Youtube And Beyond. Part 3

Launched roughly 7 years ago, Freddiew is one of the largest Youtube Channels out there. They have almost 6Million subscribers and a total combined views of over 800Million. That's insane.

So what is Freddiew? Well, it's a channel that releases an action short movie every week (they have since slowed down drastically, but more info on that later).

Just a couple of dudes that are into video games and bad action movies. I give them a lot of credit. Go on Youtube and search "action short", you'll get over 1Million matches. How did it work for them?

They defined their goals, listened to their audience, and made consistent, quality content.

The last one is tricky. When I say consistent, I mean they followed a schedule/routine. Think about network sitcoms. Your favorite show airs on the same day, at the same time, for a season. If your show aired at random times, you'd never watch it, because you'd never know when it was on (DVR has changed this, but it still remains true). But it's also consistently good content. Who doesn't like an action movie? Transformers is awesome because it has shit blowing up, not because it's a deep character study (although Michael Bay can still suck a dick, but the man is good at what he does).

What defines "good content"? Well, what do you want to see? If you want to see something that looks good, make sure you have a high def camera. If you want to see a character driven story, write your ass off. What I've noticed is that majority of the people watching internet shorts are more concerned with the video quality of a movie, versus the story quality. Which is the same with people who go to movie theaters. I'm guilty of this too, if I see a show or movie on television that's broadcasted in Standard Definition, I'll painstakingly search for it in HighDEF, before settling on the former.

Although, more often than not, if an internet short has terrible audio quality, but good video quality, people won't watch it. Whereas, if the video quality is mediocre, but the audio is really good, they'll stick around. Sorry to get all technical, but think about the last time you watched shitty internet video, it was painful wasn't it? If you can find the balance between good audio and good video, you're halfway there.

But what about after you've launched your channel and you've gotten a million views?

Now you can take it to Kickstarter and Indiegogo. It seems fair to do it this way. You've gained your audience. The Freddiew channel existed for a few years before hopping onto Kickstarter for their series Video Game High School (season 1 & season 2), combined total: Over $1Million in donations. They deserve it. They're a couple of dudes who liked making short videos on Youtube, now they have careers. They aren't Spike Lee or Zach Braff or James Franco or Kevin Smith.

Take a look at Griffin Hammond, host of the Youtube Channel, Indy Mogul, a community driven network dedicated to educating viewers on how to make a movie. Griffin recently set out to make a documentary about Sriracha, that red hot sauce that hipsters love (I love Sriracha by the way).

Now Griffin isn't a famous filmmaker by any definition. He's a videographer by trade and hosts a Youtube show. I don't know exactly how much work goes into the show, but I can't imagine it's difficult, the content is community driven, he just has to piece it together and come up with some how-to's here and there (not trying to downplay it here, for all I know he sleeps 1 hour a day and rips his hair out, haha). But he set out and shot a documentary on hot sauce. Then he set up a Kickstarter asking for $5k to get his movie out there. He ended up receiving over $20k. This is totally okay with me. Why?

BECAUSE HE'S ALREADY SHOT THE MOVIE!

It's already finished. He only wanted $5000 and he got over $20,000. Why? Because he has his fan base, albeit relatively small compared to Kevin Smith, but they're fans nonetheless, and because, apparently people want to see a movie about hot sauce, which says a lot about our society. 22 Veterans commit suicide everyday, but hot sauce gets a movie...

Should Griffin taken the full risk and financed the entire aspect of his film? Absolutely. When you're fully committed to something, you're all in. But he wasn't unreasonable with his request. It wasn't $2Million, it was 5 grand.

Filmmaking, just like any business, is risk taking. Take look at the film For Lovers Only. Rumored to cost roughly $1200, the film has grossed over $500k. That's insane. For the cost of a vacation, this guy made a movie. There was no crowd funding here. Social networking is totally responsible for this taking off. 

Side Note: I've read that people complained about the audio being crappy in that film, so keep what I said in mind, find a balance between good audio and good video.

Kevin Smith once gave a bit of advice to a student about how to get movie funding.

When he shot Clerks, he financed most of the movie on Credit Cards. This is both the best and worst advice I've ever heard.

Since the movie isn't a physical medium, there's nothing to repossess. So go ahead and shoot your movie on your Visa, and the banks can't do shit. On the other side of this, you'll have about a 1% percent chance at selling that movie and making that money back. So if your budget is Clerks ($27k), you'll have fun reminiscing over that $27,000 mistake from back in your 20's. Along with still paying for it... while living in your parents basement.

So do yourself a favor, don't listen to Kevin Smith. As a matter of fact...

Fuck Kevin Smith.

That jerkoff still owes me a job (NSFW).

***Kevin, if you're reading this, WHEN'S GONNA BE MY TIME MAN??? I DID YOUR COMIC BOOK SHOW AS A FAVOR, WHERE'S THE RECIPROCATION???***

Kevin Smith - Estimated Net Worth: $25Million.


So there you have it. I could go on and on about the state of filmmaking, independent or not. The subject has been beaten to death. This whole thing stemmed from a discussion on Facebook with a fellow movie buff of mine and I figured I'd post my thoughts about it.

Go make a movie, God knows I want too...

The State of Independent Film. Part 2

Ahhhhh, Kevin Smith. My hero. When you look at us on paper, we have a lot in common. He worked at a video store, I worked at a video store. He's from NJ, I'm from NJ. His father died from a heart attack, my father died from a heart attack. I could go on, but I already sound creepy.

