The next generation of film makers and cinema artists certainly make the future seem bright, especially the nine finalists I encountered at the NBCUniversal Short Film Festival.
It’s spooky and a great thing to watch for the spookiest month of the year
Indian movies have now come to America
Social change doesn’t come easy. As an activist and artist, how do you bring real change, and reach people without preaching? If you’re Ram Devineni, a documentary filmmaker, you turn to comic books. We caught up with Devineni at this year’s NAB Show New York’s panel on “Creativity: Shaping the Future of Business,” to get the scoop on his creative process and why creativity is a necessity for crafting really positive social change.
Devineni relates he first had the idea of doing a comic book back in 2012. He remarks, “Originally I’m a documentary filmmaker, and I was in India back in December 2012. Some of you might remember there was a horrible gang rape that happened on a bus in New Delhi [and] while I was involved in these protests that were happening there, that led me to be creating this comic book. Now originally I was looking at doing a documentary about the subject matter, but I realized that that format, sort of the traditional [documentary] structure was not the right way, especially trying to reach the audiences that I wanted to reach, which were basically teenage boys.” He lays out that he “totally rethought everything and went and created a comic book and created India’s first female superhero.” Devinen says it wasn’t just about social activism anymore, but about bringing real change to his country. He explains, “what is kind of unique about this project not only is it social activism, but also there is a whole technology component….We were one of the first augmented reality comic books out there, and we are one of the first implementations of augmented reality in India.” His comic book on Priya, India’s first female superhero, was also one of the first comics using augmented reality to bring the pages to life. This comic actually precedes Pokemon’s Go.
Devineni says comic books are a great way to reach the target audience without preaching to them. He outlines, “the big challenge that is…very unique about this project (because we worked with rape survivors for the first one and with acid attacks survivors with the second one) not only do they help develop the story, they are also characters in the comic book. So, there’s a level of authenticity to it. And through the augmented reality, when you activate the pages, literally videos and stories by them come out of the comic book. So teenagers love comic books. Very popular. So we used the structure of a superhero, a female superhero, in a comic book, because really these topics are really difficult to talk about. But when you put them in the context of superheroes and comic books, things like that, it becomes very accessible and very approachable, especially to teenagers.“
He is glad that he was brave enough, and had the insight to change things up, in order to find a creative solution to reach his target audience. He says, “looking back if I did do a documentary I would maybe reach 200, maybe a thousand people…but when we released the comic book in December of 2014, it went super viral with over 26 million readers worldwide.” He adds, “In the Arts we have a tendency to be very removed from the audience, but in this case, especially with the mission to do social activism, it’s really critical that the comic book resonated with the people, especially the teenage boys that we were targeting for and that they totally get it.” He adds, “We made sure that the story was first. Like if you hit people over the head with like social issues, they just turn away. They don’t want to be preached [at].”
As for what is next, Devineni says, “we’re working on the third one called Priya and the Lost Girls which is going to be closer to sort of Lord of the Rings story structure. It’s going to be a much bigger and broader story and is going to focus on sex trafficking.”
-Melissa Unger
Podcasting is a big business, but making money as a podcaster isn’t always easy especially when starting out. So when should you start seeking money from sponsors for your podcast? We caught up at the NAB Show New York with Jessica Kupferman, who is the co-founder of She Podcasts and the Podcasting School for Women, and Rob Walch, VP of Podcaster Relations at Libsyn, to find out how to make money in podcasting.
Kupferman urges people to think of sponsorship more as a science than an art. She recommends having, “either…at least 2000 episodes [downloads] or I say you have to be podcasting for at least 6 months to a year. By then, they should have [enough] if they’re consistently working…[towards] number[s] they need.” Walch says, “You need to work on growing your audience.” He adds, if the number of downloads for each podcast is small, because the content is a niche community, “then I give them the advice to go out and find a magazine, find an advertiser in the back of a magazine and contact them that way.” Kupferman points out, “Yeah with this show, “She Podcast” we’ve never broken [with the exception of] I think one or two episodes…. [an amount] like 5000 [downloads], [but] most of them are half that. Walch agrees, “podcast about podcast never break 5000.”
Kupferman points out that she’s actually created a tool to help podcasters know if they are ready for sponsorship. She says, “I’ve created a quiz that’s called “SponsorReady.com.” It’s basic
As for how to grow your audience, Walch says it’s all about being able to be found and word of mouth. Watch believes, “it’s about word-of-mouth advertising. It’s what is really going to grow. The only advice I can really give people, other than create great content, is make sure your show is everywhere! So I’ll look at some shows, because I think they’re super eager. Their numbers are marginal… and I’ll look at that man say the only destination you said I push [is] your Feed? You’re not in Google Play. You’re not in iHeartRadio… [You need] your show everywhere at least then people can discover it, and you have the discoverability option. Kupferman agrees, “The same with me. They say they’re ready, I look at their Twitter, I look at their Facebook, I look at their Instagram, I look at their website, how well it’s done and then I’m almost like I can’t even believe I have to write back to this person. Like how is this not obvious to everyone including the person [who] is asking?”
Kupferman says there’s one important thing to remember, it’s all about the audience. She advocates, “The trick is I just started realizing this little saying…your content is not your product. [The product that you are selling to advertisers and sponsors] is the audience that is your product.” She emphasizes, “a lot of podcasters don’t want to hear that though, because they worked so tirelessly at perfecting their content.” Walch agrees, “Build it [building that audience] and they [advertisers and sponsors] will come. That is how it works with advertising. You have to build your audience.”
-Melissa Unger
Imagine making cinema-quality films on a phone!
Burning Doors features Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina and runs until October 22nd.
Here is a nice little celebration of low-budget filmmaking.
The Florida Project director Sean Baker, co-screenwriter Chris Bergoch, and breakout stars Bria Vinaite, Mela Murder discuss working with Willem Dafoe, childhood and more.
I recently had the pleasure of experiencing an original work by RJ Bartholomew, I of the Storm, dynamically performed by Richard Hoehler and directed by Janice L. Goldberg.