Last night I attended Digital LA's "Characters Go Digital," which was held at the WGA. The night promised some interesting speakers, including my friend the Brilliant Jay Bushman (no really, that's his name!) as well as panelists representing brands from Looney Tunes to Spongebob to Wall-E to the Muppets.
When I read about it, I thought it was a can't-miss panel. With an hour of networking prior and after the event, I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet people within the digital entertainment community. The fact that they were mostly kids' properties made the virtual pot even sweeter. I'm a Kids' TV writer with animation experience with over thirty produced episodes of television. I've written on the upcoming web series "Woke Up Dead" and I created all the online content as well as the ARG for MTV's Valemont.
THESE ARE MY PEOPLE.
Networking events can be strange, because a lot of the times there seems to be little networking going on. The first thing that I do when I go to a digital event is let people know I'm going to be there, so I was announcing it on Twitter, Facebook and the like for days before. However, I still didn't know anyone in the room (except for my friend Jay, but I was there! to network!) The room was oppressively hot and it was difficult to read everyone's nametags, and while I'm generally good at walking into a room of people I don't know I felt sort of skeevy walking up to someone and saying THIS IS WHAT I DO.
I was thinking about this last night, wondering if there was a way to make these a little more specific - would I pay more if the people who ran the events actually "hosted," introducing people to others? I honestly don't know, but I need to figure out a better strategy. Again, this is an issue where I blame myself, not the organizer. However, I'd be curious what others in the tech community think.
The panel was great - even in instances where they covered ground I already knew, it reinforced some ideas that I already had and gave me additional ways to fight for those ideas when talking to studios and the like.
However, the impression I got (and it could be wrong) is that a lot of the online voices are being handled by marketers as opposed to writers. Or that marketers and writers are blending into one thing. While web TV has taught me to wear many hats - writer, producer, marketer - at the end of the day, I don't have a marketing background. I can't talk about ROI or clickthroughs, but I can discuss which characters should have a twitter and why, speak in multiple voices (I currently tweet over seven different character accounts) and engage with the community in the context of the narrative.
Do I need a marketing background? Or do I need to market myself to marketers?
As we drifted away from brands and into ARGs, there was some talk about choice and the letting your audience discover things on their own rather than pushing them to do so. Valemont has taught me that even though you drop certain clues, people will interpret them and pick up the conversation and even though it's not what you imagined or planned, it's even better. Because your audience is now participating, they're using their wits to so and they have a stake. Sure, I'm laying track while the train is running, but that's the brilliance of immediacy of doing this all online.
At the end of the panel, everyone rushed to speak to the panelists and I watched and listened while people discussed specific bits of business, and in a couple of instances, tried to get money for their web series. While there's something delightfully egalitarian about the whole process - I admire anyone who can go up to a stranger and ask them for money - I couldn't figure out how to make an impression in thirty seconds that would make me stand out.
At the moment, I'm not looking for a job or money, I'm looking for information and people within a community who are interested in telling stories any way they can. After my current gig with Electric Farm Entertainment is over (end of November) then sure, I will be looking for a job and money.
But even if I have neither, I'll be looking for a way to tell stories any way I can.
