Hollywood Studio Filmmakers Kick-Start Local Business with the ‘SnapFocus’

June 16, 2012 - PRLog -- CULVER CITY, CA -- With his Kickstarter project called the SnapFocus, a local entrepreneur has attracted the support of Hollywood studio directors JJ Abrams, Jimmy Hayward and a host of reality television executive producers. The SnapFocus uses BMX bicycle brake levers to control the focus on a DSLR camera and helps independent filmmakers achieve Hollywood production value on a shoestring budget. The success of the SnapFocus project is helping it’s inventor, Brandon David Cole, launch his Culver City-based business, a brand of camera support products called Midas Mount. The SnapFocus is available only through the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter for $399 and the opportunity to get it ends June 28th.

Cole, a filmmaker with three independent features under his belt, bought a DSLR camera for his latest movie project and started building his own support gear with the help of a retired machinist and inventor. Their custom rigs became popular with filmmakers and within a few months a retail camera shop, EVS in Glendale (www.evsonline.com), called Cole asking to carry his products. “Just like that,” Cole says, “we were in the camera support business.” The duo launched the Midas Mount brand in 2010 and recruited local machine shops and vendors to build retail orders.

Since the brand’s inception, Cole an his machinist partner Harry Gramig have been working on a way to control focus on a DSLR camera that was much easier than traditional systems. An ex-professional BMX rider, the bicycle brake levers were an intuitive choice for Cole. He chose Kickstarter to release the SnapFocus because it’s a legitimate way for entrepreneurs to raise capital without giving control to investors. “Launching this on Kickstarter is a perfect fit for us.” Cole says. “They are the indie film way way of launching a new product design.”

The Kickstarter project was lightning in a bottle, making it’s $20,000 goal in the first four days and quickly picking up endorsements from Hollywood studio filmmakers JJ Abrams and Jimmy Hayward, Executive Producers of reality shows on MTV, VH1, the CW and Speed Network and DSLR blogger Philip Bloom. “I always knew the SnapFocus idea made total sense,” says Cole, “but the people getting on board with it is kind of mind-blowing.”

Backers of the SnapFocus project can receive the filmmaker’s feature ‘Bristol Boys’ for a pledge of $10, a T-shirt for $25, the SnapFocus System for $399 or the entire Midas Modular Shoulder Rig for $699. Find the SnapFocus Kickstarter project at www.MidasMount.com/SnapFocus

About Midas Mount
Midas Mount Camera Support Systems builds and sells equipment by independent filmmakers, for independent filmmakers. All Midas Mount products are handmade in Los Angeles, California by local craftspeople. http://www.MidasMount.com


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