Minute Shorts

0:01 [Applause]

0:07 hey guys this is crazy I'm going to do like a quick selfie for everyone you know there kind of like a I don't know Oscar awards selfie so everyone kind of like put your best smile smiley face on.

0:19 So I'm going to do a quick one okay cool all right cool all right thank you for the introduction I was amazing thank you very much I'm just going to crack on yes I have yeah this is a real message by the way none of these messages I'm showing here aren't not true but they're all true so yes my name is John VI W so I started a platform called minute shorts essentially those actually how many people here have heard of minute shorts can I just get some hands cool yeah we've got some got some fans over so those who don't don't know minute shorts essentially it's a platform that allows you to watch watch like incredible short films and then also discover incredible film Talent from around the world and what I'm going to do now I'm going to play you guys a little clip so you guys can kind of get the sense of like what sort of films we showcase you are through to your conscious mind to help us direct your call correctly please look at your hands and say where is the key to Freedom despite these cycles that spin us through life what was all that no I don't know if I'm happy or sad I don't know what's going on life is about about failing but also about winning I think failing is the most important thing cuz it's the hardest thing amazing did you guys enjoy that right amazing so these are some of the accolades we you know got mentioned so Shout to people from like Vogue you guys got a Vogue yeah okay and few other people.

2:04 So yeah but in this talk I'm not going to you know focus on this bit here I'm kind of going to I'm going to start from right at the beginning when the ideal of miniat shorts kind of birthed so prior to minute shorts like the gentleman here explained so I used to produce and direct commercials and adverts well at the same thing yeah and and documentaries so I worked with Brands such as Nike apple and I worked with VI and few other companies or BBC because I lot of BBC as well right.

2:35 And so so so when I was working at the time it must be 2016 and and I was I always love short film. That's something I've always you know love this kind of miniature I don't know capsule of a time someone can kind of capture and create a whole story out of him.

2:51 So I was really inspired by the idea of like you know what if we can have our own kind of spotifi but for short films and I remember then speaking to a lot of people in the film industry about the idea of you know having a own platform for short film. And then.

3:04 I did kind of receive a lot of not so great feedback a lot of them was like a kind of response to that this I'm not going to reveal the person's name it was more of like you know a short film not being a marketable entity or a short film you know you should use a only to build your own portfolio and also short film you know they would not Bank on the idea of starting a short film platform and this is where the title of the tour kind of started with it so don't worry you early essentially in this talk what I'm going to do I'm going to kind of show you guys some codes of how to build a company from the future in the present now.

3:45 So these are some like some of the stuff that I've learned throughout the way that you know when you're building a company like people might not get it straight away.

3:52 But there some of the codes and stuff you can do to learn on the way first and foremost I kind of wanted to maybe explain a little bit because I know. There are some Miss Concepts in terms of what a short film is especially people that are not in the indust film industry a Tik Tok video it can be seen as a short film.

4:10 But this is not what I'm here to talk about. And I can I could yeah I know Tik tocker is probably going to kill me for this but so the short films I'm talking about usually it's still it's a narrative film usually under 30 minutes and in average short film you're looking about 5 to 10 minute long and this all varies from different genre so drama comedy sci-fi you name it so all different genre that's what a short film is so for the purpose of this talk I'm going to talk about these four points here.

4:42 So I'm going to basically talk about the idea of how we use the concepts of time to help us build a platform functionality and then I'm going to touch then I'm going to touch on the idea of like how Simplicity is actually helped us build a brand identity then I'm then I'm going to go on and talk about authentic it which kind of helped us to discover the sort of content we should be showcasing on our platform then I'm going to wrap it up with Community which to me is everything.

5:09 So that's I'm going to kind of run through this talk I'm going to also try to speak really slowly so you guys can hear me I speak three languages by the way. So it's better with me so time we all heard of like time is the essence but we're scared right yeah guys I want to hear you okay okay.

