Alec

McNayr

I got an email from a stranger the other day. Someone who wants to be a creative-type, found HistoricalTweets.com, and thought they’d reach out to me. A nice person, but one problem.

In their first sentence, they asked for a job. Didn’t beat around the bush. Didn’t ask about opportunities. Didn’t hint at the desire to work with/for me. Full-on asked for a job at McBeard.

I wrote a simple and kind reply, but the more I thought about it, I thought I might write a more thorough post on how to cold-pitch people for jobs or gigs or freelance work. I wish someone had written this to me when I was 22.

So, my advice:

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Post #2 of my Personal History project. Previously lost memories rescued by digitizing old slides, reels, etc.

Three months ago, I shipped a box of photo slides and reel-to-reel 8mm videos to Scan Digital, and just received the digital files back.

The troves of forgotten memories are amazing, both from my childhood and my parents’ childhoods. It’s a virtual look back at history, before GPS, color TV, and even push-button telephones. Dare I say it, “a simpler time.” I’ll be sharing the photos and videos over the next few months, one per day.

Looking forward to your thoughts and comments, about how these relate to your own memories of the 80s, 70s, 60s, and 50s…

First up, a video of me as a baby, circa 1979. Waaaaaaaaaaah!

As you can tell from my infrequent posting, I’ve moved my focus and attention over to a new partnership I’ve created with longtime friend, amazing writer, and now co-author Alan Beard.

Alan and I wrote the Historical Tweets book together, and it has spawned many new opportunities to create branded social media for clients I never thought I’d be able to reach.  Collectively, we call the new agency McBeard.

So, for the meantime, you can find me over at McBeardMedia.com, and see some of the work we’re doing over there.

Feel free to give a shout at alec (at) mcbeardmedia (dot) com or hit me up on ‘the Twitter’ at @alecmcnayr.

Okay, we get it.  The Streamys sucked this year.

I’ve seen enough “nail in the coffin” and “last Streamys ever” updates on Twitter.  They get it.  They did a bad job.

There are a lot of people who have meticulously deconstructed why the show went wrong, from the bad opening number to the streakers to the embarrassing technical glitches (in a room full of nerds, no less) the “nobody cares about online video” man-on-the-street video to the way-too-long and obscene “comedy” bits.

As an IAWTV member and someone who knows the show’s executive producers Marc, Drew, Brady, and Josh personally — I’ll add this to the conversation: just one year ago, this didn’t even exist.

This was an event that literally didn’t exist a year ago.  And though I think the show was really bad and a detriment to the  momentum we all feel about online video, people are calling for heads to roll.  Really?

Without the Tubefilter guys, would this even exist?  No.  Would there be a community as thriving as there is in Los Angeles?  No.  So let’s back off a little, because these guys aren’t money-grubbing, smarmy used car salesmen.  Trust me, they’re taking this seriously and will come forward with a plan.  That doesn’t happen in 24 hours.

Do I think this was a bad show that showcased the juvenile nature of the Web against its more established media counterparts?  Yes. But the result — the backbiting and negative comments — are proving the other stereotype of the Internet: not unlike the comments on a YouTube video, a lot of people are hating on something they don’t want to do (or couldn’t do) themselves.  These guys built this from nothing.  Give them a break.

BEHIND THE FRUSTRATION

I wonder if a lot of the frustration with the show is because there feels like something was lost.  A naive dream, perhaps.  Web series creators, including the majority of people in that theatre, make little money and can’t support themselves doing it like their TV or film counterparts.  Surely, a Streamy Awards show debacle doesn’t help them getting closer to “sustainable living,” but surely the big payoff wasn’t so close that the Streamys ruined it.

The sad truth is that, for most online content producers (and offline for that matter), there is very little income to be spread around right now, and for independents who are also “up and comers” — myself included — there is a smaller and smaller pie.  Celebrities that you might normally see on TV and movies are taking advantage of online opportunities (such as Kevin Pollak, Tony Hale, Zach Galifianakis, Illeana Douglas) to have more creative control and ownership over their work.  Traditional media companies and ad agencies are looking for “sure things” from people with TV/film experience.  Sure, there are indies that get funding and/or distribution.  But for every Bannen Way, there’s a thousand Web series that won’t make a cent.

It’s tough to be independent.  But it’s just tough in general.  That’s the entertainment business, regardless of medium.  The road for online producers/creators/writers isn’t an easy one.  And you can’t blame the Streamy Awards this year for you not getting what you want.

If you want to make Web videos, do it. And keep doing it.  Just like the Oscars and Emmys — just do what you do and let the awards take care of themselves.

But don’t look to the Tubefilter guys as scapegoats.  If you want things to change, offer to help.  I’m sure they’re all ears to real criticism if offered with a helping hand.

[Some updates made above to my rhetoric and logic, after some comments called them out below.]

[I just posted this to Historical Tweets, but since so much of my lack of writing here can be directly attributed to my work on the forthcoming book, I figured I'd share the news here as well!]

We just sent the book off to the printers, and we couldn’t be more excited. It’s destined to be the year’s #1 best-seller in the crowded history/Twitter/humor category, hands down.

