Official YouTube Blog: Digital bootcamp with Ingrid Kopp

Official Blog

Digital bootcamp with Ingrid Kopp

Friday, October 22, 2010

Heather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, is writing weekly guest posts for the YouTube blog on filmmaking in the digital age. You can catch up on previous posts here.Shooting PeopleDigital BootcampDCTV

If you do one thing, create a home for your film online -- a website, a blog, a Facebook fan page, or a YouTube channel (of course) -- so that audiences know where to go to get information about you and your project. All your other online presences should link back to this main place.

Collect email addresses and zip codes from your audience. Remember that Facebook and Twitter could shut down your profile any time. In order to retain contact with your audience, ask for their email addresses. And, while you're at it, their zip codes too. Want to plan a screening? You'll know where to start based on where your audiences live.

Put your trailer online and allow people to embed the video. Embed and spread!

Much of the really creative stuff happening on the web is being launched by brands. Filmmakers can learn a lot from their unique uses of new technologies. Here are two excellent examples Ingrid screened: The Last Exorcism Chatroulette campaign and the choose-your-own-adventure campaign on YouTube for Tipp-Ex.

If you’re going to start a fundraising campaign on a site like Kickstarter, create ancillary content around the campaign to promote it and get people excited to pitch in. Be creative with your rewards to really entice donors. Embed a video on the campaign page too -- campaigns with videos earn more.

Think about creating video clips other than your trailer that you can release strategically throughout the entire production process.

Don't do anything halfway. If you start a Twitter account for your film and only send one tweet, your project will look "dusty" as Ingrid put it -- a perfect adjective.

It's never too early to start building an audience with any kind of digital campaign. You can leverage your audience to solve problems with your film (anyone know a shooter in Dallas?), share their own footage, help with fundraising, write about your project, coordinate screenings, buy DVDs, and tell all their friends how great your film was.

Digital Bootcamp wikiTwitter feedShooting PeopleHeather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, recently watched “The Rent Is Too Damn High Party's Jimmy McMillan at the NY Governor Debate.” Come back next Friday for another session of our “Modern 101 for Emerging Digital Filmmakers."