Hello all,

You may have noticed that your TRACKING notifications have been a little quite over the past few days. Well, we've been hard at work, crafting what we feel is a more effective way to get you the information you need to stay informed and in touch with your network in the film industry - plus to communicate the Slated community activity, developments, and trending films in a tailored way to suit you. 

Introducing Slated Email Digests:

We are also extremely mindful of your inbox. If it looks like ours, you really don't need more ineffective, irrelevant emails. So to help better manage it all, we have upgraded (and simplified) the old email settings. Now, if you wanted to get your digests DAILY instead of WEEKLY, you can. We also offer you the chance to get your TRACKER notifications instantly in case you want to stay completely on top of your activity.

Some of the more obvious changes are that we eliminated a lot of the choices and grouped a few of them together:

PLEASE NOTE: Email Digests are only available to approved members

We love FilmNewsBriefs, and were excited to read about us in this morning's newsletter. Read on:

FNB EDITORIAL ...The Future Might Just Be Slated February 13, 2012

We’ve been hearing a lot about Kickstarter lo, these past couple years, and have always found it an interesting diversion for smaller projects and flights of fancy. Not to diminish the site, it clearly does a lot of good for people, but it’s always struck us as a bit limited, with a defined ceiling for the size of the projects the site is designed to help. We thought there was room for something bigger, but we never actually got around to doing anything about it. Luckily, a couple guys named Stephan Paternot and Duncan Cork did, and the result is the terrific Slated.

The very purpose of the site is to match accredited investors with developing projects, allowing people to monitor the progress of casting and hiring, maintain buzz, it’s … it’s … intoxicating, really.

Seriously, creating a site where filmmakers, distributors, investors and sales agents can interact with each other and track projects in an online environment protected and vetted by the community’s own members? Genius. On top of that (and, truthfully, the best part for us, as we are noted snobs), it’s kind of an exclusive club. You have to be approved by two existing members to get in. Again, seriously. It’s like being a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, only without the bombast and boring ceremony.

All kidding aside, what took everyone so long? This site is exactly what the internet was made for, as far as the entertainment industry is concerned. It’s eHarmony, J-Date and Match all rolled into one, but instead of trying to score a mate, you can score a sweet deal for your project (or, on the other side, score a sweet project to deal. It really does work both ways!). Already signed up are reps of IM Global, WME, Participant Media, Weinstein Co, FilmDistrict, as well as high profile indie producers like Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte, Lesley Chilcott, MaryJane Skalski and Rene Bastian. Fairly elite company.

One of the reasons why we’ve never really investigated Kickstarter is because it always felt too small. Getting a few bucks apiece from a couple hundred people was great in theory, but didn’t necessarily serve the purposes of anything on which we might have been working. But this? Even Chairman and co-founder Paternot admits, “all our investors are accredited investors, about 50 percent of our investor community represent institutions, distributors and sales companies.” That’s some serious juice right there, and most definitely the kind aimed at bigger fish.

It’s amazing, really, that some of the best ideas are the ones you look at and say, “How come no one thought of this sooner?” This is one of those times. 

Over the past few weeks, we've been working closely with all filmmakers on how to improve Slated and help your film look the best it can for the community.

The feature that was requested most was to add additional verification methods for the attached cast.

Slated requires that all attachments are verified independently to ensure a high level of integrity and help build trust in the community. 

So we designed the system to send an automated email to the addresses of the cast and crew being attached.

We learned quickly that filmmakers are comfortable with sending verification emails to the principal crew (e.g. Directors, Writers, Producers), but cast is different due to the sensitivity around the manner by which independent films are packaged. 

Some filmmakers don't have cast emails and would like to verify through their representatives. Some filmmakers have Letters Of Intent and can verify directly with Slated. And some filmmakers simply didn't want to enter a high-profile actor's email address (even though we don't ever disclose email addresses or contact them for any other reason). 

WELL...WE HEARD YOU LOUD AND CLEAR

1. We have added two additional verification methods which are now available for you to use. so now you can Verify with the Actor, their Representative or with Slated directly. 

2. We'd like to assure you that we never contact the attachments you add (cast, crew or financiers) other than to verify their involvement in your film. Verification is done through a simple automated email that is written as if it comes from you, the filmmaker.

3. We offer full confidentiality for both cast and investors should you be in the middle of packaging your film and don't want to share names with the community just yet. This can be changed at any time.

NEW FEATURE: Additional verification methods

Verify your cast in three different ways. Selecting one of these options sends an automated email on your behalf to the Actor, their representative or us at Team Slated.

NEW FEATURE: Resend verification

Don't forget to get your team to fill out their profiles. Investors will want to know who's behind the project and the more information that is presented, the more confidence an investor will have before reaching out. So get your team to help. If they've lost their verification email and you need to send it again, click EDIT and RESEND VERIFICATION next to their names on the film page.