WēVēTV Short Film Streaming Service — Fans and Filmmakers Supporting One Another

By Film Threat Staff | August 7, 2020

The streaming wars just got interesting. While Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and something called Peacock duke it out for the right to claim the mantel of the most predictable aggregators/producers on the internet—a small team of filmmakers quietly and methodically manifested (according to them) “the greatest collection of indie films on Earth.” A bold claim that caught our attention.

WēVēTV (pronounced, wee—vee), is a small startup running out of an even smaller Brooklyn apartment. It is the brainchild of fledgling indie filmmaker Jesse Weeden, a former army infantryman, who transitioned into the film and tv industry after eight years of service, including two tours of combat. Given Mr. Weeden’s past—his stern and straightforward approach is about what you’d expect…

“The idea was simple,” Mr. Weeden explained, “I wanted to bring equity to the online short film distribution marketplace…each aggregator/distributor is a business that earns a profit, and that profit should be shared with the content creators since the business model relies on their content to operate. Instead, the inverse is the norm—filmmakers actually pay them.”

“I wanted to bring equity to the online short film distribution marketplace…”

WēVēTV doesn’t charge submission fees and earns revenue from subscriptions, or there is a free option that is monetized through ads. The revenue is then split evenly with the content creator(s). Before you get too excited, it is worth noting how exclusive the platform is. Mr. Weeden claims to accept around 7% of the films they view. He explains, “One of the issues I have with other channels is that their curation standards are inconsistent. When I take my free time to watch a film, I want to make sure I am using my time wisely. At WēVē, we take that seriously, and the viewer can trust that when they come to our channel, they are getting the greatest collection of indie films on Earth.”

We can’t say for sure that they have the “greatest indie films,” but we have reviewed many films that WēVē has acquired (see below). While this is undoubtedly a promising emerging platform, they have a tough road ahead of them, and a lot of what they claim they can do remains to be seen. But there are some promising signs. The films we’ve seen are indeed impeccable, and their YouTube page (launched on the 10th of July) and has accrued over 60k views across five films. Not a bad start!

Check out their website at weve.tv and consider subscribing to WēVē YouTube page.