Jamie Chvotkin
Founder: Film Baby
Website: Film Baby.com

In a warehouse in the heart of Porltand, OR a couple of movie buffs came to the conclusion that there was no true place outside the Hollywood world for Film Makers to break in and show off their creativity. They saw great stories worth telling that fell short of the Titanic sized budgets needed in Hollywood. It seemed a tragedy that people had no way to get their films into the marketplace without insider contacts and buckets of money.

Behold, a site was born.
Film Baby founder Jamie Chvotkin got a Fisher Price Camcorder when he was Six and began making short films using Lego film sets. Growing up in Maryland, he would write screenplays.instead of book reports in school. Although never great at writing entire stories, he loved to create short previews.

As an adult, his love of film continued and he landed himself a job in the marketing department of "Shooting Gallery Entertainment". It was here that he gained great exposure to "the most incredible and talented people" and was able to learn more from them in one year than he did all throughout college. While preparing for one movie release he worked nearly 24hrs straight. That's when it hit him: This is... GREAT! How many other jobs could you work for 24 hours straight and still come in the next day happy and loving your co-workers? For the first time he realized that doing marketing for films was just as, if not more important, than the film itself and he was still able to use just as much creativity.

Unfortunately, in 2001 Shooting Gallery went bankrupt and Jamie made the move out to Portland, OR to apply what he'd learned about marketing movies to help independent musicians gain exposure in the College Marketplace. It was with a new little company called CDBaby.com and they had about 8,000 independent musicians and 8 employees in a warehouse in Portland. They'd found an untapped marketing niche: independent musicians that had no affordable way to sell & mass market their CD's. It didn't take long to notice that a lot of film makers were also trying to sign up on CD Baby, in an effort to sell thier films. Jamie saw a golden opportunity that was almost too good to be true. With his love of film making and marketing, he was more than eager to take care of everything and get a new site, FilmBaby.com, up and running. Next month, Film Baby turns 1 year old!

According to Jamie the hardest part to starting his business was all the fees. "There are a ton of fees and bills that you have to pay before you can even make a dime! We had about $5,000 in startup costs and I don't think that even bought us an ink pen!" They had to build servers and equipment, pay bank fees and insurance policies, hire an accountant, merchant services, buy software, acquire a check processor, etc. The list seemed endless!

With some infrastructure offered by CDBaby.com Jamie was able to cut out some expenses, but as the primary investor in Film Baby he did need to generate half of the start up cash. eBay was the answer! Jamie went through his entire house and put everything on-line that he no longer wanted or needed: books, an old Tivo, track ball mouse, dining room table, etc. He put all of it up for sale! In less than a month he had managed to raise about $2500 in start-up money

After the financial hurdles were tackled, the next daunting task was getting people to believe in the service and sign up. According to Jamie, even when you're filling a void or see an opportunity that is a no-brainer, people are still going to be skeptical of what you offer. Jammie set out from day one to make both the film maker and the Customer experience a truly remarkable one. He knew he'd have to EARN them one at a time. Without millions, or even thousands of dollars to spend on advertising, Film Baby had to rely on their work ethic and mission statement speak for them.

The first day they opened, Jamie had emailed and called a lot of film makers asking them to use the service, explaining how it could help them. They are paid every week for their sales, and given the contact information of their customers. They also keep an average of 80% of the DVD sales price!! Yet their first question to Jamie was always, "How many other film makers are you selling DVD's for now?" or "How much website traffic do you have?" Jamie knew he could have lied and said "hundreds and thousands", but instead he wanted to be honest and win their respect. He knew if he signed these film makers and treated them as if they were Spielberg or Lucas, they would spread the word about Film Baby. It worked! In just 10 months of business, Film Baby has paid over $60,000 to independent film makers.

Seeing checks go out every Monday to film makers is what gives Jamie the greatest job satisfaction. He loves to show the world what a real independent film is. In Jamie's words: "I love being able to show film makers who live in Maine, or Alabama that there are people all over this world who will buy your film, but only if you will make it available to them. Our service allows them to do that." Recently, Film Baby shipped more orders overseas than they did stateside. Where else can an independant film maker gain not only a local market place but also global exposure!

Jamie resides in Portland, OR but his love of football keeps him in touch with his roots as he flies back for a few games every year. He has adopted the Seattle Seahawks as his new "hometown" team to root for .... as long as they're not playing the Redskins. Jamie also likes to think of himself as a "famous model". He can be seen, in all his glory, on both the video box and movie poster for the film "Barenaked in America" , a documentary about the band Barenaked Ladies, directed by Beverly Hills 90210 alumni Jason Priestley. Head on over to IMDB.com to see it for yourself..... if you dare.

Many thanks to Jamie for this wonderful interview! If you've given up on brain dead, lack luster Hollywood entertainment you need to support the true artists of the film industry. With Christmas around the corner, there's no place like Film Baby.com to find that truly "unique" gift for the movie buffs in your life.