This Bloody, Hungry Revolution
Nearly five years ago, my wife and I set out on a road trip across America, armed with a couple of cameras, laptops, and a burning need to tell a story about a growing insurgency against big box stores. What we didn’t have were jobs (I was determined never to work in TV news again), much money in the bank, or any clue what we were going to do with our footage when we got home — it was all “close, but no cigar” with networks like PBS and Discovery, which meant all our effort could conceivably lead to nothing.
But thanks to a pioneering social media strategy, grassroots interest in our film, and really good timing, a lot of people paid attention, and our documentary has been viewed around the world. We continue to get requests to attend community screenings — from Hyannis MA to Port Townsend WA, even as some of the issues have evolved (Wal-Mart has turned over a new leaf, Starbucks is in slow retreat, many Americans now truly mistrust their powerful institutions and believe in “local first.”). We’ve had broadcast deals, and we’ve sold DVD’s. It was probably one of the main reasons why the University of Washington hired me to lead its graduate degree program in digital media. So have we benefited enough? Is it now time to give it away, streaming it for free on Hulu, second only to YouTube when it comes to online video? Isn’t that what you do with your content in the multimedia age?
It’s a challenging question for someone in my position — both professional creator and academic trying to understand the future of media. The filmmaker wants to retain control over his creative work, and continue to profit from it (Independent America never made us rich nor Super Sized us, but we at least made a decent income from our monumental effort). The professor tells his students about Yochai Benkler’s Wealth of Networks, and how thanks to a proliferation of content creation tools and distribution platforms, amateurs can now compete with professionals for reasons other than financial. Content has become a commodity, we must find other ways to monetize the fruits of our creativity and earn that scarce currency of fleeting attention. Maybe widespread proliferation of this film will build brand awareness and demand for its sequel, Rising from Ruins? Or maybe it doesn’t matter as we cultivate goodwill by contributing to the media commons?
And as I try to lead the charge for the dynamic duo of storytelling and social media, it makes sense to showcase how I stand for these two pillars through my own work — especially as I contemplate writing a book on the importance of storytelling in the 21st century. Except that I’ve never been able to bear reading any of the online comments related to the film when it was featured by Yahoo! News, and I’m certainly not going to be able to stomach the exposure we’ll get through Hulu. So much for my advocacy of engaging community, and joining the conversation! And what about building a brand through the Groundswell? Or Here Comes Everybody?
Even more conflicting for me: there’s nothing user-generated about Hulu. It’s Hollywood’s attempt to wrestle multimedia dominance away from YouTube (as an NBC/News Corp. joint venture) — the Empire strikes back against the amateurs who had taken the first few innings of the game. So in a funny way, I’ve proudly hit the big time with our homemade film, by returning right back to where I started (as a former NBC staffer). Presently, it’s featured on Hulu’s homepage slideshow, right after De Niro’s Ronin, but preceding Dracula, Speed Racer, and 30 Rock. And irony of ironies, the intro ad just may be from Disney, Wendy’s or…Wal-Mart depending on when you stream (already prompting one negative comment, “who paid for this?”).
After waxing poetically to our recent cohort of students about how media was in the middle of a seismic transformation, I then joked that it has been said that all revolutions eat their young. We just may have been devoured.
IA on the Hulu homepage
Independent America: A Q&A with Filmmaker Hanson Hosein
(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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3 Comments, Comment or Ping
Scott Loughran
Your dilemma is understood Hanson. It’s hard to work on something as we all adjust our career goals and perspectives, only to have that work distributed through where we left. As long as media continues to conglomerate, they will have to create these front groups to persuade consumers that the content is genuine (no persuasion necessary for your film). Front groups aren’t something that fit the transparency model of the web, and even though NBC & News Corp.’s front group may be Hulu, it is still a major distribution channel that provides its content in higher quality than other video sites. What becomes more important, the medium or the message?
I think this idea of conglomeration and front groups has been more recognized when the movie and television industries are involved with big mergers like Time Warner/AOL or News Corp/MySpace, but is a more common theme with solely web-based media organizations. For example since 2001 Google alone has acquired 55 web-based companies, and for those deals that financial terms were released, they spent over seven billion dollars. This type of web conglomeration had made an entirely new business plan of web start-ups over the last decade; create something cool and useful enough to get some press then sell-out as soon as possible.
Just as corporations and industries create front groups to pass agendas to the public, the new trend will be web-based content having to be presented through a front group page to suffocate the whispers. Good luck with the new venture through Hulu as the message of Independent America is much more important than the medium it is viewed through.
Nov 6th, 2009
David Jones
The decision between gatekeeping your content vs. giving it away for free is difficult, and one that many marketers face everyday when dealing iwth the digital world. As a marketer with valuable content to share, there’s a fine balance between giving it away for free and asking for something in return. By asking for something in return, you automatically narrow your potential field of consumers. Yet, without the “return”, its difficult to demonstrate to the powers that be (as well as yourself) that the fuits of your effort were justified.
I recall listening to a lecture by Malcolm Gladwell shortly after Blink arrived on bookstore shelves, and in the lecture he was essentially telling us everthing that was in the book. All secrets revealed. At the end of the lecture, someone in the audience asked Malcolm why he hadn’t held anything back? Malcolm replied, the best way to get someone to buy something from you is to first give it away. He wasn’t targeting his pre-existing customers, he was hoping to build a “relationship” with those in the audience who weren’t his customers. If his told his story well, he knew is customer base likely just expanded.
Now certainly, this doesn’t hold true for everything, but his point was well taken. In this digital age where there is so much competition, its almost imperative that we build presence, familiarity and trust which ultimately will lead to loyalty and demand and one way to do that is by giving away content. In many ways, its the loss leader model. You give away one service (or good) in order to make money with another service either near or long term. In your case, Hanson I would say this model proved out because it provided you the right kind of exposure and the right time to be offered the opportunity to lead the MCDM. Likewise, the equity you gain from having your documentary on Hulu will likely come into play when its time to release your follow up.
However, it plays out I wish you best of luck!
Nov 6th, 2009
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