A Path to Profitability in an Industry Built on Fear?

GG Hawkins speaks with Kino co-founders Brit MacRae and Daril Fannin about the broken handoff between post-production and release, and how insecure screeners, fragmented feedback workflows, and fear-based distribution norms undermine independent film. They break down Kino’s evolution from an interactive streaming idea into a secure post-to-delivery platform, explain how they built a film fund around de-risked sub-$2 million features, and use Undertone as a case study for aligning budgets, creative ambition, and profitability.

In this episode, No Film School's GG Hawkins and guests Brit MacRae and Daril Fannin discuss...

• Why the current post-production and release pipeline is still built around insecure links, scattered notes, and outdated habits

• How piracy, leaks, and weak screener security can hurt filmmakers, investors, and distribution momentum

• The original idea behind Kino and how it pivoted from interactive streaming to a B2B platform for secure screeners, dailies, cuts, approvals, focus groups, and final delivery

• Why discoverability is one of the biggest problems in independent film, and why indie projects are competing with TikTok and other forms of passive entertainment

• How fear-based thinking shapes decisions around marketing, exposure, festivals, and distribution

• What “LVOD” means to Kino and how the company tried to create a window that adds marketing value without cannibalizing TVOD

• Why MacRae and Fannin believe filmmakers need to think like business builders, not just artists, when raising money

• How Kino structured its film fund around contained, creatively aligned stories with budgets under $2 million and meaningful de-risking through incentives and exchange rates

• Why Undertone made sense as a fund project: one location, a contained story, and a production model that matched the script’s scale

• How equity participation and aligned incentives can help cast, crew, and investors move in the same direction

• Why iteration, early feedback, and collaborative review should play a larger role in filmmaking, much like they do in tech and animation

• What kinds of projects Kino is pursuing next, including a Band of Brothers documentary and more genre-focused features

Memorable Quotes:

• “Something’s not working and we’re going to dig into it.”

• “Fear makes you stupid.”

• “Coming to the table with great art is table stakes.”

• “It’s not about the project, it’s about the people you’re surrounding yourself with.”

Guests:

• Brit MacRae

• Daril Fannin

Resources:

• Kino

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