The Assemble Manifesto
The expression ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ has become the catchphrase of our generation, pinned on contemporary indie filmmakers over and over again - probably even past the point of carrying any real significance: We are empowered to make our own choices, to find our own audiences, empowered to create our own marketing campaigns, not to mention empowered to make our own movies. And yet, we feel the burden of this privilege: We are empowered, yes, but also we are responsible to our films, and responsible for their successes and dreaded failures.
It’s no surprise then that many filmmakers feel overburdened. Empowered as we are, we still need to engage in the modern equivalent of the street corner VHS sales hustle: We need to gather those audiences. We need to sell those downloads. We need to craft a theatrical release. We need to get the views up. And we need to keep people excited. No small feat, and with tools and platforms spread across the internet, it certainly doesn’t always feel so empowering.
This is what Assemble is designed to fix.
I. SO WHAT IS ASSEMBLE?
Assemble is a web platform that allows filmmakers to manage all aspects of their films’ public life. It’s an integrated toolkit to build and manage a slate of film websites.
Starting in development, Assemble allows you to create a basic website and start collecting vital audience data.
As the film progresses, you can add to the website pre-built apps that allow you to grow your mailing list and find your audience, save time on repetitive tasks for you and your team, and geo-filter content to work across multiple territories, platforms and with multiple distributors.
Finally, as distribution kicks off, you have a customized, beautiful web presence for the film.
In short, we offer tools that help filmmakers help their film to find success.
We have four core beliefs, at Assemble.
1. Filmmakers should benefit from their work
2. Filmmakers should control the promotion of their work even when working with multiple distributors
3. Filmmakers should be able to collect meaningful audience data, not just 'Likes' or ‘Views’
4. Every film and every filmmaker should have a web-presence to be proud of
II. WHY WE CREATED ASSEMBLE
The team behind Assemble started off working with filmmakers on self-distribution projects as early as 2007. As our experience and learning grew, we discovered that the process of creating the all important website for a film was either very expensive when working with a web agency, or very painful when working with a freelancer: Support and quality tended to fall short.
Secondly, the pain of creating these necessary tools and assets meant often they are done poorly or forgotten altogether.
As filmmakers can only meet their goals when they have good tools, our mission at Assemble is to create website tools and apps that are easy to use, available to all, and that - through re-use - are affordable. Assemble also works well with the other emerging web tools for filmmakers. In fact, we embrace collaboration, and have formed partnerships with some of the best film-centric companies on the internet today; companies like Tugg, Gathr and Vimeo, to name a few.
To cap it off, we created a system where the tools talk to one another, and we topped it with a keen eye for design. And... Presto Chango! A set of website production tools that not only help create a well thought out, simple-to-use web presence for movies, but also allow the film team to manage all aspects of their crowd-gathering, online sales and film marketing efforts from one place.
Our core beliefs inspired a system that empowers filmmakers to present themselves in a way that works, to gather their audience and to communicate to that audience, sell to their audience, and – heck why not – impress their audience without being bogged down with the disempowering, sometimes overwhelming complications.
III. HOW DO WE DO THIS?
There are a few guiding principles that have informed Assemble’s tools. Firstly, that it's always in the filmmaker’s interests to promote the film directly, rather than to promote yet another platform. Secondly that the production team are always the most committed and passionate of advocates and - with the right tools and experience - can do the best job of promoting and selling the film. Lastly, we understand the importance of the film’s marketing materials / key art / branding. This is what really sells the film online. Anything we support has to work with the branding, and be very beautiful.
In order to best help independent films find their online audience, we also realized that we have to provide different solutions at each key stage of a movie’s life.
Our adaptable web presence thus includes early email capture functionality, social media integration and a blog for the earliest days of pre-production. When you are ready to move on to crowdfunding, Assemble easily integrates with Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Launch your trailer and add to it branding, a synopsis, screenings, festivals, reviews and even to sell products or link to platforms right from within the trailer widget. Later in the film’s life, the website can change with the flick of a button (and some data entry) to accommodate a shop, a press kit, downloadable film stills, a list of screenings with links to ticketing, a demand-it form so people can request a screening in their community, press links, and several other important apps.
Each of our apps is made just for film, and they work exactly as you would expect, out of the box. Moreover, the apps communicate with one another. For instance, adding information about where you can see the film in a particular territory can automatically appear on your Facebook page and in the trailer widget, all at the click of a button. We save you time.
Lastly, each app adapts by country so your website can properly support different territories being at different stages - ready for download in the USA but in theatrical in Australia - without interfering with one another. We allow your movie’s availability to appear exactly as you would like it to appear in each territory.
IV. WORKING WITH MULTIPLE FILMS?
If you are a distributor, production company or have a slate of films, Assemble works beautifully. It allows you to create a full website for you or your company – including individual pages for each of your films - in one well-designed place. All your film websites and your production company or filmmaker website can then talk to each other, and share vital information. For instance the press stills from one film are automatically added to the press area on your main site.
One of Assemble’s primary differentiators lies in the realm of its unique balance of customer support and customer empowerment. While we are quick to respond to technical, content and design requests, we also provide the tools filmmakers need to make many of these changes directly. Call it a hybrid approach: Agency-style personal support, with easy to use software - all a service we provide in our monthly pricing.
If you have further questions about Assemble, please take advantage of our excellent customer service by emailing us at help@assemble.me.