The Drive-In: New Streaming Platform Lets Indie Filmmakers Keep IP

A new streaming platform built for independent filmmakers launches on October 17, during the London Film Festival, and it lets directors keep their intellectual property, their audience data and the majority of their revenue.

The Drive-In, a transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) service, will operate within RecDek, an independent film and TV discovery app. Its creators describe a model in which "nothing is handed over, re-uploaded or locked away": the service streams directly from each filmmaker's own library within the platform.

Producers set their own prices and keep receipts from the first sale. They see real-time audience data. They retain their IP. And if they sell a territory to a traditional distributor, they can remove that territory from The Drive-In instantly.

RecDek began as a discovery app where film and TV recommendations came from friends, family, critics and festivals. Through its RecDek House hub, it has since grown into a 17,000-strong community of directors, producers, talent, financiers and distributors. According to its creators, The Drive-In "turns a festival-season relationship with the industry into a year-round collaboration."

RecDek has partnered with direct-to-fan economy infrastructure company Hiway to build the service, which the companies say favours producers and filmmakers and offers "a simple platform to monetise work that may otherwise never see the light of day."

"We champion the voices studios drown out, and for too long it had been unclear exactly how filmmakers get their movies distributed," said Ed Rigg, writer/director and founder at RecDek. "Sure you can pitch, screen your work, hustle and so you should. Go after wherever you think your movie will be looked after best."

Rigg said The Drive-In will "exist for when filmmakers decide to take their film's future into their own hands." Filmmakers can monetize the work themselves. "Filmmakers keep everything that should be theirs and our community on the app, and in the wider industry, get a place to watch the shows we have been shouting about," he said.

David Orman, founder and CEO at Hiway, said Rigg and the RecDek team had "built one of the most connected communities" in independent film. "The missing piece was a screen of their own," he added. "The Drive-In gives them that, on terms the industry rarely offers: every filmmaker keeps their IP, their audience and the majority of their revenue. RecDek owns the brand and the relationship, we provide the rails. The tools now exist for RecDek to run their own show."

RecDek is currently accepting filmmaker submissions via RecDekHouse.com ahead of the formal launch on October 17. The founding cohort will determine whether a platform that hands distribution control back to directors can convert a 17,000-member community into a working year-round marketplace for independent film.