Internet Stardom: Insider Secrets to Web Video Fame and Fortune
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About this ebook
A growing number of web video creators are earning six-and-seven-figure paychecks, studio development deals, A-list Hollywood agents, book and record deals and more because they’ve harnessed the power of online video production, distribution and monetization:
--Unknown filmmaker Federico Alvarez scored a $1 million dollar development deal, representation with Creative Artists Agency, and is now directing the EVIL DEAD remake for Sam “Spiderman” Raimi.
--While the average income that actors earn from acting is less than $5,000 a year -- which is plenty if you live in Guatemala -- Lucas Cruikshank (aka fast-talking Fred Figglehorn) has two feature films under his belt and even won a Teen Choice Award!
--Small business owner Gary Vaynerchuk launched a daily video blog that transformed his father's Springfield, New Jersey liquor store into a multimillion dollar empire.
The media is reporting six-figure salaries paid to civilians, while iconic brands like Pepsi, Best Buy and Chevrolet are shelling out big bucks for other people’s videos. What makes those videos better than yours? Or are they?
I mean, making videos is easy, right? Just grab a camera, strap your dog to a skateboard, and point him down hill. YouTube is already full of stuff like this. How can you go wrong?
We’ll tell you how you can go wrong. Unless you wanna break your skateboard, cripple your dog, and get arrested by the Humane Society, you are going to need help.
You see, 96 hours of video gets uploaded to YouTube every minute. That’s almost 16 years of content uploaded each day! If you want your vids to have more impact than say, a ghost, read on. Or weep.
We’re going to show you how to make videos and video series that generate so much excitement, your bodyguard will need a bodyguard. From brainstorming killer concepts right through to cashing in on paid production and distribution opportunities, learn how NOT to get lost in the vast wasteland of crap that gets uploaded to YouTube every day.
Lynn Chindamo
Lynn Chindamo is an award winning webisode creator who has written and directed series for Babelgum, Planet Green, Walmart, and Petco. She is the world's first Internet Stardom Curator and a blogger for Tubefilter and the IAWTV. Frank Chindamo teaches webisode production at USC, UCLA, Emerson and Chapman University. His students have included Streamy Award winner Bernie Su and billion-hitter Freddie Wong.
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Internet Stardom - Lynn Chindamo
Are YOU The Next Internet Star?
A growing number of web video creators are earning six-and-seven-figure paychecks, studio development deals, A-list Hollywood agents, book and record deals and more because they’ve harnessed the power of online video production, distribution and monetization:
* Unknown filmmaker Federico Alvarez scored a $1 million dollar development deal, representation with Creative Artists Agency, and is now directing the EVIL DEAD remake for Sam Spiderman
Raimi.
* While the average income that actors earn from acting is less than $5,000 a year -- which is plenty if you live in Guatemala -- Lucas Cruikshank (aka fast-talking Fred Figglehorn) has three feature films under his belt and even won a Teen Choice Award.
* Small business owner Gary Vaynerchuk launched a daily video blog that transformed his father's Springfield, New Jersey liquor store into a multimillion dollar empire.
* When frustrated front man Damian Kulash wanted to put his unknown Chicago, Illinois band on the mainstream map, he tapped his sister to shoot a no-budget YouTube video. The result? Millions of views, a Webby Award, a Grammy Award, hundreds of bookings, and traditional media success.
The media is reporting six-figure salaries paid to civilians, while iconic brands like Pepsi, Best Buy and Chevrolet are shelling out big bucks for other people’s videos. What makes those videos better than yours? Or are they?
I mean, making videos is easy, right? Just grab a camera, strap your dog to a skateboard, and point him down hill. YouTube is already full of stuff like this. How can you go wrong?
We’ll tell you how you can go wrong. Unless you wanna break your skateboard, cripple your dog, and get arrested by the Humane Society, you are going to need help.
You see, 72 hours of video gets uploaded to YouTube every minute. That’s almost 12 years of content uploaded each day! If you want your vids to have more impact than say, a ghost, read on. Or weep.
We’re going to show you how to make videos and video series that generate so much excitement, your bodyguard will need a bodyguard. From brainstorming killer concepts right through to cashing in on paid production and distribution opportunities, learn how NOT to get lost in the vast wasteland of crap that gets uploaded to YouTube every day.
How To Tell If You’re A Web-Star Or A Wanker
First up, here's a little quiz to reveal where you fall on the Internet stardom scale. Please answer truthfully and honestly. If you cheat, we will send your computer a virus and your dog a head cold.
1.The first American President to make a web video was:
a. Barack Obama
b. George Washington
c. George Bush
d. George Jetson
2.Which of the following is NOT a good title for a webisode series?
a. Ask a Ninja
b. Ask a Gay Man
c. Ask a Chicano
d. Ask a Deaf Mute
3.You’ve just written a webisode script you think is Tee-rific, but you want to be sure. Who SHOULD you solicit feedback from?
a. Your court ordered therapist.
b. The gal at the unemployment office who paints her fingernails with Wite-Out.
c. Trusted friends and family members with a brain.
d. Darth Vader.
4. You are auditioning actors for your web show, you should cast:
a. Your psycho EX from hell.
b. Your Grandfather, because he’ll work for bacon.
c. The best actor you can possibly find.
d. The hottie you met last night at the club.
