Connecting With The Digital Audience
Five strategies to benefit anyone producing films, how-to content, or short videos
author of Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age By Scott Kirsner | June 2009
In the video world, two major shifts have taken place over the last decade, and both are having a major impact on anyone making film and video today. The first is that the tools to produce video – from HD cameras to editing software – became incredibly cheap (and in some cases, free). The second is that it became easy to distribute finished product to a global audience, thanks to sites like YouTube, DVD distribution services like Film Baby, and manufacturers like Disc Makers. The result is that creative professionals are competing for their audience's time and attention in the noisiest, most chaotic marketplace we've ever seen.
The two key challenges for artists and creative professionals in the 21st century are how to attract a significant audience, and how to develop a business model that will let you continue doing the work you want to do. I've spent the past eighteen months interviewing filmmakers, animators, videobloggers, podcasters, musicians, novelists, and artists who've been successful in both those respects. They've figured out how to build a fan base online, and have developed innovative ways of supporting themselves financially – whether it involves selling DVDs, earning ad revenue from YouTube, or designing t-shirts and limited-edition posters related to their work.
There are five strategies that I'd like to highlight here that can benefit anyone producing full-length films, how-to content, or shorter videos.
• Be remarkable, and make remarkable stuff
• Make the audience a part of your work
• Think about where your audience "lives" online
• Offer more than just one product
• Ask for reviews and ratings
Be remarkable, and make remarkable stuff
In the crowded and noisy party that is the internet, why would you want to wear what everyone else is wearing? Be different. Create work only you can create. Since there are no gatekeepers, there's no one to tell you that your film or video is unmarketable, too weird, too challenging. There's no one to demand that you follow a proven formula, or conduct a focus group to see whether people like the way your movie ends.
Sometimes, being remarkable can mean being topical and timely, like the jaunty political satires and year-in-review animations produced by JibJab Media. The internet loves to talk about what's happening now. Sometimes, being remarkable entails being provocative: saying something that no one else is saying.
Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald
Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald is pretty good at being provocative. His recent documentaries focus on the war in Iraq and the impact of Wal-Mart on the American landscape. For his latest project Rethink Afghanistan, he's releasing short videos on the internet which he'll later weave together into a complete film.
"The audience votes with their 'forward' button," says Greenwald. "If they see a video they think has something to say, they forward it. All the money in the world and all the king's horses can't get them to do that. In that sense, it's truly the free market. Just think about it – what are the chances you're going to forward a video to a friend or a relative or a colleague if it doesn't grab you?"
Make the audience a part of your work
Online, a significant segment of the audience no longer wants to just consume. They want to collaborate. That collaboration can take many forms, from voting on their favorite DVD cover design to suggesting locations where you might shoot a climactic chase scene for your film.
Timo Vuorensola, the Finnish director of Star Wreck and the forthcoming Iron Sky, has solicited comments on scripts from the internet community, found actors online, enlisted the help of volunteer special effects experts, sought musicians to write the score, and received help translating the film into roughly 30 different languages.
"Star Wreck was made by a core crew of five people," Vuorensola says, "and over 300 people are credited in the end credits, and a community of 3,000 people were more or less involved in making it."
Animator M dot Strange
The animator M dot Strange communicated with his audience via a series of YouTube videos as he was making his 2007 film We Are The Strange. "While I was making the film, I asked the audience for photos, and I turned them into ghouls using PhotoShop, and I put them into a few shots as extras. When I was promoting the film, we'd have costume contests on YouTube. I said, 'Dress up like a character from the movie, and I'll send you a signed poster.'"
We Are The Strange, Strange's debut feature film, earned a coveted spot at the Sundance Film Festival.
Think about where your audience lives online
You could organically build your audience one by one, as people discover you and tell their friends. But why? Many of the artists who've built truly large audiences have relied on lots of online and offline help. It begins by giving thought to the types of people who seem to like your stuff. You might ask people at screenings, film festivals, or speaking gigs how they first found out about your work, or how they heard about this specific event. You might survey some of your fans to learn where else they hang out online, what their favorite blogs are for discovering new releases, where they read reviews, etc. It could be that there's an especially well-read alternative weekly paper in your city, or a blog that covers the same exact topic as your new instructional video.
King Corn's Curt Ellis (right)
and Ian Cheney
Curt Ellis, a co-producer, co-writer, and co-star of the 2007 documentary King Corn, did an exceptional job of connecting with their audience using already-established sites.
