After the outbreak of the 25 January Revolution and the unprecedented increase in social media usage between different age sectors and social classes, online programmes have turned into a phenomenal trend as a large number of young people saw it as an inexpensive way to express their opinions about the different issues. This came to break the traditional domination of TV channels over the programmes and made it possible to achieve high viewership rates and make big profits with the least available equipment.
Because competition has become fierce, a big number of political, sarcastic, artistic, and social online programmes started to go viral on the internet. However, only a few of them managed to attract people’s attention for a longer time because of their remarkable content and well-prepared presentations. One of these programmes is Vignette, a movie review entertainment show presented by Injy Abo El So’oud, which achieved great success. It guaranteed its sustainability with the help of The Planet, the digital creative agency that produces the programme.
Abo El So’oud is a 25-year-old copywriter who graduated from the faculty of commerce – English section at Cairo University. “Although I haven’t studied anything related to filmmaking, but watching movies has always been and will always be my favourite escape from reality,” she said.
When the video team at The Planet came up with the idea of the programme, it was quite easy for her to start it. “All we needed was a studio, a camera, and me talking about what I think of a movie. And since The Planet is a very supportive and extremely revolutionary digital marketing agency, there was no difficulty in making this happen,” she added.
For her, the hardest part of preparing for each episode is the research that precedes it and watching the movie a couple of times before writing the script. “People’s feedback matters a lot to me. At the end of the day, when you take a look at the comment sections for example, you’ll find that it has become a discussion group where everyone gets to fearlessly say what they think of a movie. This is great and I love how everyone is speaking their minds,” she noted.
To choose a certain movie to review over another, she has a set of criteria upon which she makes her decision. “I might find a movie very interesting while no one is talking about it, so I review it. Other times people ask for a certain movie or an important movie gets released and we cannot miss reviewing it. That’s how it goes,” she added.
In her opinion, she finds online programmes successful and profitable on many different scales. “TV has lost a lot of its credit due to the current situation. Everyone has found their free space on the internet and they have used it to the extent that it has become the main channel for TV producers to search for people for their shows,” she explained.
During Ramadan, Abo El So’oud appeared in another online programme called Sallizon to review Ramadan drama along with Sara Abdel Rahman. “We came up with Salizon’s idea when we first came up with Vignette last year, while Ramadan was approaching. It was mainly a decision of doing something about the TV drama series,” she added.
However, she believes that reviewing drama is different and way more difficult because you have over 30 daily episodes for no less than 30 series that you have to watch. Although it’s very hectic, she had a lot of fun doing it.
“My future project is to never let go of how Vignette is honest, even if I am friends with the people who work in the same field. I hope everyone accepts what other people think of their work. Also, based on the recent comments I’ve received from some DC comic fans, I’m considering contacting Marvel to bribe me,” she concluded.
