In this episode of the No Film School Podcast, host GG Hawkins speaks with Kino co-founders Brit MacRae and Daril Fannin about the broken handoff between post-production and release, and how insecure screeners, fragmented feedback workflows, and fear-based distribution norms undermine independent film.
They break down Kino’s evolution from an interactive streaming idea into a secure post-to-delivery platform, explain how they built a film fund around de-risked sub-$2 million features, and use A24’s undertone as a case study for aligning budgets, creative ambition, and profitability.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why the current post-production and release pipeline is still built around insecure links, scattered notes, and outdated habits
- How piracy, leaks, and weak screener security can hurt filmmakers, investors, and distribution momentum
- The original idea behind Kino and how it pivoted from interactive streaming to a B2B platform for secure screeners, dailies, cuts, approvals, focus groups, and final delivery
- Why discoverability is one of the biggest problems in independent film, and why indie projects are competing with TikTok and other forms of passive entertainment
- How fear-based thinking shapes decisions around marketing, exposure, festivals, and distribution
- What “LVOD” means to Kino and how the company tried to create a window that adds marketing value without cannibalizing TVOD
- Why MacRae and Fannin believe filmmakers need to think like business builders, not just artists, when raising money
- How Kino structured its film fund around contained, creatively aligned stories with budgets under $2 million and meaningful de-risking through incentives and exchange rates
- Why Undertone made sense as a fund project: one location, a contained story, and a production model that matched the script’s scale
- How equity participation and aligned incentives can help cast, crew, and investors move in the same direction
- Why iteration, early feedback, and collaborative review should play a larger role in filmmaking, much like they do in tech and animation
- What kinds of projects Kino is pursuing next, including a Band of Brothers documentary and more genre-focused features
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