Movies and NLE marketing

[Andrew Kimery]

[Bill Davis] “Is that where they’re trying to add more revenue streams next? “

Uh, no… link for the Google-impaired:
https://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/slay-on-social-introducing-the-social-publishing-panel-beta-in-premiere-pro/

It’s a feature currently in beta that gives users more control and automation when it comes to prepping and publishing videos to various social media sites. It also displays analytics about how the video(s) are doing and suggestions for how to get your videos to have more reach. Not much info about it yet, but it looks like the Premiere team is tapping into resources from the Marketing Cloud team (Adobe’s enterprise level analytic and market research division) and funneling relevant data about your videos performance into PPro.

They are working with various YouTubers to get real world feedback so I’m very curious to see how it works once it’s out of beta. I have no use for it, but looks like it should be good for the YouTubers and other social media content creators.

[Bill Davis]

OK, thanks for the link.

Seems other than the Analytics that they imply, there’s little here that I haven’t been doing for going on 6 years in X – with the addition of my Vimeo Pro account which manages and allows file tagging for search directly from within the FCP X share system.

So I’ll need to see what exactly the new mojo they plumb into this that goes beyond what I already have been doing.

That said, if it makes things easier for Premiere Pro users – it’s great that they may get even more capabilities for what hopefully remains the same monthly fee.

Useful move.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Bill Davis] “Seems other than the Analytics that they imply, there’s little here that I haven’t been doing for going on 6 years in X”

Yeah, the analytics is the secret sauce as PPro has had publishing features (keywords, descriptions, privacy settings, etc.,) built in for a number of versions as well.

[Andy Patterson]

[Andrew Kimery] “[Brett Sherman] “Nobody is writing about the editing tools and techniques of Youtubers who make a good living with their videos. Personally I’d love to know about the production workflow of AJ+ or Attn: or any of the other Facebook media creators. Those could also be interesting reads, but I’ve never seen one on Creative Cow. ”

To be honest, outside of the ins/outs of publishing to social media I’m not sure how unique and/or interesting those post workflows would be for people already familiar with post workflows.

For example, I doubt solo YouTubers like Pewdiepie or Michelle Phan have very exotic editing workflow because their business model doesn’t require it (though they might really be keen on the new social media publishing ability for PPro that’s currently in beta)”

I agree.

[Brett Sherman]

[Andrew Kimery] “For larger YouTubers/digital media companies like AJ+, Machima, Maker Studios, Attn:, RocketJump, PopSugar, etc., it’s been my experience that they typically have workflows that are similar to traditional TV/film workflows but just scaled down and/or on a lower budget.”

I’m not sure I agree with that. I think they are using templates in a new way to push content out fast. The end product is certainly much different. But it’s hard to know given that nobody is covering it. And if you’ve ever tried to develop a template workflow, quite frankly it is not simple. Even beyond the technical challenges there is also the organizational and business model structure that would also be interesting.

It’s sort of in the eye of the beholder isn’t it. You want to read articles that inform your workflow. I want to read articles that inform my workflow. I’m just not seeing a lot of the latter here. The real question becomes, is this a board only for those who work on narrative or TV production? Some seem to want it to be.

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Brett Sherman
One Man Band (If it\’s video related I\’ll do it!)
I work for an institution that probably does not want to be associated with my babblings here.

[Andy Patterson]

[Brett Sherman] “I’m not sure I agree with that. I think they are using templates in a new way to push content out fast. The end product is certainly much different. But it’s hard to know given that nobody is covering it. And if you’ve ever tried to develop a template workflow, quite frankly it is not simple. Even beyond the technical challenges there is also the organizational and business model structure that would also be interesting.”

I am not sure I follow. Some of the Youtubers do behind the scenes video. What they show is not rocket science so I am not 100% cent sure what you want explained to you. Is there a Youtube channel we should checking out to get an idea?

[Brett Sherman] “It’s sort of in the eye of the beholder isn’t it. You want to read articles that inform your workflow. I want to read articles that inform my workflow. I’m just not seeing a lot of the latter here. The real question becomes, is this a board only for those who work on narrative or TV production? Some seem to want it to be.”

Are you talking more about how to market on social media? In other words not how does PewdiePie edit (everyone should be able to edit a PewdiePie video) but how did he market his channel? To be honest the YouTube success stories happened from people just being themselves and gaining an audience from pure luck. They didn’t put any thought into it at first. What works for a 21 your old female may not work for you. As I stated I am not 100% sure what you want to know.

[Brett Sherman]

[andy patterson] “Are you talking more about how to market on social media? In other words not how does PewdiePie edit (everyone should be able to edit a PewdiePie video) but how did he market his channel? To be honest the YouTube success stories happened from people just being themselves and gaining an audience from pure luck. They didn’t put any thought into it at first. What works for a 21 your old female may not work for you. As I stated I am not 100% sure what you want to know.”

First off I don’t know who the heck PewdiePie is. I’m talking mostly about social media companies like AJ+. There is a lot to their organization, aesthetic, workflow that I believe would be informative.

More business-oriented angle for Youtubers. Really not about any individual, but the market as a whole. And I think within that group there would be various levels of expertise. The fact is, all of them are still making aesthetic decisions that impact their reach. What works for them? What doesn’t? Honestly, I can’t imagine not being curious about this kind of thing. And if you’re in the business of helping organizations with their social media, I’m not sure being uninterested is really doing much for your clients.

————————–
Brett Sherman
One Man Band (If it\’s video related I\’ll do it!)
I work for an institution that probably does not want to be associated with my babblings here.

