College Cooking with JP - Blooper

Here's a blooper. Check out the site.

How Niche Can You Go?

Internet distribution allows for niche content (content tailored to a specific demographic) to find an audience. I've found that as more and more producers come to realize this, digital content becomes more specialized and less mainstream. Sites like Livestream, which make it easy for independent producers to distribute their content, allow for more content to be created and a wider audience to be reached. College Cooking (see below) is one example of a show almost exclusively targeting a niche demographic (college students that want to cook). Recently, I came across a site for Circle Maker's TV. This site targets the niche demographic of "people that make crop circle art in their spare time".
It is true that you can find anything on the internet, and it seems like you can find an audience for almost anything too.

The next steps to monetization are engaging your audience so that they will put up with advertising or pay a subscription fee for the content.

Here is an episode from Circle Makers TV:

Watch live streaming video from circlemakerstv at livestream.com

College Cooking with JP

College Cooking with JP is a cooking web site geared towards college-aged people that have beginner-level cooking experience.  The video on the site (also posted below) is tailgate themed, and JP, a typical college bro, walks his viewers through a few simple recipes for a tailgate party.  What makes the site unique is that it is almost exclusively targeted at a niche demographic-a college student that wants to cook.  The site is social and provides the opportunity to "like" on Facebook or share on multiple other social networking sites.  It also provides links to a blog, Facebook fan page, and Youtube channel for the site.  Check it out.

Web Series - Valdean Entertainment

This evening I got to hear Al Thompson speak about his production company Valdean Entertainment and some of the new web series projects they were working on.  Recently, Valdean produced Johnny B. Homeless, an award winning web series about a guy who couch surfs from place to place and never knows where he will wake up. 


Promo for Johnny B. Homeless

Tonight, they showed the trailer for a new web series that is being shopped called Lenox Avenue that is being pitched as the "sexy dramatic web series".

When answering a question about whether to try and get funding from a sponsor or finance a web series yourself, the VP of Production Brian Rolling noted that distribution used to be the hardest thing to get...but now it's free.
The Internet takes what used to be the hardest part (getting eyes to view your content) and makes it a lot easier.  Despite the accessibility of viral distribution, the content still needs to be entertaining, and there needs to be some model for monetization, but with the hardest step out of the way there is no excuse not to make content.

Catfish

As the independent film industry gears up for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, it brings me back to last year’s festival, which I attended and blogged about (see blog posts from there). 

Last year, one of the films that received a lot of buzz was Catfish.  I never go to see the film during the festival, probably because the title was kind of a turn off.   But if it had been “Man Falls in Love with Girl On Facebook, Tracks Her Down, and is in for a Big Surprise” I would have been there.

I recently viewed Catfish (it is now available on iTunes) and I must say it is well deserving of the buzz it received.  The film is a documentary that is stylized to look as if your two friends picked up some flip cams and just started rolling.  This is one of the reasons the film is so amazing; it is so real, and so true.  

When the friends click record, we watch as a gritty adventure unfolds before them.  As the characters in the film take us on their adventure, we experience the same suspense and raw emotions as they do.  We feel the same desperation, manipulation, and hope. 

The story of the film is amazing, but even more amazing is the accessibility of the characters.   

As cinema becomes more accessible to filmmakers (the prices of equipment drop, knowledge becomes more available, and distribution via the Internet becomes more widespread) I imagine we will see a lot more films that exhibit a casual and realistic tone.  This type of tone will allow audiences to create a deeper connection with the characters-a connection that is, or seems, more realistic.  However, as always, the most important part will always be the story.