The Making of "Hybrid Vigor"

[Brandon J.F.]

For the last few months we have been building up a bit of a following for the feature film we are making called "Hybrid Vigor". We have over 90,000 followers on Twitter now and over 4,000 Fans on Facebook and we just started a couple months ago. We just launched our YouTube channel and already have over 500 subscribers. The numbers are really starting to become mind blowing. Literally tens of thousands of people who work or want to work in the film business follow us on Twitter. There are celebrities and top Hollywood producers on down to young kids making little films for YouTube with dreams of becoming a director someday. We have really met some amazing people.

What is this all for?

We have started a weekly web series following the making of the film. Each episode will be 5 to 10 minutes long. The film will, of course, be shot on my RED Scarlet-X (#6). The first episode just went online moments ago and here it is!

Episode 3

I'm really excited about this film and sincerely want to thank everyone at RED for their hard work. Without you guys this film would not be possible.

I will be updating this thread as we have news and as we release new episodes.

This series is a work in progress. The focus right now is on content and getting the episodes out on a regular basis. Improving the delivery and refining the show format will come with time.

>>> UPDATE >>>

HERE IS A PLAYLIST WITH ALL OUR EPISODES: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD6AE36672A560A25

>>> UPDATE >>>

 

[Brandon J.F.]

Here is Episode 2 of the series.

#6 makes an appearance at the end.

 

[Jason Zeis]

Wow! Cool series!

Also, I think you have the lowest number Scarlet, (at least in the general public

 

[Brandon J.F.]

Thanks Jason!

Yeah, I don't know anyone with a lower serial number

We are releasing a new episode each week and they will all be around 5 to 10 minutes long, as suggested by YouTube. Some will be tutorials and how-to videos. We have planned out 20 episodes so far and are working on getting a dedicated team together for the web series.

Much more to come...

 

[Daniel Kunz]

wow this is probably the most boring making of i have ever seen. Good luck on your project though!

 

[Ian McGrew]

wow this is probably the most boring making of i have ever seen. Good luck on your project though!

yup...

 

[Brandon J.F.]

Feel better guys?

 

[Bryan Keith]

Feel better guys?

In all honesty, I think it's constructive criticism. Your description of the project sounds interesting. The fact that you are getting a following says something...but your webisodes don't really help build interest. Get rid of those title descriptions! Narration will do wonders. How about a little more "activity" happening to build more interest in your project.

Good Luck!

 

[Brandon J.F.]

In all honesty, I think it's constructive criticism. Your description of the project sounds interesting. The fact that you are getting a following says something...but your webisodes don't really help build interest. Get rid of those title descriptions! Narration will do wonders. How about a little more "activity" happening to build more interest in your project.

Good Luck!

Your criticism is constructive, but I would disagree on a number of points you bring up.

1) "your webisodes don't really help build interest"

When the first Episode was released we had around 80,000 followers on Twitter and a handful of Subscribers on YouTube. Now we have over 110,000 Followers on Twitter and over 500 followers on YouTube.

The first episode was very late. I kept going in circles trying to figure how to get the format perfect. We had hundreds of messages from people literally begging for us to get the first show released. We had to get something out and fast. Actually, probably more than that even since there are nearly 2,000 DMs in Twitter we have yet to reply to (and that is after deleted most, if not all, of the spam).

2) "get rid of those title descriptions"

Actually, the original plan was to have narration, but I like the titles. In the future we may use some combination of narration and titles and provide subtitles. For now we do not have the resources to do all this and get shows out quickly.

Now, about the "activity" I would agree to some extent. Shooting the behind the scenes footage was not much of a priority. The priority was making the film. I put no thought into what was being shot for bts footage during the shoot and to be honest I was not very pleased with the bts footage when I saw it. This will change. I am getting a dedicated team together to focus on churning out these shows.

This disclaimer (or sorts) is at the top of this thread and in the description on YouTube for the videos:

This series is a work in progress. The focus right now is on content and getting the episodes out on a regular basis. Improving the delivery and refining the show format will come with time.

I am pleased with the episodes we have made so far. Are they perfect? No, far from. Will future episodes look dramatically different than these first episodes? Yes, without question.

The key to a successful web series like this is not trying to get things perfect out of the gate. What is most important is getting started (vs. just talking) and getting shows out consistently. From there you refine things and improve as you go.

Our budget for the web series is $0. Our budget for all the online promotion is also $0. I would say we are doing remarkably well so far.

Thanks for the feedback Bryan.

 

[Brandon J.F.]

Episode 3 is up.

 

[Brandon J.F.]

We shot another scene over the weekend. This was the first scene with RC/RG3. We used the latest beta firmware. All, but one shot was done from a monopod. Only a real quick color correction was done for these stills.

BTS video from the shoot will be coming soon...

 

[Jon Jones]

Brandon, this is very cool! I'm glad to have seen the episodes that you have already. I really love Eastern Europe, and the Russian culture, so it is very fascinating to me. I can't wait for more content to be released.

 

[Brandon J.F.]

Brandon, this is very cool! I'm glad to have seen the episodes that you have already. I really love Eastern Europe, and the Russian culture, so it is very fascinating to me. I can't wait for more content to be released.

Thanks Jon! There is a lot more coming. I'm finally getting a good team together to help with the workload. There is one more episode left on the frozen lake. Then, probably, we'll do one with the behind the scenes footage we shot in the cemetery.