Aspiring comedians were told the tricks of the trade by two of the best minds in the business as part of Salford Comedy Festival this week.
Comedy Executive Producer Will Saunders and Comedy Producer Jon Aird hosted the talk at MediaCityUK on ‘Online Comedy for the YouTube Generation’.
Around six billion videos are uploaded to YouTube every month – which means it has never been more important to stand out from the crowd.
Will Sunders demonstrated the need to ‘get shorty’ with a comedy music video created by the BBC starring TV character Brett Domino.
Saunders said: “Music and comedy are what drive people to YouTube, so make a comedy music video and you’re on the right track.”
When creating video content for YouTube, Saunders revealed that the most important thing is to build your audience – what are they searching for? Will they share it? Can you keep making it?
“It important to have a great idea but also to make sure people keep coming back to see more,” said Saunders.
“Anyone can make a video and shove it on YouTube, that’s a given.”
Comedy Producer Jon Aird took to the stage to remind us what the digital world looked like in 2001 and how excited we were as a nation to see ‘interactive media’.
Gone are the days where we are shocked and amazed by the ability to instruct a man, dressed in chicken suit, to do the robot.
“At the time we all thought it was live, then we worked out that there were hundreds of scenarios uploaded with key words to prompt it to dance, for example,” said Aird.
Aird explained how ‘good stories help your video to travel’ and that a quick turnaround and a low budget is usually the best way go.
Short form comedy videos last around eight minutes in the YouTube world, with sketches and animations attracting the most attention.
“I am excited by squeezing in as much as I can, but you must understand your audience and platform,” said Aird.
Saunders ended the session with some last words of wisdom: “It is more important for something to make people laugh rather than it being popular. The challenge is knowing where to position it.”
For information on writing comedy visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/.
