Raw Ventures Leads $1.5M Seed Round to Transform Film Pre-Production with Filmustage

In the world of film production, time is money.

The pre-production phase, involving script breakdowns and scheduling, often consumes an inordinate amount of time and resources.

Manual scripting processes can take up to 150 hours per script, costing an average of tens of thousands per project. With over 50,000 films produced annually worldwide, the industry spends millions of dollars on these labour-intensive tasks.

For that reason, we are excited to announce our latest investment - Filmustage, an AI-powered platform that revolutionises the pre-production process in the film industry.

This strategic seed funding round of $1.5 million alongside Geek Ventures and other investors is a testament to our commitment to fostering innovation in media technology.

Founded in the USA in 2020, Filmustage is at the forefront of integrating advanced AI technology into film production workflows.

The platform was conceived by three passionate innovators with extensive backgrounds in film production, natural language processing, and software development. Their combined expertise has culminated in a tool that automates script breakdowns and scheduling with up to 86% accuracy, delivering results in mere minutes.

Egor Dubrovsky, CEO and Co-Founder of Filmustage, leveraged his experience working on pilots for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to identify critical inefficiencies in manual script breakdowns. Filmustage, also cofounded by Ruslan Khamidullin and Andrei Karalkou, addresses these pain points by automating the process, reducing the time required by 90% and increasing accuracy sixfold compared to traditional methods.

We first saw Filmustage at our Global MediaTech Pitch Day, where they stood out among 400 applicants.

Alexey Skobelkin, CPO at Raw Ventures, highlighted the reasons behind the investment, “The integration of LLMs into production workflows, along with the development of their specialised AI model, distinguishes Filmustage in the industry. We see strong market potential, a focused team, and a product that fits perfectly into the market needs.”

Filmustage’s robust suite of features:

• Automatic Script Breakdown: The platform identifies over 17 categories, including characters, locations, and props and dynamically updates breakdowns as scripts evolve, ensuring consistent accuracy.
• Smart Scheduling: Users benefit from semi-automatic scheduling, with features that allow specifying locations, estimating prep and shoot times, and reordering scenes via drag-and-drop.
• Visual Reference Board: enables users to convert ideas into visual images, attaching references to tags using pictures from various sources.
• Total Summary Board: All tags are sorted by appearance and mentions in the script, providing comprehensive insight into the production requirements.

Additionally, integration with industry-standard software like Movie Magic, Gorilla Scheduling, and Final Draft ensures compatibility with existing workflows, enhancing its utility for both large studios and independent filmmakers.

The recent funding will accelerate Filmustage’s efforts to acquire new B2B clients, including Tier-1 studios, and expand its AI capabilities. Future developments include AI-based budget estimation, storyboards, and integrations with platforms like Omniverse.

To date, the platform has already garnered over 13,000 registrations, with high-profile clients like Roger Christian (Star Wars), Byron Saltysiak (WarnerMedia), and Callan Green testifying to its impact.

Egor Dubrovsky expressed his vision for the future, “Filmustage aims to continue reducing budget risks and ensuring efficient resource management for film production studios. This investment will enable us to expand our AI-driven solutions, further streamlining the pre-production process and allowing creative teams to focus on what they do best.”

Raw Ventures is dedicated to supporting innovative startups that leverage cutting-edge technology that disrupts the consumption, creation and distribution of media.

Our investment in Filmustage reflects our belief in the transformative power of AI and our commitment to driving progress in the media and entertainment industry.

By investing in Filmustage, we continue our mission to support groundbreaking innovations that enhance efficiency and creativity in the media industry and we look forward to seeing the continued success and growth of Filmustage as it reshapes the landscape of film production.

Read more at Business Insider: A startup that uses AI to streamline Hollywood productions just raised $1.5 million. Read its 20-page pitch deck.