🎬 OpenCall — Project Story
About the Project
OpenCall is a match-based talent discovery platform designed for the film and TV industry. It connects emerging writers and actors with producers and directors based on creative alignment—including story themes, tone, roles, and vision—rather than popularity metrics like likes, followers, or social reach. The platform is intentionally designed to remove algorithmic pressure and create a more equitable, purpose-driven discovery process for creative collaboration.
Inspiration
The inspiration for OpenCall came from observing how broken creative discovery has become, particularly in film and television. While there is no shortage of talented writers and actors, access to opportunities is often determined by visibility, personal connections, or social media performance rather than creative fit. Emerging creators are buried beneath algorithm-driven platforms, and producers are forced to sift through overwhelming noise to find collaborators who actually align with their projects.
We wanted to challenge the assumption that popularity equals talent. OpenCall was born from the question: What if discovery in film worked the way collaboration actually works—through alignment, shared vision, and intention?
What We Learned
Throughout the development of OpenCall, we learned that removing traditional engagement metrics fundamentally changes user behavior. Without follower counts or likes, creators focus more on articulating their ideas clearly and intentionally. We also learned that “creative alignment” can be structured and modeled through well-defined tags, constraints, and preferences, rather than vague recommendations.
On a technical level, we gained experience rapidly designing and implementing a full product flow—from onboarding to matching—within a short timeframe. We learned how to prioritize core functionality over polish, and how to communicate a complex idea clearly through a focused MVP.
How We Built It
OpenCall was built as a hackathon MVP with an emphasis on clarity, feasibility, and demonstration value. The platform includes:
- Role-based onboarding for Writers, Actors, and Producers
- Writer profiles that focus on story concepts (genre, themes, tone, format, and budget range) rather than full scripts
- Actor profiles with short audition tapes and role-specific reels
- Producer profiles that define active projects, roles, and creative needs
- A swipe and shortlist interface inspired by match-based platforms
- Simple tag-based matching logic to surface relevant creators and projects
- A premium, cinematic UI inspired by classic Hollywood, featuring maroon and gold tones, film-reel layouts, and theatrical visual elements
The technical focus was on demonstrating the matching logic and user flow rather than building a fully automated recommendation engine.
Challenges We Faced
One of the biggest challenges was translating an abstract concept like “creative fit” into something concrete and actionable. We had to carefully decide which attributes actually matter in creative collaboration and how to represent them without overcomplicating the system.
Another challenge was scope management. OpenCall could easily expand into a much larger platform with submissions, analytics, and monetization, but for this project we had to stay disciplined and focus on the core idea. Designing a discovery experience without relying on engagement metrics also required rethinking common UI patterns and resisting familiar social-platform defaults.
Impact and Vision
OpenCall aims to empower emerging creators by giving them intentional exposure and real opportunities to collaborate. For producers, it reduces friction and saves time by surfacing talent that genuinely fits their vision. More broadly, OpenCall reimagines digital storytelling infrastructure—one that values relevance, collaboration, and creative integrity over virality.
This project represents our belief that better tools lead to better stories, and that the future of creative discovery should be built around alignment, not algorithms.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.