Disclaimer All research on startup and the whole investment memo has been done for personal use of Akim Arhipov.
🍿 Filmustage. A brand-new service for filmmakers, video, game, VFX, and animation studios. Helping Filmmakers to release movies faster. ⚡
General overview
Launched in: January 2021
Company: Filmustage, Inc. (Delaware, USA)
Filmustage is a company providing software for film production management. The solution combines Artificial Intelligence script breakdown, semi-automatic scheduling, script summary reports, visual references, team access, draft budget estimation, and compatibility with industry standards and formats.
The problem
The core process of the pre-production is the script breakdown. Every word in the script must be translated into real-life detail on the set: location, wardrobe, sounds, props, etc. And only after that do you need to spend hours scrolling through numerous marketplaces and catalogs, creating shooting schedules, reports, budgets, and other project documents. To be able to work with your team you need a single interface film production software.
But what the industry has now:
- No single interface for film production
- Inefficient and disorganized methods of work
- High entry level into industry processes
- Software incompatibility
- Poor customer support
Solution
- Single interface film production ecosystem
- Highly automated and coherent practices
- Modern and hyper-personalized UX
- Compatible with the industry standards
Markets size
- TV, Video & Film TAM (GLOBAL): $100B
- Movie and Video Production TAM (USA): $79.3B
- Games TAM (USA): $90.13B
- Entertainment Insurance TAM (USA): $17B
- Rental Companies TAM (USA): $2.3B
There are 14,320 companies in the industry in the US only.
Also:
- VFX Studios
- TV Shows
- Animations Studios
Target audience
Filmustage started with the B2C model as the go-to strategy. Below you can see the target groups we are focusing on:
- 1st ADs
- Directors
- Producers
- Line producers
- Directors of Photography
- Screenwriters
- etc.
Our B2B model is intended for the following client types:
- Film studios
- VFX studios
- Animation studios
- Production companies
- Game dev companies
- Virtual production companies
- Props agencies
- Locations agencies
- Asset marketplaces
- Media holdings
- Co-Production companies
- Film commissions
- Screenwriter's services
- Entertainment insurance
- Rental companies
Product
Key features
- Automatic Script Breakdown powered by Artificial Intelligence
- Script Summary & Analitycs
- Semi-automatic Shooting Scheduling
- Reference Reports and Integration with 3d and 2d assets
- Team Access & Collaboration
- Budget Estimation
General flow:
- Upload your script Create your project in two clicks and upload the script. Filmustage will automatically create the script breakdown with all the categories you need: Cast, Props, Locations, Makeup, etc.
- Customize your list You can easily find, add, change or remove any breakdown element and add new categories
- Breakdown summary export Get a clear big-picture overview of your entire project by exporting the results in Movie Magic Scheduling, Gorilla Scheduling, Spreadsheets, and PDF files
- Scheduling Specify each scene & shoot locations; estimate pre-production and shoot times. Use real tags on Google Maps to find the location you want to shoot. Drag and drop scenes of your strip to reorder.
Validations
B2C
Number of users: 3900+
All-time paying customers: 300+
Active users: 95+
ARR: $60,000+
Geography:
- US: 65%
- England: 12%
- Europe: 11%
- Canada: 9%
- India: 3%
B2B
We started our B2B journey in February 2022. And this is our progress:
- Amazon Studios: planned demo. We will have an enterprise demonstration of our offering for Tim Clawson (Head of Worldwide Production and Post Production Amazon Studios), Michelle Ow (Head of Strategy & Business Operations for Production), and Jonathon Lee (Head of Media Engineering and Innovation).
- Apple TV+: presented a demo. Possible price: starting at $1500/mo
- Sony & Sony Pictures: discussed our technology and presented a demo. Possible price: selling API, Exit
- Crafty Apes: signed advisor agreement. They are doing about 100 projects a month (over 1200 a year). Possible price: starting at $5000/mo
- Bento Box: signed an NDA and started our collaboration. Possible price: starting at $2000/mo
- Happy Mushroom: used our breakdown solution for VFX post-production on the new Netflix show. Possible price: starting at $1500/mo
- Free Your Mind Media Holding: used our breakdown and scheduling solution for content production. Status: contract negotiation
Partnerships & Integrations
- Final Draft: signed an NDA and started our collaboration. Possible price: selling API, Exit
- Coverfly: signed an NDA and started our collaboration. Possible price: selling API, Exit
- Shutterstock: held a call with the Director of Shutterstock | TurboSquid. Trial integration launched. Possible price: selling API
- TurboSquid: held a call with the Director of Shutterstock | TurboSquid. Trial integration launched. Possible price: selling API
- NVIDIA OMNIVERSE: discussed our solution with the Director of Omniverse Sim Data Ops. Possible price: selling API
A detailed and complete table with B2B can be found here.
