US-based Filmustage, an AI platform that streamlines film pre-production, has raised $1.5 million (€1.37m) in seed funding, led by UK-based Raw Ventures and US-based Geek Ventures.
Founded by Egor Dubrovsky, who recognized the need for efficiency while working on pilots for Netflix and Prime Video, Filmustage reduces manual breakdown efforts by 90%. The platform uses AI to analyze scripts, identifying over 17 categories like characters, locations, and props, and dynamically updates breakdowns with script changes. It also offers smart scheduling, scene risk analysis, and synopsis generation, with support for export to industry-standard software such as Movie Magic and Final Draft.
Filmustage is already in use by filmmakers like Roger Christian (Star Wars) and Byron Saltysiak (former WarnerMedia VP) and was recently utilized in the pre-production of Guy Ritchie’s Netflix series The Gentlemen and Universal Pictures’ Nobody 2.
Words from those involved in the funding round:
“Filmustage continues to work on reducing budget risks and ensuring efficient resource management for film production studios. The investment will be used to acquire new B2B clients, including Tier-1 clients, and expand our AI capabilities to cover even more aspects of pre-production and post-production, including AI-based budget estimation, AI-based storyboards, and marketplace & Omniverse integrations.”
— Egor Dubrovsky, Founder of Filmustage
“We invested in Filmustage after their attendance in the finals of our investment programme Global MediaTech Pitch Day, where they stood out among 400 applicants. The main reason we invested is due to the pragmatic and efficient approach by which the company’s product successfully integrates advanced AI developments, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, into the production processes of the film industry without competing with them. Meanwhile, the team is developing their own specialised and unique AI model for working with scripts and production plans, which ensures the product’s practical efficiency. We see the product market fit, the team’s focus and concentration, and we want to support scaling both financially and with our industry expertise.”
— Alexey Skobelkin, Raw Ventures
