SCREENWRITING SCRIPTING
W hether you’re in the entertainment industry or not, it’s abundantly clear that Georgia is a hot-bed of activity for film and television. When it comes to finding the next big thing, Atlanta’s Gramarye Media is a unique concept for developing and producing projects — all within state lines. “Gramarye Media is all about finding original content and curating it; investing early, bringing in new acting talent and young directors — with the story incubated and developed right here. Georgia is the perfect place to do this,” says Don Dudenhoeffer, Chief Creative Officer for Gramarye. “We have very generous tax incentives for the industry, with a very low cost of doing business. With the opportunity zone credits, it’s a perfect storm.” Georgia’s film and TV industry has created more than 92,000 jobs with over 450 projects in FY2018, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. The overall economic impact is somewhere approaching $10 billion, with direct in-state spend of $2.7 billion. These numbers are impressive — especially when you consider net profit for most projects returns to big film industries in places like Los Angeles and New York. Gramarye Media is looking to literally disrupt the existing Hollywood system with their new model, designed to be an all-inclusive package here in the Peach State. The company’s team includes industry experts from across the country, with the three primary founders — all Georgia-based. As a graduate of Georgia Tech’s Flashpoint Center for Deliberate Innovation, Gramarye Media was recently named one of the state’s 40 Most Innovative Companies by the Technology Association of Georgia. They’re currently fundraising capital and, while they are in diligence with major funds, there are still open opportunities for new investments. Revenue for projects comes from token-based economics and preferred stock shares. “We are hometown-focused, and we want to stay here,” Dudenhoeffer says “Here’s the great thing about our business model: Media is a risky investment, but it’s especially risky with a single project. At Gramarye, our investors’ money is a distributed risk because they are buying into everything we produce, which is going to be a huge slate of new content.”
Gramarye starts with unpublished book manuscripts with the potential to become franchises (think Harry Potter ). Incoming submissions are initially filtered by accepting is incubated to develop a polished manuscript ready to adapt; with script or treatment, storyboard, attachments, AND budget. “That’s a critical piece; we’re extremely selective, only choosing stories with opportunity for expansion,” Dudenhoeffer explains, noting they plan to accept up to 12 stories per year. “The model for franchises in the industry right now is very fragmented, with limited room for success. We aim to turn that around by investing in a story before it’s ever been published. We are a story incubator, developing content across media channels at a significantly lower cost with new revenue channels.” Dudenhoeffer points out this process is, in many ways, inspired by the Silicon Valley business incubator/ accelerator process. In fact, a recent study suggests only 10 percent of start-up projects survive — whereas 80 percent of projects that go through an accredited accelerator process (like this concept) succeed. Stories, like disruptive businesses, are innovated. They, too, can be innovated reliably. As the process continues, the incubated story is launched as both hardcover and e-book in a new interactive app where readers connect and earn rewards by sharing feedback (in other words, built-in analytics that track brand awareness). “If the story has legs, we’ll roll it into a business plan that could become a multi-media franchise,” he says; books, films, games, or adaptations for television or live streaming. “And there’s your green light. We invest in the earliest stages and we make the green light decisions based on audience, community, and other key data points that tell us this is going to be successful.” Each storyline is treated much the same way as a Silicon Valley start-up business, protecting the story/ author with an improved path for success. Currently, Gramarye Media is a virtual entertainment studio, with plans to build a full-service studio. The long- range goal is to build out marketing assets to include video/mobile games, 3-D action figures, etc. Optimized technology and a key acquisition will give Gramarye full control over development and distribution channels (e.g., movie theatres, online, e-books, hardcopy books, etc.).
Don Dudenhoeffer
“The goal is to build our own distribution network for our content, not being beholden to third-party distribution channels,” Dudenhoeffer says. “Right now, we’re in development stages of the first story, with plans for our first interactive e-book release in 2020.” Dudenhoeffer’s 20 years of creative design and implementation work has focused on forward-thinking applications and, as an entrepreneur, he currently also owns and operates ClickMore Media in Atlanta. Learn more about Gramarye Media at www.gramaryemedia.com or contact them at info@gramaryemedia.com.
T H E G E O R G I A H O L L Y WOO D R E V I E W | NO V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 | 1 9
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online