Creation Collective — Chris J. Davis, Founder of Filmio — Using Technology to Bring Content Creators New Ways to Break Through the Hollywood Wall

Chris J. Davis, a founder of Filmio (film.io), discusses his company's innovative platform that allows content creators to come together with fans and investors to build creative projects that are truly outstanding.

Davis's company, Filmio, brings creators and fans together in a new and innovative manner to build a space where everyone participates, anyone can create—and all share in the benefits. Filmio seeks to end the monopoly and release the grip that Hollywood has long held on the industry, a grip that keeps most people out and only granting access to the few. As studios have become more and more beholden to their big corporate owners they have distanced themselves from their real audience, the fans, and consumers who view and buy the content. Hollywood continues to make sequel after sequel, refusing to bring new fresh ideas in, but instead simply choosing to remake the same concepts with bigger visual effects that just drive up the costs. Davis believes the time has come to make a paradigm shift, to find a new direction toward better creative built on fresh ideas.

Davis talks about Filmio as a decentralized ecosystem that facilitates the funding, creation, and distribution of film, TV, and VR projects. He gives us an overview of his background as a classically trained artist and how he organically took steps toward his company's birth. With a keen interest in the blockchain, Davis wanted to find a way to use technology to assist other artists to create and launch projects of their own, in their own way. Davis outlines the early days of Filmio and how it came to be the company that it is today. He talks about the many stories they heard of creators being frustrated with the Hollywood system, and their desire to find a way to circumvent the road blocks. With Filmio, fans, creators, and investors can come together to build success and launch great new ideas. He talks about the advantage of having ideas vetted by the crowd before money is spent. And the beauty of this is that ideas get support early on and those supporters stay with the project all the way through funding and into the launch.

Davis discusses the need for content, with new companies popping up all the time to grab a piece of the lucrative streaming content space. Filmio can provide the technology and support to get content creators up and running. Davis explains the vetting process that allows users on their platform to evaluate and vote a project forward to the next level for development or consideration, etc. When a project hits a certain threshold, tokens are used to vote projects forward. And even when projects move into production, creators can come back to the platform and continually update the supporters with director interviews, location photos, or more, which further engages their original supporters.

Davis talks in-depth about the tokens and their platform's ecosystem, how it works, and what are the benefits to fans and creators. Additionally, he discusses his upcoming event at Sundance and his excitement about talking to filmmakers there, to create a larger community on their platform where everyone can thrive.