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[tpearson-lowlightstudios]

MC2005 - Post 4

Over the course of this project, I’m not upset with how it’s turned out. However, there are a few things I would change if I were to do this again in the future. For starters, I realised that YouTube was more difficult to traverse as a creator than I had thought. I have posted before but not consistently as I was for this project. I had intended on doing more community-based techniques on YouTube that I couldn’t find how to do myself. For example, I wanted to do polls on the channel so that I could determine how people were feeling about the project from people on the channel. However, I believer that it provides a difference between my Instagram page and the YouTube page that gives potential subscribers a choice of two different experiences. While on Instragram, you can see my content and all the extra things I may post whereas on YouTube it’s much less cluttered which some people may prefer. Despite this, I still would have liked to get the experience so that I could be better with my various platforms.

Another issue I came across was again with YouTube. Within one day of creating the channel and posting just one video to begin the week, the channel got taken down the next day for “suspicious activity”. I did immediately make a report to get my account back but I couldn’t go off schedule so I had to use a personal channel for the purpose of posting. By the time I got the account back I was nearly done with the project. This meant that I couldn’t go with the ‘lowlight studios’ brand the whole time which means that I’ll repost everything on the original channel when I can outside of this project.

On the brighter side, I found that I was spoilt for choice when it came to content which I was very proud of. Being able to handpick the mood for each day and display my talents at the same time felt very rewarding. It also meant that I had a lot of time in the week to do my final blog post but also to put together my showreel. In essence, I felt very prepared that I was able to have everything lined up and ready to go despite cutting it fine with the due date. It let me polish the project properly into something I could be proud of.  

Another aspect of what I’ve done that I like is the website. It was my first time creating one and I feel I’ve done a good job with it. The colour theme is consistent, easy on the eyes, simple and traversable. There are ways to get to all my content on both YouTube and Instagram, the logo dictated the theme, there’s plenty of info about me, the projects as well as some behind the scene looks at experiences in my life that weren’t involved on the Instagram page which gives the website some exclusivity.

In conclusion, I found this project to be very helpful. I’ve been able to get experience in making a professional image of myself as well as finally getting around to creating my own website and showreel, something I’ve been wanting to do now for a long time. Learning to use social media to help my image is going to be incredibly useful and I fully intend to keep growing these pages long after the project is finished and marked. I already have plans to add a lot of preproduction work to the website so that I can show skills that aren’t only practical as I really enjoy the paperwork side of things as well.

[tpearson-lowlightstudios]

MC2005 - Post 3

https://twitter.com/GettyMuseum

The Getty Museum came up with a fantastic idea that went viral in order to stay relevant as a physical attraction during a pandemic where there’s no point trying to get anybody to come to them. They started a challenge with a hashtag pinned with it that took off like a storm. The challenge was to recreate different pieces of art in their home as a “budget” version of it.

This is something that I find very interesting as it lets people all over the world take part in something that isn’t costly, is fun and they can do in the comfort of their own homes. With everybody else posting and sharing using this hashtag it only got bigger. This meant that it was able to reach more creative minds which brought posts that got it even more popular whether it be because it was funny, impressive or even if it was done by someone who’s already popular.

What I liked most was that anybody could take part. Something that I’ve done before during my college course as well as at university is to make something with the inspiration of a single word. If I were to start this challenge through my Instagram and show how simple and easy it can be then maybe I could do something similar that people can also participate in. If I use other hashtags that would attract people similar to me then it may inspire them to do the same while using the same hashtag. If I get given credit in their posts then the followers that they have may find their way to my page and further increase my audience.

At this point, I now have all of the short films done and ready. Everything in terms of content for the social media and the website is complete. All I need to do now is post them at the right times and edit piece together the showreel for the final climax of the project which I have the whole week to do now that I have the hard parts out of the way. However, the longer this has gone on, the more I regret my decision to make it a much shorter campaign to give me the benefit of being able to save up more content so I can front load my website launch and showreel reveal. I’m worried that there won’t be much of a following before the climax which would make the whole effort much less effective than I had thought it might be. However, if during the week I put a lot of work into interacting with people online, maybe getting a shoutout then it could still be effective. I’m also still having some issues in creating the website as the mechanics to it are still unfamiliar to me, however I am happy with the overall look of it. It may be that by the time this project is done, some parts of the site might still need some work on but I am happy so far with what I’ve managed to make and look forward to expanding on it further.

