Category Archives: Uncategorized

Introducing VidAngel Entertainment

April 14, 2021UncategorizedChloe Stoker

Hello VidAngel Family,

I am pleased to tell all VidAngel customers that a new company, VidAngel Entertainment, is now running the VidAngel filtering business. We purchased the assets from the former VidAngel Inc., which has been rebranded as Angel Studios and is now focused exclusively on a quest to redefine the studio business with an innovative model and a commitment to positive content.

This change officially took place on March 1^st and the experience for most of our customers has been seamless. We had a couple of small hiccups, but when problems arise, we jump to fix them, day or night.

Our commitment to filtering is stronger than ever. And while our company is new, our team is not. We brought with us all the employees that have been working on VidAngel filtering—because they love the product and care deeply about our customers. I have also been involved in filtering in the past. I was formerly the CEO of ClearPlay and spent years fighting Hollywood and, eventually, getting Congress to pass The Family Movie Act.

Many people are aware of the lawsuit that VidAngel also fought with the studios the past four years, which resulted in the company filing for bankruptcy. What some people don’t know is that the lawsuit has been successfully settled, the bankruptcy closed and behind us and the VidAngel filtering business is alive and well and growing rapidly. Already through the first three months of this year, we’ve released filters for nearly 1000 movies and television shows.

We are also pleased to have Season 2 of The Chosen available to VidAngel subscribers. This critically acclaimed series has been wildly successful and some families have found that they enjoy it even more with some mild filtering, which is available on our site.

We are making a few changes. We’re increasing investment in the product technology, which has been neglected while the company was in litigation. And we’ve added to our Customer Support team, to make sure that when you have questions, we’re ready with answers. And finally, the VidAngel filtering business is growing again, which is fun and exciting for all of us.

We love to hear from our customers, with personal testimonials, or suggestions for how we can do even better. Sometimes people will ask how they can help support our cause. The best way is to tell your friends. Over 50% of our new members heard about VidAngel from a friend or family member. We are humbled to have so many word-of-mouth endorsements and promise to do everything in our power to delight each customer. There’s nothing that makes us happier than when a customer says that VidAngel has blessed their families.

Thank you all,

Bill Aho

CEO, VidAngel Entertainment, Inc.

UPDATE: Read VidAngel’s and Disney’s Appeal Briefs to the Ninth Circuit

February 28, 2017Legal Battle, Uncategorizedappeal, clearplay, court battle, disney, legal, vidangel, when will vidangel be back upJeffrey Harmon

Legal Battle Justice in the United States court system requires patience (this battle could take years to resolve), but we are trying to keep everyone up-to-date on the progress of the fight to #savefiltering. Here is our report on the appeal to the Ninth Circuit:

December 12th, 2016 - Judge Birotte issues a Preliminary Injunction. You can read the ruling here.

January 11th, 2017 - VidAngel files its Opening Brief on Appeal to the Ninth District Court. The introduction starts at page 17.

February 8th, 2017 - Disney filed its response (including Disney's standard manipulative mud slinging)

February 22nd, 2017 - VidAngel files its final reply before the Ninth Circuit hearing.

VidAngel’s mission is to ensure families everywhere have the option to filter content as they wish. The future of filtering is in good hands because these appeals are being argued by Peter K. Stris, who has been to the Supreme Court 7 times.

There is a lot to digest, but we feel that the final two paragraphs of our most recent brief sum it up well:

"Although the public interest in filtering is strong and Congressionally sanctioned, the injunction robbed the public of any viable means to filter. VidAngel is shut down; ClearPlay no longer functions for [streaming] new releases; and the Studios have scared everyone else away.

"According to the Studios, the relevant public interest is in 'upholding copyright protections.' The Studios have confused themselves with the public. The actual public has no interest in seeing America’s only commercially and technologically viable filtering company destroyed through an unnecessary preliminary injunction. The legal questions in this case are as complex and novel as they are important. If the Studios prevail, they will be entitled to damages. If VidAngel prevails, they will not. In either case, there will be a final judgment that 'upholds copyright protections.'"

