By Bel Hernandez
Sometimes you just have to celebrate the common man. With so much focus on women as an emerging force in all sectors of our society, a guy just need a place he can go and be catered to. As local bookstore and movie theaters lose ground as where most people get their content – Bryan Duran and Larry Rodriguez saw the writing on the wall.
Duran and Rodriguez are Hollywood prodigies who have come up the ranks working at some of this industry’s mega studios and independent production companies. Taking what they learned they joined forces and staked their claim on the largest global content market – the Internet. Enter rogueflix.com.
Bryan Duran is CEO and General Counsel of Rogueflix. He graduated magna cum laude from USC where he studied finance. After an internship on Wall Street he came back to California where he worked in the finance departments at Warner Bros and Universal Studios. It was there that he realized the importance of the legal end of the business and decided to attend Southwestern Law School and become an attorney.
After graduating Southwestern he work for First Look Films and then Starz Media/Anchor Bay in the legal affairs department doing acquisitions. He also worked in creative development at Fox Studios. It was during this time that he began to see the decline of DVD sales and began to look towards the internet with more interest.
Larry Rodriguez, co-founder and COO of RogueFlix, graduated from Cal State Northridge with a degree in cinema and television. He had already worked for four years as Head of Worldwide Distribution for Bauer Martinez International when he moved on to First Look Studios where he met Duran. They would continue to collaborate on various projects thoughtout the years.
In time the young execs realized their skills complimented each other nicely. With Duran’s legal background and Rodriguez business and operational skills it was time to segue way into their own venture.
RogueFlix is an action lifestyle network. A testosterone driven destination where you can watch some of Hollywood’s top action movies playing right alongside the small indie film, TV show, and webseries. But there is more. To complete the “dude” experience visitors can check out weightlifting videos and pick up some pointers on bulking up; learn about, and buy nutritional supplements; play video games; read movie reviews; watch fitness videos; and can even purchase the gadgets and movie memorabilia they see in the films with a click of a button.
“The beauty of RogueFlix is that we are also able to feature indie productions alongside the big Hollywood movies”
“The majority of the people visiting the site and downloading the Android App are young males between the ages of 13 and 34 and that is the primary focus of our action genre content,” say Rodriguez.
Omega 1
Duran and Rodriguez are confident RogueFlix offers a unique mix of content for their target audience. “If you go to ITunes or Netflix or any of the other digital entertainment companies they are focused on major Hollywood movies,” says Duran. “The beauty of RogueFlix is that we are also able to feature indie productions alongside the big Hollywood movies. We put them on our splash page and let our audience discover them. We are able to give them that visibility and representation on our website.” Their target audience seems to appreciate the content in addition to the other male oriented extras.
In the short time since the launch of their multi-media digital website in 2012, Duran and Rodriguez have added several more independent projects to their already impressive content library.
At the Century City Microsoft Store during an XBox Halo 4 Tournament in January, RogueFlix picked up Omega 1, a futuristic comic book series about terrorist and the “hacker wars”, created Alina Andrei and Mark Edward Lewis.
Later that month RogueFlix premiered the iKuztom TV series, featuring the world of custom motorcycles. The new series is written, directed, and produced by award winning producer, Erik Lundmark and his partner Timothy G. Ledford.
At the American Film Market (AFM) earlier this month, RogueFlix picked up Let’s Riiide, a TV series featuring the top California travel destinations for motorcycle enthusiasts around the world, another series written and directed by Erik Lundmarkand his co-producer Soren Dela Cruz.
Also acquired at AFM was the original webseries, Freelancers written, directed, and produced by Ignatius Fischer, soon to premiere on RogueFlix.
“RogueFlix was very well received at the American Film Market as more and more sales agents and distributors have quickly realized that they need to embrace the digital future of the entertainment industry and are eager to work with us to showcase and monetize their content in the best way possible,” stated Duran.
“This is an exciting time for our growing action lifestyle network. We are also currently expanding our acquisition of TV shows, webshows, and feature length movies to be released exclusively on RogueFlix,” Rodriguez chimes in.
This should be music to the ears of independent producers. “If someone has a project that meets our criteria for our target audience, we will watch it,” says Duran.
Often meeting with filmmakers one-on-one RogueFlix also works with sales agents, entertainment attorneys and markets around the world to who bring projects to their attention.
“If someone has a project that meets our criteria for our target audience, we will watch it”
The caveat for any project they consider is that it appeals to the 13 – 34 male, whether they are Latino, Asian, African American, Middle eastern, etc. “We are thinking globally not just in our immediate surrounding neighborhoods,” says Rodriguez. “Anyone in the world can go to the site and watch movies, be entertained and learn.” This coming May Duran and Rodriguez will be heading to Festival de Cannes in France in search of more projects.
They say content is king, but Duran and Rodriguez realize that to have control of an exhibition platform is priceless for content to reign.
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