• You are welcome to promote here, but members are also welcome to reply with their opinions.

Introducing the NEW way to distribute and view films: www.eyesoda.com

S

Sean.D

Hey filmmakers and film lovers alike,

My name is Sean and I’m here to promote a new website called Eyesoda. It’s a way for filmmakers to distribute their films and, likewise, for film lovers to view them.

It’s a fairly simple process, actually. With the help of the Eyesoda team, a filmmaker uploads his or her film and we set a price. From there, we develop a marketing plan for each film to give it the most exposure. The distribution agreement is non-exclusive, with a 50/50 split on revenue. On the flip side, viewers choose which movies they want to view, purchase e-tickets for those movies that remain valid for a month, and get to enjoy those films within that month whenever they please.

Now that the site is in its beta stage, our biggest concern is finding some members. After all, what’s a party without people? That’s why we’re having a promotion: the first 50 filmmakers to upload their films get $100 (per filmmaker, not per film) and the first 50 film lovers that use our invite tool to get 10 of their friends to join Eyesoda get $100, also.

Of course, that’s the cliff notes version of it all. If you want to know more, visit the website and watch the three films titled “EyeDream”, “EyeCandy”, and “EyeWelcomeYou” (http://www.eyesoda.com/).

The community is growing much quicker than I had anticipated. I've been told that, as of this posting, we have over 100 members, which isn't too bad for a film community with only one film to watch. However, we're hoping that with your help, both of those numbers will be able to skyrocket within the next few months.

I know that this is a really new way of approaching the film watching experience and particularly the indie film watching experience, so I’m ready for any and all questions that anyone may have. However, Kneko, the founder of Eyesoda, wants to make the experience as personal as possible and will also gladly respond to whatever questions or concerns you have.

I’ll check this topic for any kinds of questions and comments, but if you’d like, you can e-mail me, too.
sean.d@eyesoda.com – to contact me
kneko.b@eyesoda.com – to contact the founder herself, Kneko
Until the next post,

Sean Dominguez
Eyesoda Production Assistant
 
First -- Welcome!

Second -- Good luck with this project!

Third -- get your boots on and be ready for the questions that are about to be hurled at you. Fair warning: we see many posts like yours on a regular basis -- people starting websites to host indie films with potential revenue involved. If you want to make a pre-emptive strike, you may want to give a reply that addresses the following:

1. How are you specifically marketing your website (and the films) in order to compete with other sites like yours.

2. Who is your target, and why will they pay to watch the movies on your site when there are so many movies available on the internet for free?

3. Do you have projections for growth and a plan for how you intend to meet those goals?
 
Welcome and thanks for being so straight with us... that really sets you out from the crowd.

Hope this project grows and grows.

All the best.
 
Hello all,

Thanks for the warm feedback; your comments made me smile while I was reading them.

John - I e-mailed Kneko for her response to your questions and this is exactly what she sent back to me:

1. How are you specifically marketing your website (and the films) in order to compete with other sites like yours.
[KB:] Eyesoda.com: the unique combination of being a community and a Web destination for film and, in the future, live music (via streaming). As such, we offer our members a very interactive environment to make connections/interactions/friends in, to explore and expand upon their interest in independent film and to express their unique interest in film and music. With this being said, are marketing strategy is tiered.

On the one hand, we have developed (and are refining) a process of long-tail marketing for each film/group of related films to specific, interested communities. For example, African-American film, Women in Film, Documentaries, etc. We plan to leverage the Web and community/viral marketing to position each film to the people that would most likely want to see if because it is relevant to them, their life, and what they have expressed interest in. We allow members to create “Viewers Clubs” which allow them to create their own community around a very specific genre/category and this also lends itself to both viral and long-tail marketing tactics. The combination of all the long-tails segments should create a diverse, yet large audience of viewers for all filmmakers.

On the other end, we plan to build brand recognition through guerilla marketing tactics offline, at film festivals and film/music-related events, through traditional media and press and via main stream web marketing. Most importantly, we have begun to invest in creating the right incentive structure for our members to reward them and encourage them to do the things we want: become members, invite friends to become members and, most importantly, pay to watch films. We will do this through a variety of on-going give-aways for members exhibiting “good behavior.”

The combination of all this will create strong, positive momentum and allow the viral effect to blossom. We’ve only been building our community for a bit less than 2 weeks and we already have more than 100 members and roughly 12 filmmakers that have accepted our agreement. This is not much in the Web world, but I think it’s a promising start.


2. Who is your target, and why will they pay to watch the movies on your site when there are so many movies available on the internet for free?
[KB:] Eyesoda is uniquely different from many, if not all, of the other sites that either attempt to distribute independent films online or that offer free movies.

