Recycled Space

I keep thinking that there is a way of making money online through either video content or advertisement to supplement the small revenue that theatre and dance companies earn but I can’t get my head around it. Doug Fox’s Great Dance Blog seems to think there is a way. I, on the other hand, think it might be true that you can put either videos of past productions, promotional tools, or documentaries of the company online in order to create a buzz.

I feel like online video content is for promoting the company itself but as far as I know, it won’t add another revenue model that generates enough funds to have a person doing this full time. The time needed to create those videos is just not possible for a company member to do it part time. I know Deborah Greenfield who creates amazing short films which are a delight to see. Her films are seen around the world and I wonder if she could make a living out of it. A possibility? I find this hard to believe. Most festivals do have some sort of prize for the best films which might give the winner a nifty sum. The time that it takes to produce those videos with the uncertainty of revenue feels like a choice that would make it hard to supplement funds for a company that has a life on stage. It may be different coming from a company that only wants to create short films or full features.

Documentaries of past shows could be interesting to make if someone is interested in their story. No matter what type of documentary it is it needs to have a good story or be about a famous company in order for it to be watched or promoted. A documentary could be about the struggle of a company but this is a one shot deal. There could be no sequel to this documentary unless the company made it to the famous part. It might be really interesting for archival purposes to film interviews of choreographers, designers, dancers, directors, actors and so on. This might give insight into a piece or serve as a link for an outsider to engage in the content of the company, to give some grounding.

Online Fundraising is something that is attainable with minimum risk and it is fairly easy to do for small or big companies. There are a multitude of web sites to help out with this daunting task. A great post that has most of them is first-of-its-kind.org There are also the obvious direct money solutions like paypal or similar types. This is something that is very important to have on a web site but mostly the page itself is not enough. Those pages need some sort of social context to live in.

The environment of people that surrounds something’s creation or intended audience. Social context reflects how the people around something use and interpret it. The social context influences how something is viewed.

Fundraising is about the donor and partly about the story. A random person will most likely not give a dime if they don’t know about the company. The context of fundraising needs to be addressed. It is something I haven’t figured out yet and I would love to hear more comments on this.

I sincerely think that documentation, promotion, and fundraising are the most important tools for a company to achieve. The time spent on creating them will have a return which is valuable but maybe not directly connected to an online revenue “scheme”. It may generate revenue indirectly from promotions but I seriously doubt that it is the other way around.

Deborah Greenfield
first-of-its-kind.org
Great Dance Blog
stanford.edu