5:30 So you know we all know time is really everything. And so at the time when I I was kind of thought of the idea of you know to build our own platform for short films and then I start I went on to this like a wormhole of doing loads of research in terms of other platforms like video platform like YouTube and Netflix at the time and one thing I discovered is that we as audience or people are users on this platform we spend a lot of time just like searching content rather than actually enjoying content there's something I can afford you if I'm going to build a platform I wanted to have this per we basically we want to fix that issue straight away then I start I went on again I'm a proper G geeked out person.

6:11 So I kind of spend a lot of hours on YouTube and other places to discover like loads of researches then I landed on this guy does anyone know who this guy is anyone Barry Schwarz no okay cool all it's awkward so so this this guy here. Basically has a YouTube Ted Talk in 2006 and the concept of his Ted Talk was basically is called God I forgot basically the ideal of it is called you know time.

6:42 So basically if you have a lot of option given to you and you feel less satisfied because of like an overwhelming of choice and I remember like a spending hours and just like going through and learning all about his work.

6:57 Basically talked about you know this they we're more satisfied when we're given less and we're more dissatisfied when we're giving more options and now that was kind of my first step of building the platform was like if I'm going to fix this issue let me do more research figure out you know what how do we fix this that was the first person kind I looked into and then the second one it was cuz I come from a creative background even though I run a business now I wish I I still do a lot of creative stuff but running a business it doesn't allow me to do that.

7:29 But then I kind of tapped into a lot of my creative background in the past and when I was young I was really inspired by like simple design by this designer called Data Rams and this is essentially it's a radio so you have speakers so you have speakers on the side and you also that wheel is basically allows you to tune in different Channel and volume it's really easy to use equipment so then.

7:50 I was kind of really inspired by that you know the idea how do you make something just like a cuts through allows you to do what you need to do less fluffing around so I was kind of really inspired by those two things and again this is all kind of like a saving your time spending your time to actually enjoy the content that you need to rather to like be browsing and as the great kri Lamar want say we a go time to waste time which is my favorite bars ever.

8:19 This is where we landed with our design of the app so as you can tell like you know it's really dead simple when you go on name it says I've got then give you three options 5 10 20 minutes and then the the sequence of the app is that you select the time.

8:35 And it gives you option of films according to your time then you select a film you hit play it's really really dead simple and then what we discover by making it so simple as a functionality allows people to utilize their time to be enjoying and discovering this amazing content so the time you'll be traveling to work the time that you'll be be on your break or in the morning when you wake up just endlessly scrolling on Instagram you can literally spend all his time to just watch this amazing content so that was kind of the first thing we tackled so that time do you guys get it right okay great so next we move on to the next thing Simplicity so my mom's actually here in the audience big up big up [Applause]

9:26 Mom she loves it so so my mom will probably tell like I'm such a simple guy like I'm one of people like you don't I don't need much to kind of be satisfying so I kind of that same idea of like Simplicity I wanted to implement that into our company logo because I think your logo of a company is almost your badge so then.

9:46 I started looking into researching into these three logos rip Twitter I'm still calling a Twitter I don't so I was kind of really inspired by this logos like this these logos are these logos are simple but yeah. So effective how did they do it.

10:01 So I'm like I need to make sure our logo looks like them.

10:05 So I've done a bunch of like researching into old logos logos that really inspired me.

10:11 So I came to these three logos then my next phase of research it was I started looking at colors and and then.

10:19 I started looking specifically on video platform colors and most of these platform they have this a very kind of strong color like red black blue and as you guys probably tell I'm not really I'm not aggressive Tope of person.

10:36 So I kind of wanted to make sure like you know the logo also have that kind of warmth chill Vibe the way I am as a person then I start tapping in again to my upbringing and things I really loved as a as a young 20-year-old John via so this is um a work by oler Alon I don't know if any of you guys actually went to this exhibition back in 2012 anyone yeah it's amazing it's like literally I even have it as a screen saver here as a proof it's literally the most inspiring exhibition for me and and so what was interesting about this exhibition when you walk into it was at a main hall of Tate you walk in it's basically this light in the shape of a sun you walk in and it kind of illuminated the whole room to Orange so when you walking you feel instantly you feel really calm really warm it kind of giv you that warm Vibe and very warm feeling so that's the sort kind of vibe I wanted people to get when they see our logo so I started doing more digging in terms of research in my Journey to Find what our logo should look like Chanel Orange the greatest album of all time yes I don't want anyone to debate me about this the great ALB and what made this really the thing what makes Chan orang so great it's not just the color orange is also the content how vulnerable and how warmth it was so I was like you know what I want our logo to feel like that way.

12:00 So I know I'm probably talking so deep about a logo in colors and then so looking at these two work.

12:07 This is what we landed in terms of our color palette so you have white orange and black and then me and Ben all graphic designer then we went on to like a this journey to kind of figure out how our logo should look like so when you start looking at the logo you can see from icon a and all the way to Icon e so it kind of it starts to become slightly bit complex and it becomes much much more simpler and eventually we ended up with this logo so it's literally almost like it it's basically a sun or a clock with a slice of your minutes was s of your time so again it kind of It kind of links with the previous slide in terms of time and terms of Simplicity and this is what it looks like on Google Apple store and then we added the word minute shorts next to it. So it's easier for people to read so I'm going to move to the next slide authenticity so regards to authenticity when you go to online you just search the you know the meaning of it. And this where it comes out it says authenticity is the quality of being genuine and real so I've highlighted the two words here genuine and real and the reason why I highlighted those things because because of this film here this film called will and as you guys can see it's by a young director called John Oran I encourage everyone to go on minute shorts to search his work I'm advertising my platform at the same time what I like about this film is right at the beginning when we build an app so then we wanted to get content in our platform so I didn't want mini sure to be just another YouTube where you just have any old cats and dogs wedding videos all this other stuff I wanted to be very kind of specific content that really speaks to certain type of people.

13:59 And I remember I went to the screening and I watched Wilson and what was so great about Wilson cuz I saw myself in it it was basically a film about a a young black man who was experiencing mental health or mental breakdown but he didn't he felt a pressure not to kind of speak out or to kind of ask for help and I remember on my after watching I actually went on my on my way home I was actually almost felt almost in tears because I was like oh my God for for the first time in my life I actually felt so seen But I filmed I felt it was so real and at the same night actually was must be really crazy must be like what midnight I emailed John as I really love your film bro let's meet up. And so this film was literally it was like it was the first film that kind of helped us to identify the sort of films we should be showcasing on our platform so like real stories General stories cuz once you have those those things it kind of you know allows people to see themselves in there. And it kind of brings people to your platform so what I'm going to do and I'm going to play you guys a a clip to of one of our film as Kara and the film is about trans woman in Brazil it's a short clip cuz it also looks amazing on the thing as well yeah you guys enjoy that [Applause]

15:28 yeah yeah. So so then like I said so we discover our Taste of content it's you know genuine and real content is what we really wanted to kind of showcase so as time went on then we realized you know it's not just show showcasing the content it's should be something we should be spotlighting then we realized it would be better if we start spotlighting the people behind there so like the director the writer the producer so that way it comes it becomes a real life story in both in the front and both in the back behind the screen screen so we started this we started this small series called minute moments where we basically spotlights filmmakers we give them. Basically we get them to record themselves and ask them like ask basically to answer three question or four questions actually so what I'm going to do I'm going to play you guys and another clip of our minute moment Series where there's a filmmaker called Chelsea who basically kind of does a little introduction of herself and it's only like a short version of the actual clip hi my name is Chelsea and I am a filmmaker and artist based here in London I'm shy and I'm here with the lovely minute shorts I have my questions in front of me.

16:38 And I'm going to be doing a direct Q&A so amazing have you guys got of Charlotte Regan anyone here no okay cool all right. So so over time so when we start doing a lot of spotlighting artists or filmmakers one thing we realize is filmmakers start getting more confidence with their work. And so Charlotte is one of the prime example of a filmmaker who wanted exactly how we wanted the way we see the vision of like how a filmmaker should be so she basically her film is all about her real life experience you know this experience that she experience in the Estates in like in London and as she she did a few short films with us one of them called standby it did a nominate it get nominated by Ba's short film and over the years she worked on four or five short film with us.

17:30 And then at the beginning of this year she did her debut feature film which got I won.

17:34 Basically the Sundance D award and and then her debut film is actually currently out in cinema which I recommend everyone to check out it's amazing amazing film I'm going to move on to the next point which is community so so what we did with mini so we built an app so we got The Branding looking very warm and chill and then then we got a Content looking very real so people can connect to it. So The Next Step was like how do we get people to discover this content so with me I was kind of really my goal was to make sure people like yourself people are not in the film industry to actually discover this content because people are already in the film industry they already know where to find this content they can go to a bfr film festival and plus the film industry is quite exclusive anyway so everyone kind of knows where to go so my goal was like I want an average person to discover this short film.

18:30 And then they can kind of enjoy the short films in their spare time.

18:32 So that's what the idea of like starting a film screening events came came to us so with a film screening event I was kind of really kind of interested to not to have a standard film where you all sit down and watch your film.

18:47 And then you go home cuz you can do that to any old Cinema or cuz I wanted to the C I wanted the screening to be much more a celebration of the content celebration of the the the filmmaker the celebration of the community we're building so then.

18:59 I started looking at Brands and places that really inspired me.

19:03 So I looking at baller room and what of found interesting about Boer room what they've done really well is that they broke that fourth wall where the audience and the and the DJ almost intertwined they all live kind of so they're basically all in the same place so it makes it easier for people to communicate to kind of meet each other. So then.

19:23 That's why like yeah I put this picture up because it also looks amazing it looks cool cuz one of the guys also my friends that's why so I'm going to show you guys a clip of our attempt to do like a minute short version of bower room so last year we had an opportunity to work well we last year we worked with a sumerset house with Gan Carson who does a Garin Carson Studio I don't know if you guys know heard of them.

19:49 But we basically we came in quite a last minut basic to create a whole month of US ourdoor Open Air Cinema and when we got given an opportunity like that we're like you know what we're going to show them Wan so I'm going to play you guys a clip just a little snippet of what how this ve went ♪

20:19 now you leave with bre strings ♪

20:26 son amazing so with our community building so right at the beginning as you can see our events it felt it looked and it felt like you're watching film on someone's living room and that was purposely created at that CU we wanted again like I mentioned at the beginning we wanted that we wanted the audience and the filmmakers to kind of intertwine and live kind of that same space so they make it easier for people to meet to talk so at the beginning this is what our events looked like and then as time went on then we start started like you know we moved our events to bigger spaces and Cinemas we start using screens in a way to kind of communicate with our users we'll have random quotes random messages on the screen to make people laugh and and as time went on then we you know pictures like this so you know you can see the same sort of vibe where the audience like they just feel really chill on our events and then again as time went on then we we started experiment a lot more Stu in the cinema so there's a this have you guys got of Cory Constance yeah cool yeah amazing and so we walked with her the beginning of the year to basic to screen one of one of a film where we literally so we worked with her and every man's Cinema in all streets not in Angel sorry and she literally had a punk rock Rave before her events we literally like a you can only play two songs and up play like five six songs but like you need to stop now it was literally people got got the seat started dancing and around and then after that after everyone called off.

22:02 And then we sat down we watched film.

22:04 There was a Q&A so to me the reason why this really is important to me it was really important to us because again it breaks that four FL and allows people to kind of communicate and meet and feel less you know shy less pressure to kind of you know to go and talk to someone and this is just our attempt to do the forance I just want to show this picture because it looks cool and then so again as time went on then we start expanding into different cities and the reason I put this here not to show you guys that want other cities but to us Community matters so much to us that we wanted the people that are experiencing commun people that are experience of our content other City to have the same experience that people go to our events here in London.

22:50 That's where the beginning of this year we started expanding into cities like Acra Paris Kigali and we're looking to Auto expand to all these other cities so so if anyone have any other suggestion please do grab me at the end I'm really open to chat and the reason for that like I mentioned it's not just we can have a tick box it's purely because we believe that Community is like one of those things can make or break something and also Community allows people like to you know collaborate you know you might not have the skill set where you can meet someone for a community that can kind of help you to bring an idea to life.

23:23 So that's why it's really important to us that the same things we're doing in London we spread it other C around the world also another thing about Community what matters to me a lot is so when I I used to go to a film screening event at the beginning I didn't really see a lot of people that looked at me in the audience so I was kind of really I feel like it was my duty or I still feel like it's my D duty till now.

23:45 So I want to see more you know black more Arabs more Asian people in audience obviously whites so I wanted to see more diverse faces audience and the reason that the reason why that matters to me because I think the more diverse Minds you have the more diverse people you have the more diverse ideas you have so then the ideas is not just singular it's not just talk from one perspective that's what like you know we you see those of picture that this in our events on social media because we want to welcome all type of people especially when we live in a city like London I want to see the people that see CU When You Walk Out Dawson is a great example when you walk out of Dawson you see all divers of people are living together.

24:22 So I kind of want to have that same crowd on our events so as then time went on automatically what we started seeing is uh filmmakers the creators they start automatically start collaborating that's purely because like the way we build a community allows people to feel at ease to collaborate with another filmmaker I don't know if a canol is in the building um definitely is not so then you can see here a canola here and El two of my favorite filmmaker they're collaborating on a film together purely because they both belong to the minat shorts community and it made them ease it made them feel at ease to kind of you know reach out to each other to work on this project and they worked in this short film called words we don't say where ainola was the executive director and Ella was the director I'm going to play a small clip of her of their short ♪

25:27 film have you guys has anyone seen this film before no okay cool go to Minish shorts that that was the same flag I I slow it down okay.

25:44 So this is a picture of my old housemid they met at minute short event and and then they got engaged two months ago and they having a a kid in October this she's a first minial baby which is [Applause]

26:06 amazing this brings brings me so much joy because basically I'm trying to see you can find your love in mini shorts but it's beyond that CU I feel like you know I when I start mini shorts the idea of it is like you know I wanted people to enjoy films you know go and collaborate creatively so when you start hearing stories like this like it brings me it's basically kind of it's surreal like you guys met many and I lived with them as which was quite crazy and so I kind of wanted to mention this like you know the community we build allowed people to go beyond the create you know working professionally you know people can actually start building genuine connection genuine relationship before I stop I kind of want to maybe on a serious note and this one this is what you can see minute short this one all this divine deves on Airlines and also on some of the boats and cruises it's a flex but what I wanted to say is the the industry can do so much more with short films because the perception of short film is always that is a stepping stone to make a short film so what we trying to do here like we're trying to make sure that the perception of it changes cuz it can short film it can be his own entity cuz the work is made for short film is unreal it's really original and our job with minute short like we want to make sure we bring commercial Finance into the industry and make it more popular so in that way filmmakers can then living off making short film.

27:35 So that that way you can literally say I make short films I'm not a fish film director I'm a short film director that's like one of our goal and I know it's a long go but we'll get there and to finish off as well is regard to the title don't worry your early is more of a for people like who are crazy enough to step out the line and do whatever they want and those people kind of you know you know meet some people that they can just see the future and everyone say you're crazy and they're like no I can see it.

28:03 So that's what the title can I dedicate to everyone that that are crazy enough to do this thank [Applause]