The online media editing arena is teeming with new startups that have their own unique angle on mashing up media. Splashcast had a big launch recently, and Adobe who are holding hands with Photobucket have also entered the game with their own little kiddies toy (poor effort guys - be very ashamed). The Filmator system was the first off the block in this sector and launched in july 2006 and happens to be our favorite (disclaimer:- we developed this product but this has not influenced our opinion in an way!) The interest in this sector is exploding and as such it looks as though soon there will be as many contenders as there already are for the oh so fashionable social networks.

Why all this interest in making and manipulating media? The reason for us was simple, there is war going on over distribution rights for content produced by the majors and as such the battles are clear for all to see. With the likes of Youtube and Google facing increasing pressure to pay for the content they broadcast. We have also been in similar battles with another of our sites Doc-Film-Net where we have faced the similar legal assaults. The irony is that many of those with stories to tell (the subjects) have traditionally been treated like second rate citizens.

For example documentaries made about subjects who have then found they were dropped like rotten tomatoes and were very rarely satisfied with the experience. (I can provide many examples.) So the answer for us was to develop Filmator as a way to solve both these issues. The motives of the others will surely be different from ours but I see it as a leap forward when story tellers can bypass the traditional hurdles and connect directly with their audience. Although I have not tried Castfire yet, it looks like an interesting effort in this sector and worth checking out. However it appears there is no way to register on their site at this time (little oversight there guys)?

What will distinguish the players are the users who adopt these systems. Each with its own take and control on mashup media. With all these opportunities for creators to manipulate and control their media, I wonder if soon a cult will emerge like in the nineties for the DJing scene.

Please contact brian@castfire.com for an information pack.