ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

4 years, 6 months ago - John Lubran

There's nothing special about a YouTube channel. Six year olds can do it.

What sort of thing do you have in mind?

4 years, 6 months ago - Dita Pesek

I'm not asking how to do it. I'm looking for a collaborator.

4 years, 6 months ago - John Lubran

Well quite. My question was what sort of thing do you have in mind?

For example, what sort of content? What sort if style or focus? What sort of business model ?

It's a 'how long is a piece of string' thing.

4 years, 6 months ago - John Lubran

Appologies Dita. You have described much of your aspiration.

The issue is a business one. Audience targeting etc., etc.

Most of the time making quality production is a time and resource demanding activity. I imagine that there is a lot of unreleased content sitting on shelves.

What makes some YouTube channels go big money viral and others, most of them, languish in the outlands, can be analyzed but without a defining result. In an air space where a child can generate millions of views talking nonsense or playing video games and high productions are ignored by all but a few, then your entrepreneurial skills might make the difference. Much depends on how the money works.

What YouTube does offer is a platform for "long tail business models". But apart from 'Gangnam Style' and 'Charlie bit my finger' type of things, high production standards don't seem to reach enough clicks to be viable without being a part of parallel campaign. Purely arts based content, whether factual or dramatic feature, that are without sociopolitical or socioeconomic interest, don't statistically, achieve business viability simply by being platformedu on YouTube.

What is interesting however is where YouTube can play a significant part in the emerging alternative Crowd Funding arena that raise budgets from funders who don't seek mugs, t-shirts, spurious credits or any other trinkets. Such funders just want the production to address an issue they support.

These big aspirational projects are fully front loaded. All budgetary requirements including wages, fees and sustainable working profits are raised up front. Very significant resources are possible. They are distributed freely on as many platforms as possible. YouTube can play a big roll in that type of business model.

4 years, 6 months ago - Herty Owusu AF

Hey Dita,

I love your passion and entrepreneurial spirit. I started a collective a few years ago with the same mission but with time and covid things fizzled out so I also get where John is coming from and how he means. That notwithstanding I'd love to chat with you about your plan, see if we align :D

4 years, 6 months ago - Dita Pesek

Hi John,
I am not under illusion that high quality content for youtube cuts it and it is not even the intention, at least not at the beginning. You have to produce at least one video per week to get some traction so simplicity is the key though with today's technology, creating good looking content for internet is not that difficult. It is the worst platform for short films or similar form of narration, unless it is simple sketches. Youtube and other social media is a great platform that gets you directly to the mass audience, but I agree that it is no space for art. It is really about creating a simple content within a broad niche, recreating the content over and over again and getting people with more influence involved once the channel grows. Most money comes from brand promotion. The ads can create good revenue, but nothing what it used to be. It's really about having some audience and building things from there. Once the audience grows you have more freedom to inject content that you really care about and has potential to lead to bigger things. It's a marathon. But what I learnt working in technology, perfection is an enemy and if you implement agile techniques and you are flexible with goals and respond to changes you eventually get to the goal. It is just about the road that every one chooses to get where they want to.

4 years, 6 months ago - John Lubran

I suspect that focusing on a specific production , or productions even, if one has the capacity, rather than the construct of a YouTube channel is a more likely plan.

It's a cart before the horse thing. There's nothing special about a YouTube channel. It's "Content that's king". Its content that generates attention , money and value. It's easier to raise money for sociopolitical, socioeconomic and ethical projects that are also aspirational in terms of very high production values, commensurate with the highest standards of commercial film and television, that can guarantee wide distribution, including and beyond YouTube, than the frivolous, self indulgence of mere observational fiction, unless that fiction has a clear moral that lifts it beyond the banal, no matter how artistically created that banality may be.

We folk at Moving Vision have some notions and experience in these things. Collaborators and partners are always welcome, especially if they bring magic to the table.

4 years, 6 months ago - Dita Pesek

I get what you mean. I'm just tired of doing short films as it a format that makes no commercial sense and at the end of the day film and tv is still an industry and you want your creations to be seen outside of film festivals. But I would really love to hear your point of view and learn from your experience as it is always a good point where to start and learning from other people's stories is the best way how to move forward.

4 years, 6 months ago - John Lubran

That's quite a big ask Dita. Our Moving Vision entity operates on at least two proverbial planets. We are a production company mainly factual, current affairs, information and commercial. On that other planet we are a collaborator providing facilities, co production and 'alternative' business models.

Currently working on two crowd funded projects, both of which are definitively challenging of entrenched presumption, there's a lot of it about. One of them uses about 50% dramatic reconstructions. It's slowed down enormously during the pandemic. I've not been to the office or the studio since March. Frankly though, at least half of what adds value and viability is more in our heads than anything else, so in that respect Covid only has small effect.

We've made or co-produced projects that raised budgets through crowd funding even before the term was invented and before the development of World Wide Web Crowd Funding facilities and platforms became effective. During that time Franny Armstrong's Spanner Films produced the dramatised documentary Age of Stupid, which we are pleased to have played a small part in. Franny raised in cash and kind over a million pounds of production and distribution before current crowd funding models had achieved traction.

Age of Stupid still provides a valid template for Crowd Fundable film making. It was a huge effort for them which ought to be considerably easier today even if still requiring huge effort. The old adage that working smarter is more fruitful than working harder is certainly a truism.

SP has a Film and a Documentary bulletin. Whilst a Venn diagram would show large overlaps between these activities it's clear that purely arts based drama, of pretty much any kind, is a massive uphill challenge to have almost any commercial success outside of mainstream distribution.

The message is that drama without context in audience aspiration and viable distribution is more a labour of love than a business. Whereas viability is a lot more accessible for the right kind of factual.

Some Crowd Funding web based facilities provide excellent escrow and fund management services but they don't promote per se. Film makers need to work creatively to steer supporters to those escrow facilities. I avoid Crowd Funding platforms that use all or nothing time limits without provision for 'stretch goals'.

I've mentioned "Long tail business models" If what that is is unclear, it's worth Googling.

As opinionated as I am, I won't take my own case for a generality. Other realities are available.