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 People , and her Digital Bootcamp , which I got a chance to attend at DCTV in New York on Monday night. "The technology should serve you and your creative practices" -- that was one of the first things Ingrid said to the audience of about 20 filmmakers. She went on to explain that all these new technologies are like a painter's palette. If you choose all of them, you'll end up with gray. They are there for you to pick and choose what works for you and your film.
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.
In her brief but jam-packed session, Ingrid shared numerous sites, best practices, recommend reading, and noteworthy examples. Rather than link to them all here, here's a link to her Digital Bootcamp wiki where you can view the full presentation and check out tons of other resources. Ingrid called herself a bit of a "technological Utopian" and you can see that in her Creative Commons wiki where readers are also free to edit and share their own ideas.Twitter feed and Shooting People .Heather 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."
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firstly I would like to apologise as I am leaving this message here in the hopes someone will read this I am very upset that the directors or whoever have allowed hacked video footage and cyber bullying to be on this website of a man with a disability being terrorised by some nasty nasty people and I cannot believe that your policies will not allow someone as myself report this in the complaints part! I would like you all to sit down and take a minute and think about what if that was your brother, uncle, father or son how would you like to see that spread all over a website for sick jerks to laugh at! Please take mr Fentons videos off youtube as that is a crime it is called cyber bullying
ReplyDeletePlease check out our Safety Center online in our Help Center:
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where you can find information on what to do for your situation:
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/request.py?hl=en&contact_type=abuse&rd=1
Can I just post my trailer here?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph_jV7FanUc
Also consider submitting your film to telegraph21, a new video magazine that features the best documentary films and art videos from around the world.
ReplyDeletewww.telegraph21.com
Youtube blog, I have a request. It would be great for our Business channel were we to have the option to edit the auto tweet message from "I uploaded a video" to "We uploaded a video," or even "company name uploaded a video" I realise this introduces an element of impersonality and brand zombification, but some brands might very well prefer that approach. Just a consideration for the future.
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