Learn Viral Secrets in 'Guerrilla Video Production'

Want to be the one who makes the next viral video? You'll want to spend a weekend with Kai Nagata and Dan Murphy for their Tyee Master Class on June 1 and 2.

Nagata is the former CTV Quebec bureau chief whose blogged declaration of independence went super viral. He bet his future on the power of do-it-yourself media on the internet, and it's paying off -- one video spoofing climate change deniers he helped make already has over a million views.

Now Kai is teaming with the wickedly funny Dan Murphy, who while at the Province newspaper reinvented political cartoons using Flash animation and other techniques to bring them alive and pack far more punch.

Enrol in "Guerrilla Video Production" and you'll go home having produced a short video. Along the way, as the information page explains, "In this two-day hands-on video workshop, you'll become equipped with techniques to make your visual content move through the often-thick molasses of the Internet. Whether you've got a political message to advocate, a creative skill to promote or a cause you need people to back, Nagata will lead you through the unpredictable world of online video distribution, from slick (but cheap!) production to stellar editing to social sharing. Murphy will address the lure of the non-slick, creative borrowing, letting cartoons do the heavy lifting and animation-free animations."

So you don't have to be an aspiring filmmaker to belong in this class. Everyone from fundraisers, to organizers to public relations pros and punk musicians are good fits. Bring "ideas, pitches, half-finished projects. We'll workshop ideas as a group, consult on real projects you've been working on.... As for equipment, bring any laptops, software, gear you have -- or just yourself. We'll be forming groups and peer mentoring. Your software is less important than your story."

Recently I caught up with Kai to explore a bit more why he's offering this class and how low-tech videos are changing how ideas move through society. Here's a taste:

What's changed in the past several years that makes guerrilla videos easier with more potential impact?

"There's a theory that pornography has been a driving force behind a lot of technological innovation over the past century and a half -- from daguerrotypes to film reels to VHS to streaming HD video. I think it's more likely that marketers, including smut purveyors, have just been motivated by competition to take risks on novel technology.

"Whatever the dynamics behind all this innovation, we're at a point where the price has been driven low enough on visual technology that even those of us without a profit imperative -- educators, advocates, and culture guerrillas -- have access to tools that bring us very close to the big guys in terms of production quality.

"At the same time, we've seen the rise of online sharing culture, and the infrastructure to support that. I teach teenagers, and it amazes me how normal it seems to them that their cheap little phones can pull video out of the ether and reassemble it on a screen as they walk to 7-11 to get a slurpee. It's miraculous.

"This ubiquity is a double-edged sword for the guerrilla video-maker. On the one hand, the tools are cheap and the potential audience is limitless. On the other hand, everyone else has the same advantages, and most of them have way more money to spend. How do you break past that and connect with people? That's what we'll be exploring over the course of the weekend."

How did you and Dan Murphy click?

"Dan leapt onto my radar last summer, as he did for a lot of people, with his cheeky remix of an Enbridge ad that generated huge controversy at the Province newspaper. Dan's a classic guerrilla video maker, a lo-fi D.I.Y. trickster who's been making people laugh all his life. He's probably my dad's age -- one of those old-school cartoonist guys that's been working in newspapers forever. Except Dan taught himself how to turn his cartoons into animations, and has added this whole extra dimension to his humour. He harvests material from the Internet and blends it with his own drawings and voice.

"When I heard he was leaving the Province, I asked him if we could post his future videos on our Deep Rogue Ram video blog, and he kindly acquiesced. I get to see his videos before they go up, and every single one so far has surprised me and made me laugh.

What's your experience with videos that go viral? An example of one that really clicked and the results?

Last September my friends Heather and Pippa collaborated on a launch video for our satire site, Deep Rogue Ram, about a weather presenter who's mad as hell about climate change and not gonna take it anymore. We called it "Weathergirl Goes Rogue" and it's been viewed more than a million times so far, spawning remixes and tributes and versions in other languages. We knocked that video out in a couple days. I think we've all done better work. But for a combination of reasons, that one clicked with people.

"It was interesting, looking at the metrics, to see that there was no single large driver of traffic early on. Certainly no mainstream media outlets were willing to link to it. Instead it moved horizontally, from person to person, 'infecting' little discussion groups and Facebook groups and faculty message boards as it travelled. It's given us a fantastic epidemiological model to study, and lots of lessons that I hope can save our workshop participants some grief and wasted time in their own work."

Still seats left, don't delay

Sign up for "Guerilla Video Production" while there are still spaces left. You'll learn a lot and enjoy good food and wine to boot. Click here to find out more and register.