James Brent Isaacs and Omar Najam- Making That Web Series

[JamesBrentIsaacs]

Thanks for joining us today and taking the time to share your experiences and insight!

I’m curious, how was it working for places like Geek & Sundry and Machinima, and what did you learn from working with companies like that? Anything we can apply to ourselves as content creators in terms of strategy, marketing, audience-building, even getting the attention of companies like that with content of ours that may be within their wheelhouse?

Thanks Jon,
I loved my time with Geek & Sundry, they spoiled me rotten those first few years. I’ll be honest, I lucked out with them. It was a timing thing. I was getting the ball rolling on competing in the World Thumb Wrestling Championships in England, and Jenni Powell (our producer of Fictional Fares) was producing the new vlogger channel at G&S and asked me to vlog about it. So like they say, a lot of it is luck, timing, and who you know.

Otherwise. Building your audience: Keep track of what people are responding to in your work like crazy: Who’s watching what, for how long. What types of your content is getting more views, comments, reposts. Everything. Carve out your brand from there.

Once you’re feeling good about that, check out the various websites, channels or companies that seem like the best match for your type of material/brand. And collaborate. Film, TV, Youtube, it’s all collaborative after a certain point. Don’t be afraid to work with others in any capacity, it will only help you.

What I learned from working with G & S? Trust your gut. Fight for whats important to you. You are your biggest ally and advocate.

[AnnaBanana]

…well now I have to know where you guys settled on putting you!! Have you filmed anything aside from your pitch yet?

[omarnajam]

How does that translate to online networking? You mentioned you’ve met people via YouTube before, and I imagine a lot of your friendships have started online. How do you go about cultivating legitimately productive relationships from just being online, and how do you turn those relationships into partnerships/collabs?

You know actually I think I might have an elegant answer to this amazing question! So almost all of all of my online friendships that have turned into collaborations have been around something we have in common. So maybe we both love Buffy, or we all love the bith band in the Cantina in Star Wars and think they’re underrated, if there’s a real life event going on in the world, like a convention or even, in the case of Buffy, a Buffy birthday celebration at Meltdown comics, I usually ask if they’re going to this real life event and if they are then it would be cool to meet. And when we meet, we chat about what we want to create and if there’s any overlap then we brainstorm and gameplan something super easy to execute, like one video, just to make sure we get along. And when everything goes well, we move onto two videos. Or a little series. Or a podcast.

So yeah, meet in person (though not essential), see what we both want to make/do, start small and see where the universe takes us!

[JamesBrentIsaacs]

Which of the Fictional Characters are you most excited to see and which are you most excited to work with?

Kernen!

Hands down the Jane Austen Episode. I can’t wait to ride in a care with Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Woodhouse, Elinor Dashwood and Anne Elliot. LADIES NIIIIIIGHT!!!

[Bri_Castellini]

I love that process! It’s a slow burn but with actual commitments at every stage! Out of curiosity, what’s both of yours’ current day jobs?

[omarnajam]

Hey guys! waves Great to see you both! Great to see you again, Omar! (He was on Super Geeked Up! last night).

Hello!! waves back Thank you so much for tuning in last night and this morning! I’ll see if I can work in another Carol Burnett reference into today’s AMA haha.

[omarnajam]

That’s awesome!! What’s it like creating art with a partner? How does the collaboration work, how do you split up responsibilities, etc?

I make James do everything. Just kidding, I’ll let him answer.

[filmwritr4]

Hehe

[JamesBrentIsaacs]

I miss Emma toooo!!! How long of a production process was Emma?

It was about a year. We would meet one weekend a month and shoot eight episodes over the course of Saturday and Sunday. A months worth of content in 2 days! I had it easy, I was usually in and out, but Joanna had it the worst. 70 pages of monologues that she would have a week to memorize. Soap Opera actors don’t have it that bad. I was always impressed by her.

[omarnajam]

That’s awesome!! I love that process! How do you think about incentivizing cast/crew to share crowdfunding links or episode links? Are there strategies you use/things you do to make it easier on them, or more fun for them?

