5 Lessons from the Death of 60Frames

THR is reporting that the UTA digital content off-shoot 60Frames is shuttering.

60Frames joins a growing list of companies formed to cash in on digitial video content.  Most of these companies have failed.  While a downturn in the economy is one reason, there are bigger lessons to be learned.

Here are five lesssons to be learned from the death of 60Frames:

1) A big killer to 60Frames, according to THR, was the “sluggish nature of the dealmaking.”  This is a hurdle I am constantly facing in my daily work at Crossroads.  It often takes months to negotiate a deal for as few as four episodes of an original webseries.  Not only is momentum lost but the eventual legal fees often overshadow the inital budget for the project.  Everyone involved in the creation and distribution of original web content needs to consider drastically simplfying the paperwork.  A 50-page deal memo might make sense for a multi-million-dollar TV series but not for a webseries with an budget of less than $100,000.

2) 60Frames claims to have producer over 30 original web series.  How many can you name?  I track this stuff and all I can come up with is Blood Cell and that one they sold to HBO about the carpet salesmen.  The point is that, while it is possible to reach millions of viewers online you still have to let them know you’re out there.  That’s why movie studios spend as much marketing a movie as they do making the movie.  Never once have I seen a legitimate marketing budget and plan for the release of a webseries.  The myth of going viral is just a myth.  Word-of-mouth is nice and we all like getting Diggs but that is not a marketing plan.  Until we see companies seriously investing in marketing we will never see a webseries gain the sort of following seen by popular TV shows.

3) Making good content is hard and it is harder still when there is a “throw it up and see what sticks” approach to making hits.  Just because you can make a show doesn’t mean you should. Too many of the original webseries just don’t have enough going for them to engage the viewer beyond one or two episodes.  Considering how many expensive TV shows fail, it isn’t surprising to see many webseries fail as well, but I think the rate is even higher online becuase their are fewer checks-and-balances in terms of quality and less at risk in terms of investment.

4) Online original content development and production is not a multi-million-dollar venture right now.  60Frames, and many of their one-time competitors, simply raised too much VC money with no legitimate hope of recouping that investment considering the economic realities of the online video business.  If you want to make a go of it, you must design a company that has low overhead and very little bureaucracy so that you can move fast and react quickly.

5) Access to talent is great but if you don’t combine them with great developers than it is a wasted investment.  Too many webseries by stars are “passion projects” that have no hope of going anywhere.  Don’t sacrifice quality or vision just to get names involved.

LonelyGirl Steps in a Puddle of Horror

The webs are abuzz (here, here) with news that the original LonelyGirl15, Jessica Lee Rose, is set to star in her next web series, Blood Cell:

“3:30am (Los Angeles): Julia is jolted awake by the howl of her cellphone; a video message from her best friend, Susan. Her eyes are swollen from crying. Her upper lip shows a painful cut. And she’s scared to death. “I’ve been kidnapped… you can’t call the police… and don’t turn off your cell phone. He’ll kill me if you do…” Susan screams and the message cuts out. Confused, Julia receives a text message from the kidnapper: “Dead Cell = Dead Friend.” A peaceful night turns into a race against time. Using her cellphone as her only lifeline, Julia must rescue her friend and avoid succumbing to a similarly gruesome fate.”

I’ll go ahead and let you decide which recent crappy Hollywood film this sounds like.  I’m glad to see webisodics push into the genre world and this certainly looks to do that but it is a little disheatening that they couldn’t come up with a more original setup.

Here’s the trailer.  See if you can guess the main selling point:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFzFMsfcvR4&hl=en]