A New Media Movable Feast Welcomes Galacticast

American author Ernest Hemingway wrote about his years in Paris as part of the American expatriate circle of writers in the 1920s painting a picture of a struggling young writer in hi book, A Movable Feast.

Currently there is a group of online content producers here in the "ohs" of this century living a very similar yet digital lifestyle in Los Angeles and all around the world.

We have a "local" community across the Internet but come together in person every once in awhile as we did this week to welcome Casey McKinnon and Rudy Jahchan of Galacticast to the LA Area.

ZadiDiaz, Steve Woolf and Sarah Atwood of Epic FU fame rounded up the troupes to enjoy a little Rock Band Karaoke at Sardo's in Burbank.

Felicia Day of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog and The Guild, Kent Nichols of Ask A Ninja, Doug Bresler of Doogtoons, Hayden Black of Goodnight Burbank and Abigails Teen Diaries,Lara Doucette of Tiki Bar TV, Annie Tsai Ricky Rey, Lan Bui, Vu Bui, Bonnie Pierzina of Noodle Scar, Daniel McVicar and a couple other folks including my agent from UTA all made it out.

We are living in a very special time. I wish the energy and fun of this moment in my life could last forever.

A Movable Feast

The above video is a bunch of us reading comments that were sent in to Epic Fu at a party Zadi and Steve had.

Just like those artists before us we are in a time of "A Movable Feast" or maybe "A New Media Movable Feast." Some of us are doing better than others but it's still a very fun time, as long as someone has money for beer and pizza.

Thank God Steve and Zadi did.

I think this is going to be a great year for independent video creators and I can't wait to see who the next break out hit that self monetizes is.

Who do you think it will be?

The Hardest Working Couple in Online Video

Most people throw a Holiday party to kick back relax and enjoy some downtime with friends and family, not Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf of Epic FU.

Last night several of the "Online Video Movable Feast" gang were invited over to Steve and Zadi's house for drinks and pizza but instead of serving small talk and pigs in a blanket the Epic FUers had us reading things for them on camera. We even had to sign talent releases - not that anyone had a problem with it.

From Notourage's Sarah Atwood to Ask A Ninja's
Kent Nichols and Tiki Bar TV's Jeff Macpherson to Doug Bresler, from Doogtoons and Bonny Pierzina, Vu Bui and Lan Bui from Noodle Scar the group was taking turns reading lines while Steve worked the lights and camera and Zadi held the cue cards. Steve and Zadi didn't even stop to have a drink. They just kept working the whole time I was there.

These are the early days of online video and if you are looking to get some ideas on how to make money with online video pay attention to what Steve and Zadi are doing.

1. They keep costs low by not having office space and they shoot in their home.

2. They are a two person team who write, produce, direct, host, edit and do their own website work.

3. They involve their friends and their online fans to generate content and build a community.

Steve and Zadi are absent from many online video social events because they are always working and that work ethic is starting to pay off for them.

They signed with UTA as their agent and struck a deal to produce Epic Fu for Next New Networks and besides all that they are really nice people.

Make Your Content Evergreen and Simple.

If you are an online video content creator who believes in the "Long Tail" then you should really think long and hard about the type of online video content you are producing and stay away from content that will be of no interest to viewers two months from when you post it.

After spending this past weekend at the Podcast and New Media EXPO, Podcast Academy and popping into Podcamp for a few minutes I realized that there are a lot of people producing video content that is "of the moment" and that "of the moment" content has little or no long tail value at all. Sure CNN.com can make money aggregating a daily audience with news but I don’t think independent content producers should create current affair video programming because you need to make money every way and anyway you can. To do that you are going to need long tail search.

(For those of you who haven’t read the book The Long Tail you should at least get your head around it and understand the concept because I’m not the only one who talks about it.)

Hayden Black from Goodnight Burbank has launched a new video series entitled Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diaries and while I think the title of the series will get him some interesting traffic I also think it will make advertisers pause before placing their brands next to something that has “X-rated Teen Diaries” in the title. I also think there could be some issues with the type of traffic that finds Abigail through search and becomes very disappointed with what Abigail looks like and that they don’t get to see any naked teens having sex. I could be wrong but I do know from first hand experience with French Maid TV that those types of concerns are real. I’ve mentioned this to Hayden and I hope for his sake I’m wrong. Now that said, I do think that Hayden has been very smart in making this content evergreen much like what Sarah Atwood of Nontourage is doing with her new project Dear Addy May. Sara plays Addy May, a white trash character that gives advise to viewers in a trailer park trash kind of way. This is Dear Abby with a new media spin much like what Ask A Ninja has done.

Ask A Ninja, Addy May and Abigail’s X-rated Teen Diaries are all evergreen, simple to produce and emotionally engage viewers with spectacle and story that take place on screen and in the theater of the mind.