Travis Gordon is a video creator who manufactured the brilliant fantasy action web series Spellfury which has now amassed over 3 million views throughout its incredible existence! In addition to being a web series creator, he also teaches others on how to promote their videos to receive more views, comments, likes, subscribers, and love.

Spidvid has sponsored his latest video “How To Promote Your Videos –  Collaboration Edition” and it’s a worthwhile watch to learn how to collaborate with other talent to improve your production and entertainment quality, and how to leverage each other’s networks to drive more video views, and attract more overall attention for your team’s content.

If you create videos that may interest us to sponsor, please contact us and let us know how we can mutually benefit together.

What we’ve typically seen in the video production world is one of two scenarios.

The first is the traditional model which involves producers paying out money to all of the talent, and retaining 100% (or close to it) of the content ownership. There are buyers of talent and content, and there are sellers of talent and time.

The second scenario which we’ve seen take off in the last few years (thanks to America’s Funniest Home Videos and YouTube) is groups of friends and/or family coming together to collaborate on home made or amateurish productions.

A third scenario (Spidvid) now offers the ability for individuals from across the world to partner up with each other regardless of their backgrounds, talent, or locations. It’s kind of a hybrid model from the two above in that individuals remotely partner up together on production projects, share content ownership, leverage each other’s unique talents, and create quality video entertainment that may not fully rival high-budget projects but be 100x better than 99% of the crap created by friends and family.

We are working hard to create the Web’s open and collaborative video production ecosystem. Join us to empower a movement that challenges the status quo of traditional studios, and flips the video creation model on its head.

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A lot of money is flowing into online video companies these days, mainly for advertising, distribution, and some new media studios are getting spun off from the larger Hollywood studios. The important area that’s being overlooked is the production model as for the most part it remains relatively closed, but thankfully collaboration is playing a larger and larger role for every production team.

Production has long taken place via closed studio silos, which has succeeded because studios had the assets, money to attract professional talent, and distribution partnerships to make the model work. But now as every day goes by quality video content is getting cheaper to create, distribution is available for free all over the web, and so the last part of the equation is money. We are seeing more and more creators raising money for their web series and short film projects through websites like KickStarter, and using Spidvid’s platform you can partner up with other like-minded talent to create the video entertainment you envision.  Studios like to control the production model, and keep 100% of the content ownership, but this model is starting to be disrupted as the landscape is evolving towards openness, collaboration, and new forms of partnerships.

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If you are into the web series space like we are, you have likely heard of The International Academy of Web Television, or IAWTV for short. IAWTV is an independent organization of digital entertainment leaders, founded in 2008 to promote and recognize artistic excellence and technological innovation in the Web television and digital entertainment industries. Members of the Academy have achieved excellence in their respective fields, and include actors, agents, composers, content developers, directors, journalists, producers, technology innovators, and writers who actively participate in and support the Web television and digital entertainment industries.

The Academy oversees the Streamy Awards. The IAWTV has 11 board of directors including: Michael Wayne (Chairman), Dina Kaplan (Vice Chair), George Ruiz (Secretary), Miles Beckett, Drew Baldwin, Felicia Day, Zadi Diaz, Jim Louderback, Chris McCaleb, John McCarus, Timothy Shey, and Joshua Cohen.

The reason why I’m writing about the IAWTV today is because they have recently opened up membership to anyone in the online entertainment space who’s interested. This is a smart move because the Internet is open, so why should an Academy who is evangelizing online video’s future not also be too.

Are you a web series creator who wants to join the IAWTV? We may sponsor the membership of a creator, so if you feel you are very deserving of joining this incredible organization please comment below, send us an email, or tweet to tell us why the IAWTV would be lucky to have you.

We are always doing nice things for our community, so be sure to get all new posts delivered to your email, or via RSS.

I had the opportunity of joining Marc and Brett last week as a guest on their podcast “Web of Intrigue” and had a blast. We talked about Spidvid, open video production, new media, branded entertainment vs ads, and the online video space.

These guys are doing some big things in online video through their Fresh Baked Entertainment studio, and have a new web series (sponsored by VH) which is being very well received, see the trailer below for Life Unjarred.

If you are interested in the topics that we covered, want to hear what I had to say, and as a special bonus hear Marc and Brett pick on each other, then be sure to listen to the show below. If you have any comments be sure to include them below, or get in touch with an email or tweet us.

Thanks gentlemen, and thanks to their supporting cast Brendan and Kaylen for making this all possible!

This post in inspired by The Think Big Manifesto by Michael Port.

I have listed some quotes and questions from the book below, which inspires both Spidvid and our community to provide ideal environments to produce quality video content. There are some (Spidvid’s take) comments as well on how these quotes and questions relate to collaborative video production.

- Love is at the foundation of the very best collaborations. Spidvid’s take: any video will be produced better if the team members feel the love for each another.

- True collaboration is a give and take. True partnerships are founded in equality. Equality does not equal sameness. We don’t all bring the same skills or resources to the table, but we all bring something and we all need something. Spidvid’s take: every video project needs a diverse set of individuals to make things happen.

- The paradox: Big thoughts create independence, not dependence. Big thinkers act instead of compete. They discover that in an open, fluid, back and forth collaboration, in the free flow of ideas, when you can intrust yourself to the notion of trust, big thoughts get even bigger. Spidvid’s take: open and authentic collaboration will always yield better results than a closed silo type of approach. Our social platform has been developed using these key concepts.

- Collaboration levels: (1) Competitive interactions, (2) Cooperative transactions, and (3) Collaborative interactions. Spidvid’s take: there is competition for joining limited sized production teams, but healthy competition ensures projects receive the highest quality of talent possible. 2 and 3 are large parts of what our platform stands for.

- How do we find partners and collaborators? The same way you get a date. By believing in yourself and what you’re doing. When you are excited about a project, you will draw others to you. You will receive offers of help. More than you can even accept. Spidvid’s take: if the enthusiasm and confidence in your projects is evident it will motivate others to join your production teams, and the passion will trickle down to each member involved.

- People who play small think they have to do it all themselves. What about you? Are you ready to play bigger by truly collaborating with others? Spidvid’s take: our skills, talents, and outputs are limited when we are the only person working on a project. Working on a well coordinated team ensures that our projects get value which we can’t provide on an individual basis. Long live collaboration.

- Are you the kind of person people want to help? Do you enjoy collaborating with others? What kind of collaborations do you engage in? Can you take your partnerships to the next level? Who do you love?  Spidvid’s take: if you are open to leveraging a collaborative model, can delegate tasks to team members, and trust and believe in what your team is capable of, there should be lots of love when your videos are fully produced.

Statement of Collaboration

- I will be a person others want to work with.

- I will work with others without hidden or selfish intent to accomplish our mutual goals in the service of what each of us stands for.