The prospect of developing the official CIFEJ channel on YouTube
In recent years, the development of communication infrastructures and the access of a large part of the world's population to the Internet, followed by the development of social networks and public interest in them, as well as the technological development of digital tools such as smartphones and TVs, have made it important for CIFEJ to take advantage of these facilities. Now, according to its mission, which is to educate children and young people with the use of the art of cinema, CIFEJ can effectively and cheaply teach and connect many children and young people through the facilities of mass communication technology that is available to the world. This connection can be formed through the art of cinema and through familiarity with the culture, customs and lifestyle of different nations. Now, in order to achieve these goals, we must move towards attracting the audience by planning, collaborating with members and producing appropriate content. As the first step, it is important to choose the right platform to work on. I have already talked about the launch of a channel on YouTube and the facilities that this network gives us. Now, while pointing out the highlights of the design, I will draw a map of the 3-year vision for you.
The launch of the CIFEJ channel on YouTube was the first step in the implementation of this plan, which is now available under the name of CIFEJ NGO channel. Licensing the content on YouTube. It can be possible if as our channel can be able to attract at least 1,000 active members and at least 4,000 minutes of channel content being viewed by the audiences. This is our first goal to achieve a stable channel with good future. If CIFEJ channel can get advertising revenue, it can spend it on content production and provide high quality films for its audiences. Providingthe cost of creating high quality contents and managing the CIFEJ channel is possible if the audiences welcome our content and subsequently, the revenue is generated by this reception. In this way the channel can continue its life as a professional one with similar standards to a television channel. This goal is expected to be achieved through collaboration between the CIFEJ team and the Internet marketing team over a period of 4 to 6 months. It should be noted that this prediction depends on the cooperation and participation of all members of CIFEJ in introducing this channel to others and helping to produce its content. CIFEJ members can help this channel by sending videos and photos of their activities such as holding festivals, workshops, events related to children's cinema, as well as presenting any product that is related to CIFEJ goals, and enrich CIFEJ channel as much as possible in terms of content. This collaboration will make our audience more aware of the greatness and dynamism of the CIFEJ family. The channel also introduces the activities of members of CIFEJ to others like a visual medium.
The educational content is the third step in launching this channel. In fact, the content of CIFEJ channel is divided into two parts: (a) introducing CIFEJ activities, and (b) teaching cinematic techniques to children and adolescents, parents and teachers. Introducing activities are more like a news bulletin that informs about the call for festivals, members' activities in festivals, workshops, etc. But the educational content can be the realization of the existential philosophy of CIFEJ, which is education through the language of cinema to children and adolescents. At present, the plan to teach animation techniques in simple ways, which has already been reviewed and approved by the board of directors, is in the production stages. The package includes 12 episodes that the duration of each one is ten-minutes. They are scheduled to be uploaded on YouTube. As soon as this package is being ready and after licensing the CIFEJ channel, the collection will be uploaded on it. Our target population in this project is teenagers, but these educational videos are designed so that children, along with their parents, as well as school teachers, can use this content. Animation training is the starting point for online education for children and young people. After that, and in a coherent process, we will go to a variety of cinematic techniques. These techniques include directing, screenwriting, acting, filming, makeup, editing, and more. The production of educational content on the CIFEJ channel should be on such a level that makes it as an online cinema school, and this channel will become a powerful reference for children and young people to learn cinematic techniques. It should be noted that the success of content production will be only possible with the cooperation of members and the transfer of their experiences to others and the presentation of creative projects. The online festival is the last step in taking advantage of the CIFEJ channel. One of the useful features of YouTube for us is the creation of a two-way relationship between the audience and CIFEJ. This means that our audience communicates with CIFEJ by watching educational videos with likes and dislikes, as well as commenting on them. This communication on the part of CIFEJ should be in such a way that the audiences feel that their comments are important to us and their questions will be answered. This relationship should go so far that our audiences feel that they will be supported and encouraged by us for filmmaking, and it is one of the best consequences of holding an online festival. In this section, after we provide our educational content to our audiences, we encourage them to make videos and send them to CIFEJ via email, WhatsApp and Telegram, and by showing those videos on the channel and commenting on them, we can motivate the child and adolescent artists and let them know that their work is important to us and is taken seriously. We will continue this activity until we feel that the conditions for holding a festival are available. Then, by calling through the channel, we ask our audience to send their films to attend the festival. With a successful and popular YouTube channel, CIFEJ can hold a very large festival for children and teenagers that is unique in its kind. At the end I want to thank the CIFEJ Headquarter and Mr. Chiniforoushan, the Secretary General of CIFEJ, for providing facilities and finances for launching the channel and making the package of animation making educational films.
Amir Hossein Alimorad