FilmFunds to use crowdsourcing to pitch 3D conversions

FilmFunds -- a networking site for filmmakers, actors, financiers and fans -- has acquired post-production house Duran Duboi U.S. and will soon begin converting movies into 3D, TheWrap has learned.

And the company has developed a unusual way of pitching its conversion services.

Carl Freer, the co-founder and chairman of FilmFunds, told TheWrap that he plans to ask his members what movies they'd like to see in 3D. Then he'll go to companies such as Netflix and let them know that there is a demand for certain movies to be converted into 3D.

Now that the company owns Duran Duboi, which specializes in special effects and 3D conversions, it will offer its services to the companies it approaches.

"From the content owners' side, it's a nice way to gauge what the market wants," Freer said, explaining that content providers have told him that they find it difficult to figure out which movies they should convert.

But he has access to 60 million movie lovers -- and can ask them.

"If enough people log on and vote the same way," he said, "we would go back to -- for lack of a better word, go to the Netflixes of the world -- and say, 'Here we have a project that we have a hundred thousand people who want to see this."

That way, he said, "we're taking off a bit of the risk in the decision-making."

Christian Paris, president of Duran Duboi U.S. -- and now vice president of FilmFunds -- will spearhead the conversion process through his company's patented LiveFlix technology.

The technology was used to convert Lionsgate's recent "Conan the Barbarian" into 3D.

"We put together a process which ... allows us almost to convert on the fly," he told TheWrap. "This is designed for home video."

The company also has placed a formal bid on Duran Duboi France, now in Chapter 11