I learned of Barry Poltermann when I came across his company, About Face Media, the tagline of which is “Let’s tell your stories.” I’m delighted that Barry responded to the maximum number of questions he possibly could have. I ask Q&A subjects to respond to five, but they are welcome to respond to more. Barry responded to all 12 submitted to him. I’m honored to present this Q&A with Barry over the next five days.
Bio: [From his company Web site] Barry Poltermann is the CEO of About Face Media, which he co-founded in 2007.
Before founding About Face, Barry was a founder of the digital production company L’Orange Studios, which produced new media marketing projects for clients such as Disney (Movies.com), Activision (the Gun videogame) and Microsoft (the X-Box 360 game console and MSN Search).
In 1999 Barry founded and was the CEO of the Internet-based film financing company Civilian Pictures (Los Angeles). Civilian Pictures financed such acclaimed independent documentaries as the Wu-Tang-Clan profile “Rock the Bells” (2006, Warner Brothers), “American Movie” (1999, Grand Jury Prize-Sundance Film Festival, Sony Pictures Classics) and “The Life of Reilly”, one of the most widely praised theatrical releases of 2007.
Barry also edited “American Movie”; directed and edited “The Life of Reilly”; and edited both “The Pool” (2007 Special Jury Prize-Sundance Film Festival) and “Collapse” (2009) for director Chris Smith.
Prior to working in independent film and new media, he founded and was president of Purple Onion Productions, a commercial film and video production company, and directed television commercials for Superior Street Productions (Chicago), and Neue Sentimental Films (Los Angeles). He has directed national campaigns for advertising agencies such as DDB Needham, Leo Burnett and JWT, and for brands such as Coca Cola, Ford Motors, All-State Insurance, McDonalds and AT&T.
As the CEO of Civilian Pictures his frequent media appearances included Fortune Magazine, Newsweek, Money Magazine, Barron’s, and NPR’s On the Media, The Motley Fool Radio Show and Marketplace. He has also been a guest on film financing panels at numerous film festivals, including Cannes and SXSW.
Q&A with Barry Poltermann, Questions 1 and 2:
Q: About Face Media “make[s] awesome, engaging little documentary videos for our clients, and then make it as easy as possible for your social media team to use web tools like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and YouTube to get the videos seen by the widest possible audience.” What elements make a video story work well on social media and able to become viral?
A: Notice how we didn’t say “viral!” in our description! Viral is a tricky
word, and no one is seemingly able to define it. Does it mean 500 views or 500,000? That said, there are lots of things that make a video story work well on social media. For example, an incredible real event, a taught story, a big laugh? Godard said “all you need to make a film is a girl and a gun”. At the end of the day, though, what it comes down to is the video has to offer the audience something of value to them. We emphasize to our clients that point — offer something of value to your audience. What that valuable thing is, well, that’s up to you to decide, whether it’s a helpful how-to tip, a sneak peak “behind the scenes”, or, perhaps, a girl and/or a gun.
Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?
A: As a kid I grew up on a farm in Genoa City, WI. Movies, television, and books really caught my imagination. It’s almost a cliché, but I knew I had to be a storyteller of some sort — although I am not sure that I would have identified it as “story telling”. I just thought it was entertainment. It really wasn’t until I started editing documentaries that I really understood and sorted out “story”. While working on AMERICAN MOVIE in 1997 and ’98 the film really didn’t work until we focused on story…. Hero’s, villains, conflict… all of the typical storytelling elements brought the film to life. And from that point on, I’ve been Mr. “story, story, story”… I think I drive my team freaking nuts with “story.”