"They always tell you to start thinking about your audience from day one, before you ever pick up a camera. We weren't," admits Ellis. "We were busy trying to figure out how to tell a really complicated story in a way that would be relevant and interesting to our audience – whoever they turned out to be.
"While we were making the film, we'd go do an interview, and the person would say, 'Have you seen what the local Slow Food chapter is doing?' We soon realized there is a Slow Food chapter in almost every city in the country, and that their members were naturally interested in our film. So we started connecting with that built-in audience.
"We started getting in touch with various blogs while we were in production. Diane Hatz, who runs the Sustainable Table blog, had heard about our film and wanted us to know about some people she thought would be helpful. We kept in touch as the film started its roll-out. She put something out almost every week. That was a huge part of building momentum.
"Other members of the sustainable agriculture community read Diane's stuff. If Diane is excited, then Kerry at Sustainable Scoop gets excited. The blogs helped keep this sense of freshness going. [Co-star and co-writer] Ian Cheney and I wrote guest posts for a few blogs. We became faces for the film, because we're in it."
Offer more than just one product
Selling just one thing is old hat. Sure, some fans will just want the "mainstay" product – the DVD you've just made, for instance. But others will be interested in buying ancillary products (and some super-fans will want to own everything you produce).
The 2007 documentary Helvetica told the story of one of the world's most widely-used typefaces. On the film's Web site, there are about a dozen different items to purchase, from the regular old DVD ($20); to the Blu-ray disc ($26); to a limited-edition, specially-designed, autographed Blu-ray disc ($125). There is a $20 poster of the film, and several $125 limited-edition prints (most of which have sold out). There is a t-shirt and a tote bag (both $20). You can also rent or buy the movie on iTunes.
For his 2009 film, Objectified, about the way products are designed, Helvetica director Gary Hustwit offers a similar smorgasbord of items. But while the film was in production, he also dangled the opportunity to join a "special group of friends." For $500, you could attend a sneak preview screening of the film, receive several limited-edition products related to the film, and get a "thank you" in the film's credits.
Sometimes, these ancillary products may be designed for educational use. When Tiffany Shlain released her short film The Tribe on DVD, she offered a standard DVD version for $25. The 18-minute film, screened at Sundance, deals with contemporary Jewish identity. A $299 version for classroom use includes a 50-page teaching guide and a set of "conversation cards" intended to stimulate discussion.
Thinking about how different non-profit and activist groups frequently have monthly meetings, filmmakers Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo created a special package when they released their 2008 documentary Made in L.A., a documentary about a campaign to improve working conditions in Los Angeles sweatshops where clothing is made. For $198, a group can get movie posters, postcards, and 21 DVDs. The posters and postcards are intended to be used to promote a screening of the film. By selling twenty of the DVDs for $20 each at the screening, a group can not only cover the cost of the kit, but raise as much as $200 for its own purposes.
Ask for the review or rating
One sure-fire way to expand your audience is through positive reviews, ratings, and other endorsements of your work. Sometimes, reviews will just pop up organically, the result of fans checking out your latest work and taking matters in their own hands. But often, a little nudge is necessary to trigger an avalanche of positive write-ups – especially early in your career.
Many of YouTube's top personalities figured this out, and began openly requesting that their viewers rate a video, post a comment, or subscribe to their channel, all of which helped expand their audience. Michael Buckley, creator of the What the Buck show on YouTube, has more than 300,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel – and in 2008, he quit his day job after signing a development deal with HBO Labs.
"Back in the early days," Buck says, "I was actively promoting the videos – posting comments on other people's videos and MySpace pages, saying, 'Hey, check out my videos.' For months I was actively doing that, and I had five seconds of opening credits to my videos, where I said, 'Rate it even if you hate it,' and 'Please subscribe.' In the video, I might say, 'Hey guys, do me a favor – give this video fivestars and leave a comment.'
"My videos started showing up on YouTube's top-rated page, even before I had 10,000 subscribers to my YouTube Channel.
"You might say, 'Oh, you're begging.' I don't care. Most people who were watching didn't know they were supposed to rate it or leave a comment. Now, everybody does that – they say, please rate my video and subscribe to my channel."
Scott Kirsner is a journalist whose writing has appeared in Variety, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and Wired. He edits the blog CinemaTech, and his latest book is Fans, Friends & Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age. Get more info at http://www.scottkirsner.com/fff
