The Fine Brothers on “Can You Make Money With Online Video” August 10, 2009 by Larry Kless Tim Street interviewed The Fine Brothers at Digital Hollywood Spring 09 about what they are doing to make money with online video. They produce, write, direct, act, sound design, market all of their own material independently or for clients like Comedy Central. The Benny and Rafi Fine are known for their edgy, often controversial viral videos from which they sometime get death threats or for mainstream pop culture parodies. These days they most known for spoiling movies and their “Lost” parodies on YouTube.How are they making money?They are mainly pairing up with companies like Comedy Central, Just For Laughs to create online video content. But it’s tough because the companies aren’t paying that much and they’ve had to make a lot of smart deals to quit their day jobs but it’s not big bucks and they sleep on air mattresses. They own most all of the original content they create and advise all producers to study the contracts with a legal adviser to retain the rights to their material. Mot companies want exclusivity but will release control at some point which producers can redistribute on their own sites. It helps to negotiate with studios if you’re not making a lot of money and you can show you have a huge fan base.. Then you can release the videos on your YouTube Channel or blog to garner more views which ultimately helps the studio as well.Tim says, “It was very cool to see these two worlds coming together and evenmore exciting to hear that The Fine Brothers are holding on toownership to the videos that they create. It upsets me to no end to seepeople create videos with value and get paid nothing for their hardwork and creativity.If you are an online video producer, director or writer who is ableto get millions of views of your online videos you have a gift, atalent that other people don’t have. Not anyone with a camera can dowhat you do and you should retain ownership of your videos and be paidfor them in some way shape or form or be paid a lot of money upfront.Don’t be taken advantage of and exploited the way that African Americanrecording artists were in the 1950s. You have something special. Don’tgive it away”Follow Tim Street on Twitter http://twitter.com/1timstreetFollow the Fine Brothers on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thefinebros