First of all, we are building our film database based on films that have been in at least one recognized festival – so we have a focus on quality (whereas free sites take anything). We also focus on feature length or featurette films (20+ minutes), providing our viewers with deeper viewing experiences that they can control (watch it over a period of time, full screen, and in the future stream to your Flat Screen/TV if it’s connected to the Web). We do this because I don’t believe that viewers are going to pay $2 for a $3 or 5 minute clip, no matter how good it is. Additionally, there are millions of films being downloaded from the web each year, but in just about all cases, users must also download some proprietary application to watch it and/or wait for it to download. This means potential viewers have to make more than a casual investment to even see their first film via other sites. At Eyesoda.com, creating a profile takes less than a minute. It’s free and open to anyone over 13 years. As a member you can watch trailers – they are served up to you as you desire them, when you desire them. So, you don’t have to search through long lists or thumbnails or text to find something interesting. It’s like going to movies in your own home. If you see a film you like you watch it instantly. No new applications to download and install, no need to enter your credit card information. We use PayPal.

Secondly, we are different because we focus on quality. We do not accept all films and though we are not interested in determining which films are “good” and which are not, we do ensure that we’re working with professional filmmakers with passion and that want to truly interact with their audience. This is unlike other major sites, even the likes of AtomFilms or Joost, because we provide a real link between filmmaker and film lovers that can either be passive or proactive.

Lastly, free sites are not “free,” because users need to endure countless text and/or video ads. Advertisers, not users, pay the bills. Sure this works, but not for feature length films. As a result, there are no text ads on Eyesoda. Though we may allow some video advertisements in the future (that meet specific requirements), filmmakers and viewers can determine if they want to enjoy those ads or not (users can turn ads off and filmmakers can restrict ads being shown with their trailer or film). Advertising is not our only source of revenue, so we don’t need to force down viewers or filmmakers throats. We provide a simple, personal, fun experience for our members and I believe they will gladly pay to see the high-quality independent we provide…it’s about personal, visual, refreshment. Ahhh!

I could go on much longer but I won’t. We’re just starting out and are still adding features and working out the bugs, so I'm really just talking about my vision. But, stay tuned over the next few months and see what becomes a reality.


3. Do you have projections for growth and a plan for how you intend to meet those goals?
[KB:] I do have projections, but I don’t share them. I will say that we hope to build the database of films to between 50-100 films by the end of July and build our users base to around 1000 members by then. That’s still small in the world of the Web, but it’s the beginning of a real community and platform for filmmakers to generate some on-going revenue.
Click to expand...

If you'd like to contact Kneko directly for any questions, feel free to send her an e-mail, which I provided in the original post.
 
Wonderful reply.

Your honest, up-front introduction and sharing of information has apparently made a great impression on our members. (They're even talking about you in other threads.) Good luck with this venture. I wish you well!
 
Just a heads up to you guys, I check this thread everyday, so don't be afraid of asking a question I won't respond to.
 
There are problems in the register page (the genres don't line up with the check-box's) I don't know if I am the only one with this problem or not: and I'm using Firefox 3 on Mac OSx.

Other than that, consider me a member. Is the 50 film-lovers promotion still going on? I could probably get 10 friends to sign up.
 
I must have somehow missed this thread before, but I think this is a great idea. Welcome another new member. :)

EDIT: Windows XP and IE7 worked okay, except in the picture upload section during registration, it cut to text instead of the expected HTML in the summary.
 
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Gotta say, it's really refreshing to have someone marketing here in a straightforward, honest way. I'll check out your site. I purposely don't send my traffic toward the folks who come here with the underhanded "have you seen this site" approach, thank you!
 
Hi Everyone! Thanks for your feedback - it's much appreciated. I have asked one of the programmers to fix the issues that you've mentioned asap. Please keep the feedback coming.

As for the First 50 contest, which awarded a prize of $100 to the first 50 fans that got 10 or more friends to join Eyesoda.com, it ended on July 7th.

BUT, there's an even better "Bling Machine" contest just starting. Eyesoda.com's latest contest is the Community Challenge, which awards a prize to the three members that get the most friends to join in August. It ends on 31 August 2008. There are three prizes: $500 first prize, $300 second prize and $200 third prize. I'll be updating the site this week with the details. But, feel free to send me email with questions or other feedback directly - I will also be posting a blog on IndieTalk...but that's a whole 'nother story. I'll keep you posted and so will Sean D. Thanks for the support and comments! kneko@eyesoda.com
 
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