Chris Maury's Blog

If you want to beat hollywood…

Shocking that I would be writing about hollywood in the wake of SOPA?PIPA. AMIRIGHT?

No, but seriously. If the world is to defeat the monolithic behemoth that is Hollywood, who spends so much money on lobbying, more than  the marketing budget of Fuck Buddies Two: Birth Control, they are going to have to do something drastic.

Paul Graham says its not about content, but if you’ve been to the movies lately, or looked at a movie trailer, you know that it absolutely is about content. What was the last movie you saw in theaters? Was it actually worth the money? Probably not.

Television is worse. The most popular shows are stereotypes of geeky intellectuals or worse, Two and a Half men.

If we are to liberate american culture from Hollywood we are going to have to create the tools that allows independent film makers to release quality content. There are already some companies who are helping, but there are other needs to be met. 

Here is a breif drunken overview:

1. Distrify.com

Distriy allows filmakers to distribute films simply and easily. All Distrify does is creat a video plug-in that allows publishers to embed trailers, rentals or purchases into any site on the internet. It’ amazing. You can look at Gary Hurstwit’s Urbanized as an example. So cool.

2. Network of filmakers, actors, etc.

I don’t know of any websites that connect directors with actors and make up artists, but I’m sure they exist. There has to be a network outside of LA to connect all the people necessary to make a film. It’s not that hard. 

3. Screen testing.

Hollywood is all about the mass market. They don’t want to offend the soccer moms or the bible belt.  If indy film makers of the internet want to be able  to create content that attracts large audiences and by extension large ad buys, they have to create content that “tests well”. In order to do that, there has to be a cheap way of testing content with focus groups. Let’s create a service that allows filmmakers to get feedback on individual scenes to help them throw the editing process.

4. Community theatre

Movie theaters make all their money off of popcorn and Coke. I know because my first job was at a concession stand at Tinseltown 17. Hurray! Filling seats during the week is difficult, and a biopic about Edgar Allen Poe staring John Cusack isn’t going to help.  If there was a service that allowed the local movie goers to vote on which films, hollywood of indy, that were to be screened, it would help create new sources of content as well as boost attendance at theaters. Win win.

Anyway, if we are to create content alternatives to Paul Blart and King of Queens, the internet has to create services which bring down the cost of content creation for film makers. It’s going to happen. Let’s hope its just sooner rather than later. I for one am not looking forward to Battleship or any of the other “franchises” which pass for engaging moviemaking…

Being a Star Wars fan has jumped the shark

It pains me to say it, but it’s true.  Quoting Star Wars is no longer the secret hand shake between geeks that it once was. 

Star Wars references have become so pervasive that they have lost all meaning. 

Where once a witty “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for” showed that someone shared the same interests as you, and wasn’t afraid to share them in public; now the offhand reference only shows that you haven’t been living under a rock for the last 10 years, and you know what the internet is.

I’m not yearning for some idyllic past where nerds could feel accepted just by quoting movie lines to their close friends, or know a poser for their failure to know the proper shibboleth. 

Rather, Star Wars serves as an example of how we build community and create bonds through shared experiences. When that shared experience loses its exclusivity, the community it represents breaks down. 

The ways in which Star Wars is being used today, are so far removed from the original sentiment, that it is almost comical. 

So next time you see someone wearing a Star Wars t-shirt, don’t expect to be able to bond over your hatred of Jar-Jar, or debate whether or not the Rebels committed Genocide against private contractors when the blew up the second death star. 

A much more better phrasing of what I am trying to say can be found in Patton Oswalt’s essay on the death of Otaku.

My Newest app: ClinicalTrialsHQ.com

I’ve been working on a new project, ClinicalTrialshq.com. It’s still a work in progress, but It’s coming along.

ClinicalTrialsHQ allows patients to search over the National Institute of Healths database of open clinical trials across the world.  Additionally, patients can provide their email and receive notifications when new trials become available for a given condition.

The idea for the application came from a personal need. I was diagnosed with a disease that has no cure, and only a few treatments in clinical trials. A few Google searches later led me to clinicaltrials.gov. An open database of clinical trials geared towards researchers and practitioners. I wanted to build something that patients could use more comfortably.

There is stil a lot of work left to do. I have to finish the front-end, and the search is not nearly as good or fast as it could be. I should have it finished in the next few days.

The code is available at github.com/cmaury/clinicaltrialshq. 

Let me know what you think.

Airbnb + Springstar: A new model for international expansion

Last week we saw AirBnB announce a partnership with Springstar, a relatively unknown incubator (at least in the US) to help with international expansion. I happened to be in Berlin with BASES and EBS visiting Springstar when they made the announcement (crazy, right?).

Here are two insights I gleaned from the trip:

First of all Springstar is not an incubator; at least, not like the ones here in the US.

Secondly, this type of partnership is the first of many we will be seeing in the near future.

Springstar is not an Incubator

If Silicon Valley is about Innovation, Europe is about copycats.  And, while we may scoff at their lack of fresh ideas, they aren’t in the business of new ideas. They are in the business of building companies.

The investment environment in Europe is not the same as it is here. Investors are much more risk averse. This has, then, changes the focus of VCs and so-called incubators. Rather than focusing on discovering new business models, they instead focus on executing and scaling proven models. 

Calling Springstar an incubator is somewhat of a misnomer. They are better termed holding companies who have internalized all of the core functions of running a tech company: Search engine marketing, Management, development.  They have done their utmost to minimize execution risk.

Leaders in international expansion

By focusing on execution instead of innovation firms like Springstar and Rocket Internet are spending resources on opening markets, not iterating on product design, thus creating a comparative advantage in setting up shops in multiple countries.

They’ve been to Sao Paulo, New Delhi, and Dubai. They know how to set up office spaces, how to hired local talent, and how to market effectively. They have experience with the idiosyncrasies of the local markets and are familiar with the regulatory environments.

These European incubators are minimizing execution risk and are very attractive options for any US company looking to tackle the international market. Expect AirBnB to be just the first of many to take this route in the future.

Discussion

Do you think the European model incubator could work in the US?

Anonymous asked: how do I download your Google reader extension for chrome? My computer can't recognize what to open it with?

You should open the file from the extensions page in the chrome browser

See step 4 in this link:

http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/getstarted.html

Making Google Reader Easier on the Eyes

Google Reader hurts my eyes.

It could be the fact that I’m looking at it the majority of the time that I’m awake, but I like to think its because it’s not the most readable website.

12 pt font; black on a white background. It hurts.

So, rather than cut back my Google Reader time, and spare my eyes, I made a Chrome Extension.

Inspired by Readability, the extension increases the font size, darkens the background, and brightens the font.

It’s just a few lines of CSS, but it does the trick.

If you are as addicted as I am, feel free to try it out. You can download it here.

Fair Use?

I finally found a store to sell my design! A Little expensive though… Sorry.

Follow the link below:

README

I Like to Make things.

You could say it’s what drives me.

To have an idea and see it made is a pretty solid feeling.

It’s why I made this shirt. This website. This Blog.

What’s an even better feeling is seeing someone else use what you’ve made, to see someone’s life made better by the work of your hands (One can dream, right?).

Making things isn’t easy though. Bills to pay and whatnot. So, when I see something that is really well made, I try and appreciate it. Even if I don’t necessarily relate to it.

Thinking about the way things were made can change the way you see the world. Asking yourself, why something was made the way it was can really help you to appreciate things like this and this (and see through things like, this, this, and this).

Yeah, so go out and make something, or something like that.