An audience is more than a follower count. For filmmakers and creators, building a direct relationship with the people who care about their work can be the foundation of a sustainable creative career.

In this episode, Alex Stolz speaks with Jeffrey Kohn, founder and CEO of TopFan, about what filmmakers can learn from the creator economy—and why building an audience and “owning” that relationship are two very different things.

Jeffrey explains why creators cannot afford to depend entirely on social platforms and algorithms for access to their fans. Instead, he argues for using those platforms as a point of discovery, while creating direct channels through which audiences can become part of a deeper and more enduring community.

The conversation explores the power of superfans; why relatively small but highly engaged audiences can be more valuable than large follower counts; and how creators can turn moments of attention into long-term relationships. Alex and Jeffrey also discuss crowdfunding, audience participation and the ways a committed community can help creators finance projects, generate revenue and carry momentum from one story to the next.

A practical conversation about moving beyond rented platforms, creating genuine connection and building an audience that can sustain your creative work over the long term.

About Jeffrey Kohn

Jeff Kohn is the founder and CEO of TopFan. Prior to TopFan, Jeff was a distinguished enterprise architect for Oracle, led global e-business operations for for Sun Microsystems, and space radiation analysis for NASAs Mission Control.

At TopFan, Jeff focuses on solving the platform dependency problem in the creator economy.

TopFan technology provides creators with a customized, white-labeled website and mobile app platform that unifies content, community and commerce into one place, and full ownership of their fan data.

In turn, creators own their platform, and achieve long-term financial stability and equity in their business.

For decades, film finance has relied on a familiar model: studios, distributors and a relatively small pool of investors deciding which stories get made.

But what happens when audiences themselves become part of the equation?

In this episode, Alex sits down with producer and Republic Film founder Marc Iserlis to explore a new approach to financing screen stories, one that allows fans to invest in film and entertainment projects and participate in their potential success.

The conversation explores how film finance is changing, why creator communities may be becoming as valuable as traditional industry gatekeepers, and what recent successes such as Backrooms, Obsession and Markiplier's Iron Lung reveal about the future of audience-driven storytelling.

Along the way, Marc shares lessons from his journey as a producer, discusses the rise of creator-led IP, and explains why he believes the next generation of breakthrough stories may emerge from communities rather than traditional development pipelines.

It's a conversation about ownership, participation and what happens when fans become stakeholders in the stories they want to see in the world.

Topics include:

• Why film finance needs new models

• The difference between crowdfunding and crowd investing

• Creator-led IP and the rise of audience-first storytelling

• What Backrooms, Obsession and Markiplier tell us about the future

• Why creators may be becoming the new celebrities

• How communities can help de-risk creative projects

• The future of film finance, ownership and audience participation

About Marc Iserlis

Marc Iserlis leads Republic Film--an SEC-regulated investment platform enabling global accredited and unaccredited investors to invest directly in film projects and share in their financial success.

Officially launched in late 2024, Republic Film has raised more than $32 million from over 40,000 everyday film fans into premium projects from Eli Roth, Robert Rodriguez, Skybound Entertainment, Pressman Film, and Ron Perlman.

Marc is also a film and television producer whose credits include Hotel Mumbai (2019), Gone in the Night (2022), Dalíland (2023), and The Testament of Ann Lee (2026).

In this special Future of Film conversation, Alex Stolz is joined by three leading voices exploring how storytellers can build work that sustains in a rapidly changing creative landscape:

Jeff Gomez, pioneer in worldbuilding and transmedia storytelling

HaZ Dulull, filmmaker and creator working across film, games and emerging technologies

Brian Newman, strategist and producer focused on audience, creator sustainability and new creative models

Together, they explore:

• Why filmmakers can no longer think only in terms of single projects

• The shift from “audience after” to “audience throughout”

• How creators can build worlds that expand across formats and platforms

• Ownership, IP and sustainable creative careers

• AI, games and emerging storytelling tools

• Why emotional resonance matters more than ever

From Kickstarter and creator-funded IP to transmedia storytelling, audience feedback loops and the future of story worlds, this conversation explores how screen storytellers can adapt and thrive in an era of fragmented attention and rapidly evolving technology.

A must-listen for filmmakers, writers, producers, worldbuilders and creators thinking about the future of storytelling.

