A $150 Cup of Coffee
I spent a few hours this afternoon chatting with Andrew Smith, a new STBD fan who had discovered the show somewhat accidentally a few weeks ago (by way of the "Leo's Guide to Pittsburgh" video, of all things) and became hooked on our entire series. Shortly before New Year's, Andrew donated $150 to the cause, which garnered him a few cool bells and whistles. While he was at it, he asked to meet for a cup of coffee, and today I was able to oblige.
The interesting thing in talking about the show with a fan, as opposed to a journalist, is that the fans ask the questions that I as a creator love to answer, whereas what's interesting to a journalist are all the things I've said about the show in every interview I've ever given. It was a very cool experience to have someone asking all about our process, and how certain scenes were really filmed, and what the cast was really like, etc. It's not that I dislike giving traditional interviews, but it's rare that someone a) knows as much about the show as Andrew does, and b) asks questions I can answer from an artistic point of view, rather than the "what is STBD, how did you get started and how are you making money?" POV.
Then Andrew asked me one question I couldn't answer: "What can I do to help?"
Oddly enough, I was stumped. I spend so much time doing STBD myself that I really don't know how to utilize an offer of someone else's time and creative resources properly. So it got me thinking: What's my...
1. Increased Viewership. STBD has been around for 4 years now, but our numbers are nowhere near where we'd like them to be. Part of that is because we don't advertise. Part of that is because our barriers to entry ("3+ year's worth of episodes? How the hell am I supposed to catch up on all this? I'll go watch The Office instead...") are so high. And part of it is because I spend most of my time on production and not nearly enough on promotions or business development. Ann and Erik (aka Caroline and Rich on STBD) have helped out a lot with those issues in the past year, but both of them are busy with more pressing engagements these days, so our numbers have dipped back to their pre-push standard, which is frustrating.
2. Reliable Schedules. Since we film every week, I should have specific days set aside in which certain cast members and locations are always free to film. Oddly enough, in the 4 years we've been doing this, I haven't found a way to make that happen. Yet.
3. Improved Website. Shawn Smith of Geek Riot built us a great site back in 2005, but it's become increasingly clear over the past year that a lot of elements need to be tweaked / updated / replaced. He doesn't have much time and I don't have much money to pay him, so those elements remain unchanged, including the things I know I could do myself but never seem to get around to. From an ease-of-use perspective to a better-use-of-space perspective, there are a number of cosmetic changes that could really push the site to the next level and help us create a...
4. Social Network. As Andrew pointed out to me recently, our forums are broken (again). Shawn has been working to fix or replace them, but even after that happens, we've still only ever had a mild buzz going on our forums, even in their heyday. Considering the seismic power most social-based sites can generate, it seems ludicrous that STBD has existed as long as it has without having a self-generating buzz built around it. That kind of thing only happens when the users / viewers of a site can take an active role in the experience's development, and we aren't providing that to our fans. Yet.
5. Operating Cash. I've saved this for last because it's almost a given: everyone wants more money. We here at STBD would love to be able to throw money at problems, but even with "breathing room" cash, the issues above would still take ingenuity, manpower (or person-power, if you prefer) and time to fix. What operating cash of a recurring nature would provide us with is the opportunity to improve our production quality, pay our actors (so they can reduce their reliability on their day jobs), hire marketing and salespeople to build the back-end business side of the STBD brand, and otherwise expand what's currently a clever low-budget sitcom into an experience with a defensible plan for growth.
I'm sure there are more (a mini-DV deck and a lighting kit would come in handy, for example), but those are our 5 key needs, as I see them.
So here are three open questions to our fans / readers:
What elements do YOU see STBD needing to focus on to improve?
How do you think we can tackle the ones listed above?
And, what are the five Wish List items you have for your own site / show?
(If you do post a Wish List, please track back to this post so we can continue the concept of the conversation.)
Labels: businessplan, donations, wishlist
