-- Maker Studios' Maker Gen Creators Partner with Wikia's Top Collaborators to Create Content Highlighting Key Moments in Fandom as Part of a New Relationship to Co-Develop and Support Emerging Talent
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Wikia, the social universe for fandom and the ultimate source for powerful and relevant pop culture, entertainment and game expertise, today announced a new relationship with Maker Studios, the global leader in short-form video, and their creator network Maker Gen to collaborate on engaging video, providing richer experiences for today's millennial audience. The collaboration will provide opportunity for Wikia's top contributors, the authoritative voices on all things "fandom," and Maker Gen talent to create videos and participate in a custom video training program, with more to come.
Wikia's top collaborators and select Maker Gen talent will come together to create a one-of-a-kind video series deemed "The 2014 Year in Fandom," celebrating the top moments from the past year. As the voice of authority on all things fandom across games, TV, movies, music, comics and pop-culture, Wikia collaborators will be paired with Maker Gen talent to develop these major moments in fandom, having free reign to showcase their creativity however they envision – in video form – which will be released in phases beginning December 1.
Videos will be viewable in aggregate at yearinfandom.wikia.com and on Maker's proprietary web platform Maker.tv, as well as on both Maker Gen creator and Wikia YouTube channels.
Top Maker Gen talent will be participating in "The 2014 Year in Fandom" video series and will feature creators including music talent Noodlerella, sketch comedy team JakeMcCoyNetwork, and history fanatics ThatWasHistory, among others. With direction from Wikia's stars, numerous top fandom moments will be recreated such as the "Walking Dead" season premiere, New York Comic Con, "The Fault in our Stars" premiere, Disney's "Frozen" DVD release, popular video game "Alien: Isolation" going back to its roots, and many more.
"Video is such an integral part of storytelling for today's fans and by partnering with Maker, we're really able to deliver together two very passionate audiences to create content we know will be engaging," stated Eric Moro, Director of Programming for Entertainment, Wikia. "The opportunity alone for Wikia collaborators and Maker Gen talent to raise their profiles among today's millennials is exciting in and of itself."
Wikia selected the top moments in fandom based on its close proximity to superfans, starting first with a list judged by its fan programming and community team. The moments were then validated using Wikia's own proprietary metric called WAM (Wikia Activity Metric), measuring total audience, size/complexion of the body of content, and usage momentum. Those featured had a significant jump in WAM score during the timeframe the "moment" occurred, and experienced at least double the volume of independent contributions around the "moment."
Following the launch, Maker Gen will begin piloting a video training program on the Wikia platform as an extension of "The 2014 Year in Fandom" project. Tutorial videos will be provided as invitation only within Wikia's Fan Studio and "graduates" of the program will automatically be invited to the Maker Gen program. Together, Maker Gen and Wikia will uncover the next generation of video creators.
Maker Gen represents a growing community of content creators who partner with Maker to develop their audience and brand. The Maker Gen team provides guidance and resources to creators aspiring to become the next digital star, as well as incentives such as brand partnerships, talent collaboration, and creator development. Maker Gen provides forums for it members to communicate, as well as support solutions and tools to optimize their content in the most effective way.
About Wikia
Wikia, the social universe for fans, by fans, is the home for social fandom and the ultimate source for powerful and relevant pop culture, entertainment and gaming expertise. It is the definitive place for people to contribute to the assembly of original bodies of multi-media content around subjects they know and love. Using Wikia, anyone can form new communities around any subject or participate in over 300,000 existing communities by reading or contributing new content. With over 34 million pages of rich content, Wikia's communities are the most authoritative information about any topic on the Internet. Wikia's video game vertical (games.wikia.com) is a leading video-game focused information hub on the Web. Wikia's recently expanded entertainment verticals (movies.wikia.com, tv.wikia.com, books.wikia.com and music.wikia.com) collectively represent the fastest growing U.S. entertainment destination around the world. Lifestyle.wikia.com boasts over 75,000 communities chronicling fashion, food and technology. Launched in 2006 by founder Jimmy Wales, Wikia attracts more than 120 million global unique visitors per month and is ranked a Quantcast Top 25 and comScore Top 80 Internet site, as well as a Nielsen Top 10 social network. http://www.wikia.com or @wikia
About Maker
Maker Studios is the global leader in online short-form video and the largest content network on YouTube. Maker specializes in reaching millennial audiences across multiple programming genres. Maker's network includes 55,000 independent creators from more than 100 countries, attracting over 9 billion views per month, with a growing scale driven by its robust technology platform, direct-to-consumer distribution and data analytics. Maker is home to many of the world's leading online talent and award-winning original programs such as "Epic Rap Battles of History". Maker Studios is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company and is headquartered in Los Angeles, with operations in New York, London and Singapore. For more information visit www.makerstudios.com.
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