[Andy Patterson]

[Brett Sherman] “First off I don’t know who the heck PewdiePie is. I’m talking mostly about social media companies like AJ+. There is a lot to their organization, aesthetic, workflow that I believe would be informative.”

I never heard of AJ+ until now. They obviously don’t have a marketing strategy on par with Facebook or Youtube.

[Brett Sherman] “More business-oriented angle for Youtubers. Really not about any individual, but the market as a whole. And I think within that group there would be various levels of expertise. The fact is, all of them are still making aesthetic decisions that impact their reach. What works for them? What doesn’t? Honestly, I can’t imagine not being curious about this kind of thing.”

Once again I am not 100% sure what you want. It does sound like you want some business and marketing advise. As with anything what works for one person may not work for another. What works for one product may not work for another. Marketing is hard work.

[Brett Sherman] “And if you’re in the business of helping organizations with their social media, I’m not sure being uninterested is really doing much for your clients.”

I am not in that business. I don’t think most users in this forum are. The internet is a big place. Perhaps there are better forums to get the information you want.

[Andrew Kimery]

[Brett Sherman] “First off I don’t know who the heck PewdiePie is. I’m talking mostly about social media companies like AJ+. There is a lot to their organization, aesthetic, workflow that I believe would be informative. “

AJ+ isn’t a social media company though. AJ+ is a news media company that uses social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.,) as a primary distribution platform. It sounds like you what you are asking is more about social media marketing, than production/post workflows. FWIW I’ve split my post career about equally between New Media and Old Media and in my experience the workflows are much more similar than they are different (I have also created post/production workflows including template workflows).

For example, below is a link to an article on AJ+ and if you look at the pictures at the end of the article their offices look like a typical production studio (green screen, robotic cameras, a jib, stage lighting, a control room etc.,). It probably has a typical studio workflow too like recording onto solid state devices like KiPros (or straight onto the shared storage), and then running the footage through an asset management system (like CatDV or FORK) before editing starts on the iMacs attached to the shared storage.

Article on AJ+ (more broad strokes than details though)
https://gigaom.com/2013/11/22/an-exclusive-behind-the-scenes-look-at-aj-al-jazeeras-upcoming-online-news-network/

For the colored blocks of text you see in a lot of their vidoes they are probably using Live Text Templates (https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/how-to/animated-text-titles-live-text.html) if they are editing with PPro. If they are using FCPX then I think there is a similar feature in X/Motion as well.

With regards to new media in general, I think people are covering companies like AJ+, but it’s usually tech sites like Wired, Ars or The Verge, not sites like the COW. The focus of those other sties isn’t on nitty-gritty post workflow details, but you do get a general sense of the challenges and the solutions they use to overcome them. Below are some examples.

Article about Rooster Teeth (of Red vs Blue fame)
https://www.wired.com/2012/05/rooster-teeth-red-vs-blue/

Article about Freddie Wong / RocketJump
https://www.fastcocreate.com/3047979/then-and-now/how-freddie-wong-went-from-viral-videos-to-tv-shows

Another Aj+ article
https://variety.com/2015/digital/news/how-al-jazeeras-aj-became-one-of-the-biggest-video-publishers-on-facebook-1201553333/

Fans, Friends and Followers (available as free PDF) is an older book on New Media, but some of the fundamental principles haven’t changed in the nearly 10yrs since the book came out. If you want a better idea of the how New Media has, and hasn’t, changed I still think this is a solid read.
https://www.scottkirsner.com/fff/where.html

With regards to the business model… A big hurdle with monetizing online media is that users hate ads because they just want to see the content. They hate paying money to access the content because ‘information wants to be free’. They hate sponsorships and/or product placement because that means the content creators have sold out to corporate interests that most certainly manipulate the creators like puppet masters. Attracting viewers is much easier (and way different) than successfully monetizing viewers. For example, Twitter and YouTube are both huge, and both can’t generate enough revenue to be profitable.

So how do you make if you are bigger than a dude in a room with a webcam? That’s the $64,000 question everyone is still trying to figure out. Crowd funding like Kickstarter? Subscription backers like Patreon? Sponsors? Merchandise? Even if you have ads they pay a pittance compared to Old Media rates. And, many (most?) users run ad-blocking software too boot. At one website I worked at we had to plead with our viewers to turn off their ad-blocking software (at least some of the time) because they were literally killing the site by running ad-blockers all the time. Another option is to find someone that already makes a lot of money doing something else and does mind losing a bunch of it indefinitely.

That’s the route AJ+ has taken, from another Gigaom on AJ+ article, “Bishr also stressed that there is not a lot of pressure for Al Jazeera, which is funded by the ruling family of Qatar, to be profitable with a venture like this.”
https://gigaom.com/2014/09/15/ajplus-app-launch/

[Brett Sherman] “It’s sort of in the eye of the beholder isn’t it. You want to read articles that inform your workflow. I want to read articles that inform my workflow. I’m just not seeing a lot of the latter here. The real question becomes, is this a board only for those who work on narrative or TV production? Some seem to want it to be.”

I can’t say I’ve ever got the feeling that the COW is only for people that work in narrative or TV production. I’ve only worked in narrative a hand full of times (all low/no budget projects) and, like I said before, things destined for TV is maybe half of what I do and I don’t feel like an outsider looking in here at the COW. I like readying about workflows in general because you never know what you can glean from them. I’m more interested in knowing what I don’t know than knowing what I do know. For example, a couple of years ago Bill linked to a good article about an FCPX workflow used on a commercial and after reading it I figured out ways to implement parts of it into a PPro workflow (I don’t use X).

EDIT: Fixed some typos and grammar (sure there is more that I missed). Wrote this over the course of a day so apologies if it is disjointed.