Seth Godin: Mass Production and Mass Media

I read Seth's blog daily. Today's post hit the bullseye with what I'd like to do in filmmaking.

Product for a micro market.

Market to a micro market.

When you don't have to water down a film for the lowest common denominator general public, and don't have to spend $30 million mass marketing a film, I would imagine you get interesting films for a niche audience which can still make a profit.

Reference:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/02/mass-production-and-mass-media.html

Ryan Holiday on Twitter

I loved some of what Ryan Holiday tweeted today. My thoughts exactly, and I see direct analogies to independent film production and self-distribution.

@RyanHoliday 

And bookstores and publishers are notorious for missing huge potential audiences. Write it yourself and make all the $$

The Great Gatsby got rejected THREE times...and that was by white male editors. It takes force of will & now self-pub.

The industry bias is an opportunity for authors--to make good work and OWN it

Who buys the first 1,000 copies? Answer that question and you can publish anything--permission not required

The main bias is not cultural or race. It's inability to see new trends at all

actually have a potential advantage in terms of first 1k copies. Writing for "everyone" is a mistake most authors make

When the book is good, it spreads. When people buy, publishers/authors follow. 50 Shades of Grey was self-pub

Authors ALWAYS have to force their books down people's throats to start--especially when they are doing something new

Authors think they compete with each other. Really they compete for attention period. Really you need outlets to promote

Books sell on self-interest (word of mouth) not because publishers. The answer is there

But my point is like EVERY good book ever had that said about it

The people who tell you that are just guessing. The sales will come from your effort alone

One of my clients (a white guy) who sold 4M books was rejected by 25 publishers. Nobody knows. So push ahead

The other problem is people forget foreign markets. You don't have to write for America. China is pretty big

Publishers publish what they think will sell. Problem is they're wrong a lot. It's on authors to fix bad assumptions

Wrong a lot AND hard headed. But that's good: look at Tyler Perry, he owns his own studio because no one got it

There's good money in foreign editions too.

Context in Storytelling

I listened to Gary Vaynerchuck's talk this morning, and it touches (tangentially) on ideas I'm interested in. The context in which the story is told - which I take to mean not only the medium, but telling personal stories. For instance in my project, since the story is loosely based on experiences from my life I think it's important for me to write, direct, and ideally act in the film. By doing all three as well as distributing directly to the audience - people will feel much more of a connection to the art. I've personally felt more connected to films in the past where I know the film came from a part of the actor or writer/directors life. Stallone wrote Rocky, and on a deeper level it was analogous to where he was at in his life (at least in my perception) and that's always made me feel a closer connection to the movie. Also see Hemingway and Farewell To Arms.

It's the same in music and stand-up comedy. The songs pulled from a musicians life or the bits pulled from a comedians life hit me harder than anything else.

The story behind the story, which connects the artists real life to the material, provides a context for the story which I think is essential for the kind of great, personal art which I'd like to create.

And I like the idea of storytelling in different ways. I've been thinking about different formats for my project, giving films to the audience in the way they want:

• Short films that add up to feature length when watched together


• Feature length film with associated shorts used to test the main thesis of the film before production


• Episodes that can be downloaded and watched on mobile apps where someone can pick and choose what parts of the story they want to watch, in whatever order they'd like

As far as marketing, he's spot on with speaking to the audience authentically and by adding value 75% of the time and asking for business occasionally. It's the same model I see with Joe Rogan, Austin Kleon, and many others.

[video id="85285112" site="vimeo"][/video]

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