

We launched: massify.com - jawngee
http://massify.com/competitions/machine/

======
mynameishere
I'll have you know that your flash intro music was an unwelcome addition to
the 3rd movement of Mahler's 2nd.

Anyway, I looked at the site and my one impression was: Skepticism. I mean:

 _...will produce one winning entry to be a feature film in theaters. We'll
also be casting the movie using the site._

I mean, I know nothing about the art of film production, but I think that
casting is usually done through trade journals and auditions for a reason.
Likewise, don't studios usually base ideas on more than, "That sounds good",
and look into what kind of connections the filmmakers bring with them, their
track records, etc?

And this:

 _You are competing for the chance to work on a professional feature film -
either as an actor or a producer and originator._

Huh? Isn't the producer the guy who drives everything, puts up the dough, etc?
How do you win that sort of thing in a contest?

Skepticism, that's all.

~~~
jawngee
Well I could give you the marketing/PR spiel, but that's not my department.

I see the competitions as being only a single aspect of the site, and we are
all hoping it grows beyond a competition and more into a vehicle for getting
really talented people produced and promoted. The vision for that particular
component is really more of a virtual indie production company - but we all
have to start somewhere and I think this is a pretty good way to start.

It's not the only thing we do though. We've got three products in total. The
professional networking product is still pretty infant, but we're obviously
working on making that a value for indie talent and a means for them to
network and get gigs - as well as provide tools for self promotion (for
instance, the headshot generator does what many actors pay $400 or more for
the exact same result).

Our final product, the next to roll out, are a suite of production
development/management tools for indie/web/amateur filmmakers/videographers.
It allows you to take your pitches and manage them all the way through post-
production.

Producing for on-line is a growing market with different needs/goals than
traditional film and we're aiming to help bolster it and become a hub for it.
Hopefully, we'll get there.

ps. I don't write PR, I write code. This is honestly how I feel about the
entire project, otherwise I couldn't have sunk the crazy amount of hours I
have into it.

pss. sorry about the music ;)

~~~
far33d
I think it's a great concept - the web and digital tools are making both
distribution and production costs much cheaper. However, no one (well, not
until now) has really been tackling the middlemen - producers, talent
agencies, etc. that still cost way too much and create barriers to entry.

Professional networking and casting assistance (crews and actors) has a lot of
potential for growth. Great work getting together something I've been thinking
a lot about but haven't actually worked on yet :)

------
tx
I have no idea what you guys are doing, but your designers rock!

~~~
webwright
That's kinda oxymoronic. If their designers rock, you'd know what they are
doing no?

(I had to click on the tiny tiny "about" link in the footer to find out what
they do)

~~~
derefr
Maybe. You can design for aesthetics, and/or for functionality. Sometimes,
"rock" doesn't mean "is good"--think about the negative opinions some people
have of [the term, or the actual] "rockstar programmers." In this case, I was
thinking about "rock" as in a Hendrix guitar solo--doesn't really get a point
across, but doesn't really need to.

------
wallflower
Congratulations!!

I'm an armchair film aficionado. I went to a pitch competition featuring pre-
vetted aspiring film makers last year and it was fascinating enough to make me
start wondering about the whole process and if I really could write a
potential screenplay.

------
Zak
I have a 12px minimum font size set in Firefox because I have a fairly high-
resolution screen. This causes the content that should be in the middle of the
page to be displayed offset to the right, starting for the right border of
where it should be.

~~~
jawngee
Thanks for the heads up. Fixed and added as a test case to our QA. Thanks
again :)

------
matth
Just a heads up: Ghosts in the Machine is used in the header, but the end of
the video reads Ghost in the Machine. No 's'. Not sure which version you were
going for, but you might want to read through and double check all that.

------
jawngee
Most difficult project of my career, almost a year and a half from idea to
launch.

 _wipes sweat from brow_

Thanks to hacker news for keeping me occupied when I should have been coding.

------
raju
Wow! Great site. Kudos to you guys...

------
aaroneous
Congrats! :]

------
thomasswift
dig that design man.

------
jawngee
Thanks everyone :)

