New Media in 2009 – Bigger Productions, Bigger Returns

Like everyone else this time of year, I begin to wonder what the new year will have in store for us.  Since this blog is mostly about new media, I will keep this post focused on what we might be seeing in the world of online video in 2009.

Over the past few years the focus on the web has been the incredibly misunderstood and misused “viral video,” a slippery slope that has taken down any number of hopeful entrants.  We’ve also seen the rise and fall of the sketch comedy sites like SuperDeluxe and FunnyOrDie (yes, I know they still exist, but they fail to remain relevant).

Just in the past month or two, there has been a renewed, and stronger, push into original series on the web.  Most notable, perhaps, has been Joss Whedon’s “Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” now having a lot of success in a DVD release.  Also of interest is the WB’s “Children’s Hospital,” which broke some new ground by being a high-value production with name actors and releasing all ten episodes at once to what appears to be a healthy return.

So, for 2009, even with the economy in the crapper, I think we will be seeing more of the studio-backed sites giving it a go with high-end original webseries.  Not only in TV becoming a dead zone for scripted entertainment but the relative cost is still astronomically lower than trying to get scripted programming on TV.

As a sign of things to come, I present the trailer for Crackle.com’s “Angel of Death”.  Crackle is owned and operated by Sony.  Expect to see something like this from most of the usual suspects.  Whether or not it works is a much larger question. (via Tilzy)

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Playboy Tries Out Interns, Tries to Look Relevant

Playboy has definitely faced some challenges over the past few decades, not the least of which is that now, thanks to the internet, getting a chance to see a pair of naked breasts just isn’t that big of a deal and certainly not worthy of payment.

Sure, some will claim Playboy has always been more than boobs, and while it is true that they have had some incredibly good people write for them in the past they have never been a business built on literary laurels.

With Hef on his last legs and his daughter stepping down as head of Playboy Industries, it is a big moment for the company.  Will they be able to reinvent themselves for a new generation or will they suffer a fate similar to that of newspapers made irrelevant in today’s webby world?

If Playboy’s first original webseries is any sign of things to come I can’t say that things look good for their future.

“Interns” follows three 20-s0methings who are taking part in a seemingly fabricated internship at Playboy.  Instead of taking a tongue-in-cheek approach like, say, ESPN has done with “Mayne Street,” “Interns” plays it straight, hoping that somehow young people will be excited to see just how dull and tedious it really is to work for a magazine publisher, even with all the bunnies hopping around.

Since this is an attempt to get more mainstream there isn’t even any nudity in the series.  In fact, it is clean enough that MySpace hosts their dedicated channel.

Every webseries faces a similar challenge: how to break through all the noise and distraction and get a dedicated audience to follow along over a number of episodes.  So far, “Interns” is getting just over 100,000 views/episode over on MySpace.  Considering the name recognition and potential these numbers seem pretty low.  Check out the most recent episode and you’ll understand why…

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Cutting the Cable – How I Canceled My Cable, Saved $1000/yr and Still Get TV!

Just about two weeks ago I completely severed my Time Warner Cable TV service that was costing me right about $80/month.

This was not because I was tired of TV.  In fact, TV is part of my job and keeping up on what’s on is pretty darn important.  Also, I sort of like TV sometimes, so I was not trying to get rid of the content.

So, what have I replaced my cable with?  Here’s the rundown:

1) Boxee – Boxee is still in alpha but I love it.  It is an app that pulls all the major networks web portals into a convenient central location and is completely controlable by my tiny little Mac remote.  Boxee currently gets me access to Hulu, CBS, WB, CNN, Comedy Central and a bunch of other stuff.  Plus, with my Netflix account, the somewhat disappointing but still cool list of “watch now” films and TV shows are also a click away.

2) EyeTV – This is a TV converter that lets me run an over-the-air HD antenna right into my MacBook Pro.  Since I live in NYC this gets me access to HD versions of NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CW, whatever UPN is called now and a few random things from Ion.

I also got a 20″ external LCD monitor for $99 at Staples and have a set of inexpensive speakers that go into the headphone jack.

