State of the (Crowd-Funding) Campaign

I'm now over one week into my Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign for my documentary, "Life Online." It's been a slow launch, but I'm still optimistic that I develop some momentum and perhaps create the necessary "crowd" to make this a reality.  After all, I did launch this effort just after Superstorm Sandy, and a week before the election - a particularly awkward time to squeeze in a few moments of your time.  I'm particularly grateful to my funders so far, whose generous contributions have gotten the ball rolling.

DrewDudeTV...and a bag of chips.
Drew's on the left.

Where do I go from here?  

The first objective is still to bring more attention to the "Life Online" Indiegogo page - visits are not yet anything close to what's necessary to make this happen.  The more people that visit the page, the more chance that some will contribute to make this a reality.

I need immediate help to bring news of this documentary out to more people - whether through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs or other means.  IndieGoGo stats indicate that it's important to keep the word out about the documentary  - it takes about seven separate contacts, on the average, for an individual to decide to jump on the bandwagon.  This is why you'll hear about this project frequently.

What do you think?  How can I get this project - this funding campaign - out to more people?  How can I maintain this effort between now and the rest of the year - without becoming the social media equivalent of those overly repetitive, obnoxious campaign commercials?

AND, (as "Life Online" donor Odell Hataway says, I need to engage in more shameless promotion) what can I do to convince YOU to become part of this effort?

What can you do?  Here are some links!

1 - Contribute!  Even the smallest donation helps - we need to build - and show - momentum!

2 - Follow us on Twitter

3 - Join The Facebook Page

Launching My Campaign (How Indiegogo Works)

Here's my vlog explaining my Indiegogo campaign - and explaing the basics of an Indiegogo Campaign.

LIFTOFF! (Why I'm Crowd Funding)

Today, I'm launching an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign for my new documentary, "Life Online."  This is my largest step yet in putting social media to work for my life and career.  My blog, Twitter account, YouTube channel, Facebook page and the like have been around for a few years now.  Over the past year, I've had a great time interviewing YouTubers and other online entrepreneurs (and sharing those interviews on my YouTube channel). I've connected or re-connected with individuals around the world.  Like most who have jumped into social media, I've had a great time.

Now, though, the time has come to put these tools to work.  As someone who has worked in so-called "traditional" media most of his life, I've come to believe that the future - or, perhaps, the more exciting future - of this profession lies in the ability we  now have to directly reach an audience.

The democratization of media - increased access to creative tools and fewer "gatekeepers" - allows any individual with a computer (or smartphone) to be an entrepreneur.  The potential is enormous - but so are the challenges.  It still takes a leap of faith and the acceptance of risk  to take that step.

All of this brings me to today, and "Life Online," a documentary about a family dedicated to creating on YouTube and living through social media.  Mom and three sons have YouTube channels, and even dad and their youngest daughter are also involved. One son, 14 year-old "Fur," (it's short for Christopher), is even a YouTube partner and shares in the ad revenue on his channel.  I'm hoping to create a documentary asking the question, "What happens to a family life when there's an audience to serve?"

(Follow the film @LifeOnlineDoc)

Crowd-funding sites have become enormously popular in the last couple of years.  Essentially, they allow anyone to donate to projects - from films to inventions to political causes - at levels that range form just a few dollars to thousands, in exchange for perks that can range from a Twitter shout-out to credit on the film    Using social media "word-of-mouth," popular projects can reach their goals and become reality to an extent never before possible.

I've wanted to try crowd funding for quite some time, but until now, I hadn't found the right project - one that not only had to potential to capture the imagination of potential funders, but also had the social media "legs" to spread far and wide and give me a fighting chance to succeed.  "Life Online" seems like a perfect opportunity for my Grand Experiment.  

First, I'm telling a popular story.  Like it or not, social media has fundamentally changed the ways we interact.  YouTubers - those who share their lives online - are at the forefront of that change.  The fun, quirky family I'm profiling, I think, provides the perfect vehicle to explore what that change really means.

As "Life Online" tells a social media story, I'm betting that I may be able generate enough interest in the social media community to give me a fighting chance to get the film funded.  A number of individuals with their own network are helping me get the word out. Getting people to visit the IndieGoGo project page is the first challenge.  If I did my job right, some of those visitors will accept my pitch and be willing to help.

