The Next Step
The Next Step: Machinima 102: Taught by Professor SilentxxBunny!
Okay, you finally finished your new video project and you are ready to share it with the world! That is... Get a better film audience than just your mother. This is the section where I show you how to do just that.
The first step is to get your video online where people are going to be able to find it easily (or often times by mistake) Which means you are going to need to host it somewhere, and there are PLENTY of sites on the internet willing to do just that. The trick is selecting a good host, because despite common beleif there ARE scam websites out there! Who would have thought?
Here are a few hosts that I highly recommend for getting a lot of veiws and getting yourself noticed. The first is quite obviously YouTube which is my chosen host that has always been loyal to me. I perfer YouTube over many other hosts because they allow you to create a custom profile and it is VERY community based, in the sense that people who like your videos can subscribe to you and leave you comments, and other directors can send you reveiws right on the website. Another pretty good host is Google Video which is a good host for embedding, but not for much of anything else, since there is no community aspect. I would only recommend using Google if you have a completely external site (such as this) and all you need is a place to store files. One of the best hosts (after YouTube) is Machinima.com because it was a site designed just for machinima and it will get you a good audience. The only con is that you cannot remove your video from their servers, once it is there, it is there, and you can't do a thing about it. That is the sole reason I refuse to use that site for video uploads (I am constantly revising my work) So that is a bit of a mood issue, and up to you to decide.
Disclaimer: I am a member, it is a good site for finding other great directors and they have a great forum. I just would not host my videos there.
Now, you have your video online, but the only people watching it are your friends. So that is a bit discouraging right? Not really. If you learn a few simple tricks you should hit the big time in no time (if you have a quality video) So here is what you do:
1.) Become a member of the community! This is the most simple AND effective way to get your name out and rake in the hits. Sign up for a few forums. Forums are a great place to post videos and find other great videos made by others. A word of warning though, do not just go to a forum to post your videos and then leave. This comes off as pushy and gives you a bad name. Only sign up if you think you are going to stick around and actually become a part of the community. In all honestly, people are more likely to watch your videos if you post in a forum regularly than if you post and leave. That just makes you look selfish!
2.) Meet some other directors. We won't bite your head off, odds are, if you ask one of us to give you a review we probably will. Just don't be stupid about it. If you leave me a comment that says nothing other than:
Omg Slntbnny wtch ma vidyas NOW pleez!
I will take you for a n00b and not return your message. But if you leave me a nice comment that politely asks me to watch/review your work I will never say no.
3.) NEVER underestimate the power of "Word of Mouth" I can't even begin to tell you how many great videos I have found just from other peoples recommendations. If you get a few loyal fans watching your machinima, pretty soon people are going to be showing up left and right with comments because so-and-so told them about you and they had to check it out. Beleive it or not, this will get you more hits than anything else. It is better to have a few LOYAL fans who will come back video after video than a lot of people who will comment once and never check back with you. Trust me, It is, this is where a lot of people go wrong, they try their hardest to get lots and lots of people to comment them and watch their work but they never think about the long run!
4.) Do not act too cocky! If I see a complete newbie acting like he is hot stuff just because he made one lousy video I will not hesitate to call him out on it, despite my passionate hate of internet drama.
5.) Do not take bad reveiws personally! If there is one thing that big name directors cannot stand it is an amateur whining about a bad reveiw! If somebody took the time to write you a well thought out reveiw pointing out your every mistake and giving you some solid advice, you should respect that and try to improve on it. Not threaten to kill the person!
Remember that you are never perfect, you always have something left to learn, and if somebody is willing to help you out or give you advice take it.
One last thing: Once you make it big and you are the one getting thousands of hits every day, do not forget the people who helped you out and made you who you are today. Take the time to reply to comments, help newbies, do not let fame change you. If you do you will find that more and more people are going to turn away from you and call you rather vulger names I would rather not bring up right now.
