Vimeo Staff Picks: more than 12,000 videos, viewed over two billion times, spread out over a decade. It’s been 10 years of Staff Picks and the numbers are mighty impressive, but they don’t tell the full the story.
A lot has changed since we launched Staff Picks. We’ve seen technologies shift (including the advent of HD video), creative trends come and go (remember our bokeh obsession?), all the way up to broader cultural and geopolitical shifts (Staff Picks has now spanned three American presidencies). And Vimeo itself has changed. While Vimeo started off as kind of a hub for creative vlogging — for lack of a better descriptor — it has since grown into a global platform for professional video creators to create and share their work. This evolution is well-documented in the body of Staff Picks, which is now comprised of over 12,000 videos.
Early Staff Picks were often unedited slices of life captured by some of the earliest adopters of digital video. Nowadays, you’ll be more likely to find a tightly-produced Sundance-winning short film in the channel. What’s driving all this change? Is the evolving Vimeo platform transforming Staff Picks or is Staff Picks setting the course for the Vimeo platform? The answer is probably somewhere in between. What is clear, though, is that the trajectory of Staff Picks has run in tandem with the careers of many of the creators featured in the channel.
Back when Staff Picks was just getting started, so too were many of our creators. Years before they were directing Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe in Swiss Army Man, the Daniels were racking up Staff Picks for their early music video work. And almost a decade before her work on the Cartoon Network series Summer Camp Island, Julia Pott was posting shorts she directed as a student at the Royal College of Art in London.
So, in honor of the ten-year anniversary of Staff Picks, we decided to catch up with alumni old and new to see what effect the black-and-white badge has had on their careers. We heard back from over 600 Staff Pick alumni — here are some highlights and good old-fashioned stats!
Big breaks
67% of Staff Picks alumni say that getting a Staff Pick helped launch their career.
“The Staff Pick kicked off one of the most exciting periods of my life. It brought an unprecedented amount of exposure to my film and has helped me secure many jobs since. I couldn’t think any higher of it.” – Joe Kramer
“When I saw how many people enjoyed the short film I made, it gave me the confidence to pack up my stuff and move to Los Angeles after I graduated. Since moving, I’ve produced three documentary films that premiered at Sundance, and stayed in touch with a lot of the people who originally messaged me about my Staff Pick.” – Carly Palmour
A windfall
72% of Staff Picks alumni say that being Staff Picked helped them receive paid or funded future work.
“I cannot understate the value that getting my Staff Pick had for me, which was for my short film “Destroyer.” It ended up being viewed over 160,000 times on Vimeo and wound up being widely shared. That exposure played a major part in getting my first feature film, Hello Destroyer, made.” – Kevan Funk
Moments in the spotlight
81% of Staff Picks alumni say their careers were impacted positively by getting the Staff Pick moniker — including things like press coverage or a film festival run.
“After being Staff Picked, the video essay was written up in places like The AV Club, io9, Boing Boing, Films for Action, Film School Rejects, Filmscalpel, and others. It had a life far beyond my wildest dreams for it, and I’m truly humbled by that.” – Daniel Clarkson Fisher
“[Receiving a Staff Pick] gave our film a huge boost in visibility that prompted it being embedded into hundreds of other websites, resulting in hundreds of thousands of views. The film was picked up by festivals all over the world.” – Trillium Studios
New paths
73% of Staff Pick alumni say receiving a Staff Pick was as important as (or more important than!) being selected by a major film festival.
“It’s huge! Hardly anyone would see my shorts if it weren’t for Staff Picks, I equate it with getting accepted to a major festival.” – Kati Skelton
“I spent over $4000 traveling to countless festivals and nothing happened until I got a Staff Pick. The next day I got a manager and moved to Los Angeles.” – Mike Roberts
The Decade
Clearly we have a lot to celebrate — and celebrate we will! Beginning Friday at the SXSW Film Festival, Vimeo will be hosting our biggest, raddest event ever dedicated exclusively to Staff Picks. We’re calling it The Decade and it will feature talks, performances, and screenings sourced entirely from the Staff Picks community.
So, if you’ll be in Austin, make sure you stop by our very special cinema to hear Danny Devito discuss his experience directing the first-ever Staff Pick Premiere, “Curmudgeons,” or lose yourself in a live performance by Kawehi, or experience some of the 100 most iconic Staff Picks of all time in a brand new way.
