Cosmic announces Launch of a Framework Helping Artists & Storytellers Boost their impact & income
The Cosmic Foundation is a platform that supports top creatives, change makers and creative economy pioneers develop their systems and strategy in place in order to achieve exponential growth. Their brand new programme called 'Impact Frame' is a tool for impact-driven artists, influencers and content creators who want to boost the recognition of their productions and created to help artists and storytellers rise above all the current media noise and score audience engagement in a way that truly supports systemic change.
Developed by Camille Duran, the Impact Frame guides its users by addressing the key errors most impact-driven artists, storytellers and content creators make when attempting to “change the world”. These errors often lead to struggle, frustration and missed opportunities across the production process.
“Most impact-driven stories and productions are today stuck into the abyss of awareness raising” says Cosmic Foundation’s founder Camille Duran, who identified the burning issue within his own productions, and through the campaigns he has been supporting since 2013. “As humans, we are sensitive to an issue and we want to tell the world about it, it’s the intuitive approach. But what happens when our storytelling is actually counterproductive, or simply fails to mobilise “beyond the choir”? A large majority of the change stories get lost in the global noise of social issues and when they find an audience, they fail to truly create engagement. By watching dramatic “docu-spiracies” for instance, we all experienced the fact that awareness raising most often triggers audience denial. How can stories and artistic productions actually lead to systemic change? One day, I decided to confront my own self-told story and assess the impact from my work as a mission-driven producer, and it was a painful moment that I will always remember!” Camille adds.
The Impact Frame comes to support all kinds of storytellers who operate in a crowded media system where distribution channels typically benefit from the polarization of audiences and from “big” stories catching as many eyeballs as possible. “From an impact standpoint, the traditional awareness raising approach is a disaster,” says Camille. “The structure of the current media system only leads to more noise and more fingers pointing towards “the other”, and unless impact stories are designed and channeled from new angles and with systemic change in mind, the well-meaning storyteller might actually add to the problem instead of adding to the solution.”
By applying the core principles offered by the framework, Camille cut 80% of the pre-production time in his projects, he multiplied his rates by 4 and got his time fully booked until summer 2022. The framework ensures that distribution and promo are seeded early on in the process. The framework allows for an effortless day-to-day where each step is a solid step in the right direction. The best part is that every bit of the resulting impact is strategic to enable systemic change.
The Impact Frame is a framework built on 4 fundamental and iterative steps that takes the traditional framing process taught at arts school to a whole new level, which is critical to mission-driven settings. Each step articulates in a specific order and is a door to core insights, tools and concepts that come to enrich the artist toolbox for life.
Picking a story universe
Anchoring the initiative in existing networks
Gaining an understanding of the structures at play
Factoring in audience psychology
Anyone can learn how to use the framework via a 5-module course and a bit of practice, thereby opening the door towards much more rewarding stories and productions. When piloting the framework with a beta group, Camille noted that, at first, some impact-driven artists are hesitant to invest in a more advanced framing journey because it involves a left-brain mediated process, an issue that clearly gets cleared out of the way as the introductory course unfolds. “The challenge our society is facing is not lack of creativity, but rather that creativity is not deployed where truly positive social and environmental outcomes originate” highlights Camille. The Impact Frame is an invitation to channel creativity within a space that the artist decides to explore in-depth, to be able to unleash their creative talent where it will have the most impact, and without any artistic limitations. The framework clarifies that going beyond intuitive framing implies starting with an analytical phase and some rational decision-making.
How to Get Started with the Impact Frame?
There is an onboarding process for the Impact Frame Masterclass Program designed by Camille & The Cosmic Foundation’s team. The program consists of a 5-module on-demand course that will get you comfortable using the framework, and from which anyone will be able to access group workshop sessions twice a month. In these workshops, participants have a chance to interact with other creators who use the framework, and tap into the collective insights to consolidate their concept notes, or build on previous works as case studies. Get Started Here.
According to Kim Ossenblok, Impact-driven Youtuber hosting a 50k community developing the narrative of sensible coffee, "Cosmic provides you with a toolbox you get for life, a toolbox to work on the obstacles that have prevented you from bringing things to the next level. With the framework, it gets clear on how to act. What I love about this method is that it’s based on implementation”.