[tpearson-lowlightstudios]

MC2005 - Post 2

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheGaroStudios/community

In order to get a good idea of how to use social media, I took the opportunity to look at other people or sites that have a similarity to what I’m doing in order to take inspiration. One thing that stood out for me was a YouTube channel that I’d been a fan of for a few years now called TheGaroStudios. It’s a YouTube channel that releases what is essentially fan videos of films or series’ to elicit strong emotions about certain characters or storylines e.g., showing the heroism of Jon Snow from Game of Thrones or the heartbreak surrounding Professor Snape from Harry Potter. He even got an edit of Iron Man shared by the Russo Brothers before the release of Avengers Endgame. It’s all created by a single video editor who does freelance work, mostly on short films, who started the channel as a passion project.

Apart from his presence on YouTube, he doesn’t really do much to engage or interact with his audience despite having an active Instagram. He instead posts more personal content with pictures of himself and captions with no relevance to his YouTube content. There is the occasional short clip, but it doesn’t link to his channel or even mention it. His YouTube channel on the other hand posts semi regularly and allows fans to take part as a community. This aspect of his online presence isn’t what I’d take inspiration from as I believe that it impedes his channel growth. People are often discovered outside of YouTube these days as social media has become a huge source of consumption for people in the modern world. Taking advantage of the various algorithms can be a huge help in reaching more people with things like an explore page and hashtags you can use to be seen by people who are more likely to be interested.

He will post polls that would allow the fans to select which kind of subject they’d like to see in his next edit but also lets them voice their opinions on any current events that relate to the different fandoms that he posts for. This is a great way to maintain subscribers and at the same time raise hype for content. Not only that, but it also means that he can release content that he knows will be anticipated by his subscribers. With what I have in mind, I may be able to do something similar, perhaps with some extra involvement from the audience in the form of a competition. This idea would be called the one word challenge where we would ask for a single word to create a short film from as inspiration. However, with the time constraints it would have to be a very short and simple film. I believe that this can be a positive as it will make it easier for more people to be involved as it’s not very demanding and I’d be able to be a part of it myself.

So far, the project has been fairly demanding but manageable. I’ve got two short films that I’m planning to make brand new for this project which I’ll be able to do when I go back to my hometown and work with some people again who has all the equipment we’ll need as well as access to a couple very useful locations. During the gaps between producing the short films and other work, I’ll be designing the website to release at the same time I start the social media pages. I’ve also managed to get my hands on photos on set of previous projects so that I now have extra content I can post.

[tpearson-lowlightstudios]

MC2005 - Post 1

For this unit, we’ve been tasked with creating a social media campaign to create anticipation for the launch of something of our own choice. I’ve decided to go with a website that advertises myself as a possible employee, highlighting my own skills as well as bringing attention to different texts I’ve taken part in creating and speaking about my role in creating these pieces.

I’ve decided that because of the nature of the project, I’d do a shorter campaign with large content/interaction to essentially burn bright and fast as I don’t see excitement for a showreel to last for one specific person who is just starting up. My thinking is that if I go from nothing to a lot in a short time frame, it’s much more likely to get attention lasting long enough for the final showreel. In order to do this, I’m planning on releasing a new product every day of the project that differ enough from each other to be considered a new skill. This will mean that I’ll start production early on in the semester as well as revisiting a couple older projects to make them more suitable to release again.

I’ve thought about various marketing strategies to increase the popularity of the page. One technique I’ve thought about is to routinely post different teaser trailers or short films to display the different skills I have whilst providing content that could engage with the audience. These would be short films that I have already made in the past that I’d be sampling from to create my showreel at the end of this project. All of these past short films have also provided me with additional things I can post like set photos, the editing process, interviews with team members etc. that could show the different parts of the set I’ve been on as well as my professionality and team skills.

This covers the assurance aspect of my brand as it secures a display of professionalism and capability. At this point I now want to add a sense of engagement with my following in order to maintain their interest in what I have to offer. I’ve come up with a few ideas in order to achieve this. The first thing that came to mind was to ask for suggestions as to what people would want to see from me. This would be something I’d do after releasing a couple that I’ve already done so that they can get a feel of what I’m capable of in the position I’m in and my kind of style. Giving people the idea that they can have an influence on what’s posted on the page will provide the sense that they’re getting exactly what they want and that I really do care about the opinions and wants of the audience. My other ideas include things like a collaboration with other creators, a short film competition or fanart releases but that would include a niche group where they’re either fans of both creators, are a creator or can draw. Considering that I’m planning on doing a very short marketing campaign, I don’t believe that I’ll be able to reach enough of a following where I’d be able to do these successfully to reach the right people.

All that’s left at this point is to think about navigation to create a full and effective picture of what my brand will be. This will be addressed through the various platforms that I’ll be using which will include Instagram, YouTube and my own website. I need to make sure that all of these will be easy to find by anyone who comes across any of those platforms so that they can follow their preference of page. Each page will have links in order to reach either of the other two platforms so that not only can they make that choice, but they’ll be exposed to the different content on each one, whatever may be more engaging to them.