Introducing Jay Ferguson, International Emmy winner and creator of “Guidestones”
One of Canada’s hottest web series creators is about to make a major splash on Viewly!
Jay Ferguson, the creator of Guidestones, an award-winning thriller web series, is excited about what Viewly has to offer new creators who want to make and share amazing content. At the time, Guidestones was one of the few web series with fully-realized scripts and primarily shot on-location for a total of 50 episodes (120 minutes total run time). The series takes viewers deep inside the mystery of The Georgia Guidestones, an enigmatic monument nestled in a farmer’s field in rural Georgia, and inscribed with directions for rebuilding civilization after the apocalypse. It debuted on it’s own web portal as a “push” version that was delivered via email notification and Facebook and combined ARG (alternate reality gaming) elements to discover hidden video, audio files, mini-games, and other media that kept viewers hooked and deepened the narrative.
Amassing well over a million views through this format, Guidestones was also picked up for traditional broadcast in by networks such as CTV and Hulu. A second season followed this time with larger budgets doubling in length (geared towards traditional TV) and shot internationally around the world now featuring a more high budget look.
As Emmy Award-winning content creators, we put our hearts and souls into our work. There is nothing more disappointing than putting time and money into our work and not having a platform to help promote it. It is even more demoralizing to have a platform take more than half of the revenue you generate.
Digital budgets can be very low and as creators, we need all the time and revenue we can get to make the best possible product. What we need is consistent access to an audience as well as a reliable revenue stream.
I believe in the value of our content and we find that when audiences are given the chance they want to support us directly without middlemen taking the majority of our hard earned revenues.
Not so long ago the content creators created content and distributors build audiences. Now content creators must also be their own distributors. This is pushing us away from what we do best; create content.
Finding a platform that promotes your work, helps you build an audience, and then sets you up to monetize it is a true trifecta.
We feel that View.ly is a platform that will allow creators to focus on what we do best; make engaging, great content and get paid directly for it.
Let the creators create. Period. — Jay Ferguson, Mira Studio
Jay currently has a slate of multiple projects all in the process of seeking supporters and financing. One project that is sure to for Viewly’s primarily- online audience is titled Review Hunter, which explores the rising power of individuals in relation to their regular access on social media platforms. It investigates the notion that modern technology has gifted average people — who might not otherwise possess much influence at all — with the extraordinary ability to voice their thoughts and opinions sans filter; giving them the capability to both create and destruct as they please.
For more information about Ferguson and his projects, visit https://mira.studio/projects/#/mira/
