Overall, we really like their take on writing, and would encourage anyone looking for structured mentoring, training, or guidance to give them a look.

Read our post at ScriptMag.com.

But for those with an insatiable hunger for online media advice, we wanted to share the following information gleaned from a great LATV Fest panel session entitled “Anatomy of a Hit Web Series.”

Continue reading at ScriptMag.com.

It’s true. More focus, more shifting away from cable to mobile and online, and more interesting content finding its way into the radars of non-technical, average folk, who don’t know how to connect a laptop to a TV.

But no money. Or at least, not a lot of money. The amount of online content is too vast to stand out with a simple, well-produced web series. You need distribution. No money, no distribution, no production, no experience.

NewTeeVee reports on RedLever’s shift from artistic creator of content (term used lightly after seeing a video starring a bikini-clad hottie dropping raw eggs into a “contestant’s” mouth) into strategic brand enhancer. I think that’s a smart play for this economy. Well done.

RedLever shows cost anywhere from $100,000 to $1.5 million each, including distribution. “If they want 100 million uniques to see it, not a problem, we can do that,” he said, adding that 10 million seems to be the number most people are looking for. With a combination of original shows and distribution deals like the one it has with Vuguru’s Back on Topps, RedLever hopes to launch 10 shows this year.

Now, the “content as ad” model looks nice, but only a precious few who have the ears of ad agencies can play that game, as the case for original video content leading to concrete customer conversions is weak at best…

My knock is that without a pre-existing brand relationship (or at least a spokesperson/lifestyle-type relationship fit), branded entertainment will feel like an ad. And Tivo knows that people fast-forward through those.

Or you could just visit this guy.

If your mantra is “if I could only get the money, I’d be a success,” check out the story of Delgo, an animated film with all the right pieces, but the wrong execution.

The film’s creator/producer/director wanted to create a big-budget animated film without the help of Hollywood powerhouse studios. He lined up big-time name voice talent (well, Freddy Prinze Jr.), and pitched the finished product around for distribution. No takers.

No takers after $40 million was spent? That’s the first problem. If you don’t have a plausible and meaningful experience to show after $40 million, you’re in trouble. He financed the distribution himself, launching in over 2,160 theatres. But the first weekend take was $511,920 — the all-time lowest for a wide box office opening.

But perhaps the biggest problem was that he failed to consider the marketing costs needed to “stand out in the already crowded holiday movie season.”

Know this: a $40 million-dollar movie is actually an $80 million movie. It takes time, effort, resources, and a strategic team to deploy a movie (that’s why studios will never go away). Independent, DIY creators must remember that it takes a team to create buzz — the necessary buzz to generate action (the kind of action that means $$$).

The internet can serve as a quick community-building tool for building buzz, but it isn’t cheap. It’s not free. It’s not “viral.” Real buzz that translates into revenues is a calculated strategy executed well.

For $40 million, I would have created a company that generated a lot of small, consumable content, and built an audience — a legion — of loyal children and pre-teens to get behind the storylines and the world. And then license the heck out of it. Figurines, t-shirts, stickers, and social network add-ons. For that kind of money, you could run for 2-3 years.

With a track record and a loyal core audience, then you might get a studio to back a movie. Or just return a call…

We went to support Watoto, a non-profit based in Kampala, Uganda that pairs a household of 8 orphans with a mother that cares for them — as family — through University. Some of the children there were literally found in dumpsters and in the street. These same children will be given the resources and challenge to grow to be leaders in their community, country, and continent.

It was a powerful and meaningful time for me and my wife, to see a third-world country. We saw daily reminders for us to appreciate the opportunities and resources we have in America. Things like drinking water (93% of Ugandans have no access to reliable drinking water), electricity (many Ugandans have mobile phones, but have to charge them at charging booths – they don’t have power in their homes), and relative financial security (Uganda has out of control inflation and a 45% jobless rate).

For more personal perspectives, check out my personal blog at AlecandKatie.com, but here are some thoughts on media while I was there:

• I just read that there are 147 million people in America that regularly consume online video, but I’d be surprised if 147 total people watch video online. Most middle-class early-twenties people I talked to had heard of YouTube, but had rarely used it.
• Bandwidth is slow, slow, slow. Our guest house had a 56k modem that only occasionally worked. That, and I only saw old clunker PCs. A Gateway here, an Acer there. As far as the wired internet goes, Uganda is 1994 America.
• The middle-class youth do, however, use Facebook. I’ve already connected with some of them.
• Everyone is connected to a cell phone constantly. As America shifts from landlines to mobiles (no one my age has a home line anymore…), Ugandans never really had a phone system, so their pay-as-you-go model really works. There are billboards advertising 3G phones, but how fast can they be?
• There were ads all over Uganda — many houses and businesses are fully wrapped [painted] in colors and logos. They building owners don’t get paid — the painting is a service that looks nicer than the worn down brick. Therefore, there are Zain/Warid/MTN (mobile carriers) and Juicy Fruit buildings everywhere.
• Coca-Cola has posters, billboards, and ads all over Kampala — and each ad features the exact same photo and tagline: “Deep Down Refreshment.” It’s a lesson in consistent branding.
• There was only one movie poster up around Kampala (the largest city in the country, mind you), for Quantam of Solace, which had opened a month earlier.
• When asked about television, few people watch it regularly (who can afford a TV, much less getting your home custom-wired for electricity?). When pressed to name popular shows, our Ugandan hosts mentioned Lost, Prison Break, and Desperate Housewives.

