Have we emerged to a point in life and culture where any story is recognized as worth telling and we have the technology means to deliver to those who would enjoy / benefit from it?
I believe so. Is the filming now the new book publishing medium? Given that there are more phones and eyeballs showing videos than there are books being written in the world, is this not the right platform?
Short vs long form video
The ages of television shows at 30 and 60 min blocks is gone. OTP video services and digitized offerings have allowed creators to make the episodes fit the story and allow freedom from old antenna based time domains. We saw the length of recording expand and now equally popular are the LONG and short. How short — 2–3 minutes short is viable for some stories, and 10–15 mins is very popular.
Social media long form videos — Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat, LiveStreams everywhere all allow for deep immersion and storytelling. Artists can be episodic or launch large scale productions at once that take weeks/month to create.
But .. the question is, WHAT value is there to creating a 45–90 min video and publishing on Amazon Prime or NetFlix if you aren’t simply creating a cinematic movie? Are we entertaining? Are we informing? Is this long form the best way to share and connect these stories?
or …
Is it ego?
As an author 4x over, I often get in discussions with people who say they want to write a book and publish one. When I ask why, they usually are split between it being a dream (similar to going to the moon?) and or they are writers and desire to feel their words on bounded printed paper.
The question is .. is creation for video short and then long form ego driven. If so, is that enough why to motivate you through the process? If it is .. will it lead to a great piece of content worthwhile to your audience?
If you are creating to bring value to your audience and feel there is even one person who would benefit, then certainly pursue it. Don’t do it for economic reasons if that is the case! (worthwhile to consider if social media videos are not the better, cheaper, and faster path to that single consumer).
If you are doing to learn from the process; share a story, and giving something that would benefit a demographic or larger group .. perhaps then it is worthwhile to invest more $$. As this means there is a chance in the world for you to recover some of the costs, and maybe have a little profit.
If you want to make a full length movie, create episodes on social video
The audience matters. What resonates and will connect with them takes artists and directors of million dollar films, takes a long time to discover. This is akin to the software development world where you have 2 choices:
- WaterFall style — create an idea (in a vacuum); spend 1,000s of hours making it; try real hard to make people aware of it; launch it (pray people come); accolades or disappointment received. or ….
- Agile style — Create an idea (still in your head); spend 1–2 hours making it; publish it online; push eyeballs to it (paid ads by directly putting it in people’s timelines); get accolades or disappointment… REPEAT
The benefit of AGILE is you can make 500 videos vs 1 video compared to WaterFall and each one is learning from the last one. That means how you story tell and the topic can be tested in flight, and you can actually realize what works and reflects your true style.
The good news here — you can still be your authentic self; you can deliver it to those who will value your form of art / information (note we are not aiming to the masses, but instead steering our creativity to those who WILL resonate with it and improve how we story tell).
To make a full length movie, first …
Think of your demographic (be super specific); think about the story you want to tell, and then start telling it. Be open to ideas, production quality improvement, and feedback.
It will always be your story — and it will evolve.
Warning: production quality will change over time, so those first 100 films of scary production quality / shaky camera / bad transitions / and zero B-roll are all part of the journey and EXPECTED. The biggest mistake people make is not producing or releasing because they are focused on this vs the story and audience reaction.
Have an impact. You must first release that video and from the comments go forward.
Have fun; be fearless; be consistent, and persistent!
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About Me
I am a father, study of human behavior, strategist, cybersecurity executive, and a coach and mentor on a journey to give more than I receive everyday. I lead teams globally, build products, and daily an executive for a leading company where I serve the largest companies in the world using the largest cloud deployments in the world impacting the financial services, healthcare, and fintech industries. I provide these publications and content through my media agency to deliver insights and advantages. Mindset, mental strength, mentorship, personal improvement, health, fitness, and humanist ideas are drawn from personal research and practice. Everything read and heard is my original works and my own perspective. All rights reserved for noted authors and sources. I produce research and strategy, as well as provide advisory services that include inquiries, briefings, consulting projects, and presentations on published findings as well as bespoke speaking engagements where I often keynote at conferences, seminars, and roundtables annually.
WRITTEN BY
James DeLuccia
Technologist, Researcher, Artist, Executive, Father, Author, Inventor, Speaker, and CrossFit…
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