I was driving back from the gym, when I stopped at the intersection of Gervais and Harden. It was a beautiful spring morning, and "Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad"was playing with the windows down. The music was loud appropriately. I was lost in thought when a cop pulled up beside me. His windows were also down, and I did not notice him until he extended his hand across the space that separated our cars and pointed at me. I looked over and watched him through my sunglasses. He brought in his finger, turned his fist, and gave me a thumbs-up. I smiled. The light turned green.
Quick updates: Pandoodle is one sponsor of the Indie Grits film festival in Columbia. It's been a great success personally and professionally. I've had the opportunity to meet many interesting, artistic people that I would have never met with my old network. There is a great deal of energy in Columbia that has yet to be exhumed, and I am pleased to realize it. For awhile, plotting an escape seemed the only way to deal with this town.
Pandoodle is working with a few filmmakers now to incorporate our technology into their next films. The filmmakers seem excited about the AdHere system, as it enables them to incorporate advertisements into their films dynamically. Whether a film is being show in Columbia, Austin, or New York, local ads can be embedded, and filmmakers can use the resulting revenue to fund their art. If indie films wax in popularity, like Napoleon Dynamite or Paranormal Activity, advertisements from larger sponsors can replace the earlier ones, generating more money from the film.
It's taken awhile, but filmmakers are starting to realize the advantages of this strategy, and a few innovative ones are chomping at the bit to produce the first film that employs Pandoodle technology. My goal is for that first film to recover its full production cost within one year. If Pandoodle can demonstrate that, there will be no doubt left as to the power of this technology to reshape the media industry.
I love independent films, and I hope that Pandoodle will officiate a happy marriage between amateur filmmakers and local businesses who may both thrive off stories told and a visions produced.
Still living at home. Broke as mud. Chasing deals. Might be in San Francisco this summer selling and raising VC funding. It seems likely, but it's still contingent on many factors.