Living and working in New Media in the USA, you can get the sense that everyone lives and breathes online, but the truth is that millions of people around the world have different experiences, methods of media consumption, and levels of access. It’s important to get out of your world for a few minutes (even if it’s a trip to your parents’ house) to see how your work translates.

Who cares about your gorgeous HD video if they don’t have the mobile bandwidth to view it?

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?

Just got an email from THR and all three articles in it were about TV networks hemorrhaging audiences:

• ABC had three season premiere stinkers (all good shows, btw): Pushing Daisies dropped 55% over last year, Private Practice 38%, and Dirty Sexy Money 31%.
• Despite being the first basic cable show to earn a ‘Best Drama’ Emmy, Mad Men lost audience in the week after its big win, from 1.9 million the week before the Emmys to 1.6 the week after.
• And despite Dexter’s big gain in audience (likely due to its temporary move to CBS during the writer’s strike), Californication lost audience as well.

Broadcast networks, cable networks, and premium cable networks all getting the same story. They’re losing audience.

Add on this article from the New York Observer: Only Two-and-a-Half Sitcom Writers Left in Hollywood.

“At one point in the 1990s, NBC had 16 half-hour sitcoms on the air. This fall, it has four. And two of those four—The Office and 30 Rock—though critically beloved (both are up for Best Comedy Emmys on Sunday, Sept. 21), are struggling to be embraced by mainstream audiences.”

Yikes. Makes it a difficult sell to work up the courage, nerve, and gusto necessary to write a TV spec script, doesn’t it? With all the money in the world for advertising, production value, and star power, what the heck is going on?

We’re in the midst of a painful shift of media, and everyone is feeling the pinch. Writers, directors, actors, executives, agents, everyone. Especially up-and-comers that are working dangerously hard to ‘break into’ the business. Will there be any ‘business’ left when they get there?

Well, the only answer is: adapt or die. The only thing failing faster than traditional network’s’ TV shows are traditional networks’ online shows. They’re suffering from the same symptoms. These fledgling show concepts are expected to bolster the weight of a lot of overhead (only with less money). They’re hoping the independent producers will sell out their ideas so that the future revenue will remain in the corporation. You can’t build a lasting model that way, when self-distribution costs are so low. Everyone has to work fast, cheap, and good. The trifecta of creativity.

The audience (their attention to ads being the primary source of revenue these days) is not staying with any studio, network, or medium. They’re fragmenting like crazy, and it’s up to the individual creator to harness, compel, and motivate an audience to stick around.

Adapt or die. It’s no longer good enough to just write. You have to write and edit and web design. Or know about online video distribution, direct, and act. Or all six.

Creativity is the only thing that’s still pure about this business, and a new wave of audience is seeking it out. Online originals, TV-on-the-Web (Hulu, ABC.com, etc.), and Tivo are all killing traditional numbers because they give choice and satisfaction back to the consumer.

What are you doing to increase your skills? Editing better, writing better, marketing better? We’re learning that big, slow overhead won’t get the job done. Nimble, quick responses to audience will build an audience.

Update: Fresh Hell reports on shows that gained audience this fall — most of them on CBS and CW. My rant still applies…

iTunes recently became the #1 retailer of music (physical or digital), and everyone seems to be gunning for them. Amazon has its own download service, MySpace Music just launched, Best Buy is buying Napster to help them sell digital devices, and the big music companies are still trying to build their own portal/download service.

After almost ten years of digital music, the traditional music industry still can’t find a way to stop the hemorrhaging. That’s scary.

What does this say about the traditional TV and film business? Digital downloads and file-sharing hasn’t caught the mainstream culture like it did for movies, but big media is facing a squeeze. As hard drive sizes increase, and download speeds quicken… the barrier for trading/downloading/sharing/storing video content in high-quality (that’s the key) is getting lower and lower…

What can we learn from the music business to prepare for what’s about to happen in TV and film?

Indie labels rock. They reach smaller audiences, but the talent development is there. The niche audience is a fervent, loyal one.

Distribution matters, but sharing is better. People don’t just want to buy media, they want to experience it with friends. That “experiencing” used to be gathering at a friend’s house, listening to a record player, but today is trading notes and comments on Facebook.

Free media leads to other revenue streams. Many bands want to give away music for free (or for donation, a la Radiohead), because they know it leads to other revenue: touring, merch, gift sets, etc. By the way, their free media doesn’t come with an pre-roll ad (take note, video networks).

What else is happening in music that we should be looking at?

I’ve lauded Stephen King’s N. as the best web series I’d seen in a long time, but it ended with an awkward “okay, that’s done now.”

Now what?

As a fan, what am I supposed to do? Buy the book? In November? I might, but reading the book won’t match my interest in the video-based series. There’s not really any further online interaction to speak of.

As a producer, I question the close-out strategy for the series. I was a big fan (bigger than most, I bet), and they never captured my name, email address, or anything about me. They can’t send me a coupon to save $2-3 bucks off the book, they can’t hit me up for further King-related series, and they can’t claim my demographics to future potential advertisers.

There were a lot of players on the team that made N., including Simon & Schuster, Marvel, and CBS. Why no thought on marketing?