About 73 Degree Films
73 Degree Films is a video production company based in Wrexham. It was founded in May 2017 by Robert Corcoran, who’s always had a passion for film production.
I’ve been making films since I was 10 years old, when I borrowed my grandad’s camcorder
Even though I didn’t study filmmaking at university, I wanted to get a job in media or film, so I started my own thing. 73 Degree Films has evolved a lot; I used to produce news content for the local television channel in Wrexham, but now I’m doing projects across digital, film, media and production.
I saw a Facebook talk about vertical filmmaking, which was really inspiring
Facebook shared their disappointment over the lack of interest and innovation surrounding vertical filmmaking. The talk inspired me to make something vertical that could push the boundaries. I set about creating three films that could slot together to play as one triple split-screen film or as separate films on a mobile phone vertically. While editing them, somebody mentioned Clwstwr to me.
I received seed funding to see if vertical filmmaking could work outside of social media
To investigate the potential for the medium, I split my R&D into three goals: 1. Complete post-production of the films I’d made, each of which lasted around 2.5 minutes; 2. Use the completed films to create prototypes, where they could be watched in different ways; 3. Carry out user testing, where people watch the prototypes and give us feedback.
We decided four formats we wanted to experiment with
To test out different potential ways of using the vertical films, I set out to make four versions of the same three films. One would be viewed in a virtual reality headset, one inside a bespoke mobile application using novel gestures, one via an interactive display and one via a television. We had a separate audio mix for each vertical film, making sure they wouldn't interfere with each other when played together. I worked on creating the TV prototype and interactive display prototype, then worked with a Cardiff-based company called Jam for the mobile application and the VR edition.
The user testing was harder than I thought it would be
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we couldn’t have people testing the actual interactive display. We didn’t let it stop us, though. We had a diverse group of 10 participants, each of whom was asked questions before and after they watched the other prototype films. The small number of participants made it easier to do qualitative research rather than quantitative.
Almost everyone really enjoyed the VR prototype
The way that prototype worked was that you're in an environment where the films play really big in 2D. As you turn your head, depending on which film you're facing, the audio crossfades. You have the ability to change which character you follow just by looking around. It was well received, but I have concerns over whether some of the participants simply enjoyed the novelty of streaming in VR.
Most said they could see the mobile application prototype being commercially viable
People pointed out that it was a much more accessible platform than VR. Some participants didn’t enjoy how you can swipe between the characters and follow their version of the story. When you swipe from one character, the other characters keep playing - they don't pause to let you catch up. Some participants felt they had a fear of missing out on what was happening in the films they’d swiped away from. I think a future version of this product would require more options for the audience.
This first Clwstwr project proved there’s a case for making vertical video multifunctional
Each prototype has its own potential path towards becoming commercially viable. We could choose to see where any of the four prototypes could go. However, at the same time, I was looking at the arising advancements in certain technologies that could complement what we were doing with vertical video. One of them was blockchain technology and the ways you can tokenise things on a blockchain.
A common dilemma for filmmakers and digital creators is that they’re creating things that are essentially free to access; they’re posted online and seen for free. It makes ownership and profiting from their work unclear. I’d spent so long looking at vertical content, which tends to live on social media, that I wanted to look at how to combine it with other technologies to monetize such digital products. I was fascinated by NFTs (non fungible tokens); an artist can create a token for their digital content, which could be sold and resold and create some financial value. This sparked my next R&D phase.
I received project funding to develop a functioning platform to empower creators via blockchain
Initially I wanted to focus on creating an application that housed products of digital creators, including vertical videos, and learn how to monetize that content. We hit some basic problems early on: where do you store files? How do you get enough bandwidth? Is the data stored privately? I needed a plan.
I split the project into two sub-parts, the first of which focused on NFTs
In the first part, I learnt as much as I could about NFTs by creating a collection from scratch. It taught me a lot, such as how to write the code, how to choose a blockchain, how to liaise between artists and developers and how to make art as NFTs. With other creatives, I created artwork comprising 208 pieces. As we created artwork, the developer built the back end and put the art onto a blockchain.
The second part was the creation of the platform itself
After discussions with PDR, my Clwstwr producer Gavin and some other people I'd involved in the project, I decided to look at creating something more akin to a streaming platform for short films. It was more niche and would give us more control over what we do, curating it and storing data.
Now it's through the development, I hope to do a real live test of it
We created this collection, we learned about how it worked, we created a platform for it and we deployed it on a private test network to check if and how it functioned. We learned so much. We've had investor meetings, which were positive. The general consensus around cryptocurrency at the moment is one of caution, so I don't feel it's necessarily the right time to launch this just yet. I hope we can open it to the public in a few years as a sort of virtual blockchain film festival, where people can buy access to the films over a certain length of time. It's something exciting to work towards.