BuzzFeed的下個大動作：長視頻
????Kevin Moloney攝于財富頭腦風暴科技峰會
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????BuzzFeed公司CEO約拿?佩雷蒂 ????你認為未來我們將怎樣消費視頻內容？ ????對這個問題，我們自己也一直覺得很驚奇。我們從沒預料到人們會用手機看視頻，但現在我們發現，人們差不多有一半視頻是在手機上看的。有傳聞說蘋果正在開發大屏版iPhone，而且很多人也在購買屏幕更大、待機時間更長的Android手機，所以人們會花更多的時間在手機上看視頻內容。 ????在你的Facebook動態消息流中看到別人用手機觀看和分享的一段長達20分鐘的視頻，貌似也并不是一件遙遠的事，但是這可能要三到六個月之后才會發生。我們不需要了解這種問題將來是怎么解決的，我們只需要一個能持續學習的團隊，有辦法根據它去嘗試、拍攝和學習，并且獲得數據和反饋。這不僅僅需要一家能夠投資建立內容的公司，更需要一家能夠衡量它的公司。我們既有藝術的一面也有科學的一面。如果我們這樣做了，那么任何新平臺的出現，對我們的工作方式來說都是好事。尤其是我們的核心技術就是在任何平臺上都能把故事講得很好。 ????“扎?弗克的價值并不在于他在網絡視頻里有多紅。他不僅很擅長表演，而且也知道如何在不同的平臺上取悅很多人。” ????你是怎樣聘請到他的？ ????我和他大概是同一個時間出名的，只隔了一兩個月。他的視頻吸引了100多萬人，因此我們基本上有相同的經歷：我們做了一些小小的有意思的事，結果吸引了幾百萬人的關注。 ????與此同時，一夜而紅的現象也發生在很多人身上，至少是發生在不少人身上。比如一度非常紅的“Numa Numa”舞。但是大多網絡紅人最終回歸了正常的生活，好比“一場春夢了無痕”。也有人嘗試把同樣的事翻來覆去地做，比如后來的《Numa Numa 2》和《Numa Numa 3》。但每炒一次冷飯，它的新鮮感就下降一些，結果也越來越差。 ????扎?弗蘭克和我從理性上對這個原理很感興趣，并且研究了人們分享事物和參與事物的模式。而扎?弗蘭克使用最多的媒介就是視頻。 ????弗蘭克的視頻形成了YouTube后來的許多慣例。比如現在連不少15歲左右的孩子在網上都有了瘋熱的粉絲，但他們的一些動作造型、把臉靠近屏幕的樣子，以及讓粉絲做“地球三明治”（比如一個中國人在河南省的某地把一片面包放在地上，地球另一端相對坐標的阿根廷某地，也有人在地上放了一片面包，這樣他倆就做成了一個“地球三明治”）等行為，都能看到弗蘭克留下的影響。 ????比如《紐約》雜志提到的那些青少年YouTube紅人。 ????是的，弗蘭克就像是那方面的祖宗。 ????你對視頻的預算是多少？ ????曾經有一個夜間節目調侃道，拍一支視頻的全部預算大概只有100美元。實際模式是，你是有固定成本的，包括團隊、場地等等。如果你有了對的人和對的環境，拍攝每支視頻的成本就會降低。我們制訂預算的方式是一個函數而不是一個數字。把X放在一邊，如果另一邊出來的是X+N，那就繼續重復好了。 |
????Jonah Peretti, CEO, BuzzFeed ????How do you think we’ll be consuming video content in future? ????We keep getting surprised. We never expected people would watch video on their phones, but now we’re seeing like half of our views are mobile. There are rumors that Apple is making a bigger format iPhone and people are buying more Android phones that are bigger and have longer battery lives, so people can spend more time watching mobile content. ????Having video content that is 20 minutes long in your Facebook News Feed that people are sharing and watching on their phones doesn’t seem that far-fetched. But that’s like three to six months in the future. We don’t have to know how it’s all going to be worked out in the future, we just have to have a team that continually learns, and have a method for trying, creating, and learning from that, and getting data and feedback. It’s not just having a company that invests in creating content, but [having one that] measures it. We have the art side and the science side. If we do that, any new platform that emerges is something that will be a big benefit for our way of working. Essentially our core skill is to do great storytelling on any platform. ????Ze—his [value] isn’t that he’s great at video. He’s great at playing with it and learning how to delight and amuse many people on different platforms. ????How did you recruit him? ????We both had viral hits around the same time, within a couple of months of each other. He had done these videos of himself and reached a million people, so we both essentially had the same experience: Some little fun thing we were doing while procrastinating that ended up reaching millions of people. ????At that time, it was happening to a lot of other people, or at least many other people. There was the Numa Numa dance. And most of them just went back to their regular life and were like, “This was a weird thing that happened to me and it’s a great story.” Or they tried to do the same thing over again it, like Numa Numa 2 and Numa Numa 3, and each time it was less and less novel and did less and less well. ????Ze and I got more intellectually interested in how does this work, and tracking how people shared things and engaged with them. The medium [Ze] used the most was video. ????His show really defined most of the conventions you see on YouTube now. The influence he had when you see all these 15-year-olds with millions of screaming fans doing certain styles of cuts, putting their face close to the screen, and having fans do stuff like making an Earth sandwich. ????The teen YouTube stars that were featured in New York magazine. ????Yeah, he’s like the grandfather of that. ????What’s your budget for videos? ????There was a Nightline episode where they were making fun of the fact that the whole production budget for a video was like $100. The model is, you have fixed costs which are the team and space and all that. If you have the right people and environment, the cost of each additional video goes down. The way we budget is a function more than a number. Put in X into one side and if X+N comes out in the other side, then just keep repeating it.???? |
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