What is it with college kids and online video challenges? There are plenty of startups catering to this strange video niche/fetish. IBeatYou and Strutta (read our review) have dedicated their entire Websites to this activity. And now Blowtorch Entertainment, the independent movie studio that raised $50 million last November, is getting in on the action with a Facebook app called Blown (and is using the tagline, “Get Blown”). Blowtorch makes feature-length independent films, and is shooting one right now in Philadelphia with Luke Wilson called Tenure. But it also tries to engage with its potential college audience online through its Website, and now on Facebook. For instance, anyone can create their own short videos and the best ones get re-shot with professional actors by Blowtorch and will be shown before its main features in theaters across the country. Now with Get Blown, the idea is to get this audience to issue video challenges to each other. Right now, it is only a Facebook app, but Bebo and mobile versions are coming soon. The barriers to participate here are really low. You don’t have to shoot your own scripted video. All you need to do is come up with a challenge, or join one, such as finding the best human beatbox video on YouTube, the worst male dance, or coming up with the cheesiest pick-up line. You can film yourself doing this, or simply find examples already out there on the Web and load them up into each challenge, where they can then be voted on and spread virally. Here’s an example of one that the company came up with for finding photos of the lamest tattoos: Zach Challenge: Lamest Tattoo from George Johnson on Vimeo. CrunchBase Information Blowtorch ibeatyou Strutta Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Kelly Rodriques and Paul Schiff are creating a new Hollywood studio from scratch called Blowtorch Entertainment. The company is just launching with a $50 million investment from Ignition Partners, Hollywood individuals, and at least one (unnamed) hedge fund. Rodriques was a partner at Ignition, and before that a digital ad executive. Schiff is the Hollywood producer behind Rushmore, My Cousin Vinny, and Date Movie. Rodriques and Schiff came by my office earlier this week to brief me on Blowtorch. Blowtorch wants to make cult movies that appeal to college kids. It plans to make or acquire 18 feature-length films over the next three years at about $5 million a pop. (That hedge fund will be providing an additional $40 million a year to pay for it all). “We want to be in the Napoleon Dynamite business,” says Rodriques. As it is making these films, it wants to involve the potential audience to a greater degree than ever before through its Website, where people will be able to help cast movies (we’ve heard that idea recently) or pick the songs for the soundtrack, among other ideas. “It can’t be anarchy,” warns Schiff. “We won’t have a movie at the end of the process if everyone’s vote counts and impacts the project equally. But we still want the audience to participate in some way.” So in addition to helping to steer the development of each movie, Blowtorch audience members will get a shot at having their own videos shown in theaters alongside the feature films. Here’s how it will work: On the site, which is not much more than a placeholder right now, people will be able to watch additional digital shorts made by Blowtorch, as well as upload their own videos. All the videos on the site will be voted on, and spread virally through Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Twitter, and other social applications. The audience-made videos that get the most votes then will be professionally reshot and included in a 5-to-15-minute pre-show collection that will be shown in theaters before each of Blowtorch’s feature films. Blowtorch has already cut deals with 600 theaters nationwide near college campuses and in urban areas that will dedicate one screen to Blowtorch Nights every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Audience members in the theaters will also be able to vote for the digital shorts as they are watching them through their mobile phones and send links → Read More
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