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD QUESTION! So we’re still learning but so far, I’ve seen a lot more engagement when cast and crew gets to make a thing. So a short video, a personal post, something they get to do. We have a video coming out on Friday that our cast put a lot into cause it was just a fun thing to do. We’ve also seen a ton more traffic when we post about the charities our show is associated with because that’s not just a project to push, it’s a benefit. It’s something new to throw into the twitter feed. And it’s personal to our cast since the characters they play resonate with what these charities are doing. So anything/everything that makes your cast and crew feel welcome and creatively involved without having the pressure to run the campaign. Anyone can retweet a link, you chose these folks for a special reason and the campaign is a great time to let them shine.

[JamesBrentIsaacs]

That’s so cool! Where does the director sit in the car?? How do you do takes?

Don’t listen to Omar. That was only the first option. We have a video village now. It will be fine.

But yeah, we have these really amazing dashcams that wirelessly transfer the footage and you can look it all over immediately. Its going to allow for a very fast and easier shoot.

[filmwritr4]

@omarnajam @JamesBrentIsaacs What are some good tips on creating successful long-distance collaborations? I’m hoping to improve that, and to get better organized with scheduling, for my web series.

[omarnajam]

Was there ever any headbutting when bouncing ideas? I sincerely doubt either of you would think your ideas were “better” per se but we often have ideas that are special to us that the other might not see as being as important as you do.

Ideas and pitches definitely wrestled against each other! But we had a rule that nothing was precious and if there’s a personal reason someone wanted something in a script, be upfront about it from the get-go. So if someone was like “this is important to me because when I was a kid I felt this way” we’d always go in that direction cause that’s so interesting and personal and beautiful. We’re really spoiled with this project because everyone really likes each other and really respects each other and we’re all friends so we know the end goal is for everyone to be happy, and that makes cutting jokes and lines of dialogue and rearranging episodes super easy.

[JamesBrentIsaacs]

Hello. I have a question for each of you.

James: If you could be any flavor of ice cream, which flavor would you be?

Omar: If a train is moving on a rail at 60mph, and another train on the same rail is moving at 40mph in the direction of the other train, at what point would you be convinced to either have or not have pineapple on pizza, whichever you dislike?

Dammit Elias…
Mint Chocolate Chip, because everyone would like me, which, as a narcissist, is important to me.

[omarnajam]

I’m just getting it out of the way now before something worse can come along.

Y’all I think Kernen might have blackmail stuff on you…

Tune into our livestream on Saturday, I’m positive you’ll have case files of stuff to work with haha.

[Bri_Castellini]

Mint chocolate chip is nasty. If I wanted toothpaste in my chocolate, I’d just put toothpaste in my chocolate. #unpopularopinionapparently

[Bri_Castellini]

Alright folks, that’s our hour! @JamesBrentIsaacs and @omarnajam, you are free to stick around to answer the last few questions, but we know you’re deep in the crowdfunding grind so we understand if you have to peace out!

In any case, HUGE BIG THANKS to both of you for being here today, and we hope to see you around the forum in the future! Always nerdy, film-loving folks on here looking to chat or get advice

Check out the Fictional Fares campaign here:

Fictional Fares | Seed&Spark

[AnnaBanana]

Thank you! This was super interesting!

[Meg]

Thanks a lot!! Good luck on your campaign!

[omarnajam]

Do you guys have a contingency plan for if you don’t reach your goal? That’s what always freaks me out about crowdfunding… even if I used a site that is forgiving with goals (like IndieGoGo or GoFundMe) I’d be constantly worrying about not making the amount I needed and having to try and sell my cast/crew on lower rates and stuff which would be awkward since I know the advice for crowdfunding is to get them involved early on.

Oh yeah, it’s a little freaky! But fortunately we have the cameras already because this bay area company Revl was kind enough, and invested enough, to send us some cameras to play with so no matter what happens, we will be making the show. I remember Jenni told us at the beginning of the campaign, crowdfunding is less about the means and more about the community. So no matter what shakes up, our goal is to make a fun and entertaining show that our community gets a lot out of. And with such an amazing community with folks like yourself, fellow creators, that takes off a lot of the pressure. That was a really long answer, sorry, haha.