Will it work?  Starting today, I'll have just about two months to work at it and find out.  I'll let you know how it's going.

Diving Into the Media Abyss

I've been living a double life.

I work in "traditional" media, producing documentaries, promotional, informational and educational videos.  I've done okay, received some recognition (including three Emmy Awards), and seem to be emerging through the economic downturn.

Over the last couple of years, however, I've made a concerted effort to shift my efforts, my career - and my future, toward digital media.

Digital Media.

What does that mean, anyway?

For many, it simply indicates another platform to push traditional media out to audiences that are increasingly moving away from the traditional television model: movies or television shows ported to other platforms, from Netflix to YouTube, Hulu, and a hundred other variations.

That's part of it, of course.  

For others, Digital Media means the creation of web series - often, this reflects the interpretation of traditional media for the new environment (for example, informational, documentary, news, drama or comedy series) in a shorter, online friendly length.

While Traditional media producers recognize the advantage of encouraging audiences to interact about traditional media programming, there's little understanding of the value of interacting with an audience.

The old buzz-word "interactivity" has risen to an art form on YouTube, where content creators - those who maintain their YouTube channels and post videos on a regular basis - understand that the greatest tools to building and maintaining an audience is interacting and responding to their audience.   They reply to commenters on their videos, comment on other people's videos, ask their viewers for feedback and opinions, and create ongoing opportunities beyond their YouTube base to further engage their followers.  They're all about promotion and development through interaction.   Anti-social artists need not apply.

Can Old and New Media Work Together?

Over the last several years, I've made a concerted effort to understand the relationship between traditional and emerging media platforms.  This year, those efforts are beginning to coalesce into concrete action.

Since April, I've traveled to three media-related conferences:

Vidcon, attended by YouTube content creators, was held in July at the Anaheim Convention Center.  It featured an array of informational seminars, screenings, entertainment and an exhibition hall featuring services catering to the YouTube content creator (fan outreach, monetizing opportunities, games and autograph sessions with top YouTubers).  Missing: production equipment vendors offering the very production and software products these new content creators constantly seek.

The National Association of Broadcasters show- a conference featuring the largest exhibition of professional broadcast technology in the world - clearly provided a peek in to the dawning of high quality, cheaper and simpler to use product.  The GoPro booth was likely one of the most popular and enthusiastic destinations in the sprawling complex. Though GoPro is a specialized product, it's real a harbinger of much more to come across the industry.

Last week, I attended WestDoc, a conference of professional documentary filmmakers, producers, networks and funders.  

I hadn't been to WestDoc before - but as I move closer to some major new initiatives in my career, the time was right to return to the heart of what I've been doing my entire professional life, and begin the process of bringing these old and new elements together.

The slogan for this year's Westdoc was An Industry is Being Reborn, reflecting a recognition that the world of nonfiction media production and distribution is inexorably changing.   NAB, too, reflected this awareness at it's April conference with it's own theme,  The Great Content Shift.  VidCon, however, emerging from the very world the rest of the media world is trying to understand, didn't need such to signal it's attendees that the world is changing - they know.

WestDoc featured an array of seminars and informational sessions featuring many of the networks interested in documentary and reality content (History Channel, Food Channel, Lifetime and Discovery Channel, to name a few). Even YouTube was there, reflecting the site's current interest in developing and producing professional channel content.

Current trends were explored as well, including crowd-funding, Online Retailers for video content (such as Amazon.com, on which I've made my documentary "Bollywood Steps" available), and a day-long "PitchFest," providing documentarians and reality TV creators a high-profile platform to push their concepts out to potential funders and networks.

With an industry being "reborn," and "content shifting" online, I've been intrigued by the great abyss that still exists between traditional media professionals - who perceive YouTube and similar sites as simple platforms for traditional, one-sided non-interactive content - and the pioneer content creators who make up for their occasional lack of professional production skills with innovative audience engagement strategies.

Many media professionals perceive online content creators as rank amateurs.  Online Content Creators, on the other hand, don't often see themselves as filmmakers, though they follow in the footsteps of the motion picture pioneers of the late 19th Century, who sought to find strategies for making the most of the new technology.

