I've been making @beavercanuck puppet videos for awhile - attacking the #cpc and @pmharper over being asshats. Yeah, they're a little partisan - and VERY esoteric.
So having put another bunch of hours into another video
that is only understandable to #cdnpoli geeks…and even then at a stretch assuming the 'humour' works at all - I have to ask myself am I willfully making videos so obscure that they cannot possibly reach a wide audience?
and I think the truth of it is is that I'm somewhat obsessive over Canadian politics on twitter, so I've got real blinkers on what even the average Canadian knows about…and I've got a hate on for Stephen Harper and feel the need to do something to mock him.
As a 'business' strategy it's not really working - but it is keeping me motivated enough to keep producing. Which is probably as important as whether anyone watches.
Having spent years kind of producing my own 'stuff' very sporadically, we're kind of at a sweet point technologically where it's easier than ever to produce material, and personally I'm both sufficiently desperate to put out 'something' and proficient enough with the software to churn stuff out relatively quickly.
Now - I know some of the corners I'm cutting - the worst being the writing. In my rush to 'do something' I either don't script or only lightly script my videos, and then put much more time into producing and editing them - the result being that the jokes aren't exactly screamers, and they still take a long time to get out there. In the past I've gotten discouraged by the lack of audience feedback and stopped.
But I'm also of the opinion that I need to embarrass my way forward - I'm experimenting, and the costs of each video, in time, likely needs to be incurred no matter what my approach.
I don't just want to write and rewrite jokes - I want to put stuff out in front of an audience, no matter how small.
I'm trying different approaches - My Thomas Mulcair runs a stop sign
was basically improv'ed straight into my (new) microphone - and was a lot more spontaneous and 'fun' than other stuff I've written and then 'performed'…
the sweet spot I'm really looking for is a balance between fast and cheap and worthwhile - I'd written a five page script for what became Elizabeth May Pants John Baird and Stephen Harper dodges questions - which I may append to the end of this…and wanted the video to be much faster with more elements - a whole section mocking Pauline Marois for her Quebec soccer federation turban ban position 'I am Sikh of this…' 'Quoi?' 'Le hasch est muet…' 'Hash?' - anyhow - hilarious TO ME…
Now pretty much any book on startups, and this likely applies to anyone building a brand or band or whatever, is that you need to spend twice the time marketing, and figuring out how to get paid, for your product or ideas as you do working on your ideas…
so I go as far as tweeting links, and have started posting to reddit (thanks @aimeedavison)…a pinterest, etc…
But this falls into the dilemma so many people have that people don't 'want' to promote themselves - they want to be 'creative' etc…which, at 42, reeks of bullshit. NO ONE DESERVES TO GET RICH SCREWING AROUND WITH FELT PUPPETS! - or playing indie emo drivel, or whatever your 'thing' is…if people are going to give you money - which is essentially give you some of their life force, because money is generally earned with time, which is all we have and not much of it, then you better be worth it.
For the moment my level of creative anxiety is manageable - I'm supposed to be starting a job so 'have some time' and am enjoying the process. Each time I hit a beat - like getting Elizabeth May's biplane to shoot with the propeller spinning, or putting Stephen Harper in a crown…it's pretty amusing…and if 'This Hour has 22 Minutes' or 'Rick Mercer' or whoever happens to fall upon this stuff - well, I'd love to take your money for it.
Have I reached out to them? Not yet. I want to get better first…could you, dear reader, help by sharing and favoritting and subscribing? Yes - that is exactly WHAT I WANT FROM YOU.
It's google juice - how things get momentum. But I have to earn it. And keep asking.
So please SUBSCRIBE.
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