Kevin Smith made his first film for roughly, $27-28k. Clerks has a massive cult following and remains arguably, his best film. I love all his films, including Cop Out (some debate that it's not his film since he didn't write it) and Jersey Girl.

Fast Forward a career and out comes Red State. Completely independently funded ($4Million), Red State premiered at Sundance with Smith saying he would sell the movie "auction style", with the highest bidder taking home his (and his crew) hard work.

What ended up happening, according to critics, is Kevin Smith "imploded". He bought his own movie for $20.00 and proceeded to tell the audience that, and I'm paraphrasing here:

"It's messed up that a distributor will buy my $4Million movie, pump $16Million in Marketing and BAM! just like that it's a $20Million movie. So before we see any of the films profits, the distributor has to recoup expenses, plus interest, while you critics bash every film I've ever made. It'll take years before that money comes back."

The man has a point. He's absolutely right.

So what did he do? Well, he hit the road, with cast in tow and showed his audience the film and gave them a Q&A. And it worked. (Kevin talks about the tour numbers here, a long read)

But do you know why this worked? BECAUSE HE'S KEVIN FUCKING SMITH! Who knows what he'll do when it comes to Clerks III, his final film, but he's said he will NOT crowd fund the movie. I respect that. Why take money out of the wallet of the "next Kevin Smith"?

He said he toured with Red State because he wanted to show future filmmakers that it's possible to show your movie without playing the Hollywood dance. Well, when Ned Stevens from Bumfuck, Iowa makes his movie and starts to tour with it, will he have the same success as Kevin Smith? No. Not a chance in hell. I think all new filmmakers have something like a 1% chance at making it in the industry. But that really counts on what you consider "making it".

Kevin Smith has his audience. His fans will see his movies. So how does a new filmmaker gain an audience?

Youtube.

It's as simple as that (there's actually more to it, but yeah, it's that easy). When Clerks came out, you had barely any options when it came to equipment/distribution. Now, you can shoot a movie, cut the movie, and distribute the movie for under $2k easy. Marketing through social networking is free. If you make good content that appeals to a specific demographic, you'll get viewers. When you gain viewers, you can get Partnership. Then you start making money (not a lot of money from what I've read, anywhere from $.50 to $3.00 per thousand views). After that you can choose what to do, either continue making content for Youtube, or sign onto the big leagues. Believe me, when companies catch wind that you have your own audience, and you're doing it all yourself, they'll come snooping around. Or you can do both! That's the beauty of being your own boss.

But let's look at a Youtube channel that's done really well...

Why Zach Braff, Kristen Bell, and Spike Lee Can Go Fuck Themselves. Part 1

It seems that Spike Lee is the next celebrity in line to use the platform of internet panhandling to gain funds for his next film.

Fuck Spike Lee. Seriously, fuck him.

This aggravates me so much. First it was Kristen Bell with the Veronica Mars Kickstarter. Then it was Zach Braff with his bullshit. Now I've just read that James Franco launched one a while back for his bullshit too. But he just dressed it up differently.

What in the flying fuck is this shit? Who do these people think they are?

I'll tell you:

Zach Braff - Estimated Net Worth:    $22Million.
Kristen Bell - Estimated Net Worth:  $8Million.
Spike Lee - Estimated Net Worth:   $40Million.
James Franco - Estimated Net Worth:  $20Million.

I don't know how reliable the source is for that information, I just googled it. But I can believe these numbers to be fairly accurate. I mean, it's frigging SPIKE LEE, I'd think he's worth more than that.

On one side, I can understand why they do it. When you get studio money to make a movie, you lose things like creative control or final cut of your film, which can take away from your "vision". But at the end of the day, the movie business is still a business. They're giving you a boat load of money so you can go galavanting out on the street making a movie, of course they're going to want some control.

Artistic integrity of a film is one thing, but out right begging is frigging bullshit. You, the "Artist", are potentially sitting on millions of dollars, and you're asking you fans to shell out their hard earned cash so you can make the movie you want? Are you kidding me?!?

"Ohhhhh mannn, I really wanna make my movie, MY WAY, but I don't wanna risk losing my money... I KNOW! I'll ask my diehard fans, the ones who have stuck with me since my humble beginnings, to do it. Hell, they only slave away at jobs they hate to earn a subpar income. Meanwhile, this will allow me to play PRETEND! Thanks guys, you really mean a lot to me!"

As a person who wants nothing more in life than to work in the film industry, write and direct films, rub elbows with known, established artists, this seriously pisses me off to no end. It's also a reason why I don't want to be in that industry. None of these people are grounded anymore. I know it's Hollywood and celebrities don't have the same issues that us common folk have, but seriously??? Think about how long you have to work to earn your money.

In my life, I've worked in Theater, some Film/TV, and the Military. In between all that, I've held meaningless dead-end jobs. I know how hard I've worked to earn my money. I've experienced being treated like absolute garbage to earn my money. The last thing I want to do is shell out that cash so Zach Braff can make a movie his way...

I say this as a fan of all these celebrities, but...

Fuck Spike Lee. Fuck Zach Braff. Fuck Kristen Bell. Fuck James Franco.

So what's a new filmmaker to do? Let's take a look at a Writer/Director I admire... a lot...