Dovetail vs. King Kong

"And then the fourth thing is that we have a revenue-sharing agreement. So it's a no-risk proposition for a filmmaker. It's non exclusive, they can take it down, and yet there's an upside because when we start making money, we are going to share revenue 50/50."

One flaw in the Dovetail business plan may be its reliance on getting content from independent filmmakers. Dovetail executives are assuming two things: 1) that there are a lot of independent filmmakers out there with great undiscovered content, and 2) that there is a pent-up demand for this sort of content among a large number of potential viewers.

Holloway says that he thinks there is a "fair amount" of independent content available. "What we are doing by focusing on independent films in our initial niches is to give these people a chance to be discovered. There are millions of fans of independent films, and tens of thousands of independent films are produced each year. There's a good market there," he says. "If we can create a service that matches them up, if we can find fans for films and find films for fans, then we'll be successful." Holloway says he knows this won't be easy and realizes the company may have to do some promotion, to get the word out to the independent filmmakers and the fans of independent films.

But Holloway feels certain that the Dovetail model will appeal to independent filmmakers. "These people don't want to go out through YouTube, because when they do that, they give up their rights. Sending something to YouTube is effectively giving it up," he says. "Someone spends a year making a documentary that they put their heart and soul into; they don't want that to be alongside some low-quality home video on YouTube. So there's a prestige value to being seen on Dovetail where only professional content, no user-gen stuff, is shown."

Then, of course, there's the profit motive. "Dovetail expects to pay filmmakers," says Holloway. "We're not doing that yet, but in the near future we will start monetizing and splitting revenue with people who license their content to us. Professionals have sat on the sidelines for the past year or so during this whole YouTube thing. We're trying to solve the problems that they have and thereby get a much higher level of quality content to viewers."

So What About Revver?
With its emphasis on appealing to independent filmmakers, treating them fairly, and sharing the profits with them, Dovetail sounds an awful lot like Revver. "The difference with Revver is that Revver is a website application, really; it's designed to be put on a website," says Holloway. "Revver is designed to be streaming low-resolution video over the web. Revver has some cute videos, but most of the stuff is user-generated. That's their focus. So from a resolution viewpoint, they are different than us. What's similar with Revver is the splitting of revenue."

Holloway says the Dovetail beats Revver by giving film producers more control over their content. "Most of these other websites that are user-generated have license agreements that require that someone uploading content give them control of it, basically. Even in the case of Revver they require that you make it Creative Commons. That means that by making your film Creative Commons and uploading it to Revver (which you have to do if you want to be on Revver; it has to be Creative Commons), then you are essentially saying, ‘I grant rights to the world to use my film.’ You give the world the right to watch your film, and once you've done that, it's like crossing the Rubicon. Once you've done it, your film is now technically available everywhere, and if someone else shares it, your rights are very limited because you entered into this Creative Commons agreement."

Holloway says that entering into a Creative Commons license agreement could put a film producer at a disadvantage in dealing with the major studios. "If something became really popular on Revver, and along comes Miramax or Sony and says they think they could make money in mainstream distribution with your film, you could be in trouble. With Dovetail our license says you can take it down and go sign your deal with Sony and make millions of dollars," he says. "That's great. We have other films and that's okay with us. But with these other sites, once your film goes out with them and your film starts to become very popular, your film in its entirety has now entered this Creative Commons agreement, and people can share it around, and you really have no legal recourse against them. So it's very unlikely at that point that Sony is going to want to distribute it. Because Sony is going to look at it and say ‘You know, anyone could make copies of this and we're sort of powerless to do anything about it.’ "

The Social Networking Advantage
Among Holloway's efforts to make Dovetail more appealing to users are plans to beef up the site's social networking capabilities. Dovetail already encourages users to share content using its current social networking capabilities such being able to email to a friend, create embeddable previews, and do social tagging, but Holloway believes more capabilities need to be added. "In our next release, we will have much more robust social networking features," says Holloway. "We want to make it easier for people to learn what films their friends are liking and to then check them out. We want to give people a place within Dovetail where they can show off to their friends the films that they've discovered and that they really like. We want people to be able to find other people with common interests. For example, as you browse around, you might discover that there's a guy in India with similar tastes to yours and so you might want to associate with that person for the purpose of sharing ideas about films that are fun to watch."

Holloway sums up the Dovetail advantage by reiterating the quality theme. "I think the quality is really the thing that distinguishes us from the teeming masses," he says. "A year ago we elected not to be a fast-growth super website like YouTube. We took the time to become a next generation of television and movies over the Internet."

Holloway’s combination of patience and grand ambitions bodes well for his site, but only time will tell if that’s going to be enough to blast the Kong-like YouTube from its perch on top of the Empire State Building. But perhaps there's room in this market for many apes of various sizes.