Traditional media producers are, generally speaking, experts in storytelling and creating production value, while Intimate Audience Engagement is largely the domain of the modern content creator.

Imagine a meeting of the minds, bringing together these disparate worlds to learn from each other, and making both worlds stronger, engaging wider audiences - and creating a more financially sustainable industry for all concerned.

In my next blog, I'll explore how I'm approaching my upcoming work with a eye toward both worlds.  

You can follow me on Twitter @rickflix

Honesty On Film - Ridley and Tony Scott's "Boy and Bicycle"

After the recent death of motion picture and television director Tony Scott (Top Gun), I became aware of "Boy and Bicycle," a 27 minute short film his older brother Ridley Scott (Bladerunner, Black Hawk Down)had created as a film student in 1965.  It featured Tony as a teen skipping school and riding his bike around his English coastal town.  We hear his interior dialogue as Tony's mind wanders from random thoughts on his home life, his school life and his immediate surroundings.  

This fictional film honestly captures the mood, sarcasm, frustration and curiosity of a sixteen year-old boy.  The deceptively simple plot line shows off the talents of both Scott brothers, who would go on to develop substantial careers in mainstream motion pictures and television.

"Boy and Bicycle" reminded me an experience I had some years ago when I brought a half dozen teens from a filmmaking workshop I was teaching to a film festival in Los Angeles. We attended a screening featuring a collection of short films created by high school students across the city.  The films ranged from comedy to drama to animation and documentary, all a few minutes or less in length.

After the screening, I asked the boys which films had the greatest impact.  They weren't interested in the action films, or films on current issues impacting teens, or anything that reflected the high production value that some teen videos can have in a company town like L.A.  Instead, they were in awe of a series of documentary-style films that, like the fictional "Boy and Bicycle," featured the introspective voice-over thoughts of individual subject/filmmakers about their lives, set to video featuring moments in their lives, often seeming to wander aimlessly, as the Boy in Ridley Scott's film.  

The boys, who were residents at a facility for those recently released from juvenile hall, especially valued the simple, honest nature of these short autobiographical films.  To them, at that time in their lives, honesty was rare and unusual.

Honesty, after all, is at the core of all great and effective art - whether a painting, music, motion pictures - or even a vlog on YouTube.  Learning to create can be a challenge - but the struggle to create truthfully can last a lifetime. 

Though it's a forty-seven year old black and white short film, I recommend catching up with "Boy and Bicycle" - hyper-personal and directly engaging, you may discover that it speaks directly to the age of YouTube.

What do you think?

Thoughts on "Ethel" - A Documentary About the Life of Ethel Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy was slain in 1968, five years after his brother John, leaving a widow and eleven children, one of which was born six months after he died.   That last child, Rory Kennedy, grew up to be a documentary filmmaker.  For the first time, she turns her attention to her own mother in "Ethel," an HBO presentation premiering on the channel on October 18th.

"Ethel" is an emotional, moving, and at times even intense experience, incorporating a wealth of previously unseen photographs and home movies of this iconic American family.  This program, however, shouldn’t  be considered a historical documentary.    This is, first and foremost,  a family’s self-portrait, featuring Ethel Kennedy's unique perspective on the highs and lows of her eventful life.

Rory narrates the film, and warns us early on that her mother isn't generally a reflective or introspective person.   Ethel doesn't dwell on tragedies, explaining that "nobody gets a free ride" in life.  

Though the film is called "Ethel," this is really about Ethel's enduring relationship with Robert Kennedy.   Forty-five years after his death, she considers everything she's done since, including raising her eleven children, as simply carrying on her husband's legacy.  She dismisses Rory's suggestion that she's done anything extraordinary in raising her children, explaining that the values and ideals with which they were raised were Robert Kennedy's alone.

Of course, the truth in any iconic relationship is much more complicated.  Many of Rory's siblings took part in the documentary, sharing their memories and perspective on the nature of their parent's relationship, and their belief that they were who they became because of each other.  Ethel, too, was raised in a large, spirited Irish Catholic family - though her father was a self-made man (and a staunch Republican).  She was fiercely supportive of her husband, and remains active in the causes he supported.

