Get In On The Act

Their origins are often mysterious, their makers shadowy, but all virals start with an idea: the idea gets realised, and put out there. After that, it’s sink or swim, it’s good, or it’s not.

Follow our step-by-step guide to viral creation, with tips from the professionals, and you’ll be off to a good start. After all, you might be a genius, or an idiot. Let your public decide.

1. The idea

Virals are like jokes: the subject matter can be anything, but it’s the mechanism that makes it work or not. Simplicity and originality are key, but again, like jokes, that doesn’t mean it can’t be based on (nicked from) something you’ve seen. As Rob Wakeman of viral site Bore Me says: “Start by trying to copy someone else’s idea. Often, when you get underway, the result turns out differently and you’ll end up going off at tangents, because it’s being filtered through you.”

• A lot of virals are piss-takes of existing images, adverts, or people: pick something/someone you find funny, you hate, or makes you angry. It doesn’t have to be sick or tasteless. The internet is full of tasteless ‘jokes’ that users simply ignore. Like trying to be funny, trying to be tasteless comes across as clumsy. The unexpected is better. If you can do tasteless and original you’re probably on to a winner. Or already working for an advertising agency.
• Topical material is good. Pete ‘n’ Kate are current faves, because they’re all over the news anyway. This won’t always be the case, not with Jackson and Bush in the world. Get on with it, and make it quickly, so you’re not bored of your own idea. The grail for viral makers is to become news themselves. Then you become a kind of god. For a bit.
• ‘Real life’ is good, too. Even if they’re set-ups, the immediacy of ‘real’ phone calls, accidents, embarrassing photos make them viral gold. Abuse your place of work (if any); shoot footage on the street; get your nan tipsy.
• Games and interactive stuff can be great, The legendary Subservient Chicken, for example, is one of the biggest virals ever. However, if they don’t work, or are too complex to get into there and then, they’re the first things to get dumped by the wayside.

2. The format, and the technology

Your brilliant idea needs a format: it can be text, static image (with or without text), audio, video (live action or animated.) George W. Bush, the greatest gift ever to viral creativity, if not democracy, works in all these formats. Your idea may not. General points to consider include:

• Along with simplicity, shortness and accessibility are crucial. People need to be able to see it, get it, forward it. Think about where people will access it. The mainspring of virals has been widespread internet access at office desks. Offices where people are supposed to be working, not looking at exploding puppies, or a man dressed as a chicken. Make sure the file format is a common one, and that the file isn’t enormous, or get it on a site you can link to.
• Get on with it (see above): unless you’re trying to hoax a brand, which could be a waste of time and/or a legal nightmare, your piece doesn’t have to be professional quality. Chris Hassell of creative agency DS. Emotion says: “Don’t worry about making it look too good. Half the fun in virals is when they look homegrown.” Immediacy is what you’re aiming for. Plus, it will be cheap. Look at a lot of virals online, the formats, file sizes, image quality. Do the same.
• Your computer: it’s a bad place to enjoy most media, but it’s where your work will be seen, and where you’ll probably make it. Here are some common options:
1. Computer: at home, work, school, college, friend - PC or Mac.
2. For static images, there is probably a basic image-editing programme installed on whatever machine you’re using. Otherwise there is free software available like The GIMP, or quite expensive professional-quality programmes like Photoshop. You probably don’t need anything this feature-packed yourself. Make sure you export the image in a compressed format like .gif, or .jpeg. They open quickly, and don’t crash things. “Don’t ignore text,” says Rob Wakeman. “When used with an image, or video, it can bring a viral to life.”
3. For video, you need a camera. Digital Video to camera phone: depends what you’re taking with it, and what is to hand. Again, there is easy-to-find editing software around. Windows now has Moviemaker, Mac OSX comes with iMovie. People are using these to make feature films now, so they should be OK to film someone falling in a hole. Avid Free DV is a free software option. Adobe Premiere, or Final Cut Pro are high-end, pricey, and aimed at professionals.
4. Again, there’s probably some sound-editing software installed on your machine. New Macs have Garageband as part of the iLife bundle (with iMovie). Audacity is available free. Music production programmes like Cubase can be costly and confusing. Whatever you use, make sure the file exported is not too big, and in a commonly-supported format.
5. There are dedicated animation programmes like Flash, or you can make simple animations in the image-creation software described above.

Don’t forget - crudeness can be a virtue. “Don’t forget traditional methods of creativity like scissors, paper, glue and pens,” says Rob Wakeman. “For example, there’s nothing to stop you chopping up some magazine images, reassembling them in an inventive way or adding a caption. Then, simply scan it.”

3. The next step

Now you’ve got a product, what next?

Show it to people. This may sound obvious, but your friends may have some useful input. They may be flattered that you asked them, and send it out to their entire work mailing list. Whatever, word-of-mouth created the whole viral thing, and is still its most effective tool to get your stuff seen.

There are more and more viral sites out there now. www.boreme.com is among the biggest, containing 1000’s of pieces from around the world. “If we like it, we’ll publish it and it could be seen by millions in a short space of time,” says Rob Wakeman. “We can credit your work if you wish, which could lead to professional interest from a third party. You never know.”

The internet is not a tidy place. Stuff stays on it practically indefinitely, passed on, sitting on people’s machines, company servers, wherever. As long as you’ve set the ball rolling, there’s always going to be the chance of your work being seen, picked-up, copied, ripped-off. Ad infinitum. (This is the point, by the way.)

Links:

AVID: www.avid.com
Bore Me: www.boreme.com
GIMP: www.gimp.org
DS. Emotion: www.dsemotion.com
Audacity: audacity.sourceforge.net (one of many sites where you can get this)
Subservient Chicken: www.subservientchicken.com