See Validation or The Chase and get inspired by the innovative ways talented “amateurs” get paid for their co-created video vignettes.

You, too, can gather the team for your video story. Media agencies can provide the sponsoring companies that want to be associated, by name, with a positively captivating vignette or story that can be seen, for free online or on our new TV/computer.

With the proliferation of screens, we will get used to watching video most anywhere:

• The appetite for engrossing, increasingly well-done, short-form and long-form “movies” will explode – and so will the need for content.

• The power of the video story and word-of-mouth will attract viewers rather than a TV ad campaign.

• The clusters of people who prove they can create audience-attracting content will attract sponsors; soon they may not need the middleman, the media agency to get paid.

• Different teams of talent will form, including  “amateur” actors and editors.

• Individuals will make money teaching others how to create the videos.

• Many teams will create for the niche they know best – people like them. Those “markets” may range from college students to church-goers, from labradoodle lovers to locavores. And they may get paid by the companies that want to reach that market.

• The cream will rise to the top. Some teams of video co-creators won’t last as individuals re-group into more permanent groups of most-talented individuals. Some individuals may get involved in more than one group as their interests change or their talents develop.

•  Like the already disrupted worlds of movie creation and distribution, we, as video storytellers will continue to morph in the ways we co-create, get paid and get our work seen on screens. But this shift will increasingly benefit the adept collectives of storytellers.

Why? Because, in this increasingly connected world:

1. Ideas and stories that pull us in are more valuable than advertising that is pushed at us.

2. It will keep getting easier for talented individuals with a shared interest to find each other and cheaper to co-create stories.

3. Increasingly businesses will pay to be associated with content, including video stories, that reinforces the personality and differentiating value of their brand.

4. The need for middlemen melts as as the number of direct distribution channels (online, smart phone, tablet etc.) increases.

5. The ability for an unknown group to build a loyal, growing and sometimes collaborative following for their stories increases as #4 increases.

6. As the power  continues to shift for consumer-serving companies, from sellers to buyers, buyers gain a bigger voice in what they want to watch so the makers of their favorite videos gain clout and capacity monetize their work. Plus those video storytellers can get real time feedback via their own site, Twitter, Facebook and other social media so they can use that input in their future creations.

• Within a year you’ll probably see a crowdsourcing-style web site where companies can call for the kind of stories they’d like to have created for them.

More excitingly:

– Individuals will recruit others to join them on a specific video project.

– Teams will seek businesses to pay for their concept or completed video.

What video role would you like to play in this next chapter of your life adventure? Writer, actor, videographer, multi-media mash-up editor, location spotter, scenes or costume creator, or?