Nicol Wistreich

Slow down & fix stuff.

Film-web-writing-marketing, since 1999

Hyphenate.

After a summer holiday job researching film & TV rights in 1999 over a small and slow web: I built a website for indie filmmaking and quit Uni with a friend to run it full time. We had three goals: to learn about filmmaking and the media business by interviewing everyone we could (& publishing it); to distribute or 'netribute' films online; and to sell our startup for millions so we could make our own movies. I was 20, broadband didn't exist — everyone was on dialup, we knew next-to-nothing — and two weeks after we quit Uni, the dotcom bubble burst.

We survived on instant coffee, making documentaries for cable TV and writing more industry books, until £500-a-month 75-hour-weeks hurt too much and I went to join another indie film web startup (which was more successful). I brought out a book on film finance with an expert film lawyer— we sold 11,000 copies and I got to sit signing books in Cannes during the festival, despite never having had a film financed and released.

With a rucksack of regrets and lessons learnt, I now try to work as close to exclusively in the non-profit & charity sector as I can. I bring a design eye to open source projects, working with the three main open source CMSs (Joomla, Wordpress & Drupal) and the best open source CRM — CiviCRM. In my spare time I'm an unread Cli-Fi author with a stack of unmade films.

Marketing & Analysis

Mission & goal-focused development strategy, including user profiles, market analysis & service/system mapping. Conceived & developed the Virtuous Circle model with SDI.

Design, UX & implementation

Analysis-informed user journeys and wireframes, prototypes and designs through to implemented & tested mobile-responsive & accessible themes & layouts

Copy, editing & print

From snappy web copy and content strategy to essays and print publication layout. Five books & hundreds of articles & blogs published both online and off, from The Times to Adbusters.

Video, photos & events

From the launch party for Hewlett Packard's double Cannes Lion winning HyPe Gallery, to YouTube channels & insider docs, we can produce rich creative work, or bring in our world-class network of creative friends.
Wordpress logo
Joomla logo
Drupal logo
CiviCRM logo
Bootstrap logo
UIKit logo

In detail…

Rob Manning
Website | 2016

Rob Manning

Eeleyn Lee Productions
Website & projects | 2009-2016

Eeleyn Lee Productions

The Film Finance Handbook
Print & Online | 2003-2010

Film Finance Handbook

Virtuous Circle
CRM, social and web | 2010-2012

Virtuous Circle


Writing


Selected essays, articles & blogs

Netribution era interviews with Roy Diseny, Marlene Gorris, Darius Khondji, Christopher Eccleston, Stephen Daldry, Mike Figgis & more.

Books

International Film & TV Rights

Co-author, Market Tracking International, 1999, ISBN: 0954487400

Digital Asset Management

Author, Informa Media Group, 2001, 01843110229

Get Your Film Funded, 2003-04

Co-author/editor, Shooting People Press, 2003, 04, 0954487400

How to Fund Your Film, UK Film Finance Handbook 05-06

Co-author/editor, Netribution Ltd, 2005, 0955014301

How to Fund Your Film, World Film Finance Handbook 07-08

Co-author/editor, Netribution Ltd, 2007, 08 & 10, 0955014328

People Over Capital, chapter "Open Source Capitalism"

Chapter author, New Internationalist, 2013, 978-1-78026-161-4

Film Finance Handbook cover
2008, Netribution

Film Finance Handbook

Co-author of 492-page book on film finance, with dozens of case studies, and details of over 1,000 funds in 40 countries.
Digital Asset Management cover
2001, Informa Media

Digital Asset Management

Author of early book on creative strategies to digital opportunities and threats, in music, film, publishing & video games.

Films etc…

A Home (left) filmed in Glasgow, Wilton Street, following the sudden collapse of a house. Set to the Cinematic Orchestra's To Build a Home.

Film, documentary, theatre & events…

+44 7909 522877

hello @ visuali.st