About the project

The Gotham Film & Media Institute, established after a landmark debut at the 1979 New York Film Festival, has grown into one of America's largest and most influential communities for independent filmmakers. For over four decades, they have played a pivotal role in championing independent creators, providing career resources, industry connections, and a launchpad for wider recognition. Their programs have supported the production of over 10,000 films and benefited more than 30,000 filmmakers nationwide.

As The Gotham Film & Media Institute transitioned into the digital age, the organization encountered new and complex technological demands. Over the past two decades, The Gotham responded by building an extensive ecosystem of more than 15 custom applications to power member engagement, event coordination, and key services. While this wide-reaching digital transformation was essential to advancing their mission, it also introduced ongoing challenges around innovation, usability, integration, and long-term sustainability.

The Challenge

Facing rapid industry digitization and a growing user base, The Gotham's technology infrastructure struggled under legacy systems originally managed by a single developer. Over time, this approach introduced mounting challenges:

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  1. A sprawling, interdependent codebase in an outdated language and framework, posing long-term support and potential security risks.
  2. Outdated payment and communication tools exposed to modern day security issues and prone to user frustration.
  3. Limited scalability and agility, resulting in operational bottlenecks during key events.
  4. Lack of modern UX features such as mobile compatibility and intuitive workflows.

The organization needed to modernize its platform, strengthen resilience, improve both user and admin experiences, and carve out a sustainable path for future digital growth. While relying on a single developer was initially a cost-effective way to build and launch the system, it ultimately created limitations: one person seldom has deep expertise across every domain required for maintaining a robust, secure, and scalable platform. Over time, this led to technical gaps, outdated solutions, and increased risks—including security vulnerabilities and diminished flexibility for adapting to new needs.

Our Solution

Topvine commenced with the urgent stabilization of the legacy system, ensuring event operations continued uninterrupted, despite minimal technical handover. This strategic triage allowed us to identify and prioritize the most critical pain points for both staff and community users.

Is your organization dependent on a single developer for mission-critical systems? Don't wait until a crisis exposes your vulnerabilities. Let's work together to build resilience, reduce risks, and ensure your technology can keep up with your ambitions. Contact our team of multi-disciplinary experts and future-proof your digital foundation.

Key outcomes included:

Secure Payment Upgrades

We replaced Gotham's outdated payment systems with a secure, standalone gateway, ensuring both user safety and operational stability.

  1. Modernized card processing in compliance with current security standards
  2. Centralized payment transactions across the platform
  3. Minimized risk from hacking and carding attacks by enhancing system security
  4. Enabled staff to generate secure payment links for off-platform and back-office use

Incremental Application Modernization

Recognizing the risks of a disruptive overhaul, Topvine executed a phased modernization plan, carefully migrating critical applications to new frameworks and enhancing legacy ones where needed.

  1. Developed a strategy for gradual migration away from legacy code to modern, maintainable solutions
  2. Improved application workflows and performance without disrupting ongoing operations
  3. Enhanced stability by isolating and updating high-risk or problematic modules
  4. Ensured continuous compatibility between upgraded tools and existing core systems

Image for Gradual application modernizationGradual application modernization

TV and Film Awards Submission Portal Rebuild

Leveraging our Narrative nr8 framework, we rebuilt Gotham's flagship event portal for a superior user experience.

  1. Designed intuitive, user-friendly submission forms for creators
  2. Introduced independent user account and login management
  3. Seamlessly integrated the new payment gateway for direct, secure payments
  4. Enabled reuse of the portal architecture to easily launch and manage new award types

Newsletter Subscription Improvements

To boost engagement and streamline communications, we engineered a modern, standalone subscription service that integrates with legacy systems yet delivers a fresh, user-focused experience.

  1. Built a modular subscription platform for managing multiple mailing lists
  2. Ensured automatic eligibility for exclusive offers and newsletters for subscribers
  3. Redesigned the interface for easy self-service subscription management
  4. Maintained backward compatibility with interdependent legacy application

Donations Upgrade

We transformed Gotham's donations system into a streamlined, secure experience fully integrated with the new central payment solution.

  1. Simplified the donation process for users with an improved, mobile-friendly interface
  2. Enhanced transaction security and data integrity

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Technical Approach

  1. Centralized payment gateway with secure card processing and backward compatibility
  2. Modern, scalable web applications leveraging Topvine's own Narrative nr8 framework
  3. Progressive migration of legacy systems to reduce risk and ensure business continuity
  4. User experience design updates for intuitive and accessible workflows

Need to streamline your services or improve on the UI and UX you offer? Reach out via our channels to discuss how Topvine can help.

Results & Impact

  1. Business-critical systems kept operational through challenging transitions
  2. Notable reduction in support demands and technical errors during flagship events
  3. Enhanced security and compliance, especially for user payments and data
  4. Steady migration to modern, maintainable software infrastructure
  5. Improved user and admin experience for filmmakers, staff, and community members
  6. Enhanced experience for filmmakers, staff, and community members through intuitive, modern interfaces.

Why Choose Topvine

Topvine excels at guiding legacy organizations through digital transformation, whether you need urgent triage, technical migration, or full-scale modernization. Our team blends deep technical acumen with hands-on experience stabilizing and upgrading complex systems. With Topvine by your side, you'll confidently turn legacy limitations into opportunities for sustainable growth and innovation.

Image for Understand, Stabilize, ImproveUnderstand, Stabilize, Improve