CREATING CONTENT

Telling stories is what media is all about, capturing the minds and imagination of those who see what you make.

Is there any point in being average?

How do you stand out in a world that has imagery everywhere?

As a film maker I am realising that content and short stories are becoming more and more important and that this is an area that I am being tugged towards. It’s also fun.

Instead of thinking its a great form of communication and sitting on the fence I approached Anna and offered to do a content piece free of charge. This sparked the creative which resulted in Ana Luisa & I brainstorming an idea which we birthed, the concept being ‘fight queen’ which is underway. So if you want to do something, just do it!

We took into consideration the many questions posed about being successful in this overtraded segment of communication. Are we making a dynamic piece of content?

Being a disciplined film maker, no matter how small or big the project, they all take planning and more planning in order to execute a film that achieves the goals you set out to achieve. My process is getting reference images and then building a storyboard. There are such great sites to either buy stock footage from or use as references for what you wish to achieve.

Questions We asked ourselves :

What does it take to become a champion? how do you achieve a goal when the odds are stacked against you? Anna is an example of commitment and total perseverance.

We explore this commitment and drive in a strong piece of content that is evolving as we capture the elements.

You need to allow creativity to evolve, the storyboard we created was a great guide, but as we shot the visuals so the story evolved, however if we were not prepared to let the idea evolve we would rob ourselves of producing a creative story.

Everybody is seeking content creators to tell their stories in the most effective compelling ways, it’s become a mega business that’s sometimes overlooked by more established film makers.

The business of communication seems to be evolving from commercials TRANSFORMING into content.

Advertisers are wanting consumers to identify with their brands. The competition is steep, and there are many film makers offering their skills to this segment of the market. The communication, however is always as good as the concept or script, its the foundation and the area where we need to spend more time. (It’s sometimes an under valued skill)

Everybody is looking for ‘views’, and ‘followers’ – and therefore the results become measurable? Much like commercials which went on television, advertisers are using social media to launch their campaigns, finding keywords and hashtags that attract large audiences and placing their content online where the market is now global. They say the ‘world is your oyster’

What sells ? What attracts viewers? How do you get likes?

We are looking forward to finishing this ‘spec shoot’ and seeing what it achieves out there and whether it generates paying work, or whether it was just a labour of love. This you don’t know until you’ve put yourself out there and tried.

Having worked on numerous campaigns and directed stars and future stars and people who behave like stars and just normal actors who have the talent of stars, i know each experience and each job brings new challenges, new area’s of learning, new relationships, and most of all keeps you alive and excited about life and what you as a media or content creator can create,

Do you post violence, sex, drama , someone famous, showcase work you’ve done, beautiful people, a quote or an image with controversy ?

One of my posts that attracted the most likes was this image, it speaks so much about the world we live in. I forget the views, but 4000 likes is a great achievement, this on my instagram BRUCEMAC1 – I tend not to promote posts, as these just showcasing work that I have done as opposed to marketing a product, or launching a film etc…

Funny how famous people can load an arb image and we hit ‘like’ and they have 30k likes just like that. So is an association with a well known personality good for your brand?, will that bring you attention or will good creative and strategic thinking lead to success?

I don’t know….. : but what I do know is that each and every story that we undertake needs thorough planning and execution that’s as innovative and creative as we can make it. The ultimate hope that the imagery and story resonate with an audience and that your message or story gets eye-balls.

Questions I am told we should ask as we write our script for social media :

1. Does your headline/story have a clear and newsworthy hook?
2. Did you use simple, easy jargon free language? / how will it translate on camera
3. Did you try fold in some emotive language?
4. Have you used sentences of 15-20 words or less? is the piece short enough, not boring and long.
5. Have you included a testimonial, or quote ?
6. Is it free from typos and errors? are the images in focus, is the sound okay
7. Is the whole thing interesting?
8. Would you want to read it? or watch it…
9. How important are the visuals?

I am sure there are many other cross checks that one can do, depending on your aim. Do you want people you don’t know to like your family pictures? People you don’t know, to applaud your achievements? or are you posting to achieve an end goal? are you building a brand?

So why am I writing to unknown readers?

Well, I originally started this BLOG as moving to Portugal was an immense step, and the process was highly complicated and still is, so my motivation was to help others planning on moving as to what to expect or what steps to take.

Doing this CONTENT is part of the journey, as telling stories is how I make a living, so it’s been rewarding sharing our journey and remembering the process.

Another fun piece of content that I have done is for our rugby club, as they build their brand. Each week I shoot something on my IPHONE, and piece something together that seems to be gaining traction. So something simple has become effective. They short and punchy and don’t preach the philosophy or advantages or disadvantages, they just fun and show different aspects of rugby life in a country thats besotted with soccer.

So even as an experienced film director who has done big features, I am excited by doing ‘content’ for my club for free in order to use my skills to help others. I don’t need a massive camera or big lights, I just need to be daring and try new ways of capturing a story, editing them myself and finding the music, – a one man band:

Looking forward to serving the community telling their stories and making a difference to the way people perceive organisations and communities.

Boomtown Portugal is being birthed. Small things that seem insignificant become big things….. you just need faith and be prepared to re-invent yourself, never be comfortable and rest on your laurels. Life moves on. In amongst this life of experimentation is the need to keep one’s normal business life going and I read scripts, create decks (look books), send proposals to potential funders and generally hustle….

Bruce Macdonald from Porto (The City of Angels)