inside otv | 2021
Development Report Cycle 6
BY AYMAR JÈAN CHRISTIAN
Associate Professor, Northwestern University,
Co-Founder & Board Secretary
&
ELIJAH MCKINNON
Co-Founder & Executive Director
In 2021 OTV streamlined and refined our programs and services. We offered nearly all programs proposed at the close of 2020, including some new programs and initiatives as well. 2021 was a year of sustained growth. We were met with challenges but as always we leaned into the skills and resources that keep us brave.
First, it is important to note that we started the year by onboarding our first full-time staff supported with benefits, largely supported by the Surdna Foundation: Sarah Minnie, Head of Production and Artist Development, and Chris Walker, Head of Marketing and Exhibition. Sarah is responsible for producing our artist-facing programs, including our Fellowship program, Study Hall (online film school) and Brave Futures (global short film race). Chris is responsible for our audience-facing initiatives, including our mobile/TV App, social media and live event production. On special programs, such as our premiere event OTV Tonight at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago or our annual pride program and series #4theQulture, all staff contribute.
PRODUCTION & ARTIST DEVELOPMENT
In all we premiered 31 projects in 2021, many more artists were ready to release after closing their productions once COVID-19 regulations and restrictions lowered and vaccinations became more readily available. 2021 saw an uptick in artist development interests from a wide range of practices and disciplines. With increased capacity and streamlined procedures, OTV hosted over a dozen livestreams in 2021, with over half of them premiering new original content . Most of our new programs were series and short films, which allowed us to experiment with hybrid model showcases (in person and virtual) and larger campaign releases. Toward the end the year we reimagined our content submission form after receiving feedback from artist wanting to exhibit and distribute for experimental and short-form content.
ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING SNAPSHOT
At the heart of OTV, we support artists who come from historically marginalized communities in producing and distributing their video stories. Premiering original indie projects is critical to our mission and in 2021 we continue to expand this activity. We released 31 original projects this year, mostly narrative short films and series, our most diverse season to date. A few of the most exciting projects now available on our app include: Born & Raised, Christian Mejia’s drama series about the gentrification of Logan Square, where he was raised; Arabica, Sohib Boundaoui’s mockumentary drama about the real-life FBI surveillance of his predominantly Arab Muslim community in Bridgeview (also the subject of his sister’s award-winning documentary, The Feeling of Being Watched); Lauryn Lugo and Adrian & Andrew Nuño’s Border’d, a drama about 3 Latinx siblings reconnecting with their family and culture; and Gretchen Wilder’s award-winningThese Thems, our first comedy featuring non-binary lead.
In addition, three other fully produced series were completed and screened in Chicago at Soho House and will be released in app in 2022 after touring festivals, including: OTV Fellow Lena Elmeligy’s Ghareeb, chronicling three generations of very different Egyptian women; Robert Cunningham’s How To L0ve (executive produced by pop star Halsey), a comedy about three “ball people” at a local tennis club; and the second season of Shervin Bain and Victoria Lee’s Low Strung, a comedy sadly postponed due to Shervin’s untimely death in fall 2021 (a screening in memoriam is planned for a later date).
In addition, we expanded our original programming with the launch of #OTVFeatures, our first effort to build an audience for feature films on our platform. We screened a total of three features, including Thando, a South African Black queer romance written, directed and produced by our executive director, Elijah McKinnon as well as Nevertheless, an award-winning documentary film to help us bring an end to sexual harassment directed by Sarah Moshman. We will continue to release original programming to the best of our ability in 2022; given that in 2021 we had a backlog of productions delayed by the pandemic in 2020, we are refining our pitch process to support artists who are in late stages of production and ready to exhibit their work via the OTV app.
LIVE PROGRAMMING SNAPSHOT
We continued to livestream innovative community-building programs in 2021. We launched our #OTVLive pilot program (funded by the Field Foundation) in the spring with five original programs designed to expand the diversity of programming to news, talk shows, educational, variety and experimental programs, including: Queers Got Talent, a talent show led by Black trans community leaders from across the nation; Know We Can, a newsmagazine series featuring Black and Brown leaders in Chicago; Sexuality Out Loud, an educational sexual health program by the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health; That Shit’s Trans, a talk show by trans people talking about trans and non-trans media representation; and Twice Styled, an experimental fashion show from Chicago-based designers.
In addition to #OTVLive and #OTVTonight, we streamed three additional live programs: #4theQulture, a celebration of Pride as a strategy conference for building intersectional queer community; Blaq In Bed, an intimate exploration of queer sexuality, sponsored by the AIDS Foundation; and the experimental queer variety showcases CCTV and Don’t @ Me.