At the Los Angeles premiere of "Ethel," held at North Hollywood Laemmle Noho 7 as part of the International Documentary Association’s DocuWeeks program, Rory explained that she carefully considered her family's  feelings as she produced and edited the documentary.  In a particularly telling moment in the film, Rory brings up the evening of Robert Kennedy's assassination with her mother.   Ethel at first remains silent and distant, then curtly suggests that they talk about something else.  There's little footage from either November 22, 1963, when John Kennedy was killed, or June 5, 1968, when Robert Kennedy was assassinated - a conscious decision, Rory explained, to spare her older siblings from reliving the still traumatic events.

This isn't a film about scandals, indiscretions, or political posturing (though Ethel shares a truth that must have been borderline scandalous in her family: her parents were staunchly conservative Republicans).  The film touches on the struggles they've faced - Robert Kennedy after the assassination of his brother, and the family after his own assassination - but this isn't a film about struggle.

This documentary may not be an exhaustive portrait of Ethel Kennedy or her family, but it does reveal a rare perspective:  Behind the iconic/legendary status of the Kennedy name, this is just a family - and like most families that survive the test of time, they choose to remember the good times.

Teens Achieving Dreams in a World Without Gatekeepers

(From L-R) Harrison Houde, Andrew Brackin, Cassius Morris

Traditional media is largely governed by "gatekeepers," those people and institutions that determine the fate of countless creative individuals that attempt to "break in" to the media industry.  From casting directors and script readers to studio chiefs, the obstacles to success are great, and few break through to the "big time."  The gatekeepers may be experienced industry veterans with an eye for quality and talent - or, they might be largely governed by more arbitrary criteria ranging from pure instinct to  pure prejudice.

Alongside traditional media, however, there's now another world - without gatekeepers.  In just the last few years, the "democratization" of media has made it possible for anyone with a few simple tools and access to the internet to create, distribute or simply access a wide audience.

Musicians, artists, filmmakers, writers, commentators - or, really, anyone who needs to establish a base of like-minded comrades - can do it.  If  they can create with quality and consistency - and navigate social media to promote their work, they can achieve their personal and/or artistic goals. 

Through my Vlogger Interview web series, I've had the opportunity to speak with three teens who may not think of themselves as pioneers, but offer, I believe, a hint of what's to come:

Harrison Houde, sixteen, is a professional actor with several television and motion picture credits (including a small but hilarious role in the first "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" movie).  He's been able to pursue his personal filmmaking interests through his YouTube channel, xTurnipTimex, and recently used IndieGoGo, the crowdfunding site, to finance a short film.  He's built his channel through hard work and interaction with the YouTube community.  He creates quality content, responds to his audience - and has built a following that isn't about exploiting his professional work as an actor, but earning his success as  young content creator on YouTube.  [See my Interview here]

Andrew Brackin, eighteen, discovered the world of entrepreneurship as a young YouTuber.  That initial social network of friends and associates made it possible for him to actively move ahead on his dreams while still a young teen.  He created an internet radio station, licensing music at fourteen years old.  He later co-founded GetDealy.com, a daily deal type site aimed at the tech community.  Today, he's working with like-minded entrepreneurs in the US and UK to move even further ahead, even as he shares his insight with aspiring young entrepreneurs.  [See my Interview here]

Most recently, I spoke with thirteen year old Cassius Morris.  Cassius discovered the world of podcasting several years ago.   He's co-hosted a podcast on his favorite band, KISS, and more recently has been building a following as the sole host of "That Reporter Kid Speaks."  He's approaching thirty episodes of the program, which features Cassius interviewing comedians in the US and Canada (Cassius lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia).  He's learning from his experience, from others, and from direct audience feedback. 

Cassius' initial success (he has 4,600 Twitter followers) is also notable for another important reason.  He freely shares having been diagnosed as being both bi-polar and ADHD (Attentional Deficit Hyper-Activity Disorder).    At thirteen, with a growing audience, he also can serve as a source of hope and inspiration for the hundreds of thousands of kids his age that struggle with the same challenges.

In a sense, what Cassius, Andrew and Harrison are doing isn't new - hard work and dedication go hand-in-hand with achievement.   Unlike previous generations, however, they've grown up with unique access to the world at large.  It's intriguing to consider what these three creative individuals - and thousands like them - will do with that access - and what they might achieve in the future.