5. True or False: Online video is just a passing phase that will disappear faster than cassette tapes, print newspapers, and the mullet.
6. Which of the following will help catapult you to Internet fame?
a. Taking hostages.
b. Quitting your job as Governor of Alaska and launching a blog.
c. Presenting compelling content in an interesting, unexpected, or unusual way.
d. All of the above, but please don’t take any hostages.
7. Pick the one item that you will NOT need to shoot a webisode:
a. Camera
b. Tripod
c. Light
d. 50 million dollars, some bullshit Hollywood star, and a studio executive that is no smarter than you are.
Answers:
1. A; 2. d; 3. c; 4. c; 5. False; 6. d; 7. d
How did you do? If you scored 3 or less, you must still be watching black and white television. But don’t worry. We’ll teach you everything you need to know to create web videos that are more than just a hobby!
A Brief History of the Brief History of YouTube
This is the story of three geeks. Geeks who are no more special than you are. They probably eat the same crap for lunch that you do.
During the early months of 2005, these geeks shot some videos at a dinner party in San Francisco. But when they attempted to share the clips online, they experienced great difficulty. Back then, it was harder to share video on the Internet than it was for Tom Hanks to rescue Apollo 13. You practically needed a degree in Applied Physics, a slide rule, and three NASA super-computers to figure it out.
So the three geeks, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, thought it would be super cool to create a website that made video sharing easy. Pretty soon, this became their passion. They set up a makeshift office in Hurley’s garage, very swanky digs, and slaved away until their Frankenstein was born. They named it YouTube.
YouTube grew quickly, and by 2006, the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day. In October 2006, the geeks became millionaires when search engine Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion. $1.65 BILLION?! Dude, with that kind of bank, you can buy an entire country. I’m not saying a big country. But dude, A COUNTRY.
Now here’s the thing. At the time, YouTube consisted of only one thing. Other people’s videos. People like you. People who had worked their tails off on those videos. And how much did those people get out of that $1.65 billion?
Drum roll, please.
The answer is… nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Goose egg.
Let’s not repeat that mistake, ya dig?
BTW, YouTube now helps original content creators make a living through the YouTube Partner Program – Check it out!
Power to the People
Two of the most coveted things in the world are money and power. The other is sex, but there are other books that can teach you how to get laid.
Let’s talk about power.
The Man
controls your life. Every aspect of your life. Money. Education. Even your career, right?
Wrong.
Sure, big media moguls like Rupert Murdoch can buy up Fox Broadcasting, The Wall Street Journal, and Myspace. But they can’t shut you up. The Internet is just too damn big. There are too many places where what you have to say can be heard.
The Internet is the ultimate in free speech. Just look at the countries that block YouTube. Countries like Iran and North Korea. Those poor people have about as much freedom of speech as a liberal gay poet in the USMC. But if you’re reading this book, you don’t have that problem. In fact, you can change the world.
From User Generated Content to President Elect Generated Content
In January of 2007, a junior Senator from Illinois sat in a living room chair, turned on a video camera, and said he was going to run for President. He wasn’t particularly well known, he was running against a formidable opponent, and he was black (in fact, he still is).
Check out his video, Barack Obama to Run! It’s not a big budget video. There are no special effects. This is something that you can do at home.
Harnessing the power of social media and web video helped Barack Obama change politics and become the world’s most powerful man. Imagine what it could do for YOU:
* Cash, Prizes and Web-Fame.
* Bragging rights to your friends (maybe even friends with benefits).
* A voice in the world. Nobody will tell your video to shut up, unless they’re drunk.
* Mastery of a valuable skill set. We mean honestly, how valuable is it in the real world that you know the cheats for Final Fantasy XI?
* An exciting and creative career in New Media (just in case things don’t work out for you on American Idol
).
The Internet is a soapbox a thousand miles high. It needs your voice.
The Tinseltown Dream Machine: Avoid It
Good news, bad news. First, the bad news. Every year, tens of thousands of hopeful screenwriters submit their scripts to Hollywood’s studios and production companies. Yet, an infinitesimally small number of those scripts ever get produced. Your odds of winning that lottery are about the same as winning the state lottery. Your odds are only slightly better if you’re trying to get a job directing or starring in one of those movies. We call that Dependent Filmmaking
. Writing a screenplay which requires $50 million dollars of someone else’s money to produce is Dependent Filmmaking.
And the bad news gets even worse. There is an expression in Hollywood where they say you can die of encouragement
. In other words, the powers that be would rather tell you that something is good and to keep trying than tell you something is bad, and why it’s bad. Why’s that? Because it takes less time. If they tell you it’s bad, they know you’ll ask why. And they just don’t care enough about you to tell you why it was bad and how it could be better. Besides, how do they know you’re not going to be the next Quentin Tarantino and they’re going to be asking you for a job someday?
All this false encouragement keeps you hooked. Hooked and dependent like a Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger on snake meat. Meanwhile, you’re busting your hump at a day job that’s about as creative as the assembly line at a Russian bullet factory. Even if you’re a paralegal at a major Hollywood studio, or the guy who types the endless list of credits on Batman 11
, you’re still not realizing your creative dream. And you might never.
So you go home at night too exhausted to do anything creative, crack open a beer, and flip on cable TV. Or, let’s say you do have the energy to