Get ready to Scout!
Stretch out your thumbs, scouts! The world famous Sundance Film Festival is nearly upon us, and we're gearing up to SCOUT! If you've ever wanted to get a taste of Sundance experience without leaving your living room... this could be your year!
WHAT IS SUNDANCE?
Sundance is one of the most prestigious film festivals of the year. It's also a film market where independent filmmakers come from all over the world to screen their films for buyers and distributors. If a buyer likes a movie, they might make an offer on it. If more than one buyer likes it, a bidding war ensues. When you read headlines like "Netflix beats out Amazon to acquire rights for movie XYZ at Sundance," that's exactly what just happened.
While Sundance normally takes place in Park City, Utah each year, the 2021 edition will be online. Screenings begin on Thursday January 28th and continue through Wednesday February 3rd.
WHAT IS SCOUT?
While most entertainment companies rely on the gut intuition from key executives to make decisions, Legion M believes there's a better way. As a fan-owned company, we turn to our greatest resource — our community — to rate and evaluate films. To facilitate this, we built the SCOUT platform.
SCOUT is a game you can play on your mobile phone. There are two stages:
In the first stage, you rate and evaluate which films you are most interested in watching based on description, cast, director, etc. In this stage you also predict how you think others will rate the movies.
In the optional second stage, you watch the movie and provide detailed ratings to tell us what you thought of the film, the acting, directing, etc.
While anybody in the world can participate in the first stage, previously only people who traveled to Utah could participate in Stage 2. However, since Sundance is online this year, ANYBODY IN THE UNITED STATES CAN JOIN FROM YOUR LIVING ROOM!
Check out the article Forbes wrote about Film Scout when it first launched in 2019.
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?
If you'd want to help us Scout Sundance this year, there are two things you should do:
Keep a look-out for an email from Legion M within the next week or two on how to download and install the free SCOUT app. If you've already downloaded the app, you'll need to update it once the new version is available. We're working hard to finish the app, so stay tuned for details!
(Optional) If you'd like to watch one or more of the Sundance films and submit your ratings and reviews, you can purchase tickets and passes from Sundance. Tickets start at as low as $15 for a single film, and they have a number of different passes available. Tickets often sell out, so if you are interested, we encourage you to act quickly.
NOTE — YOU DON'T NEED TO BUY A TICKET TO PARTICIPATE IN SCOUT, BUT YOU WILL NEED ONE IF YOU WANT TO WATCH ANY OF THE FILMS.
WHAT'S AT STAKE?
Each year, at the end of the festival we publish a leaderboard that shows how accurate each Scout was at predicting the results of the group as a whole. The top 10% are named "Elite Scouts" and join a special group who receive a free pin. We sometimes call upon Elite Scouts to watch screeners and help evaluate other films and projects for Legion M.
In addition, Scouting Sundance is a great way to let your voice be heard and help Legion M harness "the wisdom of the crowd" in making decisions. Two years ago, we used SCOUT data to identify and purchase (in conjunction with Screen Media) the rights to Memory: The Origins of Alien. Last year we used the data to partner with Bleecker Street for the release of Save Yourselves!
We don't yet know if Legion M will get involved with a film coming out of Sundance in 2021, but if we do, it will almost certainly be based on feedback from SCOUT.
Are you excited? We're excited! If you have any questions, hit us up at team@legionm.com. Otherwise — be on the lookout for more information once the app is ready!
Onward and upward!