they have their own distribution channels.
Now they're totally vertically integrated, their own streaming platforms.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Think of you as an indie filmmaker. You don't have that,
you need it. Now we're gonna have it. We're gonna
have our own SVOD and TVOD streaming platform because of
U Screen, and we're gonna have our own marketing department.
And that is going to be a major breakthrough. That's
a game changer for indie filmmakers. Hopefully they'll come on board.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
I couldn't agree more. It's all being democratized now. Now
you have access.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
Exactly exactly, and you don't have to go it alone.
That's the secret, because going alone is just almost impossible. Yeah,
all right, Allison, thank you so much for coming on
the show.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Thanks, I really appreciate it was sort.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Of last minute notice, but good luck with the platform.
I look forward to obviously engaging a lot more. And
by the way, I was overwhelmed at the summit. I
just had no idea how much functionality your platform has.
So I'm gonna have to figure out.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
I'm gonna have to figure out we offer a lot
of different fews.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
We're gonna have to hire somebody, honestly to help me
navigate all that because because I know what I know,
and I know that I'm just not good enough to
manage all the functionality.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
Well that's I mean, not to get into AI, but
like we even want our customers to be to log in
and for us to be able to recommend here based
on what we're seeing, go take advantage of this one feature.
So I think we're here to help you and we
want to make it even more usable. But it is
a pretty sophisticated piece of technology that we've built very
(43:56):
thoughtfully over the last ten years. That's really a testament
to the founder PJ and the co founder Nick and
the entire teammate.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
You scream, okay, well, good luck with it, and I
look forward to engaging a lot more in the future.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Thank you so much for having me. It's great to
see you.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Thanks a lot, thank you.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.