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MillimeterThe Distribution Beat
Nov 20, 2009 12:00 PM, By Eric Melin
Video blogging tips.
You're a forward-thinking independent filmmaker, and you understand the media landscape is constantly evolving. How can you use the Internet to build an audience for a movie that hasn't even been shot yet? One way is to start up a blog and post videos as you begin planning, shooting, and editing your film.
The crowd is out there. In August 2009, 81.6 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video and the average online video viewer saw 9.7 hours of video, according to comScore's newest Video Metrix study. In fact, more than 161 million unique viewers watched an average of 157 videos per viewer. That's staggering.
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Here are some tips for making great video blogs about the making of your film:
- Start at the beginning. Tell the audience your vision for the film and how you plan to carry it out. Let them get to know you as a person so that, as is the case with any well-written movie, they care about you and what happens. It will also be fun to note how much different things are when you finish the film from the way you planned them at the outset.
- Introduce your characters. You are making a series of short films. Just like any movie, you'll have a cast of characters. Get your cast and crew to appear on camera as much as possible. It keeps things fresh, and other personalities will spice up the videos.
- Keep it short. The average online video in a February 2009 comScore study was 4.1 minutes long. Although the rise of viewing full TV episodes is skewing this average higher every year, your video blogs are essentially short films. Remember that. Also remember to suck 'em in quickly—put your best foot forward right away with an exciting incident in the first 10 seconds of the video. You can explain yourself further in.
- Shoot B-roll. A good amount of camera time will probably be spent with you addressing the audience directly, confession-style. However, too much of the same thing will get boring fast. Make sure someone is filming visually interesting B-roll that can be edited in at any point to spice up the video. You'll have a lot of footage left over for your DVD extras as well.
- Encourage feedback. Be available. Ask people to comment on your blog. Involving the audience in your process will give them a stake in how your story progresses and make them feel like they have been an important part of it. They, in turn, will spread the word about your movie every step of the way.
- Social network like crazy. Start up a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Link them to your cell phone. Tweet from the set. Take pictures. After you post your newest video blog, promote it through these networks. Above all, be honest and be yourself. Nobody wants to follow a faceless Twitter account with your movie poster as the picture. They want to follow a person.
- Distribute to multiple platforms. The more sites you can spread content to, the better. YouTube is far and away the most popular video site. Vimeo has great quality and is becoming an attractive outlet for serious filmmakers. Blip.tv is fast and has a slick look as well. TubeMogul offers an upload service that sends your video to multiple sites at once, saving you lots of time—a valuable commodity for any filmmaker.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