SO, now that the book is done, we bring you:

10 Little-Known But Totally Inspiring True Facts About
Historical Tweets:The Completely Unabridged and Ridiculously Brief History of the World

1. The book has 144 full-color pages.
2. For all you spatial thinkers, it measures 8-1/8 inches wide by 5-1/2 inches tall.
3. The cover art was created by artist Barry Blitt, whose work is often seen on the cover of The New Yorker.
4. The book features 50 of the best tweets from the Historical Tweets site from 2008 to now.
5. The book contains over 8o brand new, never-before-seen tweets.
6. New tweets from the likes of T-Rex, Socrates, Merlin the Magician, The Vikings, Napoleon, and Gorbachev.
7. The book also features all-new types of Twitter-esque humor like conversation stacks, tag clouds, and hate tweets.
8. Besides @historicaltweet, you can follow our whole team on Twitter: authors @alecmcnayr and @abeard, our humor and fact checker @dbrisco, our editor @ryandoh, and our agent @kate_mckean (she’s popular).
9. Of the new tweets in the book, our personal favorites are Agamemnon (Alan) and Isaac Newton (Alec).
10. The book is on sale for pre-order for as low as $9.45 right now.

We hope you’re as excited for the book as we are. As always, thanks for your support.

- Alan & Alec

Hilarious.

This isn’t the Disney we know today, but from the early days… presumably before synergy was invented.

If there’s one thing to learn from this, it’s that the main thing is the main thing.  Management and production is all subservient to the director, who has the difficult task of maintaining quality, on Walt’s direct behalf.  Without quality, the whole thing falls apart.

For those that don’t follow me on Twitter, I turned in the final materials for my Historical Tweets book yesterday, due in bookstores April 27, 2010.  Our editor is already loving it (whew!), and the Random House juggernaut is starting to take over.

I’ll probably write more about this later, but I wanted to share my immediate thoughts as I finished the book, and now consider myself an author.

• It’s anticlimactic. All that work, and a delayed reward.  Book doesn’t come out for over four months.  For the book business, by the way, that is lightning fast.  There’s probably a lesson in delayed gratification there.
• I’m proud of what we did. There was a few weeks when our draft had a lot of flab, but last week we trimmed our Tweets list from about 170 to 130, and the fat was cut away.  The final product, I feel, is very, very funny.
• I’m thankful for a team. Not only for Alan Beard, a funny writing partner, but for the extended team: Darnell Brisco, who did a lot of research and grunt work for us, for our families, and Katie in particular, who allowed “the book” to be an excuse for not cleaning up the house, not having a “real job,” not showering, saying no to social gatherings, and not going to bed until 2AM. And that doesn’t even include the extended-extended team that includes friends and family who have been endlessly supportive through notes, calls, Twitter, and Facebook.
• I’m humbled by the scale. They’re going to do a first run of 100,000 books for the U.S. and Canada alone.  At a retail price of $14, they’re looking to generate $1.4 million off of a little idea I had a year ago.  That’s crazy to me.  Makes me treasure little ideas more.
• I’m ready for more. We’re already talking about the follow-up.

Any questions about the process I should go into?  Leave me questions in the comments, and I’ll answer.

Thanks for your support!

PS — I’d be remiss if I didn’t give you a link to pre-order the book on Amazon.  Here it is.

Two quick links, both forwarded to me by Alan Beard in the last 24 hours:

How to Create Product Demo Videos that Get Social Media Attention: 6 Strategies to Increase Sales
via Marketing Sherpa

“Aaron Miller, President, ProGuitarShop.com, sees online video as the perfect medium for selling the retailer’s boutique electric guitar effects pedals.

In late 2007, ProGuitarShop.com was primarily an eBay retailer struggling to build traffic to their website. Miller’s team created a new strategy that avoided focusing on search engines. Instead, they built traffic through social networks, mostly by video marketing through YouTube.

Two years and more than 550 videos later, the team captures about 45,000 unique video views daily on YouTube and between 15,000 and 20,000 on their website — all from a niche audience. Sales have doubled each year since the effort began.”

Stella Artois Ditches Old-Time Campaigns, Creates Retro “TV” Station
via Fast Company

“How long is it until companies begin sponsoring full-on TV shows of their own and publishing them on the Web? That doesn’t sound too much different from television entertainment in the 1950s and the rise of soap operas. And now, the economics make tremendous sense: Why bother creating TV ads if you can get a few million views with no distribution costs while simultaneously creating and having final cut control over far more ambitious content?”

How long indeed?  It’s happening already.  One by one, brands are realizing the power of creating a constant flow of interesting, inexpensive media — forgoing the overhead-rich worlds of TV and traditional advertising.

The Fast Company asks how long it will be until a brand asks the creators of a show like Gossip Girl to create extended storylines with brands in center stage.  Not too long, I feel. But the question for aspiring and independent creators is — if I don’t work for a network and I don’t make a TV show, what career path can I take to get better cred with brands?

It’s something I’m wrestling with myself.

The answer is that you have to have proof of your work.  And, following the logic trail, you have to have work to get results!

If you’ve followed my career — and I know all six of you reading this have — you’ll see Pepperdine University (recognizable brand), Mann Theatres (regionally known brand), my own project Flipper Nation (350,000 views + awards), deals with ABC (again, a brand), Historical Tweets (4.7 million page views this year), and only now do I have an opportunity to step in front of brands.

The shackles are off.  Make something.  Put it online.  Do it again.  Brands don’t want a one-time hit, they want someone who can deliver results.  So don’t be the one-timer.  Keep working, keep crafting.  Keep getting better.  In time, the results will come.  And so will the brands.