November 11th, 2009 | Jake

This week we brought together Sean O'Connor, independent film maker and founder of ratingworld.com, and Steven Rosenbaum, an American television producer, Filmmaker and most recent founder of Magnify.net.

Sean has worked on various film and video projects ranging from producing videos for Diet.com to feature length films. His latest film Flashover, was a winner at the 2008 Boston Film Festival. Sean recently completed the script for his next feature film and when he is not working on film he is focused on his startup company, ratingworld.com.

Steven is best known as the creator of MTV News UNfiltered and has received countless awards for his fine work in film making, including 2 Emmy Awards and 6 New York Festival's World Metals. Steven is the founder of Magnify.net, which allows people to create and add video experience to their website.

The conversation centered around the changing film industry and what Sean and Steven have been observing from their different perspectives. In the podcast you can hear Steven speak with Sean about his experience as a film maker, what inspired him as a producer and why he ultimately decided to leave the film production world to start Magnify.net.

Additionally, we heard about how many of the barriers have been lowered for more people to become producers of their own video and what implications this has on film making as an industry.

As a result of the conversation I asked Steven and Sean to come up with their Rule 53.  Steven jokingly warned, do not proceed past Rule 52!

Rule 53:
While lower costs and access to technology may make it easier to get in the door of the film industry, it takes people who are steadfast, driven and slightly insane to deliver the quality and value to attract an audience.

Special thanks to Steven for introducing Alexa to Alan Webber who is the inspiration behind Rule 53!