And if this resomates for where you are heading in your creative work, then you may want to consider applying to Story Founders. the new accelerator by Future of Film.

Story Founder is designed to help storytellers build projects - and creative practices - that can endure.

Applications are now open:

👉 futureoffilm.live/storyfounders/

About the Speakers

Jeff Gomez

Jeff Gomez is an architect of large-scale narrative systems, internationally recognized for designing the

storyworld architectures and canon governance behind some of the most enduring global franchises of

the modern era.

For more than 25 years, Jeff has pioneered long-horizon narrative frameworks that enable intellectual

properties to expand across platforms, cultures, and decades while maintaining coherent identity. His

work has shaped global franchises including Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar, Halo, Transformers, Spider-Man, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, contributing to billions in franchise value across media,

licensing, and global markets.

Brian Newman

Brian Newman, founder of Sub-Genre, consults on content strategy, development, distribution and marketing for some of the top brands in the world. Current and former clients include: The Climate Pledge (Amazon), IBM, Keen, Merck KGaA, New York Times, Oatly, Patagonia, REI, Shopify Studios, Sonos, Stripe, Sundance, Unilever, Vulcan Productions, Yeti Coolers, and Zero Point Zero.

Brian is also an independent film producer and has served as CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute, president of Renew Media (known for the Rockefeller Fellowships) and executive director of IMAGE Film & Video (producers of the Atlanta Film Festival & Out on Film).

HaZ Dulull

HaZ Dulull started his career in video games on titles such as Colin Mcrae Rally (Codemasters) and Battlion Wars (Nintendo) before moving to a VFX career on films like The Dark Knight before becoming a director / Producer known for merging cinematic storytelling with real-time technology. He made his debut with the live action indie sci-fi feature films The Beyond, and 2036 Origin Unknown (both licensed on Netflix), followed by Disney’s Fast Layne (where he served as Director + Exec Producer), Universal’s prequel animated short - 47 Ronin: The Samurai Spirit, and Disney’s Under the Sea: A Descendants Story.

In 2024, he directed / Produced MAX BEYOND, an animated feature made entirely in Unreal Engine (with co-financing by Epic Games Mega Grant) before hired to be the cinematic’s director for Chapter 1 of the in-game cinematics for triple A game - Dune Awakening (Funcom / Tencent).

In this episode, Alex Stolz speaks with Jeff Rivera, three-time Telly Award winner, author, producer and AI storytelling pioneer, about creator-driven, AI-enabled production.

Jeff shares his journey from developing projects within the traditional Hollywood system to experimenting with new AI-assisted workflows that allow creators to move from idea to execution faster than ever before. From worldbuilding and character design to animation pipelines and audience development, he offers a detailed look at how he is building and testing projects outside of the traditional development model.

The conversation dives deep into the practical realities of working with AI today: the tools Jeff is using, how much these workflows actually cost, the progress being made around character consistency, and why storytelling remains the true differentiator in an age where production capabilities are becoming increasingly accessible.

Alex and Jeff also explore the bigger strategic questions emerging around creator ownership, audience-building, monetisation, copyright and chain of title, as well as what happens when anyone can potentially create studio-quality work from a laptop. Jeff also shares practical strategies for building your '1,000 true fans' and ways in which he is monetising his work.

At its heart, this is a conversation about creative agency, emerging workflows, and how creators can navigate a landscape where the barriers to making work are rapidly changing - but where the need for meaningful stories remains.

Story Founders

Story Founders is the new accelerator by Future of Film, designed to help storytellers build projects - and creative practices - that can endure.

Applications are now open:

👉 futureoffilm.live/storyfounders/

If you’re working on a screen project - or know someone who is - we’d encourage you to take a look.

About Jeff Rivera

Jeff Rivera is a three-time Telly Award winner, a published author (Warner Books), and Co-Executive Producer of the American Reality Television Awards. He is the creator of the acclaimed 1-Hour Mentorship and Showrunner Mentorship programs, which launched with world-class mentors including Annette Bening, Ed Harris, Steven Soderbergh,

Julianne Moore, Michael Douglas, Lee Daniels, and senior executives from Netflix, Disney, Nickelodeon, and more.

