Victoria Thomas and Jonathan Forbes, two recent graduates of the NFTS’ Creative Business for Entrepreneurs and Executives (CBEE) course have unveiled a new film discovery app, Cues, at the Cannes Film Festival, which is available in beta on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
Cues provides consumers with intelligent film recommendations, via trailers which remain the most influential factor in persuading audiences to see a film, and a simple way to purchase cinema tickets, trigger on demand screenings or purchase VOD / physical copies through familiar providers like iTunes and Amazon. It also aims to improve dwindling cinema occupancy internationally and aide distributors in forming data driven strategy.
Cues was developed by Victoria Thomas during her time as a Resident Entrepreneur, a University of Edinburgh School of Design Informatics programme, and gained support to develop it from Creative Scotland's Digital Innovation fund and the Scottish Enterprise High Growth pipeline prior to her time at the NFTS.
"These are incredibly exciting times for storytellers thanks to the way digital technology has removed the barriers to entry in cinema. But it is also a double edged sword as the volume of content makes it harder for our stories to reach our intended audience," says Thomas.
Thomas and Forbes met on the school’s CBEE course and set up The Thomas Forbes agency to deliver a slate of projects.
"One of the fundamental challenges to entrepreneurialism is isolation. The NFTS not only enabled us to find the team necessary to deliver a ground-breaking product, but also provided us the expertise and bridges to industry needed to see this come to life,” says Forbes.
Cues has received additional support from the NZ Film Commission for it its launch at the Cannes Film Festival. The team will be available to meet with distributors, content aggregators and cinemas at the NEXT Pavilion, within the Marché du Film.
For more information, and to join the public beta, visit http://getcues.com
The NFTS Creative Business for Entrepreneurs and Executives is a unique 10-month business course designed to give entrepreneurs and executives all of the tools to design, test and launch their own business proposal or new ventures - across all of the media industries. Taught by over 100 leading media businesspeople, creatives, advisors and investors, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to get the skills and contacts to build the major media companies of the future.
READ a blog by Victoria Thomas about how the film discovery App was created.
FIND OUT more about this CBEE course here...https://nfts.co.uk/our-courses/diploma/creative-business-entrepreneurs-executives
Apply by July 9th deadline.
Pictured are Victoria Thomas and Jono Forbes at the NEXT pavilion in the International Village at the Cannes Film Festival.