PROGRAMMATIC SNAPSHOT
FELLOWSHIP - https://www.weareo.tv/fellows - Our Fellows program continues to be strong. Our two previous cohorts have made an incredible impact on Chicago and on the national stage; for example, 2020 Fellow Kristiana Rae Colon wrapped another season writing for The Chi on Showtime, where her episode explored the Black feminist healing and organizing spaces she cultivates in her own life.
In 2021, we admitted another 4 new Fellows, a cohort of writers from diverse backgrounds and with diverse perspectives on the art of storytelling. The four Fellows took part in a one-day mentorship intensive in partnership with the Sundance Institute. In 2022 we are expanding the Fellowship nationally!
STUDY HALL - https://watch.weareo.tv/otvstudyhall - We continue to produce free online film classes to educate our community of artists, many of whom either cannot afford film school or are marginalized within those programs if they attend.
Our second season of OTV Study Hall featured more in-depth classes than the first, which was more introductory, including: 1) a course on line producing, to address artists’ consistently voiced need for more help with budgeting; 2) project bibles & pitch deck, to address the increasing need for pitch deck to help artists get funding and grow their projects beyond the indie level; 3) an introduction to the growing field of impact producing, where strategists are hired to produce community engagement around larger media projects and conversation with Naeema Jamila-Torres, the Impact producer for the critically acclaimed documentary, Unapologetic and Whitney Spencer, the Director of Marketing and Distribution at Kartemquin Films ; and 4) “what do executives want,” a lecture on the different types of executives artists will meet and conversation with Christine Davila, head of development for Tanya Saracho’s Ojala Productions/UCP, and Karan Sunil, an OTV Fellow with multiple credits in TV writers room.
BRAVE FUTURES - https://www.weareo.tv/bravefutures - In fall 2021 we brought Brave Futures Film Race to Guadalajara, Mexico in partnership with Estudio Teorema. Our executive director flew down to provide production support to three teams consisting of over two dozen artists.
We shifted Brave Futures to a mentorship model where teams apply for funding to produce 5-7 minute short films in two days; Elijah and experienced crew members from the local community help emerging filmmakers execute their visions. The program resulted in three short films, variously abstract and realist, released on our app; the films explored issues of masculinity (De Hombres Hemos De Morir), the queer body in queer spaces (Soy Reclamo), and love that transcends the gender binary (Temporada De Naranjas).
Once the films were completed they were screened at the historic Cineforo theater to a sold out audience of community members, activists and cultural organizations. The Brave Futures program continues to be a huge success in intentionally building our network globally as well as providing a way for OTV’s model and values to inspire global partners committed to amplifying intersectional storytelling. The program was a huge success and attracted investment from Guadalajara’s local government and Office of Cultural Affairs in the form of a grant in addition to subsequent programming and screenings. The mounting of this program has taught us a lot about the ways our pipeline has the ability to create equitable infrastructures for local artists, production companies and cultural institutions.
EXHIBITION & MARKETING
We hosted over a dozen livestream premieres for those projects via the #OTVapp and close to two dozen social media activations during Black History Month, Women’s History Month, AAPI Heritage Month, Mental Health Awareness Month and Pride, reaching our highest engagement ever. Several of these premieres and activations amplified the messages of arts & social justice organizations in addition to amplifying ongoing local, national and intentional initiatives. Additionally, we were able to engage in a handful of intimate screenings that were in alignment with COVID-19 safety precautions and produced in partnership with established film venues including Music Box (Chicago), Soho House (Chicago) and Cineforo (Mexico).
OTV APP (http://watch.weareo.tv) – Well into our third year of operating a suite of TV apps we’ve begin to gain a bit more traction and analytical framework on how to grow a healthy and sustainable audience. Our subscriber base is growing. Through consistent livestreams, limited free-trials, and larger release initiatives we have been able cultivate a subscriber base of 2,000 members that are are highly engaged with the #OTVapp though they might not be consistently active. While we did not reach our goal of 1,000 active subscribers (stymied, our data suggests, by the end of pandemic support and the dramatic rise in inflation in Q4 2021), we are halfway there, growing by 30% in 2021.
ONLINE ENGAGEMENT: Our social media following is growing, led by Instagram, where our followers increased by 27.4%, which was more than our goal of 25%.
PROGRAM EXECUTION: We executed all our proposed programs to the highest degree of quality based on past performance. Our programs are growing and maintaining consistent quality in terms of audience engagement, production value and critical attention.
INDUSTRY RECOGNITION – Working with a PR Consultancy specializing in philanthropy, Entertainment and LGBTQ this been proven to be quite successful in helping us bring our larger initiatives to the masses. Additionally, working with NY-based Courtney Creative PR has helped us prioritize leadership positioning strategies that have led placement in Forbes, GLAAD and Afropunk; Op-ED opportunities in Blavity; partnerships with global publications such GLAAD and FGUK Magazine; and our Executive Director being featured as a “2021 Visionary to Watch” via Obvious Magazine.