At the forefront of AI-driven storytelling, Jeff is pioneering the use of cutting-edge models to create feature film–style animated shorts, music videos, and movie trailers. As technology evolves, he continues to adapt and push boundaries, positioning himself as a leader in the convergence of Hollywood and AI.

About Alex Stolz

Alex Stolz is Founder of Future of Film and Head of Audience at usheru, working at the intersection of storytelling, audience and ownership.

His background spans leading audience strategy at the BFI and developing data-driven approaches to audience growth across film and media.

How do you actually build IP as an independent creator?

In this episode, Alex Stolz is joined by Nuno Bernardo, IP creator, producer and founder of beActive, whose work has explored how stories can move across platforms, formats and audiences long before it became widely discussed.

Drawing on more than two decades of experience, Nuno shares how his approach to IP developed, from early experiments in multi-platform storytelling to building projects that have travelled globally, been adapted across multiple territories, and sustained audiences over time.

The conversation explores why IP isn’t defined by scale, but by audience connection, and why it’s ultimately the audience that determines whether something becomes IP.

They also dive into practical ways creators can approach their work differently, from designing stories with expansion in mind, to testing ideas through smaller formats, building early traction, and using those signals to guide what comes next.

Along the way, Nuno shares lessons from both successes and failures, including what happens when projects are over-planned without real audience engagement, and how independent creators can think more strategically about long-term value.

A clear and practical conversation for anyone looking to move beyond one-off projects and build work that can grow, connect and endure.

About Nuno Bernardo

Nuno Bernardo is an Emmy-nominated transmedia architect and the founding of beActive Entertainment, a globally recognized IP studio. A true multidisciplinary creator, Nuno has spent over two decades pioneering the transition from digital-first content to international television formats, most notably with Sofia’s Diary - a groundbreaking cross-media phenomenon that grew from a Portuguese blog into a global property distributed by Sony Pictures Television across 30 countries, reaching over 500 million viewers, and sustaining a diverse revenue ecosystem of books, radio, and licensed products for over 20 years.

Nuno’s expertise lies in the strategic construction of worlds that bridge the gap between Film, Television, Video Games, and Publishing. His track record includes the sci-fi franchise Collider, which integrated digital comics and mobile gaming into a feature film and TV series, and the Kids Emmy-nominated Beat Girl, which scaled from a Pinterest visual concept to a global series on Hulu. As a creator who successfully pivoted from project-based production to a sustainable IP ownership model, Nuno provides the blueprint for modern professionals to maintain creative control and build long-term asset value in a crowded global market.

STORY FOUNDERS

We’ve opened applications for a new programme from Future of Film.

Story Founders is an 8-week accelerator designed to help storytellers build projects - and creative practices - that can endure.

Applications are now open:

👉 https://futureoffilm.live/storyfounders/

If you’re working on a screen project - or know someone who is - we’d encourage you to take a look.

Community has become one of the most talked-about ideas in the creative industries. But what does it actually mean in practice for storytellers and filmmakers?

In this episode, Alex Stolz is joined by community strategist Carol Trang, whose work spans platforms and brands shaping modern creator culture including Unity, TikTok and LEGO.

Together they explore how communities form, why creators should think beyond traditional audience engagement, and what storytellers can learn from gaming, fandom and platform culture.

Carol shares insights from her work across global creative ecosystems — from the power of rituals and remix culture to the role of authenticity, niche audiences and creator identity in building lasting communities.

The conversation also looks at how filmmakers can practically begin building communities around their work today — starting with existing spaces like Reddit, Twitch and live events.

For creators navigating an increasingly fragmented media landscape, this episode offers a powerful reframing:

Stories don’t just attract audiences anymore, they create worlds people want to live in.

About Carol Trang

Carol Trang is a community strategist working at the intersection of games, entertainment, and digital platforms. She’s spent her career building creator-first communities at Unity Technologies, TikTok, and The LEGO Group, exploring how fandom, creators, and players shape culture together.

We’ve just opened applications for a new programme from Future of Film.

Story Founders is an 8-week accelerator designed to help storytellers build projects - and creative practices - that can endure.

Applications are now open:

👉 https://futureoffilm.live/storyfounders/

If you’re working on a screen project - or know someone who is - we’d encourage you to take a look.

