Mobilizedtv

NATPE & Writer’s Bootcamp to Indie Producers: It’s a Creator-Centric World

Find where your audience lives…and take your show there, whether it’s online, on mobile or on TV. That was one of the emphatic messages delivered by several new media experts to an overflow crowd of independent filmmakers. The event, which was organized jointly by the National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE) and Writer’s Bootcamp, was an effort to get creatives–be they screenwriters or directors–to think creatively about multi-platform distribution. NATPE’s annual confab, a top B2B show for multi-platform video content, will take place in Las Vegas on Jan. 25 through 27.

NATPE vp of business development/sales Denise O’Connor introduced the event, thanking Hewlett Packard, which gave away an Envy laptop, DreamScreen and introduced John Patterson, an independent producer from the Midwest who runs the Chicago Convergence, an organization that encourages innovation and showcases the Midwest.

Moderated by David Bloom, principal of Words & Deeds, the panel included Steve Amato, a partner at Omelet (read MobilizedTV story here); Brady Brim-DeForest, co-founder or Tubefilter; Jonathan Small, editorial director at Break Media; and Van Vandegrift at Matrixx Pictures. All of the companies involved have had several years of experience in creating original branded content, marketing, advertising and other entertainment for online and mobile.

“We have an entire ecology from people who create content to those who wrap branded marketing around it to those who will distribute it,” said Bloom. “It’s an interesting time: A lot of rules are being written and there are many opportunities for the indie producer who is open to new things.” Bloom asked the panelists to talk about their favorite platform to produce for and the challenges of migrating content from one platform to another.

Brim-DeForest reported that “it ultimately comes down to: are you telling a story that’s compelling.” “There are an unlimited number of end points you can tap into,” he said. “It depends on what audience you want to reach. The difference is that there’s a power in developing niche audiences. You can actually take those people dispersed across the world and create content they care about, even if it’s only 2 million people. And you’ll have a brand or advertiser interested in reaching that niche. That couldn’t happen on traditional TV.”

Bloom asked, if you have 2 million viewers, where do you go with it? “You take it somewhere where people pay for it,” answered Vandegrift. “There aren’t a lot of dollars out there, but if you have 2 million viewers, you’re ahead.” Panelists noted that producers are slicing and dicing the content into every format and for every platform. “Everyone is trying to figure out how to get your next 2 million viewers,” said Vandegrift. “From the advertisers’ point of view, they want to get their information in front of audiences in a way that’s educational, entertaining and not blatantly an ad. It means more when it connects with that audience, and you can do that better with broadband and new media models.”

Brim-DeForest described the proposition of creating new media in a way that would appeal to the indie producer. “Indie content creators can create content they own,” he said. “If you create a show and take it to the network, the network will own that show unless you’re John Wells or Joss Whedon. In this world of new media, the cost of distribution is so cheap, you can own it outright and go into merchandising, go to TV, etc. It’s a creator-centric world now.”

The conversation turned to branded entertainment.  Amato, whose company Omelet most recently created Brainstorm, which was branded with Altoids, said the starting point is to solve a brand’s business problem.  “The idea leads to the medium as opposed to having a favorite medium,” he said. “Whatever we think will sell more products.” Omelet’s own model is 50 percent work for hire and 50 percent ownership. “As far as how we operate with indie producers, we have our own projects and reach out to people who can get them done for the crazy budgets our clients have,” he said.

How crazy are those budgets? “It can get pretty wacky, with clients you wouldn’t think would be wacky,” he said. “A lot of times they’re embarrassed to tell us how much money they have to spend on non-traditional media campaigns, but $50,000 is the safety number for them. They want to know if we can do eight episodes for that.”

Small reported that, with regard to the dollar amounts, it’s getting better. “It’s a new medium for advertisers,” he explained. “The idea of branded content is a relatively new idea for a lot of people. There’s also a social media aspect connected to it. They don’t’ understand what it means but their kids told them it’s cool.” He said that advertisers make a buy on Break.com, it’s most likely a video series that somehow incorporates the brand. “When they buy Break, they buy our distribution so we don’t have to go to YouTube and it’ll get a lot of eyeballs,” said Small, who noted that Break.com gets 18 million uniques. “What’s happening now is that brands are becoming more comfortable with what we can do with branded content. Whatever we can get for views is much better than they got on their own website. So they come back.”

