Working Your Way Up the New Media Pyramid

NewTeeVee is covering a question I’ve been thinking about for a while now: do traditional celebrities help or hinder web series? Do you have to be (or have signed) a celebrity to make a web series work? Have we jumped past the window of opportunity for an independent web producer to get their content made?

Just a few years ago, anyone could walk into any office and pitch (and sell!) a web series idea. But those days are done, I say, and you have to know how to play in the “new” new media eco-system to get your work bought/produced.

You have to be able to work your way up the “new media pyramid.”

GOING SOLO

Of course, anyone can put video content online and, with some simple site-building tools and social media handywork, build a sizable audience. In the do-it-yourself model, the size of your audience is based solely on your ability to crank out material, market it, and interact — all by your lonesome. In this case, you just have your friends (none of whom are famous or celebrity of any sort, unless you’re lucky), so you’re stuck with the style and cleverness of your content.

Keep in mind, though, that many celebrities are getting into the “independently-produced” game. Consider Justine Bateman’s fm78.tv which is seeking advertisers for its self-funded web series projects, or Illeana Douglas’ Ikea-sponsored Web show, Easy to Assemble.

MID-MAJORS

The next level of content producers seem to be teamed up with (or created by) new, small digital studios. ManiaTV, College Humor, Revision3, and 60 Frames fit this model, but they’re laying off people: shedding some resources to make their already stretched-thin venture capital last. They are partnering with buzz-worth (but not A-List) celebrities, and are getting some nice press and initial traffic because of it. But the hype wears off. Traditional celebrities working online don’t seem to have the same holding power they have on TV. Not sure why that is. These smaller companies have room to experiment with no-name talent, but that window seems to be shutting as well.

THE STUDIOS

ABC’s Stage 9 Digital Studio, Warner Bros 2.0, HBO Digital Labs, and NBC Digital are all digital extensions of big companies are in the business of leveraging talent to get viewership, and because of the dampened economy, they have less and less room for error. Take Stage 9’s Squeegees (made by then-internet celebrity Handsome Donkey). I don’t think that show would be made today.

The window for relative unknowns making a traditional “show” at one of these big media companies is closed, I say. These small, but heavily funded (read: expectations) studios have embraced the traditional

What are the big media studios making?

• Rob Corddry’s Children’s Hospital
• Gemini Division with Rosario Dawson (licensed by NBC, but same difference)
• Web Series based on TV shows: Chuck, The Office, Heroes
• The Line, with SNL’s Bill Hader

All web series with name talent (even if it’s the writers who are the talent). Sony’s Crackle seems to be the only big media studio/site that is breaking this mold: they have name talent and unknowns all together. I wonder how that’s affecting their traffic mix.

SO WHAT?

The bigger the company you want to work with, the more stretched their resources are, and the more guarantee they’ll need that they’ll get their investment back. That means producers will have to start to (agents rejoice) package deals. Multiple levels of talent, production and web marketing experience, great amazing scripts, and locked-in advertising are all examples of negotiating chips. All that, and you’ll be forced to give up more and more ownership (if not all of it) to play at the top level.

The window will never close, however, on your ability to create something as a stepping stone to more leverage in the traditional markets. The entertainment business thrives on new talent and new voices. Is yours being heard?

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