5 posts tagged “internet”

    YouTube fascinates me. It really does. It is quite possibly one of the most innovative websites to come along in the last few years, and it's completely revolutionized personal and viral videos on the Internet. It's not unusual these days to see your friends and co-workers on the site, whether as avid watchers with hundreds of favorites or vloggers who pour their hearts out to virtual audiences via webcam. Either way, YouTube and its clones have become major outlets for artists and advertisers alike.
    Lately, I've been trying to think of distribution and using YouTube as a means to seriously get TBM 'out there', so-to-speak. Obviously we've already got a page on the site and we've posted the films we've made so far, but we've yet to sit down and seriously focus on a way to use YouTube as a means of promotion. And when I say that I mean looking at how people find our films, checking demographics and hit counts, toying with things like tags and length in order to maximize our audience, etc. Hell, even focusing on specific content geared towards certain established audiences; I'd love to do a series on deconstructing YouTube "celebrities" who don't deserve the title, even if it's the audience that puts them on a pedestal.

    From what I've seen, YouTube can be a great outlet for creativity, but not in the same ways that traditional distribution works for lengthy narrative films. Take our 15-minute short from 2006, Delivery. Despite being what I feel is one of our best shorts thus far, it's got the least amount of views out of all of the films we've posted on YouTube. In fact, our most viewed film happens to not only be our shortest, but quite possibly our worst! I don't want to say it doesn't make sense to me, because it actually does make a lot of sense: the majority of the viewers on YouTube prefer shorter, easier to digest videos that have an average length of two minutes or so, with the exceptions being if the videos are produced by a specific user who holds some kind of popularity on the site (i.e. HappySlip, ArtieTSMITW). So how exactly do you gain this sort of Internet fame?
    Well, there's probably no 100% fool-proof way to get popular on YouTube, but from what I've seen and read, there are a number of little tips and tricks that I'm itching to try out:

1. Produce short, episodic content that is generally appealing. As my friend King was telling me the other week when we were brainstorming ideas for a short film, if you want to reach the biggest audience possible you need to produce something that people can really relate to, and that makes them feel good. It's hard, given that a lot of the stories I like to tell deal with darker, more emotionally challenging issues, but I'm willing to start thinking outside the box. The episodic content is fairly crucial too, because it generates some buzz over time that keeps users coming back to your channel for more.

2. Create a persona. Some of the best YouTubers tend to use the vlog form as a way to construct a personality that others find interesting. Personally I never found the whole webcam video form that appealing, but if done right it can be just as engaging as a narrative character study, and more real than 'reality' TV. If you or someone who know has an outgoing, striking personality (good looks help as well), put them in front of the camera. Doesn't matter if they can't act.

3. Make an attempt at originality. No one likes a copycat, so try not to follow in the tracks of other, more popular users. Sure, movie re-enactments are fun to do, but don't bank on that idea alone less you want to be compared to ArtieTSMITW. Instead, think of something that hasn't been done before, or at least delve into a topic that - while still appealing - doesn't seem to have a whole lot of coverage on YouTube. Combine genres and forms in a way that's unique. It's a helluva lot easier to gain noteriety when it's your own brainchild.

4. Learn to take criticism and other comments with a grain of salt. Although not as bad as some viral video sites like Break, many users on YouTube tend to leave horrible comments which contain - but are not limited to - blatant racism/sexism, ignorance, bias, unprovoked insults, flamebait, etc. On one hand you might be tempted to fight back, spending an hour or so typing up responses left and right, but just learn to let it go. Take everything with a grain of salt and soon your own peers and fans will start fighting for you, marking stupid comments as bad remarks or spam so you don't have to.

5. Know your audience. Start keeping track of the types of people who watch your videos. With YouTube's new Insight feature it's easy to tell who's been watching, and there's all sorts of neat little demographical information you can get. Learn to manipulate your tags and other things to target the audience you want. I'm sure this will come in handy at some point.

    I want to try and work more with the site in the near future. I've got some ideas in the works that will put some of my theories to the test. See you on YouTube.

A Repetition of Procrastination --

     We seem to do this every year now without fail. Our output seems to consist of doing one real project a year with one or two other shorts (moreso if you include the Team Internet stuff Derek does with his other friends) randomly assorted sometime around that one project. Not an ideal situation if you're trying to break into the whole film business and/or build up a portfolio for graduate school. Since forming The Breakfast Machine about three years ago we've made some films that really stood out amongst our friends, but for the most part I feel like I haven't been contributing as much as I should be.
    It's just hard to find motivation sometimes, especially when you're working with such outdated, low-budget equipment. We're pretty much reliant on natural lighting and in-camera audio - which, if you've ever worked with a low-end Hi-8 camcorder, you know is a pretty crappy way to do things. Sometimes it can be hard to get the right shots because of technical limitations. And then there's the lack of good actors. Somehow between the main four of us (myself, Mari, Derek, and Tommy) we don't really know too many people who are willing to be in front of the camera, let alone take on a starring role. We wind up having to be in our own films, which can be somewhat difficult if you're also trying to direct or otherwise view things semi-objectively.