This gets me a vast amount of programming for a very low cost.

The few drawbacks: Still some sports I will have to go to a bar to see – but fewer every day and more networks live-stream.  I bought a super-cheap HD antenna and think I will need to upgrade.  To get a really constant signal means a bit of moving the antenna if I change channels.  Still, the picture is great.

There are also a few shows I love that I just can’t get through any network-approved method.  In these rare instances I take advantage of BitTorrent.  While it might fall into the not-quite-legal category it seems pretty obvious how they can stop me – offer the programs online with limited commercials and I am there!

Overall, while it takes a bit more work to get up and running than just flipping on the TV, I find I am more thoughtful about what and when I watch and I also get a huge satisfaction out of the knowledge that Time Warner Cable, a crappy monopoly, is only getting my $40/month for RoadRunner.  If anyone knows a comparable service available in Manahattan please let me know.

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Machinima’s Big Push Starts with Good Writers

Machinima has remained pretty much fringe area of the web video world with a few exceptions – most notable being the success of the series “Red Vs. Blue.”

Now this, via TubeFilter:

“Machinima.com, flush with cash after recently raising $3.85 million in capital, has announced the Machinima Comedy Lab, where the site is bringing on fifteen traditional TV writers, each to develop a comedy web series pilots. The series will be greenlit for up to four episodes each before they decide whether to further produce the series.”

What I find so smart about this move is that a group best known for what they do in terms of pushing the technical aspects of the genre forward are putting a real investment into writers who will be able to, I hope, take this great form of extremely low-cost animation to a wider audience.

Good Stuff!

Virtual Worlds Much Like Real Ones – Yet Worse…

It’s already well known (among those who care to know at all) that much of Second Life is devoted to various sexual quirks and fetishes.  Sure there is some other cool stuff happening there once-in-a-while but its the virtual sex that drives the core user base.

Recently, there was an attempt to open a virtual world for Muslims.  This was quickly shut down after various haters invaded the world and basically harassed the crap out of the users.

Now, Sony is having to eliminate voice-chat from their new VR world “Home” because it was being used to harass female avatars.

It might be time to face facts – virtual worlds that have no directed gameplay element will quickly devolve into a lowest-common-denominator society.  Maybe total freedom is less of a gift than it appears.

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Web Videos’ Best Hope: Lazy, Scared and Tired Network Programming

First came word that NBC would inflict Jay Leno on the nation a full 90-minutes earlier, pre-empting any chance of compelling shows to watch from 10-11PM on that network – not to mention that the vast majority of their remaining schedule features non-scripted fare.

Now comes MTV’s list of new shows that I am reprinting below from Radar:

College Life, about freshman at the University of Wisconsin. Can you say beer parties?Nitro Circus, with freestyle motocross star Travis Pastrana and his posse.

The CollegeHumor Show, set in the offices of the twentysomething-run website CollegeHumor.com.

How’s Your News? which was first seen ten years ago as a series of short films directed by Arthur Bradford. This one’s about news reporters who have disabilities.

Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory, with the co-star of MTV’s Rob & Big, who is trying to grow his skateboarding business via the Fantasy Factory, a 25,000-square-foot warehouse that is transformed into a play house.

Daddy’s Girls, with Rev Run’s daughters Vanessa and Angela Simmons of Run’s House. In this outing, they move to Los Angeles and open a store to sell their apparel line while Vanessa tries to make it as an actor.

The Girls of Hedsor Hall, inspired by the British Ladette to Lady, about a dozen foul-mouthed party girls who go to finishing school. Former Miss USA Tara Conner will be the “visiting instructor” and the winner gets $100,000.

An untitled reality show which follows students of Cincinnati’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts.

It’s one thing to abandon music entirely but at least for a little while the new programming at MTV felt, well, new.  Everything on this list is a rehash, spin-off or rip-off of an existing show.   There is not one single original concept in the bunch.  I guess time will tell if the youth of America are really this hungry for generic entertainment or if they will begin to look elsewhere in greater numbers for entertainment that doesn’t treat them like a bunch of idiots.