ADMIN & OPERATIONS
Our executive director continues to build a solid foundation for the organization’s long-term sustainability, in numerous ways. They started the year solidifying a robust and mission-aligned benefits program (including options designed to benefit a team entirely composed of Black queer and trans people such as unlimited vacation and membership to our local Black feminist healing space). They developed a strategy to upgrade our studio space more focused on supporting local artists in production and post-production, including a small screening room for rough cuts, editing bays and more equipment we can offer for free or discounted rates; we are now in the early stages of funding this capacity-building initiative through requests to the Field Foundation and the city of Chicago, both of whom are interested in offering more resources to Chicago’s underinvested south and west side. In addition, to build staff capacity and care, we hosted two staff retreats, one at the beginning of the year and one at the end after Brave Futures Mexico, to ensure strong staff morale.
Our ED implemented quarterly staff surveys to track team productivity, concerns and challenges. We also started a research initiative (#LightsCameraAction) to explore ways to continue to improve upon our restorative justice practices and accessibility, supported by the research firm MMG (McKensie Mack Group). Lastly, toward the end of the year, our ED launched a new board development initiative, creating a new Integrity Board, to broad support for amplifying OTV’s mission. In 2022 we will announce that Kyra Jones (writer for Queens on ABC and Woke on Hulu) and Karan Sunil (TV writer, OTV Fellow and creator of Code-Switched) will be the first members of the Integrity Board, charged with facilitating awareness of OTV in Hollywood.
ORGANIZATIONAL SNAPSHOT
CONSULTING - We manifested our intention to develop sponsorship and production consultation as a revenue driver in 2021. As corporations and nonprofits seek authentic, ethically produced video work about our communities, we believe we have a value proposition in our connection to storytellers, producers and crews who identify with the communities these institutions are trying to connect with.
By connecting sponsors to producers, we not only provide meaningful work to producers of color and earn money managing the relationship. We also make sure institutions support our mission that nothing about us should be produced without us. In 2021, we produced video campaigns for Lululemon, featuring original yoga-centered programming by Karla Huffman (who created OTV’s Yogma series) and the Walder Foundation, which produced a series of informational videos about Chicago. Additionally, we supported with the production PSA-styled content local LGBTQ+ health organization Howard Brown Health starring local cultural producers and night-life organizers such as Lucy Stoole discussing topics around consent.
SYNDICATION - While we did not syndicate our programs to other distributors, we did license programs from other platforms to syndicate on our apps, including the Briana Clearly Collection of short films from one of Chicago’s most productive Black female directors, and These Thems, a popular series about non-binary identity that was censored from YouTube. After researching the feasibility of the syndication revenue stream, we are choosing to focus more of our energy into refining our artist development pipeline, pitch process and the expansion of our core programs.
NUMBER OF ARTISTS SUPPORTED -Our total programming output continues to grow through original program distribution, live production and our short film race. We released almost three times as many projects than our goal of one dozen. We were also able to offer our larger fees for distribution due to this funding. Additionally, we are beginning to better serve and deliver resources to cohorts of artists that are working across the independent film landscape.
ARTIST CAREERS & EXPERIENCES - We track our artists careers through our relationships and through interviews. In terms of career growth, we now have over two dozen OTV alums who have worked in Hollywood in some capacity over the past five years. Individual artists are also finding success on their own in the indie space: Robert Cunningham’s How To L0ve was selected by pop star Halsey’s BIPOC Creators Fund, for example. We also conducted “exit interviews'' with most artists who released work with us in 2020 and 2021; when asked about OTV’s support, not one artist had anything negative to say and many spoke about how important the support of OTV’s staff and distribution via our apps has been for their careers.
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT - Our most immediate need is support for operations. At this time, our executive director is managing all administrative tasks, including invoicing/payments, reimbursements, fundraising, programmatic oversight, etc. We are also seeking funding for the upgrades to our Studio space located in Humboldt Park; there is a great need for production and post-production facilities by and for people of color in Chicago; currently nearly all spaces are not welcoming or accessible to people in our communities.
Long-term, our most pressing need is production funding, which serves several purposes: 1) supporting artists who for years have produced their projects by crowdfunding, raising money from already cash-strapped communities, or grant funding, where there isn’t much for narrative digital work, let alone for people of color and other marginalized artists; 2) increasing production value and the size our our library, which attracts and retains subscribers; 3) stabilizing operations and marketing, because if we can fund projects we can develop a story around a cohort of projects and more accurately time when they will be completed, allowing us plan campaigns around a set of series (this allows us to start and amplify conversation that may have more social/cultural relevance in particular moments in time). We are thrilled to be participating in conversations with the two different initiatives to address this including the Chicago Media Coalition, where OTV serves as a founding member alongside our comrades over at Sisters in Cinema, Full Spectrum Features and Mezcla Media Collective.