In this episode, Alex is joined by Emmy and Peabody Award–winning producer, and analyst, Evan Shapiro.

Known widely as the Media Cartographer, Evan has spent years mapping how power, attention, and money move across media. But now he’s gone beyond analysis and into practice with SKIT, a $65,000 feature film shot in eight days and released globally via Tubi and Filmhub.

Evan calls SKIT a case study in the “Affinity Economy”: a new model for independent filmmaking that is creator-led, audience-aligned, and designed for sustainability rather than old industry models of gatekeepers and 'lottery-ticket' thinking.

Evan and Alex explore why the traditional indie film system no longer works, how festivals and streamers have narrowed opportunity, and why creators must now think in terms of communities, engagement, and ownership.

They dive into the making of SKIT, the economics of free ad-supported streaming, the collapse of monoculture media, and what it really takes to build a sustainable creative career in 2026 and beyond.

This episode is essential listening for filmmakers, creators, and anyone navigating the future of screen storytelling.

About Evan Shapiro

Since he created his Media Universe Map, Evan Shapiro has become known as the Media Cartographer. Using his very specific voice and point of view, Shapiro charts Media's future through his essays on the Media War & Peace Newsletter – which is now one of the most read entertainment business publications on Substack. He also co-hosts The Media Odyssey podcast, which has become an industry touchstone. Shapiro has been a featured speaker at the world’s most important media events. His maps, infographics, and ruminations are now widely quoted and used by businesses, executives, analysts, and colleges around the world.

Shapiro is also an Emmy and Peabody Award winning producer of TV, films and podcasts, including Portlandia, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Please Like Me, Comedy Bang Bang, Brick City, and Harmonquest. He also served 18 years as a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Find our more about Evan at https://eshap.substack.com/

More abut Future of Film: www.futureoffilm.live

This episode is about decision-making; and how filmmakers, producers, and executives can make more effective, more impactful creative choices under uncertainty.

Kevin Goetz and Bob Levin argue that most films don’t fail because they lack quality or ambition, but because key decisions around budget, positioning, and audience fit are made without enough clarity. Drawing on decades of experience in audience insight and testing, they unpack how better greenlight decisions come from understanding what a film is, who it is for, and the scale at which it can genuinely succeed.

Rather than treating testing as a verdict on creativity, the conversation reframes it as a decision-support capability: a way to reduce blind spots, align stakeholders, and give filmmakers the confidence to make braver, more grounded creative choices. Used well, insight doesn’t dilute vision, it strengthens it.

As Kevin puts it:

“Every movie, if made and marketed for the right price, should make money.”

For anyone involved in development, financing, or creative leadership, this episode explores how better decisions earlier in the process can dramatically change outcomes later on.

About Kevin Goetz

Kevin Goetz is the founder and CEO of Screen Engine, a global leader in entertainment research and strategy serving all the major film studios, television networks, and streaming services. Throughout his career, he has been at the forefront of Hollywood, having personally tested over 5,000 film titles, where his work significantly impacts how movies are made, marketed, and released. In 2024, Kevin received American Cinematheque's prestigious Power of Cinema Award for his contributions to the film industry. He is the author of two books: the bestselling Audience•ology: How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love (Simon & Schuster, 2021), offering an inside look at the power of audience pre-release movie test screenings, and How to Score in Hollywood (Simon & Schuster, November 2025), exploring the secrets to success in the movie business. Kevin brings his expertise to life as the host of the popular podcast, Don’t Kill the Messenger (Apple Top 100), and continues educating the filmmaking community through keynote speeches and global presentations. He has produced twelve TV movies, including the Emmy-winning Wild Iris, and the 2026 documentary Children in the Fire. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Television Academy, and the Producers Guild of America, Kevin also serves on the boards of six nonprofit organizations. He currently resides in Beverly Hills with his husband, Neil, a producer and former creative advertising executive, and their labradoodle, Kasha.