Bloom asked panelists to talk about the challenges of moving into the online space, from old media.  Like all pioneers, they’ve endured the arrows in the back, several of them joked. “This is the new generation of what we were doing in the 1990s,” said Small. “There’s more to it than creating amazing content. It’s that everything is immediate. Also, there is a whole lot more with what makes stories popular on the Internet. You have to pay attention to SEO (search engine optimization), how you get your story high up on Google’s and Yahoo’s search pages. A social media strategy is behind many of our content, plus referral traffic. Your biggest competitors are also your friends;  you trade links with them.”

Bloom noted that SEO and social media strategy is “the content around the content.”It’s not buying billboards on Sunset Blvd but an opportunity to supercharge peoples’ interest in your content,” he said. “Your initial work is amplified. This is really different. It’s a great opportunity for people in the indie space to do a lot with very, very little.”

The conversation next turned to the tools that are needed to get started. “What is the investment that an indie producer has to make?” asked Bloom. Amato said it was simple: an HD-quality camera and Final Cut Pro. “We’ve even shot using videos on Flip cameras,” he said. “It’s really about the idea and putting it together to communicate the idea. It’s not about using a Red camera.”Brim-DeForest agreed. “I’ve seen shows shot for zero dollars and some shot for $1 million,” he said. “They need to have a good story.”

But don’t go too cheap, he added, especially if you have the aim of repurposing the content for other platforms. “Shoot it in the highest quality so you can repurpose it on TV or DVD,” Brim-DeForest said. “And if you’re making a series, make sure you capture at least 60 minutes of content.”

Even so, noted Bloom, good audio is important. Vandegrift also pointed out that writer/producers have access to film school students and preditors (combo producer/editors). Film students are, he said, “desperate to get things for their reels.” “You get that talent for nothing,” he said. “But the writing and producing have to have some kind of budget. Pull the experts in and don’t worry about that new lighting rig.”

But making the content is, as Brim-DeForest put it, only Steps A to B. “You also have to be your own network executive,” he said. “You have to know how to market your own material. You have to think about how to launch a show, which is just as important as the show you make. There isn’t a lack of content out there. It’s all about how you tap into an audience.Know your audience–they’ll help you take it to the next level.”

Other panelists emphasized the importance of doing research on, as Small said, “where on the web they’re doing this kind of research.” “Audience is everything,” agreed bloom. “That’s more important than that’s ever been. Everything is a niche and you have to reach them with the show and social media and really dial in who they are.”

In response to a question as to which audiences are not currently being properly served. Amato noted that “moms are big.” “As far as content, moms are under-served and they’re rabid consumers of content online,” said Amato, who pointed to the series In the Motherhood. “I can’t tell you how many brands want to spend money on young mothers online. If you’ve got shows and are following the trends, that’s a huge opportunity.”

When Brim-DeForest asked the audience how many people had a favorite Internet show, no one raised their hands. “The point is that people like you aren’t getting what they want,” said Bloom. “How do you talk to people like you? Just do it well and help them find you. That’s the key. Then ask Tubefilter for an award.”

Brim-DeForest suggested some shows from the “huge swatch of non-scripted content out there.” “Most publishers have video content now,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of great indie shows being produced.” He suggested interested producers check out the content on Tubefilter or the Streamys.  The Streamy Awards, co-hosted by Tilzy.TV, Tubefilter, and NewTeeVee, recognize outstanding achievement for shows produced originally for broadband distribution.Brim-DeForest also mentioned Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog and The Guild (both Streamys Award winners) as well as Woke Up Dead. My personal favorite is Afterworld.

Amato described how The Guild, a web series about video gamers created by Felicia Day, was produced simply and then got picked up by Sprint and MSNBC, which allowed Day to produce a second season. “She saw a huge opportunity with this Warcraft crowd that wasn’t being serviced with original content,” he said. “Her use of the game, Twitter, viral videos and the Internet is truly something to go and study. It was definitely pioneering.”

This kind of multi-platform entertainment can also be repurposed internationally. “The whole idea of a marketing format is an entertainment where you can lift the skeleton idea and launch it in Asia, do it in the UK, regionalize it and make it relevant for a global brand,” said Amato. “Brands are 100 percent looking for international reach.”

Tags: Afterworld, Brainstorm, Break Media, Break.com, Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog, Hewlett-Packard, In the Motherhood, Matrixx Pictures, mobile content, MobilizedTV, multi-platform environment, NATPE, new media budgets, Omelet, original branded content, repurposed content, SEO, social media, Streamy Awards, The Guild, Tubefilter, Woke Up Dead, Writer's Bootcamp

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Advertising/Marketing, Content, Home Feature, Monetizing Mobile.