Interesting look back at some of the results of YouTube's investment in original content:
http://edwardspoonhands.com/post/46305605617/lessons-learned-from-youtubes-300m-hole
Take-aways seem to be that throwing money at production had little or no effect on the audience size or success of the channels, and that the "professionals" still haven't figured out how to be successful in this world.
I think there's some real relevance in these lessons for indie filmmakers - you have to decide who's rules you want to play by, and when you're dealing with extremely limited resources choosing to play by the rules of the traditional theatrical film or television worlds seems like an odd choice to me. It's appealing though, because it provides a convenient excuse for failure - if we only had a bigger budget, better cameras, etc, we would have been more successful. But clearly those things don't actually seem to be that important when it comes to building an audience online.
http://edwardspoonhands.com/post/46305605617/lessons-learned-from-youtubes-300m-hole
Take-aways seem to be that throwing money at production had little or no effect on the audience size or success of the channels, and that the "professionals" still haven't figured out how to be successful in this world.
I think there's some real relevance in these lessons for indie filmmakers - you have to decide who's rules you want to play by, and when you're dealing with extremely limited resources choosing to play by the rules of the traditional theatrical film or television worlds seems like an odd choice to me. It's appealing though, because it provides a convenient excuse for failure - if we only had a bigger budget, better cameras, etc, we would have been more successful. But clearly those things don't actually seem to be that important when it comes to building an audience online.