More from Banff… earlier today, I sat through Frank Chindamo’s presentation, he’s the CEO of Fun Little Movies. Frank is also an Adjunct Professor at USC and Instructor at UCLA, teaching Screenwriting and Producing in Mobile and Internet Video.
He shared 12 tips that can help make videos go viral. I asked him if I can share them, here they are:
1. Great title
Sometimes, you see ONLY the title on phones, so it must embody the show and be clever. See www.LoveBytes.net as romantic computer dating comedy. See www.FunnyOrDie.com as generally funny. I define “Great as… Catchy, cute, funny, attention-grabbing, and most of all, SHORT. You have a limited number of characters that can be displayed on that very short line of text. Even when you are allowed a thumbnail or still frame to accompany the title, the title is more important, especially because you sometimes don’t have a choice on the thumbnail.
2. Great concept that you get right away
On mobile or Internet, audiences have a super-fast trigger finger. If they don’t laugh at a comedy or if they are not compelled in some way RIGHT away, they tune out. You’ve got to grab the viewer in 10-15 seconds.
3. Clear Genre
If it’s a music video, it’s obvious. If it’s a comedy, you need a laugh within 10-15 seconds maximum. It annoys and frustrates viewers if they don’t understand what they’re watching right away.
4. Repeatable
This could be the most important ingredient. If you do one great piece, it’s out there, great then what? You need to do a SERIES that repeats so that notoriety builds. See www.AskaNinja.com. It’s cute, it’s funny, and they can shoot loads of episodes per day. Why repeat? Because if you license the series to, let’s say, Vuze.com, it takes a month to get them the content, a month for them to get it up, a month to get traction, a month for them to get paid, and then a month for them to pay you. In mobile films, the money is better but the cycle is longer, especially in foreign markets. Thus, you have to have a SERIES that you can REPEAT weekly, and that you can keep going for 6 to 12 months. If so, you can reach the “tipping point” and have your series take off IF it’s GREAT CONTENT.
5. Evergreen
Especially on mobile, the show can’t rely on current events, because by the time someone sees it, it may NOT be current. UNLESS you are doing a show about current events, like Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diary (by Hayden Black) that’s Internet based. Hayden shoots and posts the videos himself, so he can control how quickly they go up. That’s a MUCH more difficult and time-consuming process in mobile.
6. International
You’ll often make more overseas, so be sure they get it “over there.” In other words, if your show is about a character that only Americans would know, then only Americans will buy it… and the US is a small percentage of the mobile market revenue.
7. Slightly naughty
For some perverse reason, the most viral pieces (i.e. the original South Park Jesus vs. Santa, Jib-Jab, Channel 101, Funny or Die) all have a slightly naughty feel. Nowadays it can’t be as dirty as Santa vs. Jesus, so note the “Slightly naughty” description. Even if it’s G-rated, there is something about the pieces that are slightly twisted. See www.theHusBand.org or www.LoveBytes.net.
8. Tone
The tone of your piece needs to be simple… for now. You never know when the piece will stop playing, crash, restart, be unintelligible, be hard to hear, etc. So keep it simple, smarty-pants.
9. Size matters
Repurposing TV shows and Movies might sound great, but they are shot for much larger screens. You’ll need more close-ups, as well as more close quarters (meaning very few long shots). And by the way… Subtlety is lost at this size unless it’s done in extreme close-up.
10. Transitions
Fancy dissolves look great on TV, but they can give you a bad key frame (opening frame) at the start a shot, thus resulting is blurry or fuzzy video. Stick to straight cuts whenever possible.
11. Colors matter too
Because mobile and most Internet screens are often not High-Def, and in the case of mobile, SMALL, you want to use lots of juicy primary colors, and differentiate them. So, it’s good to have a guy in a bright green jacket next to a girl in pink. Two guys in grey? Not as fun.
12. Great Content
Some may argue that Lonely Girl 15 or Ask a Ninja are not great works of art, but that’s not the point. They are great, compelling content in one way or another, thus they have become Viral and extremely profitable. In your heart of hearts, you’ll probably know when something is GREAT when you play it back on a mobile screen and it really moves you, or really makes you laugh. So… what are you waiting for?
He also had a lot interesting and entertaining anecdotes… namely this gem from Mark Twain: “If I Had More Time I Would Write a Shorter Letter”.
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WatchMojo NewsletterVia NewTeeVee:
Jamie Wilkinson, aka Jamie Dubs, is the go-to guy if you want to learn anything about Internet memes. He’s the brain behind Know Your Meme, and until recently used to be Rocketboom’s Internet Research Scientist, complete with lab coat and white board.
Wilkinson looked into the origin of such seminal Internet memes like FAIL or All Your Base Are Belong To Us for the show, and he also dug up a lot of interesting stuff about viral videos like Where is Matt, the Howard Dean Scream or even the Evolution of Dance.
Watch the video:
