Tampa’s Berkeley Preparatory School has been the launchpad of many careers. It has now catapulted another.
Waves: The Future of Film, a video app meant for filmmakers to showcase their work, was released in early November after months of coaching and $50,000 worth of funding from a Berkeley Prep investment group. Its founders are now working on building awareness of the app — through a $10,000 video contest.
The idea for the app, described by its creators as TikTok for landscape films, dates back to creator and CEO Jake Rabani’s love for the award-winning film “Interstellar.” The science fiction movie inspired him to study physics at the University of South Florida. But he realized it wasn’t the glamorous calculations featured in the film that inspired him. It was the cinematography.
He embraced filmmaking and later started a video production agency that would pivot to the Waves app.
Rabani met Justin Rudolph, the app’s co-CTO and co-founder, through friends when looking for a developer. Rudolph graduated from Berkeley Prep in 2019 and helped land the catalyzing investment. He’s a Clearwater native and a graduate of the University of Miami.
Rudolph heard about his alma mater’s investment committee called BUC Ventures. It’s a way for the school to help fund alumni businesses, he said. The founders had to pitch the app’s vision to the committee. It was “going to battle” to prove its value, but the scrutiny and coaching gave them a path for scaling, Rabani said.
Rudolph and another developer, David Mills, built the app. The investment money also went to, among other costs, marketing and running the streaming app. Hosting video storage can be expensive, especially with large or high-resolution videos. The typical storage cost for 50 gigabytes can be between $0.02 and $1 a month. That means the cost of cloud storage can add up quickly if hundreds of videos at 2 or 3 gigabytes each are uploaded in a short period of time.
The duo — now one year after meeting — have released the app with a date for a competition. Qualifying films submitted on the app by Jan. 28, 2024, have the chance to win $10,000. Users can upload a video of 40 minutes or less.
It’s a way to bring awareness to the platform but also make videos available for users and establish a community for creatives, Rabani said.
“Yes, one person’s going to win … but by everybody participating, especially everyone that goes out and makes something new, everybody wins because filmmakers walk away with a new film in their portfolio; they walk away with experience by putting their film up against others,” Rabani said.
The app works through the same swiping function as ones like TikTok. If a user doesn’t like the video, they can swipe and see another. Users can also like, dislike and comment on the video. The founders wanted to harness and apply that format to a cinematic experience, allowing creators to share content and receive feedback.
“We’re teaching filmmakers to master the art of the cold open,” Rabani said.
The free-to-use app, while still in the early stages of promotion, has 254 opened accounts. The Waves team isn’t focusing on finding profitability yet, but they plan to add in-app purchases and a subscription tier with user perks, such as offline access and more available uploads.
The Waves team is also working to scale the platform through social media campaigns and marketing.
“We want to keep expanding as long as we’re serving as a tool and as a resource for independent artists and independent filmmakers,” Rabani said.
