Sheep of social media

dlevanchuk

dlevanchuk

My morning thoughts:

With Facebook approaching 1 billion users, twitter filled with spam and YouTube overpopulated with cellphone video of kittens and light sabers, do you think is it still possible for a beginner filmmaker to have a successful experience with social media or social media is getting too big to be discovered?

Or maybe the filmmaker needs to create another route, different from the standard Facebook fan page, twitter posts and YouTube links.
By successful I mean to have a steady flow of visitors, constant gain of views of the movies, etc.
 
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CJ -
You're funny, man.
You're killin' me, but you're funny.


Dima -
Yes, it's possible.
It's just the easy days of "film it and they will come" are dead. Gone.
Good content is being lost in the raging flooding waters of muddy content.

Can't think single-cell organism.
Gotta think multi-cellular organism.

An individual has little chance of success.
A team has a greater chance.

You have to cultivate that steady flow of visitors to your content by providing something in both high demand and unique.
As our economy grows more efficient it becomes easier to satisfy our needs with a broader selection of available resources, even though it's driving us insane by fragmenting our lives as our expectations get elevated beyond our mental limitations.

Find... a fetish group.
Not BDSM and furries fetish.
A niche.
A specialty.
A group to satisfy.
A empty hole that needs filling - and fill it.
Find your junkies and supply them with the sh!t they need - not the sh!t you have on hand.
Potties don't want heroin.
Shooters don't want crack.
Gamblers don't want pootie.
Sex addicts don't want booze.

Match your product to your customers.
Make the b!tches pay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zPSSLJaXd4
 
Wish I had an answer. I have never had any luck with anything on YouTube (my stuff going viral). Suppose it could be that my work sucks? Who knows?

I quit Facebook a year ago and never went back till a few weeks ago -- because all I did was spend time trying to support my belief in Global Climate change, 'no WMD' in Iraq, actual employment numbers and voting records of R & Ds, to R's with URLs of proof (to deniers). Got tired of wasting time with people wearing blinders -- a lot of really ignorant people on FaceBook (funny, the dumbest of all were Americans -- FaceBook made me embarrassed to be an American) friends of friends, etc. So I quit, until Bill Maher had a special and the only way you could view was through signing on with FaceBook.

I use IndieTalk and a few other such blogs as my rare internet communication. I have too much stuff on my plate to waste time with unknown people...

Dlevanchuk, if you find another forum for filmmakers to share ideas and work -- let me know? I just joined in Vimeo. Watched some pretty cool footage from around the world... will go back from time to time. But, going into summer and having so many planned projects to do -- not a lot of free time to surf and explore...
 
@Ray

Yeah, that's a good advice!
It's always about finding a specialty and fill it.

IE: there is a guy who takes pictures of cloud formations. He sells tons of images and doing great financially. Imagine, cloud formations?
There are so many 'specialty' sites and the good ones has not thousands, but millions of followers!

Talking about cats... there are more cat owners than dog owners. These cat owners love cats, any cats and willing to see cute movies. So, there is a good market for it if you have the right footage. You can get millions of hits on silly cat movies, so that's a huge market.

As Ray said, find the need and fill it.

If that does not appeals to you, there is always VIMEO.COM but don't expect people to look for interesting movies there. Mostly populated by tech-savy shooters who are more interested in cameras and gizmos than actually producing good movies. You will not find millions of hits on anything there like on YT.

I prefer Youtube over anything else. There are cool specialty groups and videos by the millions. You'd have a better chance to find your market.... if that's what you're after.
 
I think the best approach is to take a page out of the studios play book and follow the money.

They licennse best selling books, comic books, video games, and toys.

We have at our disposal public domain stories and characters.
 
Write your script, shoot it with a working title, then name it something that is currently trending... We're pushing 200k hits on "Scare Tactics" (from the script to screen challenge here a couple years ago)... just based on the title really. Figuring out what folks are going to search for and click on is really the big deal when trying to find an audience to stumble across your work... or you could do marketing like hollywood does and dedicate budget (time/money) to getting people to go look at your stuff.

When we first started building websites in the early 90s, we encouraged our clients to put their web addresses on their traditional marketing. Traffic doesn't happen randomly, it's guided. Hollywood is really good at guiding tastes. Marketing makes movies. Timing makes movies. Movies make fashion. Movies make pop culture. Pop Culture makes trends. Trends make fodder for more movies (part of the reason there's "no originality in Hollywood" -- not a new thing at all: http://www.imdb.com/find?q=the+prisoner+of+zenda&s=all ).

So write to your audience, market to them, listen to their feedback and current interests as you write the next one.

My standby adage for this is, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, who cares?" Market your films, don't just put them out there and hope someone big will happen to find it and make you famous. I once read a "how to succeed in the music business" book. The big insight I got from it was the statement that if you call and ask if they had received your demo tape, the person on the other end of the phone would physically pick up the tape from the pile, then set it back down on the top when you were finished with the call. Once you realize that the audience is comprised of real individuals, you can start to target your marketing to them rather than just as a group. Figure out how to get them to pick up tat demo tape and put you at the top of the pile.
 
Wow lots of great replies everyone!
I guess it all comes down to the purpose of why a filmmaker wants to make a movie. Is it for a personal reason or to please the audience?
And once a movie is done for a personal reason AND that reaches the audience - that a golden nut.

And finding out what audience like AKA market research is not something that can be learned, but has to be observed and comes with time.

I'm just soet I rambling away here. Self reflection I guess haha
 
dlevanchuk said:
And once a movie is done for a personal reason AND that reaches the audience - that a golden nut.

