Word of Mouth

One of the most amazing things about the digital age and the future of entertainment with the advantages of today’s technology is that artists can get their work out to the world without being restricted. The independent film and television world can now gain notoriety on their by putting their work out  via various social media and online sites. Andrea Lewis of Degrassi fame and Tatyana Ali of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air have joined forces to create a web series called Black Actress. Black Actress takes a humorous look at the life of an African American actress in New York. It follows her as she goes on auditions and tries to get over her own mental and sometimes physical issues as well.

One of the most amazing things about the success of this show is their partnership with Issa Rae. Issa Rae has gained notoriety in the industry through her web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. 

There have been plenty of articles of people voicing their opinions on the lack of representation of African American women in movies and television. These two women decided to create, produce and distribute content for a specific niche market and use social media to their advantage. The success of these shows has led to more projects for these women! The mainstream has taken notice as well. Issa Rae’s success has landed her on the cover of magazines and she is currently working on a pilot show for HBO.

Andrea Lewis looks to follow suit with her series, Black Actress. One of the biggest ways to be successful is to partner with people who have already been successful in what you're looking to do. Andrea teamed with Issa Rae and her series now automatically has the seal of approval to Issa Rae's fans. Social media is the new "word of mouth."

 

Going Digital...

There was a time when the term “going digital” seemed like something that came out of a science fiction movie. What does that even mean? Will we get to a point where there are more robots than actual people? All jokes aside, technology is creating possibilities that most of us would never have thought. We’re now at a point where having a cell phone is normal and I can have a face-to-face conversation with a friend of mine who lives in Uruguay through Skype and FaceTime from my living room in Orlando. The entertainment industry is probably one of the most reluctant when it comes to going digital. The real issue for the entertainment industry as well as any industry when looking to the future is; how can we monetize this? Industry insiders need to also think from the consumer’s point of view. Why would I want what you’re selling ESPECIALLY when I can get if for free due to the new digital way of life? Make it worth my wild!

The entertainment industry holds many sub-sections. Within the last 10 years, music, movies and television have been at the forefront of figuring out their digital futures. Print media (magazines, newspapers and books) are following suit, a bit slower, but they’re working it out. One mistake I think the music industry did was go after the digital transition with lawsuits and lawyers. (See more information about the Napster trial here).

 The reason why I feel like lawsuits aren’t the way to fight for your money is because you’re losing money! The Napsters of the world saw a need with consumers and filled it. Record labels and musicians are finally taking advantage of the partnering with the digital age. Social media has become the bridge between the industry and consumers. Personally I believe social media is how you monetize the digital age the entertainment industry and society in general. Social media brings you consumers if used properly. A&R representatives are becoming an endangered species due to the ease of finding new talent via social media. Alexandra Topping for the Guardian delves deeper on this topic in her article entitled Twitter power: how social networking is revolutionizing the music business. 

In the end, it's all about being flexible! Change is inevitable in life and in business. The challenge for us future business owners, and entertainment industry professionals is to attempt to stay ahead of the curve and create ways to connect to our niche markets through these new technologies. Take advantage of the new possibilities! 

Learning from the Pros

When thinking about starting your own business, it’s always important to do research on the industry and try to learn as much as possible from other’s mistakes. Team 20 Productions is a company that will concentrate on providing dance choreography within the entertainment industry. It will also include dance workshops and consultations with developing artists. We will take a look at three separate podcasts and how the information in them will help with the creation of Team 20 Productions.

            The first podcast one we will discuss is Margaret Gould Stewart: How YouTube thinks about copyright. Margaret Gold is the head of user content for YouTube. She describes the relationship between copyright holders and YouTube. This podcast was very interesting to me because I have already experienced some copyright issues with YouTube as a dance instructor. A few months ago, I posted a video from one of my dance classes to my YouTube account that included a snippet from the song “Flawless” by Beyonce’. This is extremely common practice for choreographers and dance instructors to post videos of their class choreography or even dance concept videos. A few weeks ago, I noticed that YouTube removed the sound from my video due to a copyright issue at the request of the copyright owner of the song.  Margaret’s speech gave me a better understanding of why this took place. YouTube prides itself in giving copyright owners a “choice” on how to proceed when their content is present in an uploaded video. The example she spoke about was regarding Chris Brown’s song “Forever.” A couple used this song in a wedding video they uploaded to YouTube and it went viral. The copyright owner, Sony Music, allowed this to stay and it actually had a direct impact on the song re-emerging on the charts. In regards to my video, the copyright owner chose to have the audio removed. This is the copyright owner’s choice and YouTube has created that within their policy. This podcast taught me that copyright is very important to understand and my company should be very diligent in copyrighting material that my company creates. It also taught me to make sure to get the correct clearances when necessary as well.

            The second podcast I viewed was Drew Curtis: How I beat a Patent Troll. This podcast was awesome! Copyrights and patents are concepts that are important to my business because we will be creating a lot of original content that may need certain protections. Drew Curtis is the founder of fark.com. Fark.com, along with several others, were a part of a lawsuit from a company that had a patent "...for the creation and distribution of news releases via email." This company that “owned” the patent is whom Curtis calls the “Patent Troll.” Curtis’ company as well as all of the other companies included in the lawsuit did not infringe on the patent, however, all of the other companies decided to settle because it’s cheaper to settle than attempt to fight the suit. Curtis and his lawyers decided to ask the company to provide screen shots of where his company infringed. The company’s lawyers didn’t do so and instead asked for a settlement offer. Curtis’ company said they would not pay anything in a settlement. The company agreed and in the settlement, Curtis also struck the non-disclosure agreement. This allows him to speak freely about the case. I learned quite a few things from this podcast, the first thing is the knowledge of “companies” that solely exist to purchase patents on future technology, ideas, etc. and go around filing claims on companies to get as many of these companies to pay out settlements. Curtis gave amazing tips on how to fight these “patent trolls:

1.Don’t fight the patent, fight the infringement.

2.Make it clear that you have no money, or that you’d rather spend money on a lawyer to fight the patent troll.

3.Make sure to let the patent troll know that you will make this process as annoying as possible.  This is a tactic the trolls normally use but it works both ways as well.

As a future business owner, I hope to never have to come across one of these, but it’s great to have the tools just in case!

            The last podcast to discuss is Lawrence Lessig:Laws that choke creativity. The title of this talk caught my attention the most. I like how he talked about how it’s important to embrace how young people remix or re-envision content. I think this is huge and takes us back to the YouTube issue discussed above. Lessig talks about how every use of culture will produce a copy.  He argues that the laws stifle creativity especially as we build new technology. He says that there are extremes with this debate and there needs to be a balance. I agree with him that copyright owners should make content available for “amateur use” to promote creativity. This will help my business so that I don’t have to get a license every time I want to post a video on YouTube of a dance class or workshop. This balance can also help in the reverse, like the Chris Brown/wedding video we spoke about above.

         In conclusion, these podcasts were great tools and providing amazing information that will help with the creation and implementation of Team 20 Productions.