Prescreen Launches As A Social Discovery Platform For Indie Movies

One of the challenges for Indie movies is getting exposure to consumers. Studio films have massive marketing budgets, and are able to use these channels to get traffic. But movies created by independent producers don’t have a set way to gain buzz. Enter Prescreen, a new startup launching today to give filmmakers and distributors an alternative to traditional advertising and distribution channels.

Basically, Prescreen offers users the ability to subscribe to a daily email alert, which will inform them of one Indie film per day. The user can then visit Prescreen to view trailers for free and if interested, can rent movies to stream on demand for up to 60 days. Isers can also earn rewards and discounts for sharing movie information on their social networks.

Prescreen also gives filmmakers and distributors demographics and other data for the audience that has viewed their films.

At launch, Prescreen which was founded by Shawn Bercuson, will be debuting Kino Lorber’s “The Robber;” a story of a champion marathoner who leads a double life as a serial bank robber, sprinting between fixes (and away from police cavalcades) as many as three times a day.

Bercuson says that while distribution platforms like Netflix and Hulu now include indie films, the discovery mechanism for actually finding and advertising these films isn’t great. By using the email per day channel, Prescreen can get more eyeballs, says Bercuson. Of course, this depends on Prescreen getting a large email userbase. But Bercuson is confident that the site is disruptive enough to gain a loyal (and large following).