Backup Systems Launches Connect, an AI-Powered App for Smart Data Upload and Management for Filmmakers (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy
·3 min read

Backup Systems, the Paris-based company behind the owner of the cloud-based app MovieChainer, has launched Connect, which is being presented as the first AI-powered app enabling smart data upload and data management for filmmakers.

Rolled out on the eve of the Cannes Film Market, this new tool has been created to help filmmakers with non-creative tasks and has been designed to identify entertainment-related data, including all sorts of creative, financial and contractual data used in the film and TV industry.

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The app scans hard drives or dedicated folders in search for user’s raw material – scripts, videos, contracts, budgets, accounting reports etc, automatically archives files at the right place in user’s own cloud-based secured drive. Connect also identifies relevant data contained in the files and extract them to feed user’s database – enabling data-centric approaches and models to generate intelligence for the user. Backup Systems will be at Cannes to present the app.

“We want the first concrete results of our machine-learning investment to be truly impactful, helping filmmakers become fully digital,” said Backup Systems CEO. He added that Connect was conceived to “constantly keep your data up-to-date and tidy – pretty much like a robot vacuum cleaner keeps your house tidy.”

Backup’s co-founder and partner Joël Thibout, said “data management is the gateway for the independent creative industry to fully embrace data-centric business models and workflows.”

“Our industry has shifted from a craftsman-like approach to a complex ecosystem led by US tech giants: we intend to create a European tech bridge for independents of all sizes to optimize their productivity and processes.”

Mehdi Mimouni, commercial Director for Backup Systems, said Connect complements MovieChainer, an AI-powered social and professional network created 7 years ago and allowing right-holders to model and track the legal and financial structure of their film projects.

“Connect is a game-changer for future MovieChainer users: whether migrating from legacy systems or from no system/spreadsheets, our AI will automatically chase and extract business-related data wherever it is stored, whatever its original format (docs, tabs, pdf etc),” Mimouni continued.

Connect was created in partnership with the Laboratory of Computer Science and Automatic Control for Systems, a division of the University of Poitiers, France.

MovieChainer’s client list includes sales agents such as The Match factory, Memento International, Charades, Bankside/Head Gear, Rocket Science, as well as distributors, such as Caramel, producers such as Wild Side, independent studios like MK2 and CyberGroup, financial institutions such as Fintage House and top networks, notably TF1. As many as 29 of the 95 titles showing in the various Cannes 2023 selections are managed with the MovieChainer platform – including 11 out of the 21 films in competition. Backup Systems is supported by France’s Public Investment Bank (BPI France).

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