Dolphin Entertainment and Kynetic Media Ventures have launched Graviteur Studios, a production venture designed to tap into the creator economy to produce modestly budgeted movies and TV projects.
Dolphin CEO Bill O’Dowd and Kynetic CEO David Freeman will join forces on a production venture that will target projects budgeted in the $1 million to $10 million range. The hope is that Graviteur will serve as a bridge for YouTubers and social media stars to make the leap into mainstream film and TV with deals and terms that allow creators to retain ownership and control as they do on top social media platforms.
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The momentum for these kind of ventures has been building for some time but it’s been accelerated in recent weeks by the box office success of two low-budget horror films: Focus Features’ “Obsession” (produced for under $1 million) and A24’s “Backrooms” (produced for about $10 million).
Graviteur’s focus will be on the genre side horror films, YA, anime, comedy, horror, YA, romance, sci-fi and sports. The partners see opportunity to tap into the well-established and loyal fandoms of key creators who have the vision to lead projects that can hold the stage beyond social media. A key difference for Graviteur will be in how they prioritize “speed-to-market” in content creation.
“It’s not about talking about the project the way that legacy [media] does, three to four weeks ahead of the release doing a big P&A push. It’s about bringing that audience in day one and bringing them through the development phase and the script-writing phase and the production phase to make them feel like with these creators who they know and love so authentically are really feeling like they’re part of the project. So that when we distribute, we really build up an excitement heading into that release weekend — which could be theatrical, or it could be streaming,” Freeman said.
Freeman, who was formerly a top digital executive at CAA, and O’Dowd have known each other for years as friends and business associates. They’ve both worked in different areas of the digital realm and both have broad experience developing content and products tied to youth culture and the kind of strong fandoms that creators can engender.
“We really want to move the process along quicker, more faster, be more nimble to get to green light, be more nimble to get into production, and not necessarily track to legacy filmmaking,” Freeman said. “Part of the creator movement is the nimbleness, the freedom to go, and we very much want that to be at the heart of what Graviteur stands for. These audiences that creators have built for us are not used to waiting years for new IP. They’re used to much shorter timelines. So speed to market and audience-first marketing are at the heart of who Graviteur is.”
Graviteur is developing an initial slate of scripted projects, including its first feature film, “Crush Party,” which is described as a YA thriller written by Johnny Saras. Graviteur is looking to cast the movie with creator talent, with negotiations are under way.
“We are natively fluent in creator content and traditional film, tv networks, Streaming, studios and as importantly—international,” O’Dowd said.
An important selling point of Graviteur is the level of ownership that creators will enjoy with titles and franchises.
“I really wanted to build something that gave creators and talent ownership, true back-end ownership and alignment,” Freeman said. “Bill was my first call because of his incredible background of understanding independent film financing and international distribution.”
O’Dowd’s Dolphin Entertainment is a collection of entertainment-focused PR, marketing, event and promotions firms that work together to support the ambitions of clients. Graviteur can plug into the Dolphin flywheel that spins across support firms such as 42West, The Door, Shore Fire Media, Elle Communications, Special Projects, and The Digital Dept.
“If ever there was an idea that combines what we’ve done for 30 years with financing and production and distribution of content with the marketing team we built, it’s this. The whole operation of Dolphin will be behind Graviteur,” O’Dowd said.
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