Scotty Got an Office Job and Damn is it Funny

Let’s face it, the world of cubicle humor, while ripe for the picking, tends to end up being either a ripoff of “Office Space” or “Dilbert.”  What makes “Scotty Got an Office Job” so fantastic is that it captures the essence of office life in a completely original and authentic way.

If we are to believe the creator, star, director and editor, Scotty, these are all short films made without the knowledge of his coworkers or superiors.  Using a clever combination of webcam and phone-cam along with some great sound effects, Scotty has produced over twenty gloriously short episodes – most are less than a minute.

While this might not be the breakout hit of the season, his work deserves to be seen and appreciated.

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Dr. Horrible Demonstrates Wonderful Potential for Post-Web Profits

While it certainly helps that the very successful webseries “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog” featured a name cast and was created by the much loved (especially by the net-saavy) Joss Whedon, there is a lot for all of us to learn about how to monetize web video.

The secret for Dr. Horrible lies in the use of release windows much like the movie studios have employed for decades.

First, the episodes were available for free streaming online, but only for a limited time.

Next, you were able to pay to download the episodes at iTunes for a small fee.  The fee was fair because now you had a version that could travel with you.

Now, Joss and company are releasing a jam-packed DVD with all sorts of value-added extras for even more money.

I’m sure there is a TV license window yet to be exploited as well.

Oh, there’s a soundtrack available, too.

Not only was Whedon able to get enormous amounts of free press and fan favor from the free release but he has understood how to build on that base to actually come out with some cash in his pocket.

While every webseries is not going to be able to do exactly what Whedon has done, it is very important to understand all of the distribution channels that exist and examine how each can best be exploited for your project.

Good article in TubeFilter, too.

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Shocking Report: 80 Percent of Teens Don’t Text Naked Pictures to Each Other!

If there’s one thing that news outlets and bloggers love, it’s any sort of news that let’s them post something about teens and sex.  It’s the ultimate link-bait.  We all like to act all horrified and shake our collective heads over any sort of teen sex news even though nobody can seem to get enough of it.

The past week or so hase seen the widespread use of the term “sexting” – the act of sending a naked or suggestive picture to someone else via text message – and it seems that, according to some study I don’t feel like hunting down at the moment, that teens are “sexting” each other at “an alarming rate!”

Seems that as many as 20% of teens have sexted someone else.  Oh, the horror!  Even worse, some of these teens are being tried as sexual deviants and face up to twenty years being listed as a sexual offender for their society-destroying crime.

Of course, nobody is writing about the fact that 80% of teens are NOT sexting anyone.  Yeah, that’s right, the vast majority of teens get that doing something like that could easily get out of hand and result in their naked picture showing up on a website their teacher can visit late at night.

The truth is that nobody is interested in this story except for the fact that they can read it and think about all the naked teen pictures floating around out there – nobody wants to have a frank discussion about teen sexuality, or safe-sex or even confront their own conflicting desires around the topic.

Instead, we are going to condemn a small number of teens doing exactly the sort of things teens have always done, and we will absolutely succeed in destroying a few of their lives for no good reason whatsoever.

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Warner Blows Dark Knight DVD Opportunity – And Completely Lies to Buyers

Along with all the other major studios, Warner is trying to figure out the best way to beat the pirates and keep a hold on the ancillary revenue generated by DVDs, etc.

In what looks at first to be a step in the right direction, the latest Blue-Ray release of The Dark Knight includes a “digital version” that can be played on your computer or PMP.  Sort of…

“I discovered Warner’s “anywhere” means an internet-connected Windows XP or Vista machine and PlaysForSure-enabled portable devices. So Macs or Linux machines, iPods and other portable media players without Microsoft’s copy protection (you know, the one they’ve been wanting to shut down), apparently aren’t included in Warner’s definition.” (via)

So, instead of providing the movie in a format that replicates the pirated versions, this is just another completely limited copy that makes you feel like a schmuck for shelling out your cash to “buy” something that turns out not to truly be yours to use as you please.

And they wonder why people still download pirated copies?

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