BlowTorch! ... YouTorch?... iTorch?

With $50 million in funding, much of http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifwhich is slated to go to the production and marketing of eighteen feature-length movies over the next three years, isn't so much a tech startup. It's more of a Hollywood studio with "Web 2.0" features. And what's that?

It's something akin to what Sony-owned Crackle (see my previous post) is doing: It discovers, produces and features videos from its most talented audience members. A sort of minor league for Hollywood, already resulting in a traffic surge and millions in advertising revenue.

However, Blowtorch is more grandly conceived. It will offer feature-length films, professional-quality short films, a social network and a mobile site too. Movie and show ideas will be proposed by users and voted on by their peers. Users will also be able to vote on casting, music, wardrobes and other aspects of each film.

Their goal is to produce low-budget hits like Napoleon Dynamite, a movie that cost $5 million to make, then brought in $17 million at the box office and $90 million in video rentals and sales, says CEO Kelly Rodriquez. He wants people to say "I helped pick the cast," when they watch a Blowtorch movie.

Live events are another key to their plan. They will host movie nights on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at more than 600 movie theaters across the country, strategically chosen for proximity to and popularity with students at colleges and universities. During these movie nights, users' short films will run before feature films and audiences will be able to vote for their favorites on the company's social network, through the web or mobile devices.

Right now, the company is running a user-generated short-video contest on its site where the best video creators will get paid, go to LA, and get team of pros to re-shoot. It is still working out the details of how users will be paid for their work.

As feature films may not necessarily bubble up from Blowtorch's audiences, it will produce some on its own, or acquire the rights to others. First-off will be a feature film called "You Are Here," which will debut in theaters in spring 2008. The movie is being produced by veteran filmmaker and Blowtorch board member and advisor Paul Schiff. It will be directed by Henry Pincus, and features a cast that includes Bijou Phillips from "Almost Famous," Danny Masterson from "That 70's Show," Michael Biehn of "Grindhouse," and "Terminator," and Patrick Fleuger.

Let's see ... how grand is this?





For the longest video embed code I've EVER seen NOT working, I wouldn't have invested a penny....

Cybercast "credit:" BlowTorch