Creating a Gaktory

First post. Big honor. Hi, I’m Andy.

I’ve been building film gear since I was in 6th grade. The first mod I ever made was wiring a microphone port into the Digital Hi8 handycam I “borrowed” from my parents. As you can imagine, they were thrilled.

In High School, I started working my way onto film sets. I would watch people work, see where gear failed, and look for opportunities to improve workflows. Sometimes all innovation takes is a fresh pair of eyes to look at something that has been around for decades, and ask why does it have to be that way?

And though It’s been almost 15 years now since I first hacked apart that handycam (don’t ask what I did to my Blackmagic camera) this mentality has never left me. But I’ve always had one problem: how to I get the word out about the things I’ve made?

The Catch-22

Nowadays, if you’re an inventor or entrepreneur, selling a product is fairly easy. eComerce platforms are plentiful, domains are cheap, and advertising is accessible. But in film, the best innovations, the ones that deeply alter the way we work, don’t come from entrepreneurs–they come from crew members. Those minor frustrations, those missed opportunities, those are the spark that drives the inspiration behind the best pieces of gear.

But if you’re a maker working in film, then you have a catch-22. You don’t have the time to run a company. You can’t maintain a website and run tech support on-set. And unless you’ve invented the next Steadicam, you likely don’t even have a product large enough to warrant it’s own site anyway.

This is where Gaktory comes in.

The Gaktory Floor

Gaktory (portmanteu of Gak and Factory) is a C2C (Consumer to Consumer) marketplace. It’s a bazaar filled with amazing products, created by filmmakers, for filmmakers. It’s the solution to problems you didn’t even know you had, and the creator of opportunities that will bring your work to the next level. But most importantly, it’s an outlet for those who have never had one before.

My hope is for Gaktory to become something amazing, that by providing a platform for makers and creators, we will see those talented technicians and artists come into the limelight that they have spent so much time supporting. I want to work with turnkey providers to provide discounted rates on services they are already using, to support a thriving forum of innovation and experimentation, and to provide bespoke film equipment builders a place they can finally call home.