In addition:
Filmustage presented their section about the Digital transformation of movie pre-production and Artificial intelligence tools at the European Film Market - an event connected to Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival.
And our client, Roger Cristian, legendary feature film director, set decorator, and production designer, validated our solution. He won an Academy Award for his work on the original Star Wars and was Oscar-nominated for his work on Alien.
Check the part with Roger Cristian.
Marketing
CAC: ~$130 LTV: ~$320
Marketing channels:
- Google Ads
- Presentations
- Referral program
- PR and materials in specialized magazines
- Film festivals. Check our Filmustage's European Film Market Event.
Further plans:
- Ambassadors & Agents program
- Industry events & exhibitions
- PR and materials in specialized magazines
Roadmap
2020-2021 (done)
- AI script breakdown
- Scheduling
- Script reports
- Custom categories
Q1-Q2 2022
- AI system improvement
- Scenes Synopsis
- Reference Reports
- 3d / 2d assets API integration
- Custom notes
- Import and export in .sex and .fdx
Q3-Q4 2022
- Team Access
- Scene Breaks
- One Line Schedule
- Multi-Factor Authentication
Q1-Q3 2023
- Budget Estimation
- Batch Script Processing
- Script Revisions
- Production Calendar
- NLP localization
Competition
Filmustage makes 100 scene script breakdown in just 1 minute (instead of days of manual work). There are no competitors with such functionality and features in the whole Galaxy, so we truly believe we've brought something new to the filmmaking industry.
Competitors:
- Movie Magic Scheduling Revenue '21 Q2: $194m
- Celtx Revenue '21 Q2: $18m
Indirect competitors:
Their functionality:
✅ Scheduling ✅ Manual script breakdown ❌ Automatic script breakdown ❌ Marketplaces and API integrations
Team
Founders (full-time):
- Egor Dubrovsky, CEO 10 years in Film Industry, 9 years in Web Development
- Ruslan Khamidullin, CTO 11 years in Software Development, 5 years in Neural Networks
- Andrei Karalkou, COO 11 years in Software Development & Automation
Full-time:
- Vitaliya Karalkova, Director of Marketing and Partnerships 6 years in affiliate marketing, business development, project management
- Yulia Gushchina, Head of Sales and Business Development 9 years in international business development and sales
- Ivan Zhurko, Head of Product 14 years in marketing, user research, business development, and product management
- Slava Haurylau, Server, Front End 11 years in Web & Server Development
Advisors:
- Chris LeDoux Founder and VFX Supervisor at CraftyApes LLC
- Byron Saltysiak ex-VP of Warner Brothers Media
- Vadim Rogovskiy 3X founder, 12X angel investor, Forbes contributor, mentor at 500 Startups
Investments so far
Stage: Seed
The number of investors: 6 investors until today, SAFE.*
- TechMinsk ($80k, fund)
- US angel ($65k)
- Ukraine angel ($100k)
- US angel ($50k, ex WhatsApp)
- US angel ($100k, ex Snap)
- Geek Ventures ($100k, US fund)
Amount raised until today: ca. € 495 000
*Cap Table: In-depth document available upon the request
Round information
General Ask: ca. 400 000 €
Investment instrument: SAFE
Valuation cap: ca. 5 000 000 €
Discount: 20%
Commitments so far: ca. 150 000 €
Minimum next investment: ca. 800 000 - 1 200 000 € after 6-8 months after closing the current round
General Cap Table: 85% founders / 15% option pool
Current Burn Rate: ca. 22 000 € / month
Current Runway: 6 months
General Cap Table:
Founder: 85%
Option Pool: 15%
Funds allocation:
- Growing the team
- Marketing and expansion on the B2C side of the business
- B2B sales, conferences, and festivals
- Proceed with hypothesis testing to improve and add to an existing product
The latest Pitch Deck is HERE.
References:
