Four of the five members of Loose Films
The Company
Loose Films is a film production company comprised of five partners who met as undergraduate students in the Department of Cinema at Denison University. Founded in 2015, the nascent company has traveled from its headquarters in Columbus, Ohio to cities around the world, including New Orleans, Paris and Mexico City, to complete projects for clients and amass a diverse portfolio of films, documentaries, commercials, promotional videos, music videos, and animations. Loose Films maintains a focus on transcending conventionally assumed binaries and boundaries, including those between the artistry and industry of film production and also those between the various forms of content it creates. When discussing the long-term plans for the company over the phone, Brett Reiter, Producer and Director of Outreach at Loose Films, explained that he envisions the company relocating to Los Angeles and focusing exclusively on creating and producing its own content within three to five years (B. Reiter, phone interview, September 20, 2017).
The Assets
The most valuable assets Loose Film possesses are its five partners and the work that they create together. While each member has a specific title and brings a distinct set of skills and experiences to the company, the collaborative atmosphere that they cultivate enables them to engage each other beyond these individual designations and effectively create and produce content for clients. In addition to the work the company does for hire, it is also committed to pursuing the passion projects of its members, the completed versions of which become valuable intellectual properties that showcase the artistic talent and ability of the team as the company continues to strive towards focusing entirely on creating its own content. The five members of Loose Films assisted their summer intern in completing a short film that he produced, wrote, and created and shared the promotional trailer on their Instagram page, demonstrating the company’s reverence for high-quality artistic creations and the passion they share in creating them (Loose Films, 2017). Recently, a Loose Films documentary called Down and Dirty, which explores the world of street performance in New Orleans, won “Audience Choice for Best Documentary” at UNO Film Festival 2017. By sharing the film’s accolades through social media, Loose Films is able to display its strengths as a film production company to potential clients (Loose Films, 2017). While the talent of the team members is what will ultimately be indispensable to the clients for whom they create content, the quality of their portfolio is what attracts those clients to Loose Films.
Promotional image for Down & Dirty
Business Model
Despite warnings to avoid becoming a “jack of all trades” by producing too wide an array of content, Loose Films believes that the diversity of their work reflects the breadth of their capabilities and sees this as a vital point in the evolution of the company towards its ultimate goal (B. Reiter, phone interview, September 20, 2017). So while the company foresees a time when it is dedicated to producing its own narrative films and documentaries, it currently welcomes commercial projects, like television spots and promotional videos, and approaches each of them from the same cinematic and artistic perspective from which they approach their own projects (B. Reiter, phone interview, September 20, 2017). The company prefers clients that trust the creative instincts of the team and allow them to pursue their own vision for the project (B. Reiter, phone interview, September 20, 2017). Loose Films’ main competition in the entertainment industry is similar start-up film production companies, who may have talented employees but have too little experience in the industry to negotiate high-paying contracts. In an interview with Denison University, one member of Loose Films revealed that it “strives to maintain all production positions in-house – with the ability to staff every shoot, from the director of photography to the production assistant” as a means of competing with their peers (Burgin, 2016).
The Revenue Model
Loose Films operates on a fee model, and requires half of the agreed amount upfront and half upon delivery of the product (B. Reiter, phone interview, September 20, 2017). When pricing each project, two factors have a strong bearing on the price charge: the duration of the video, which impacts the amount of time and resources that will be spent during post-production, and the number of crew members and amount of equipment that will be required during production (B. Reiter, phone interview, September 20, 2017). The company’s emphasis on maintaining control over all facets of production enables them to negotiate slightly higher fees from clients, as they will have little additional expenses for the project since Loose Films manages all the requirements.
The Branding
While not having a business background may appear to be a drawback for any startup, Loose Films uses it to its advantage in the way it brands itself as a company. By stripping away business from conversations with potential clients, the members of Loose Films are able to engage them as individuals and establish themselves as passionate artists (B. Reiter, phone interview, September 20, 2017). The company’s presentation of this identity through its various social media channels is vital to its success as a company. In addition to sharing trailers and clips from their portfolio to illustrate the ability the team possesses, they also create elaborate video clips of the company itself, including videos of them exploring the various cities they have traveled to for clients. While Loose Films is indeed a company, the online presence they curate relies on the individual personalities of its five team members, who each share photos on the company’s Instagram account and post blog entries on its website, which enables clients and fans of the company to feel engaged with the team on a personal level. The company’s Instagram description, which reads “Cinematic Videos + Occasional Shenanigans” is emblematic of the personality Loose Films strives to maintain, as it qualifies even the commercials and promotional videos it produces as artistic works, and also communicates the individual personalities with which the potential clients will be working (Loose Films, 2017).
References
Burgin, J. (2016, 8 22). Cinema majors become cinema makers. Retrieved 9 12, 2017, from Denison University: https://denison.edu/academics/cinema/feature/82072
Films, L. (2017, September 26). Loose Films (@LooseFilms_). Retrieved September 26, 2017 , from Twitter: https://twitter.com/loosefilms_?lang=en
Iannone, A. M. (2017, September 27). Snapfluence. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from Loose Films + Columbus Book Project: http://www.snapfluence.com/blog/loose-films-columbus-book-project
Loose Films. (2017). Home. Retrieved 9 12, 2017, from Loose Films: http://loosefilms.com
Loose Films. (2017, 9 12). Loose Films @loosefilms. Retrieved 9 12, 2017, from Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loosefilms/
Loose Films. (2015). Loose Films: The Promo Video. Retrieved 9 12, 2017, from Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/110683937
Reiter, B. (2017, September 20). Phone interview.
Turow, J. (2017). Media Today: Mass Communication in a Converging World. New York City, NY: Routledge.