Building The Idea

Filmshape began as a pain point for filmmakers to connect and collaborate in the film industry. The website and app aim to make collaborating and networking easier for filmmakers, creators and actors.

How did we start

A couple of things have always fascinated me: film, new technology and problem solving in general. The way each can evoke every emotion you have as a human being and make you flick through them like a TV remote. During our studies a few years back, I decided to try and recreate that TV remote of emotions myself and make a few films with some friends. I say friends because finding others was an almost impossible task for us, even with all of our university connections.

We made pretty dreadful films, but I always knew we could do better with the help of others. So I found local film production circles and to my surprise, they were all suffering from the same issues we had had. I mean, the way communication, networking and showcasing of work were scattered across multiple platforms didn't make any sense to me. That was around the time I knew someone should create something better. The more people I spoke to, the more validated the idea became.

Long story short, I started to design and build around that time and my co-founder came on board at a later date.

Why did we create Filmshape?

It might read better if I gave a romanticised memory of how I saw a problem in the world which instantly clicked and we had to solve it but that’s not how it went down... This came from years of listening and watching how people work and like to work when creating films. I looked around and saw the same platforms that are more like legacy systems with outdated mechanisms and designs, as well as movie databases that do very little connecting anyone.

We've spoken with small independent and student film productions at universities as well as crew members from some of the largest productions ever made. Some popular names include the likes of Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and the Marvel series. We're also closely collaborating with individuals who've worked with the biggest artists in the UK like Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and Dave to understand pain points at every level. Surprisingly the issues are relatively similar across the board, the majority tend to boil down to the following two things:

• I can't find people to connect with.

• I want to be able to showcase my work easier.

I never intended to start a company, but the more people I spoke to, the more it bothered me that nobody was working on solving these problems effectively. There was a consistent theme of 'workarounds' to solve problems identified during interviews. So we thought, why not merge these two worlds and have a social film database if you like someone's work. e.g. the directing, you can simply connect with them and approach them for work, acting, lighting, sound, etc.

How does it help filmmakers?

Most platforms work because you will change your job every few years, but this doesn't work for film production at any level. Too much of the film industry today is connecting through word of mouth or little black books so we want to connect the world of filmmakers and improve their productivity, enabling them to easily and efficiently create the content we all love. 

Simply put, Filmshape connects you with an ecosystem of potential projects and professionals. We cater to every industry role to improve project management, collaboration, promotion and networking whilst being completely free for everyone to use.