Early Media

Young people are watching 50% less TV than previous generations, broadcast is hitting all-time lows, and box office revenues are steadily in decline.

But they’re watching more entertainment than ever before, opting for authentic stories told by peers instead of “premium” entertainment produced by out of touch executives.

Taking the place of legacy media giants are millions of individuals on social media who are rapidly responding to current culture.

The advent of film created Hollywood, which defined culture for the next century while spawning new media empires and reshaping how humanity expressed itself. We now face an even bigger disruption. Millions of people, regardless of experience or budget, can freely tell stories, share them with the world, and impact culture.

We believe that the next Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, and Christopher Nolan won’t be found in Hollywood. The storytellers of our generation are bypassing the archaic bureaucracy of the current system in favor of one that lets them succeed purely on the merit of their creation.

We started Early Media because this shift demands new infrastructure.

We’re a bunch of scrappy kids building an engine to deliver this new era of storytelling, and are backed by those who see the same future.

We’re ready to invest in people who agree. If you’re changing the way stories are discovered and told, let’s talk.

CONTACT:
hello@early.media

  • 1. The fulfillment of art is in its impact. The creators of art, therefore, must keep an eye on the hearts and minds of its audience. The joy, sadness, heartbreak, inspiration, and understanding our stories evoke in people is the purpose of our creation and the source of its meaning.
  • 2. We minimize the distance between creator and consumer. The most intimate and original way to tell stories is by limiting the disconnect between production and consumption. People still long to sit around a fire – nothing between them and the storyteller – and listen.
  • 3. Social media algorithms reflect consumer demand. Short form video platforms have fine-tuned video recommendation algorithms that represent genuine consumer demand. Our stories must seek out, understand, and respond to this demand.
  • 4. Powerful hooks begin relationships, and relationships create meaning. Our stories must first capture attention, then build longer and deeper arcs that transform attention into connection.
  • 5. Vertical is personal. 16:9 landscape arose in the 1930s to showcase Western vistas and horizontal motion. Today, 9:16 phone screens, mirroring human proportions, create the most intimate, immersive connection with the viewer.
  • 6. We take many small bets instead of a few big bets. Hollywood has abandoned small and mid-budget productions in favor of massive, low-risk bets designed for predictable returns. We're flipping that model by making many high-risk, low-cost bets to uncover hidden outliers.