The Dark Side Of Going It Alone In Online Hollywood
On the same day we discussed the growing interest among screenwriters in self-produced digital content, Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die announced that its premier clip The Landlord had been viewed 50 million times. But before writers fully commit to this wonderful new world outside the studio system, they may want to take a look at the tail end of the curve.
Writer’s Group Film Corp. is a startup entertainment company looking to raise up to $1.5 million by selling 10,000,000 shares to the public at $.15 each. Because of how the company is raising its funds, it filed its plans with the SEC. It’s not a strictly digital outfit, but it is a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks it’s a cinch to go viral. So far, it hasn’t had much luck promoting its one produced film The G! True Tinseltown Tale: Dude, Where
Going viral is hard enough – sustainability and creating a regular audience is even harder if you are looking for big numbers. The "views" metric isn't the right one to focus on. Will Ferrell's #2 video is at 5M views – 1/10 of The Landlord. The dropoff is even higher for non-celebrity videos.
Which brings me to my point: online video is as much about community and communications, as it is about content. It is highly niche content + community. If I want to find videos about urban spelunking, i can. If i want to find videos about chinese cooking, i can. The hubs of these video communities which will be extremely valuable from a media perspective. This is what we have been focusing on over at Mefeedia.com and the response has been tremendous.
it is a tough act to pull off but here's a way around some of it -
1. Dont just build the content, help people find the road to it and if one doesnt exist – build the damn thing – so focus on social media, bolgs and all the other non-pro guys who're stealing views and building huge communities around quirky content.
2. dont put all eggs in same basket – so this is about diversifying the protfolio – maybe you're better off doing 10 x 1 minute clips than a 1 x 5 minute clip as well as going across 20/30 video websites
3. contextualise – if you can produce something that's got natural plugs into a popular debate / discussion chances are it'll get you the initial eyeballs.
4. have your own website / blog / page as well where the viewer gets to know the creator
5. bundle your offerings into easily identifiable icons – so build a graphic logo / character / pneumonic
its still tough but some of this has helped us at http://www.phonethics.in
our niche india centric characters now have almost a 110k views across sites in less than 2 months!!