How to Get Famous in Six Seconds

ME.

Still from my short film, Holly Rose (below).

w h a t    I ' m    a l l    a b o u t

My name is Rudy Mancuso, and I am a 21-year-old college student with a semester left to graduate. Hopefully. If I pass this class. I am currently majoring in Video Production and Music, and couldn't be happier doing so. My interests revolve around being an aspiring filmmaker, musician, and natural artisan; most prominently, I am a media-maker. Whether it be through short films, music videos, promos, comedic shorts, film scoring, composing, editing, recording, singing, or anything...I simply love to create. 

          

I made this 90-second short about 7 months ago (2012), utilizing individuals and recourses from none other than the Rutgers Newark campus itself (including locations, narration, actors, etc.). It pretty much wraps up what I love to do in its 90 seconds. It's entitled, Holly Rose. 

          

I've started my own independent production company about a year back, and have been pretty successful thus far. I plan to ultimately succeed in the independent filmmaking industry/music-production business, maybe by creatively combining both mediums within my work (as I attempted to do in Holly Rose).

VINE.

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For those who don't know, Vine is a fairly new (1/13) Twitter-owned mobile application that gives users the ability to post looping 6-second videos clips. It's been often called the "Instagram of video". The app, as assumed, was quick to explode through mobile users across the globe (including numerous celebrities), within months. With the creative revival of stop-motion art, clever narrative shorts, comedic skits, and more, Vine began to (and continues to) offer a truly engaging, interesting, entertaining, and innovative "on-the-spot" social network app experience. 

About three months ago, I naturally decided to download the app. I was instantly hooked as I found myself watching random users' video clips daily. It wasn't until a few weeks in, however, that I decided to make my first official "vine". It was a fairly effortless idea, where I simply put on a silly Spanish accent, and spun into different outfits. It can be seen by visiting the link placed in the subheading above (labeled "t h i s"). After that I made another. Then another. Then a few with my sweet Brazilian mother. Then some more. I progressively began getting "likes" on the videos; both from random users as well as friends who had also downloaded the app. It wasn't until I uploaded my "Lion King" video, however, that my phone began to explode. With one simple, idiotic idea, I received over 1,000 likes in about an hour. From then on, an abundance of "followers" tackled my app's account, and continued to grow exponentially. 

The sort-of popular clips did not seem to impress me in any significant way, until the recognition went a step further. Before I knew it, celebrities (Simon Rex, Andy Milinokis, Riff Raff, Dane Cook, Bob Saget, Josh Peck, etc.), the creators of the app itself, and notable producers were noticing these six-second creations. Not only was I receiving tons of notifications, emails, and advertisement offers, but many other users began recreating my videos, ultimately triggering my own hashtag: #rudymancuso. There was even a YouTube video cerated in my honor, which can be seen here. Although I still didn't think much of the occurrences, and was even a little upset at the fact that I was receiving so much recognition for effortless videos (as opposed to my more work-oriented, legitimate work), I eventually began to perceive the sudden "vine-fame" with a newly-adopted marketing mindset. 

THE PLAN.

      

w h a t    I    c a n    d o    w i t h    a l l    o f    t h i s 

As I watched my number of followers grow at an exponential rate, I came to the conclusion that I may finally be able to utilize this "following" to my advantage. As a media-maker, I would be stupid not to throw my work at an already-established audience of almost 100,000 active users, many of which are important people in the entreatment, film, and music industry (which directly relates to my ultimate goal). So, I proceeded to do a test. I decided to link my fairly unpopular Vimeo page on my Vine profile. Before I knew it, videos of mine that had little to no views or likes, were in the thousands in no time (which, for Vimeo standards, is a considered a whole lot). 

I truly began to realize what kind of content sells in today's day and age, and what sparks interest in today's media-driven world. It is almost ironic that after years of working hard to create original material, it's my crude, immature, six-second, Iphone-produced videos that get recognition by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Will the hype of the new app ultimately die out? Of course. Will my internet success lead to something more significant? Maybe. Am I going to rely on the popular app as a "pseudo-job"? Nope. Will I do what I can to get my original material out there, even if it means directing the Vine audience towards it? Absolutely.