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With so much content vying for our attention, getting your work seen can often be trickier than bringing it to life. This uphill battle is even harder for independent storytellers who struggle to get their work exhibited and distributed. It’s a problem that business founders Urvisha Patel and Presh Williams know all too well. Having got their start in film exhibition and marketing with their first company Big Picture Film Club, the pair heard these industry woes first-hand and decided to create something new that tackles them head-on.
“We started Big Picture Film Club to support emerging filmmakers who were trying to break into the scene and after every screening we held, we’d always get the same questions: ‘Can you help us find a distributor or someone who can help us with funding?’” remembers Patel, detailing the origins of their latest venture. “That’s what inspired us to sit down and have conversations with the network that we’d built up over the past eight years.”
Listening to their feedback, the pair initially thought they should develop a content-on-demand platform to help link short and independent film projects with new audiences. However, an oversaturation of these models emerging during the pandemic forced them to pivot. “That’s where the idea of Cinnect came from. You could link everyone’s problems to something that was missing. Essentially, it should be easy to find good content,” explains Patel. “We felt like for us to see a change on screen, we needed to see a change behind the screens – and that’s how Cinnect came to be.”
Created with their colleague Richard Baffoe-Djan, Cinnect is a tool that streamlines the distribution process for projects that struggle to get the screentime they deserve. On the flip side of the coin, it uses AI to help distributors make a more informed decision on the commercial viability of new film products.
“What we’ve built helps filmmakers see the commercial value of their content in certain territories,” adds Williams, explaining how artificial intelligence compliments Cinnect’s service. “You can plug in certain scenarios such as release dates and Cinnect can run predictions. It’s not prescriptive but it can demonstrate a probability matrix and that’s helpful. Depending on your risk profile as a seller or a buyer, you can identify what may potentially work and how risky something is.”
It also allows content to be more easily accessed by those with the power to get it out into the world: “A key function of Cinnect is improving the discovery of content,” continues Williams, explaining how distributors can submit key information on things like desired genre or film theme and receive a list of projects tailored to their needs. “It allows them to be as prescriptive as they want so they get a set of titles that really meet their needs.”
Patel also points out how Cinnect can remove any unconscious human biases that may stand in the way of a film’s commercial success. “Sales agents are human. You may not take into account that a title could have the potential to do really well because it’s not something you recognize,” she says. “With Cinnect, we can provide the data that backs up the possibility of something doing well so there’s no reason why a particular film shouldn’t be discovered. It just makes the process a little bit more streamlined.”
With Cinnect already up and running, Patel and Williams joined Creative Enterprise’s Investment Readiness scheme to give their product the best chance of success. “It’s important for us to be on a programme like this because we can only go so far without professional support and investment,” says Patel. “It’s a way for us to establish the best possible way to show up in the market.” Meanwhile, Williams thinks the mentoring element has been key: “It’s been really good at helping us shape our value proposition and figuring out to communicate with would-be investors, sellers and buyers to explain what we do in a way that resonates with them. That’s something the programme has definitely helped with.”
Its also allowed them to build a sustainable runway that’ll help to reinforce any future success. “Like many founders, we wear many different hats and as you start to scale, you need to be focused on where you spend your time and energy,” suggests Williams. “The mentorship is really helpful for keeping you on the right course. You can do a lot on your own but if you want to scale and go far, you need support and experience.” Patel agrees: “It just makes sense for us to be here. There’s only so far we would have gone without this programme.”
Having launched at Cannes Film Festival a few years ago, the duo already have big plans for Cinnect. They hope it’ll level the playing field in an area of the industry that’s often difficult for newcomers to navigate and eventually, change the game entirely. “We want to bring equity to all of the stakeholders in this value chain,” says Patel. “The ultmate goal is to have Cinnect make such an impact in the industry that it changes the way film and content is distributed.”
Words and interviews by Simon Bland