    So follows the same repetition of our workflow for 2008, although this time we started a lot later (we usually try to finish a film before spring so we can submit it to our college's film festival), and we're looking at completing two seperate projects. The first, naturally, is Purgatory, a short I wrote sometime last year and never got around to completing due to changes in my housing situation and because I kept altering the script. The second is an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's short story, Pearls are a Nuisance, which I read in The Simple Art of Murder this past spring. This past weekend Derek and I spent most of the afternoon discussing ways to both modernize and adapt the story in a way that we'd be able to do it, and we even found a radio show of it from 1945 (check it out here).
    To top things off, since it's The Breakfast Machine's third anniversary we're trying to (finally) get a logo and start up a website so we can look official and maybe begin to take our group in the direction of a real business. It's something I've been dreaming of since our inception, and it's not unreasonable to think that we can succeed in this field so long as we put our minds and talents together and, most importantly, focus.

Status Reports --

    In terms of the actual projects themselves, everything is moving at a decent pace. I'm in the middle of rewriting the Purgatory script (how many times have I said that though?) and two scenes for the as-of-yet untitled Pearls adaptation are finished. The former we can technically start shooting anytime, since I already have the scenes planned out and most of the dialogue can be improvised; it's a technique we've used more than once (see Apt. 309 for a good example). As for the other, we need to start planning out locations, making sure all of our friends and fellow crewmembers are on-board, and finalize the story. It's not that hard when you're working with pre-made material, but when it's from the 1930s-1940s it's a bit of a challenge trying to adapt it so it easily translates to modern times without completely overhauling everything.
    Really we've just begun, so hopefully I can motivate myself by posting periodic updates and perhaps some screenshots from the work we'll be doing. Until then...

   Earlier today I was actually thinking of sports in relation to the way we think about film and television, mainly in terms of spectatorship. Most film theorists including Christian Metz viewed film as a medium that, although viewed in a theater packed with other people, is actually consumed by an individual rather than as a group. Sure, you can argue against that statement, but contrast watching a film in the theater with watching a film on TV with a group of friends. In the former mode of viewing there's more of an internalization of the story (let's assume the film is a fictional narrative), more engagement with what's ultimately going on in the world on-screen. In the latter mode one is more prone to staying outside the boundaries of the diagesis, remaining grounded in the real world via talking, making jokes and references, et cetera. As one theorist - whose name I unfortunately can't remember - wrote, film's relation to a viewer is likened to that of a novel. (Bare with me, I'm getting to my point regarding television and sports.)
   Now television works on a fundamentally different level in terms of spectatorship. For the most part television is produced as a medium that actually depends and thrives on a large audience, though to a large extent fictional television still retains many of the functions of film. Take a show like Battlestar Galactica, a terrific serial that invokes the same engagement with the diagetic universe created for the audience. You know you're not the only one watching, but, as you're watching and remaining engaged with the story you unconsciously negate that factor. It's okay, that's natural.
   Sports, on the other hand, along with certain types of shows including newscasts and reality television, tend to work in the opposite manner. Whereas narrative fiction is all about engaging one-on-one with the content, sports use the content to invoke a sense of unity between the largely unseen audiences. Here, the sports event is the spectacle, but because sports are inherently about a kind of a shared pride akin to something like nationalism within a country, it automatically presupposes this notion of 'us' - as in 'our team'. Not only do fans stand behind their team, but they also stand alongside - though not literally, at least when watching on TV - countless others, forming a collective group of fans who also share the same experience. This experience isn't the same as the kind you get from a show or film, especially these days when select episodes are available for download at any given moment or available for purchase on DVD. No, sports events are based solely on a fleeting moment in time, one that is often forgotten barring any memorable moments. What remains usually is the effect, either of a win or a loss, that carries over to the next game and remains cumulative over the course of a season.
   Take sports rivalries for example. Not only do they exist between the teams themselves, but fans also feel the same distaste for each other that the players do. And the fans tend to remember and relive old rivalries long after the players do in many cases - the San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames have been rivals in the National Hockey League for years due to the Sharks besting the Flames in previous playoff series, and even though many players have come and gone in that time, the rivalry is still felt between the players, both rookies and veterans. And, of course, the fans on both sides have kept the 'flame' going (hur hur, pun!), due to the two teams facing each other in the 2008 playoffs.
   You can see this unity most clearly at sports bars, with everyone huddled together watching the television screens, cheering their team on in hopes of a victory. The fans watching the game on TV automatically have a kind of affinity for the fans in attendance at the actual game in that they're all watching the same game at the same time, and cheering for the same team. Get it?

   Yeah, it's getting late and my thoughts are starting to get a bit cloudy. I should get some sleep, not only because I have another early morning tomorrow, but because game five of the series between the Sharks and Flames is on tomorrow night. And you know I'll be watching, along with thousands of other Sharks fans. And with that, I give you ... Joe Thornton.