Now we are just waiting to know when we will get a hearing. We will continue to keep you up to date.

Announcing VidAngel’s sister site – VidDevil

April 1, 2016UncategorizedNeal Harmon

VidDevil operates on an eco-friendly model that re-uses the mature scenes cut out of movies by its sister company, VidAngel. “We realized VidAngel was just throwing away a lot of smutty scenes in movies,” said Harmon. See the full press release.

VIDDEVIL-FB

Meet the VidAngel “Bumper”

April 8, 2014Uncategorizedvidangelblog

“What’s a bumper?” you ask? Well, we didn’t know what a bumper was either until a couple weeks ago. All we knew was that we wanted one of those cool “logo thingys” that shows up just before your movie starts to let you know VidAngel is taking care of you 🙂 So we asked Tyler Stevens, a skilled motion graphics artist, to make one for VidAngel.

Tyler politely informed us that the “logo thingy” is technically referred to as a “bumper” in the film world. OK, whatever. Nuance 😉 We told him what we wanted the animation to look like and he brought it to life beautifully, adding some nice touches of his own. Here’s the four second bumper you’ll see before your movie next time.

We LOVE the way it turned out! Hope you do, too 🙂 Please leave all compliments in the comments below. And kindly bottle up and bury any criticism you feel may be in order. Just kidding. But seriously.

VidAngel Gets a Facelift

March 26, 2014Uncategorizedvidangelblog

We are updating the design of VidAngel! NOTE: if reading about web design bores you to tears (like it does for most), just go watch a movie instead on VidAngel that’s more entertaining than this blog post (any movie will probably do). But if you’re one of those weirdos (like us) who cares about this kind stuff, read on 🙂

The new look and feel of VidAngel clearly displays the rental price of each movie at a glance without having to click on the movies (see image below) and whether or not it is ONLY available to buy (like 47 Ronin at the time of this writing). (As a side note, when a movie is available for purchase only, that’s decided by the studios and Google, not us.) A light gray now replaces the stark white background, which helps better focus the eye on the movie posters. We’ve also added a floating header bar so you can navigate to different categories of movies and TV shows from the menu dropdowns without having to scroll to the top of the page every time. No more scroll finger fatigue 😉

Another feature some of you might have already seen show up is the playback timeline of the movie displayed at the top of the page when you setup the filter for your movie (see image below). It shows what you will hear and see based on your current settings, and updates dynamically with each tag you change to mute, remove, hear or show.

After gathering tons of honest (and occasionally blunt) customer feedback over the past few weeks, we listened, listened some more, analyzed your ideas, got our feelings hurt (just a little bit), agreed with you, and then adjusted our design accordingly.

At VidAngel, we’re constantly testing, tweaking and improving, and we’re happy to change anything when it is clearly needs changing. Let us know what you think of the new design, and feel free to leave suggestions of your own in the comments below. We are listening and adapting. It’s through ideas like yours that we will constantly make VidAngel better…and prettier.

New VidAngel Player – Open to the Public

January 18, 2014UncategorizedNeal Harmon

As of Jan 15, 2014, VidAngel is open to the public.

Big cheers coming from VidAngel headquarters! 🙂

During our private preview of VidAngel, we received lots of feedback that movies with tons of swearing were, at times, allowing a few words through. As soon as we discovered that our player was dropping words, we cancelled the December launch and set out to rebuild our player.

This feedback is the primary reason we decided to delay to launch (so that we could rebuild the system so that it could handle movies with hundreds of tags).

We’re really pleased with the new player. It is smart and adjusts to your computer’s speed, and only cues up small portions of the movie at a time so that the processor can keep up with your viewing experience. We tested it for 10 days internally and got universally positive feedback.

We decided to soft launch this week and open up the system to the public. That said, we’re still BETAish and are really excited to see feedback.

If you ever come across a missed word that you know you have muted, please click the red feedback button as close to the part of the movie that had the problem as possible. Then describe the problem and submit feedback. If we implement your feedback, we’ll pay you VidAngel credit for it.

Thanks for your support in protecting family’s from $#&! on YouTube and in Movies!