About Bob Levin

Bob Levin is a legendary movie marketing executive, having for over two decades holding the position of president, worldwide marketing at first Disney, then Sony and MGM. As well as being a key member of each studio’s greenlight committee, he led the advertising, publicity, promotion, and research programs that helped launch hundreds of films, breaking numerous box office records throughout his career. Bob came out of semi-retirement when Kevin Goetz invited him to join Screen Engine/ASI as president and chief operating officer, where he has played a pivotal role in the company’s continued success. His first book, How to Score in Hollywood, cowritten with Kevin, reveals the secrets to a movie’s success and profitability, exploring how smart, data-driven decisions—from development to release—help filmmakers minimize risks and maximize returns. Bob lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Hilda Wynn.

What happens when a BAFTA winning VFX veteran walks away from the studio system to help reinvent the film pipeline with AI?

In this episode, Alex is joined by Ben Lock, a producer with over 20 years in animation, VFX and virtual production, with credits including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One and Ready Player One. After decades at Aardman, Lucasfilm and ILM, Ben is now Director of Production Strategy at Asteria Film and Moon Valley, where he is working on a new generation of ethical, AI driven workflows for film and animation.

Ben shares why he believes the future of filmmaking lies in visual intelligence rather than prompt driven tools, and how rapid visualisation can transform pre production, VFX and animation. He explains how AI can reduce friction, keep artists closer to performance and story, and even help make high quality animated features in under a year.

The conversation explores:

- How AI is reshaping the production pipeline without replacing artists

- Why Moon Valley is built around visual intelligence, not just language models

- What a faster, more iterative animation and VFX workflow looks like in practice

- How generative tools can support virtual production and independent visions

- What the VFX industry needs to do now to adapt and thrive

Sharing insights from across his career working on tentpole studio projects as well as independent filmmaking, Ben conveys his vision for how AI might just help the film industry become more creative, more sustainable and more responsive to new stories and audiences.

About Ben Lock

Ben Lock - A BAFTA-winning producer with over 20 years of experience in animation, VFX, and virtual production. He has produced award-winning content for studios in Europe, Asia and the US including Aardman, Lucasfilm, and ILM, with credits on global franchises such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and Ready Player One. As Director of Production Strategy at Asteria Film, he helps develop scalable, ethical AI workflows for film and animation. Ben is the Chair of the VES Education Committee, member of BAFTA, PGA, ATAS and a UK National Film and Television School alumni.

How do you build an entire creative ecosystem? And what does it take to empower storytellers at scale?

In this episode, Alex speaks with Emmy-nominated producer, writer, doctor and serial entrepreneur Mehret Mandefro, a visionary voice at the intersection of storytelling, healing and creative innovation. As co-founder and MD of Realness Institute, Mehret has spent years strengthening Africa’s media landscape through training, mentorship and systemic infrastructure-building.

She shares her remarkable journey from medicine to media, the origins of her “audiovisual medicine” artistic practice, and the powerful lessons learned from pioneering television in Ethiopia and developing talent across the continent.

In a wide ranging conversation, Mehret also dives into:

• Why creative infrastructure is the missing piece in global storytelling

• How Realness Institute nurtures and de-risks new creative voices

• The urgent need for producers to think like entrepreneurs

• The role of technology and AI in elevating human stories

• Why Africa is central to the future of film

This is a conversation about creativity, systems change and the responsibility we all share in shaping the future of screen storytelling.

About Mehret Mandefro

Mehret Mandefro is an Emmy-nominated producer, writer, and entrepreneur working at the intersection of culture, commerce, and social impact. A former physician turned storyteller, she has dedicated her career to transforming how stories are made—and who gets to tell them. Born in Ethiopia and raised in America, Mehret is a transnational force in global media who has built several groundbreaking enterprises, including Truth Aid Media in New York, Kana TV in Addis Ababa, and the Realness Institute in Cape Town, a nonprofit dedicated to training and mentoring writers, producers, and directors across Africa and the diaspora. Her award-winning film and television work bridges documentary and fiction, revealing hidden truths across the human experience. Her credits include How It Feels to Be Free (American Masters), Sweetness in the Belly (Amazon), Difret (Netflix), The Cost of Inheritance (PBS), Little White Lie (PBS), and Ethiopia’s first teen drama, Yegna. Recognized on Variety’s list of the most impactful women in global entertainment, Mehret is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is currently building the African Film and Media Arts Collective with artist Julie Mehretu with the support of BMW. Mehret has a BA in Anthropology from Harvard University, an MD from Harvard Medical School, a MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Fulbright Scholar, and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Temple University.

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