   The other day my friend and his parents gave me a ride back to San Francisco, and along the way we stopped by Costco so they could get some food for Easter Sunday. As my friend and I browsed through the crappy selection of video games and mostly cheap films we stumbled upon a gold mine of cheap television boxsets for as low as $15 a pop. Granted, most are shows I've never really watched, but they did have all three seasons of both Arrested Development and Veronica Mars, two of the most intriguing shows I've seen in awhile. Needless to say, I wound up getting something (er, rather, my friend's parents got me something so now I owe them $16) - I decided on the first season of Arrested Development.

   Back around Freshman or Sophomore year of college I first saw AD with my two friends, because one of them bought the entire first season after his mom introduced him to the show during a vacation. At first I figured it'd be the typical show my friends, both of whom I'd always thought were more intellectual and 'sophisticated' than me: funny in a witty, the-jokes-on-the-people-who-don't-get-it sort of way, with characters that make obscure references and who get into situations that aren't funny unless you've experienced it. Well, it wasn't all that, but it was the type of show I didn't normally watch back then. However, I did start finding it extremely funny, and by the end of the first season I found myself really adoring the colorful cast of characters, the engaging narrative structure, and the hilarious situations. It was, for all intensive purposes, the one sitcom I actually liked (I was never a fan of Friends or Seinfeld).
   A year or two later, when I first upgraded to DSL and discovered torrents, I downloaded the second season of the show, but watching it by myself I could never get farther than a couple of episodes. My friends had long watched the season, so I was on my own. Eventually I just kind of stopped and forgot about the series. Until now, that is. My mom and I have been watching the first season together, and she really digs it as well. It's been fun to watch again, and I'm glad I bought it. Maybe sometime soon I'll head back and get the rest of the series. Real shame that it was canceled after only three.

   Television series and serials are strange like that though, especially in the United States. Unlike films, we always seem to want TV shows to go on forever, even when they seem to get stale. Hell, I stopped watching The Simpsons a long time ago because it started getting boring; even The Office is going down that road too. There's just something about wanting to hold on to the experience that those shows bring, but ultimately that experience really just has to end, less the material gets old. In some ways I'm glad Ronald Moore straight-out told Sci-Fi that season four is the last season of Battlestar Galactica. As much as I love the series, I couldn't imagine how they'd possibly stretch it out for more than another season. I mean, they've done practically everything that can be done without repetition or continuity errors. While I'm sure all the fans are going to be sad with the show ending, at least the creators get to end it their own way, they get to end it right.
 

  You can't say the same for all good shows. Most of my favorite animated shows from when I was a kid didn't get a chance to end things on their own terms. Rocko's Modern Life was just kind of phased out after Joe Murray (the creator) left the show, and Craig Bartlett, who made Hey Arnold! wasn't able to end the series with the 'jungle' movie he wanted to do, and instead the show's final season ended with a bunch of crappy episodes that put the characters in ridiculous situations. Sure, give Doug a proper graduation but forget all about the football head.
   It's always the good, interesting, unique shows that tend to suffer. Arrested Development and Firefly are two more recent examples of good shows that went underappreciated by both networks and fans until long after their cancellation. It's really too bad, because they're shows that should've been able to go on longer; I would've much preferred a secon season of Firefly over Serenity, which didn't really provide the closure I was hoping for.

   Television is definitely a realm that needs to be changed. The current network-dominated setup just doesn't allow for creativity these days, what with all the reality shows and crappy new sitcoms that won't ever be as popular or funny as their predecessors. Personally, I think we need to start thinking about alternative means, possibly using the internet or other public-funded channels. Sure, like film, television shows cost a lot of money to produce, but when has that ever stopped independent filmmakers from making good movies? Hell, you just need the same things - a camera, a crew, a cast, and material. TV shouldn't be seen as this horrible thing that's rotting the minds of kids and turning people into couch potatoes. Maybe it's what I learned from Prof. Hastie over the past year, but I'm starting more and more to see the vast potential for an alternative form of television, one that has yet to be cultivated. All it takes is a little embrace and ingenuity.

    Oh god, do I hate winter quarters. Usually they consist of difficult and/or crappy classes, procrastination, and overall boredom with everything I'm going in general. Aside from skipping unimportant lectures (they're not film-related anyway) I've spent many hours on my PlayStation3, not only with games like Warhawk and Wild ARMs, but watching some DVDs with my girlfriend and roommate. And while I've been good on keeping most of my resolutions, I've yet to really do anything of value this quarter in terms of personal projects.
    There's the research for my Senior thesis, but I'll hold off on discussing that until after I do a substantial amount of research.

    Perhaps later this week I'll do another post with something a little more ... I don't know, "meaningful"? In the meantime, I found a neat little Asian torrent site that actually links to a lot of good films, including obscure films by directors like Edward Yang, Jiang Wen, and Jia Jiangke. Check it out.