The Progenitor of Processes and Statistics

I’m doing an experiment with this new web series. We already met our goal of 1,000 views on YouTube for the first video. I wanted to put the emphasis on the YouTube videos just because the quality has vastly improved on this site in the last 2 years compared to where they were in 2008. It’s just the main site where most people on the planet find videos. As much as I prefer VIMEO even for quality, it just has a fraction the number of videos and people, plus their limitations on uploads and bandwidth just don’t make it the most viable option right now.

I have however been posting the Intern videos on all the video sites I have accounts with anyways, but posting the links and doing marketing via YouTube. I posted the VIMEO links here on the Blog site, just to keep track of traffic coming from my blog to the videos in a separate tracking.

The results are that YouTube does tend to be the dominant site for people randomly finding the videos moreso than my own marketing efforts. My marketing involves posting links on various sites and forums related to film. The key is to be involved with those sites. Personal connection affects the reaction to the videos. If you are considered a “spammer” or an outsider, the reactions tend to be bad, although the ratio of positive comments even on sites with minimal to no prior postings was much higher than almost all of my previous videos in a similar scenario.



The last video has had a strong initial impact and the views went up higher in a faster pace per day than the others, but they are all steadily averaging about 20-30 views per day or so, taking into account the initial days of marketing skew these much higher, but taking that out you can extrapolate that the average daily views are somewhere between 20-30, and they become somewhat self propelling as I don’t continue to post links after the initial boost.

At this current moment, the views are as follows:
1st video is at 1,037 (Youtube), 2,677 total from all sites combined
2nd video is at 673 (YouTube), 1,322 total from all sites combined
3rd video is at 490 (Youtube), 978 total from all sites combined
4th video is at 443 (Youtube), 883 total from all sites combined
5th video is at 269 (Youtube), 521 total from all sites combined


So there’s one more video to go in the “Sonnyboo Intern” series. It could make a nice ending if we choose not to continue, which I am leaning towards not making more. As per the feedback and interest levels, it seems like we’re beating the same joke into the ground over and over again. I want to curb my obsessive-compulsive impulses rather than entertain them. I think this 6th video will be the last one of these, unless we continue during production of the feature. I think for pre-pro, we’re done. Alex had better start working towards his counter arguments to convince me otherwise, but I think it’s over for me.

Legal Wranglings

I’m a bit conflicted. I keep finding some of my videos on YouTube and other sites, but uploaded by other people. I’m starting to ask them to take them down for copyright violation. On one hand it’s kinda cool that someone liked something I made enough to upload it and share it (especially when they are getting more hits for it than me), but it’s also a bit weird to have someone else receiving credit for my work. That bothers me a bit.

For the HOW TO DEAL WITH TELEMARKETERS videos, I find those all over the Internet as uploaded by other people. Now a bunch of other videos of mine are spreading out. Most of them leave in the credits so my name is still all over them, but it’s still kinda bothersome. I’m not that much of a control freak that I absolutely HAVE to be in charge of every way my movies are presented and where, etc. but when I have no say whatsoever and people are commenting on these clips as if the uploader make the videos, then I start to get squirrelly. I think I will adopt a policy of once a month seeking out my clips as uploaded by other people and having them taken down.

Aristocrats in the Kitchen

I grow weary. Very weary, my acolytes. It seems the work never stops for the Boo. I have piled work loads upon my shoulders and there are not enough hours in the day to do them all. I will endeavor to do so, but it has taken its toll on your faithful narrator. He has need of peace and rest, but there is none to be had in the foreseeable future.

As I'm putting the touches on edits of high school football championship games at night (after the edits of the Derek's ETERNAL), I found the time to write and shoot a new article/video for VIDEOMAKER magazine, and all of this is on top of the daily grind of working Monday thru Friday.

The latest article was something of a challenge since I did not write it to suit something I already had, so I had to create the content as well as the most painful part – shooting myself introducing the video.



I am not comfortable in front of the camera. I prefer being behind the camera. I can't memorize lines and anything rehearsed becomes a painful effort. I pity those who have had to shoot me doing anything like this. Doing an interview is on thing, as that is spontaneous and more like being in front of people, which I have no problems with, albeit it's not the most enjoyable thing for me. I know I'll never be an actor because of how terrible I am in videos like this. I have never had the inkling to act, and seeing the footage makes me even surer that's a good thing.

I had TJ shoot for me on this for both the interviews and also the demonstration videos. My Sexy Fiancé Veronica -- got her friend Rhoda Cronenbach to help and TJ pulled in local actor Bryan Michael Block into the mix. Everyone did some good work for me. I used my new Canon HV20 for the entire thing, trying out the HD in 24P 1920x1080 mode. Overall, I dig this little camera. It's got a good look to it for a consumer grade camera with some big time features.

The article and video for this one is intended for the March 2008 issue. My first article/video is due out in January 2008, so I can't wait to see how that turns out. Having a regular article series in an international publication is no small feat. I am kind of floored by the whole thing. I would like to parlay this into something else. It definitely establishes a lot of credibility to be an acknowledged writer for a magazine in your field.




I do love TUBEMOGUL. What a great way to keep up with all my sites and videos. It simplifies so much of what I'm doing to market my movies. Being able to keep track of all these sites from one single location makes analyzing easier. From this vantage point, I can see what movies of mine do people like, not like and if changing search key words/metatags changes the views, etc.

Sonnyboo Stats as they are today December 15^th, 2007:

CRACKLE.COM 21,643,442 total views

YAHOO VIDEO 161,910 total views

YOUTUBE 65,829 total views

METACAFE 57,306 total views

plus several other sites that are under 5,000 total views

On some sites, I average hundreds of views a day and others, 2-3 views a day. The marketplace has become convoluted with video sites and content. YouTube acts as the dumping ground for every half witted attempt at home videos and Jack-Ass rip-offs, or worse – meaningless skate boarding videos. I'm surprised YouTube has garnered any views for Sonnyboo, but my subscriptions are constantly on the rise, and none of them are fake accounts I made up to increase my stature! Sony Picture's CRACKLE.COM so far has gotten me the most views thanks to support in their main team. It is true, it's who you know. Thankfully, someone on their programming team has been a Sonnyboo fan for a while and they really dig my movies. 25 awards out of 58 videos ain't bad, and I think it's cool. Many of my old movies find new life on Crackle.com.



Thinking of a time before the Internet, I can't imagine there being a way to get thousands of people to see your short film. Imagine a land before time, the ancient era known as "the 1980's" when VHS was king and metal bands roamed the earth. If you made a short film – who would see it and where? The obscure film festival perhaps, but beyond that who would see such a thing? There was no digital projection, as there was very little on the planet with "digital". In today's world, we can make a movie and within minutes have it uploaded to the Internet where anyone can see it with a click of a button. We must never lose site of the changing world we live in. I am grateful for these new opportunities as the industry warps and bends to the new technology.

There are people with feature films that never get 50,000 people to see it. So having a few movies that have several MILLION views, can only make me proud of what I've done. Anywho, time to get back to the amazing world of High School Football games….and then editing on a video for VIDEOMAKER. This is supposed to be my "day off". Maybe I can pop in an HD-DVD during my longer render times.


Peace,
Peter John Ross