June 2019 to May 2022
Sundance Institute
Senior Product & Web Manager
Took a 40-year in-person film festival fully digital in six months, opening it to millions of people worldwide for the first time.
Led product and technology for Sundance's first digital film festival platform.
The problem
The 2021 Film Festival could not happen in Park City, and Sundance had no digital platform to move it to. There was no streaming, no online ticketing, no digital program, and no way to run a screening lobby. The festival date could not move, which left six months.
What we built
I led the product and technology work to build Sundance's first digital festival: online ticketing, film streaming, program guides, screening lobbies and chat, artist experiences, VIP and industry communities, private screenings, CRM, internal festival management, and the systems connecting film ingestion, processing, security, and distribution.
Rather than simply putting films online, we rebuilt the experience of attending Sundance for a digital audience.
Result
The platform launched on schedule and opened the festival to millions of people globally for the first time in its history.
What I led
- Product and technology strategy across the digital festival
- Online ticketing and internal ticketing systems
- Film streaming and connected-TV experiences
- Digital program and festival guides
- Screening lobbies, chat, community, and artist experiences
- Internal CMS, CRM, and festival operations tooling
- Vendor integrations for film ingestion, processing, and streaming
- DRM and viewer-specific forensic watermarking
- Mobile apps and on-site ticket scanning
Inside the platform
The other engagements
Ready to talk about what you're building?
30 minutes, free, no pitch. Tell me where the product is stuck, what you've already tried, and what has to be true six months from now.