For the last few weeks of my Independent Media course at Ithaca College, my classmates and I came up with our own pitches for an independent media product. We performed these pitches to each other, and the students who were not giving a pitch were instructed to pretend they were a board of stinking-rich directors who were potential investors for that particular project. Professor Cohen would even yell out, "Pass the caviar!" periodically, to remind us to stay in our snooty characters' mindset. After each pitch was given, we asked critical and realistic questions about the constructed plan for the project, as well as gave some suggestions to strengthen the pitch.
This exercise was a vital way for us to realize the reality of creating our own independent media. It was also a template of how to start thinking of the costs we would run into, and therefore brainstorm for potential revenue sources.
There were some awesome ideas, ideas that I actually believe would be very very successful if my classmates were to be ambitious. My two favorite ideas were The Police BEAT, and ManualFocus.com.
The Police BEAT would be a non-profit service that would both report on police brutality as well as function as a anonymous tip-line for citizens who were victims of police brutality. It would begin in NYC and would investigate cases of reported mistreatments from the NYPD. One service of the website would be a Yelp-styled map and review of police departments all throughout the city. It would provide reviews and cases of particular cops. I liked this idea because of my own particular passion for both outing the corruption and racism within current policing systems, as well as dissecting those same issues within incarceration. The planned layout of The Police BEAT was user friendly, and had a legitimate plan for gathering user contributors or tips, investigating these sources and stories, and then creating a final report. To market The Police BEAT, the creator wanted to use Facebook and Twitter to go viral and utilize hashtags and the visual effect a photo has on both of these social media platforms. My suggestion to the creator of The Police BEAT was to add a tab about the rights citizens have, and what they can do in a legal sense if they feel they are being harassed by the police. In this sense, it would also be smart to have a legal professional apart of The Police BEAT's team, as well as advertise public policy lawyers on the site for revenue.
ManualFocus.com would be a non-profit website that would function as an advanced Instagram that had an emphasis for teaching basic photography skills. The website would be picture based, almost like a website version of a Instagram, that would be separate the photos into categories via a tagging system. If the viewer found a picture they liked, and wanted to take something similar, they would click on the photo and a short description consisting of what camera was used, and what the camera settings were would pop up. I would love to use this website because I own a DSLR, but don't feel very confident with messing around with some of the camera settings, such as those that change the amount of light let into the lens or the speed of the shutter. I would use my camera in more of an artistic, and professional way if there was a website that would teach me how these settings affect the image. I do believe there is a huge audience for this type of website, and as mentioned in class- it would also be a great app for a smart phone. I could imagine it would be a tough website to manage- from observing the users of the site as well those who are posting pictures. However, it would be a great place for advertising to bring in revenue if the advertisements were as photogenic as the pictures on display.
My personal pitch was for a two-part documentary that would explore the differences of gun culture in different regions in the United States. By examining the gun culture and the way citizens are sensitized to guns, I want to see if there is a relationship between gun access and gun violence. For example, in rural communities in which families own many guns for hunting game, is there more or less gun violence because of the way a gun is valued by that family.
