Revolutions come in stages. This is as true of political and societal upheavals as it is of business transformations. Sometimes, to borrow from the film editor’s lexicon, these transitions are the jarring equivalent of jump cuts, scene wipes and other radical gear-shifts; but more often they take the more gradual form of dissolves in which one scenario is seamlessly replaced by another and the story moves on to a new phase. And so it is with Slated. Having played a seminal role in re-thinking the entire film packaging and financing process, our pioneering website is now undergoing a smooth transition of its own.
Two years after introducing Slated to the industry at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Co-founder Duncan Cork is stepping down as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors. The Board has appointed Co-founder and Chairman Stephan Paternot as Slated's new CEO going forward. A serial entrepreneur who spearheaded one of the first social networking sites, Stephan went on to co-found the film production company PalmStar Entertainment. He is the founder and general partner of Actarus, the angel funds that have backed such crowdfunding portals as LendingClub, SecondMarket, AngelList and Indiegogo.
As Slated’s new hands-on chief, Stephan will now build on Duncan’s own considerable achievements. Inspired by his desire to democratize and simplify film investment, Duncan has led the company creatively and strategically to the unique position it enjoys today, a novel networking and financing platform embraced by some of the most influential stakeholders in the film and entertainment industries. Slated's vetted membership has grown to more than eleven thousand, and in that time several dozen co-financing transactions have been successfully concluded as a direct result of introductions made on the website. So far, nearly 50 of the 320 projects on Slated have completed funding, some as a happy result of the visibility and validation they receive simply by being listed in front of industry peers. A new force in film financing has been born.
Duncan has nurtured Slated through the challenges that launching a platform as disruptive as this inevitably presents. Confident in Slated’s future, he has pledged his ongoing support as an advisor. Judging by the last twelve months alone, that onward journey will be paced by accelerating change. After all, Slated’s members have already enjoyed a front-row seat to many of the most significant business stories in independent cinema this past year. It started with Sundance 2013, where THE WAY, WAY BACK score the year’s biggest indie distribution deal and then backed that up with a $23.3 million box office gross worldwide; it has continued through all the awards plaudits that have come the way of Oscar-nominated THE SQUARE and its groundbreaking deal with Netflix; and now another Sundance Film Festival has come to a close with the Grand Jury Prize being handed out to RICH HILL, an ensemble acting award for GOD HELP THE GIRL and universal critical acclaim for A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT.
These, and the many other success stories on Slated, are films in which private investors, not just crowd-donating patrons, could have participated in during their formative months in pre-production. What’s stopping more investors from entering that fold, believes Stephan, is the film industry’s chronic inefficiency when it comes to fundraising and communication. It is a problem that Slated is committed to solving, as it now widens its global net. Interviewed for an article just published by LA Weekly, he made clear the mission: “We want to make it as easy to invest in a film as it is easy to buy a book on Amazon.”
Welcome to the next chapter of Slated, an expansive new phase that will be focused on turbo-charging film industry introductions. In turn, these introductions will create targeted new job and business opportunities that we will present to our members.
You only have to skim through our recent filmonomics essays on film packaging to appreciate the steady hand, eye and stomach needed to thread the financing needle. Introductions – to money, to partners and to talent, preferably all at the same time - are so often the missing ingredient in that packaging process. A window into how Slated can help forge such introductions was provided this very week by an illuminating article in Deadline Hollywood about Matthew Modine and his decision to bring his directorial project THE ROCKING HORSEMEN to our platform in preference to micro-donation alternatives.
Although producer Orian Williams first met Matthew Modine many years ago, the two didn’t reconnect until Matthew started tracking Orian on Slated. A meeting resulted and he came onboard to produce the 1960s-set teenage rock ‘n’ roll film. “I’ve always said getting in front of someone is key,” Orian told Deadline. He still prefers in-person pitching to digital dealings, but “this way we’re bringing this project to a lot of people we might not have thought of, and to financiers I would never have met.” The barricades are coming down, the opportunities are rising up.