Jason Sondhi
This is a hyped and potentially illuminating 12 minute documentary which promises that it, “explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment.“
Many people would pay good money to learn such secrets, and as you might imagine, despite the film’s good looks, narratively the premise is far too much to chew off. What you can expect to see is a group of New York creative types that you almost certainly do not know, freestyling on culture, icons, personal influences, and their understanding of trends: where they emerge, how they catch on. There is a some hard-earned anecdotal evidence mixed in, like observations from the old music-industry where new vinyls played in the club acted as a traceable patient-zero for a new hit, and there are also some half-baked attempts at getting theoretical. For example, in keeping with the viral analogy, there is some Malcolm Gladwell a la “The Tipping Point” sprinkled into the mix.
This is still interesting stuff, however overall the film is a distracting collage of ideas and approaches. If you’ve never seriously considered the subject, the film could prove educational, but anyone else will find it ultimately shallow by spreading its attention so thin. Still Influencers is admirable for the effort and for the quality of individual elements. What is truly impressive however is the film’s rollout, which has scored the film 60k views in about 30 hours, along with a coveted Vimeo Staff Recommendation. One might say of course that Influencers better have had a strong rollout. The film’s ability to popularize itself via the competitive world of online video content is itself a meta-level referendum on the ideas of the film. What is the point of understanding influencers and trends if one cannot capitalize on that knowledge?
Social Media was integral to the plan for the filmmaking team of Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson of R+I Creative. The film’s Facebook page is an excellent example of how the directors were able to maximize their ability to make the film known without the benefit of festival recognition. They established the page back in September, well in advance of release, around the time the film itself was completed actually. Rather than be in a hurry to get it out the door, they provided some cool, running content in the form of their “Influencer Quote of the Day” series of graphics. Early on these pictures were cleverly loaded with photo tags of other Facebook users , instantly alerting them to the page’s presence which was built steadily till the film’s premiere. Overall social media has been something the film capitalized on well, with the film’s release becoming a top 10 twitter trending topic. Of course having made a film featuring several accomplished creative types in massive and networked New York probably didn’t hurt in seeding the film either. Good luck in harnessing that for your next indie.