Cascade8 is joining forces with Freeway Entertainment, a leader in collection account management (CAM) and expertise in financial reporting and revenue sharing, to launch Blockframes, a cost-effective and user-friendly online platform for managing royalty sharing and reporting to financiers, co-producers and talent, all while ensuring compliance with European transparency regulations. The platform is being introduced at the Cannes Film Festival (more information can be found here).

"Not all productions can afford to engage a third-party CAM. There is a large number of collaborations in the industry with perhaps less complex revenue sharing and reporting needs, where an affordable and intuitive tool like Blockframes offers tremendous value to its users. We are excited that with our partners, Cascade8, we can deliver this empowering royalty management solution to the independent film and TV production community. All producers have a financial reporting obligation to inform their rightsholders of the state of a film's revenues and their share of them. This is first and foremost a regulatory obligation to comply with growing European regulations on financial transparency (such as the DSM Directive). But it's not the only reason,” explains Martijn Meerstadt, Freeway co-CEO and co-founder.

France's Centre National du Cinéma (CNC) has recognised this need and initiated the Transparency call for projects in 2022, with Blockframes emerging as the recipient of this initiative. Given the increasing challenge of financing independent films, the development of new reporting tools is crucial to appeal to financiers, especially those outside the specialised realm of the audiovisual and film industry. This sector is often viewed as opaque by external investors.

“It's the beginning of a new phase for Blockframes. Moving forward, the project will evolve under an independent structure jointly owned by Freeway and Cascade8," explains Yannick Bossenmeyer, CEO of Cascade8. Indeed, both companies, and a trusted third party recognised by the industry worldwide, will guarantee that all data will remain confidential and none of the individual data will be used by either Cascade8 or Freeway for other purposes.

According to the companies, Blockframes' goal is to make life easier for producers and to strengthen the confidence of production partners and financiers. Thanks to a sophisticated algorithm developed in collaboration with researchers in computer mathematics at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Blockframes automatically calculates the most complex waterflows, and generates and sends statements to rightsholders at the click of a button. The tool already incorporates a first level of artificial intelligence, enabling progressive automation of data integration, a time-consuming stage for producers.

Blockframes is also supported by the Creative Media programme, and the Institut pour le financement du cinéma et des industries culturelles (IFCIC).