Social Media future distribution

* apologies if this isn't clear and succint kinda more raw ideas then thesis essay

Read this. That sent me to here and this on Kevin Smith, who is skipping the whole regular distribution for his new movie, is instead wandering around to different towns with it and selling tickets for $70, because he has such a humongous following through social media when he rolls into he just throws out a tweet and he has enough fans out there that he can fill a theater.

"Smith's argument was that this old model of marketing movies, where you spend four times the budget of your film on advertising, forcing you to make five times what your film cost just to break even, was ridiculous, and he wanted to try something new. "

"It could give birth to an entirely new generation of writer-directors, guys like Gareth Edwards and Neil Bloomkamp, who have a unique voice and realize that with emerging technology, they can make their movies on the cheap and distribute them outside the studio system, building followers on social media outlets through teaser scenes, short films, and word of mouth, then use those outlets to directly advertise screenings, whether they be in real theaters or online. "

The other article talks about kids these days consume their music on youtube, they don't buy it, they want the whole music video combo. And about how some artists are interacting with their fans, creating jointly. Diana Gabaldon did this with one of her novels.

Looks like it's starting to happen maybe, people are starting to figure out how to work in the new media world, which is of course not going to be the same as things worked in the old media. This article talks about authors who are making a living at it, who haven't yet printed dead tree books, all digital, and despite regular publishers turning them down, they are putting their stuff out through amazon and making a living.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To make a living you only need a couple thousand people all willing to kick a few coins into the tip jar. If you think of things that way, that you only have to find people who are on your wavelength, then it free's you to work on something that is completely uniquely personal to you. It doesn't free you from having to have good craft. But it does free you from having to second guess common/lowest denominator. Because you just need to find the people that your voice really resonates with.

The internet has made the world so tiny, people from across the globe read this little nothing blog. The internet allows us to connect and collaborate with our fellow man without ever meeting them in the flesh. And that seems to be one of the keys, people want to be part of it, when you read/watch a story it becomes part of you, the characters become your friends, how much better to be able to be part of it, not just a mute passive voyeur in the story but part of the creative foundation it springs from.

Obviously you aren't going to get a following like Kevin Smith. But if you have little tasters to get some interest (like honkbarn), and invite collaboration to get invested fans that promote you and just for the joy of working with a team. Talking money, there's the Homestar plan with the pushing the IP with hoodies and stuff, and the minushi approach where you give them enough that they need to buy it to finish it, and the youtube approach where you try and drive views and sell ads. Minushi had a smart approach by breaking it up into episodes, reminds me of old fashioned radio shows, but Dr. Horrible & the Guild show that you don't even have to do that, new media means you can be in new format lengths that fit what you want.

the gatekeepers have fallen, the tool barrier has fallen, the barrier now is drowning in noise and the solution to that is speaking with your heart

hone your craft, find your voice, find your people, make it happen.