And finding out what audience like AKA market research is not something that can be learned, but has to be observed and comes with time.
Click to expand...
Yep on the first part.
Kinda sorta on the second.

You have to go fishing where the fish are.
Well... what kind of fish?
Any old fish?
Fish are fish, right? No.
Depends upon what bait you're using.
I got a loaf a bread.
Can I catch trout?
Catfish?
Sea bass? With a loaf of bread?

Nope.
I can catch crappie with bread.
For trout I gotta use dry & wet flies, and not just any old flies, gotta use whatever is flying around that day.
Catfish live down deep, in the mud. They like stinky chicken livers. They ain't never smelling bread on a hook.
For sea bass I gotta use... IDK WTH sea bass eat, but I'm pretty sure the little picker-fish will nip bread off a hook in the ocean long before the sea bass get to it.

So, where are the crappie?
They ain't out in the forest or in the field or in the suburban lawns. WTH would I go fishing for fish in those places? Pfft. Idiot.
They're at the dock or in the pools of rivers & streams.
I'll take my bag O' bread and goto the creek and catch crappie.

Right product.
Right location.
Right customer.
Gotta go find 'em.
Fish ain't coming to my door.
I gotta goto them.
Make 'em pay. ;)



What subjects do you typically film?
What product is that?
Who is that for?
I know those people spend their paychecks on something.
Americans can't save their money ferr sh!t.
So what are they spending money on?
Can YOU/WE provide some of that something?

I have three little kids, a big kid, and a wife.
They all need different things from me.
Can I tailor my output to their input demands?
Yes.
Same thing.
Tailor your film output to the demands of your customers.

Grocery stores in America sell different food products than grocery stores in Mexico and China and Mozambique.
Car manufacturers in America produce different autos than those in India and Russia.
I have no idea WTH the Japanese are thinking with their TV programs, and Telemundo looks just bizarre to me.

Incredible. People watch this sh!t? Fine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETPH1Bq3VDY

WTH is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNW_U22Rglw


Figure out what you can produce.
Figure out the market for it - adjust accordingly.
Provide them with what they want.

Easy peasy lemon squeazy. :rolleyes::lol:
 
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What it really comes down to is you can be an artist, or you can be a money-maker; it is very rare that you can be both.

I personally do not enjoy them, but horror/zombie/slasher pix sell, even the trashy ones. Vampires had a big run recently (Twilight) and the f*** authority thing is currently in vogue (Hunger Games). TV has gone on a twisted fairy tale kick (Grimm, Once Upon A Time) and odd premise shows (Awake, Touch). As they say on Wall Street, "The trend is my friend." They key is to be riding the crest of the wave, or, even better, to create the trend yourself.

In times of financial turmoil and other upheavals the movie-going public wants some escapism; life is hard and they want to get away from their troubles. So make something light-hearted, or give 'em a few laughs, or let them know that the good guy can win.
 
Youtube's hard to work with these days. It's harder to come by people that actually appreciate effort and time in a shoot. All they prefer now these days are fast cutting blogs, 10second videos, and massive amounts of song covers.

What I hate the most is that a lot of the more popular users use deceiving screenshots and titles. Why can't more people just be genuine about their product and tell people what it really is? No need for "SUPER AWESOME AMAZING CAT FIGHT! MUST SEE!"
 
I've been thinking about this sort of thing a lot lately (from a band perspective rather than a filmmaker perspective, though I've wisely left the actual promotion work in the hands of the more attractive member of the band). Adding to rayw's list of questions you need to answer (once again, super-thanks for your marketing threads...lots of good stuff there!) is how does your market (once you determine who that is...the fishing metaphor is pretty great) find out about new films? How can you get your work there? Is it blogs, is it news sites, or is it all just word of mouth? Can a bit of targeted advertising help? Speaking of, has anyone done a facebook ad campaign? How did it go?

There are, I believe, answers. As saturated as YouTube is with cat videos, I think you CAN still get social media to work for you. Of course, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it (though to be fair, lots of them think they ARE)
 
Before we had gatekeepers, now there is an end run around the gatekeepers, but so many people are making that run it just turns into a blurry mob. Which brings us right back to what Ray is saying. Identify a need, fill that need, make people aware you have filled that need. Same rules of entrepreneurship that have existed forever.
 
Say that I think it can happen. I actually found out about a film mainly shot in Richmond texas via Facebook. I "liked" its page and waited til I saw the film. I was actually really impressed with it and I wrote them a nice message afterwards which was appreciated by whomever runs the page.

So, long story short, yes but then again I am but a single viewer.
 
dlevanchuk said:
... do you think is it still possible for a beginner filmmaker to have a successful experience with social media or social media is getting too big to be discovered?

Or maybe the filmmaker needs to create another route, different from the standard Facebook fan page, twitter posts and YouTube links.
Click to expand...
Special thanks to our Lady across the water handing out links, (not to be confused with watery tarts handing out cutlery)!

Just in case you began to think it difficult to become an indie director:
http://www.creativeskillset.org/film/jobs/article_3688_1.asp

"Marketing yourself
If you are working as a freelancer (as the vast majority of people working in production are) you are operating as a small business, so it's worth being business-like and working out a strategy. Analyse what you've got to offer and draw up your own marketing plan. Effective personal marketing depends on identifying and satisfying a need. It's not enough to know what you can and want to do; you also have to know if there is a market for your skills. For this, you need a good understanding of your own strengths and experience and to research the market to match your skills and experience to the requirements of the industry."

It seems joining at entry level is no easier.




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