And what do you know? Crackle is launching yet another genre project: The Bannen Way, from Vuguru and Big Fantastic (creators of Prom Queen).

So it looks like Sony really gets it and the rest of the studios are hopefully going to follow suit. Pay upfront production costs for genre content right now to the tune of a low budget movie (one to five million dollars for approximately two hours of content) and get returns from:

Domestic & International Syndication

Paid Downloads from places like Amazon & iTunes

Advertising Revenue from sites like Hulu.com

And DVD Sales

So now the question is how much access does the independent online producer have to places like Sony and the production company behind The Bannen Way, Vuguru? Probably not much, because with these budgets, no doubt there are agencies swarming (or at least hovering) at all ends and there will be plenty of filters involved (not to mention unemployed TV writers checking out those growing budgets licking their chops).

In a recent AP article about the new series, Brady Brim-DeForest from tubefilter.tv said that this model is an example of, “the second coming of original programming online.”

So great news for legitimate online production, but at a cost to the little guy?

Ever noticed how few college shows there are? …aside from FELICITY, I can’t think of a successful college show.

Very few Americans actually go to college. 17% graduate, apparently. And who knows how many go to sleepaway colleges — lots of people stay at home and commute to college.

Gotta watch that observer bias… it’s good to run your stories by some non-writer friends. See if your take on the world matches anyone else’s.

I thought Bob’s response was smart, so I thought I’d embarrass him by including it on our blog:

Interesting article. You know, maybe it’s futile to write about my experiences because I’m one of a privileged few and only a small percentage of America (less than 17% apparently) even went through what I went through. Perhaps the shows that are too smart fail because a vast amount of the audience can’t connect with them.

His “high school hierarchy” point reminds me of Frank Oz talking about how his movie Death at a Funeral had to take place in England and, in particular, a high-brow family. With an established hierarchy, the characters had someplace to fall. The same thing is being set up in Glee on FOX right now.

So the question is… how do we overcome those two things with our own “college-themed” show:

1. Make it primal. How I Met Your Mother (where they’re all college graduates) works because its characters and themes are very primal. Love, death, embarrassment, sex, beer. Feels very college-ish, but it’s popular.
2. Create the Hierarchy. In whatever universe we decide to take on, create the hierarchy… Sons of Anarchy (which I just started watching… it’s great, btw) has that.
3. Pitch to Cable. Mad Men gets made and it’s extremely successful, but to a very niche audience. Following Alex’s logic, a college show has a better chance on an a cable net like AMC than a broadcaster like ABC.

Great panel discussion tonight at the Writers Boot Camp in Santa Monica. Bob and I (Alec) were lucky enough to join some great panelists, and drop some knowledge-bombs on the crowd.

Some key takeaways:

• Create content to SERVE your audience. They purpose of the content is not to serve YOU as a creator. Nothing stops viral spread like there being “nothing in it” for the consumer.
• Have an exit strategy. Treat your writing like a business. Decide whether you need to partner up, sell out, or gather an audience to monetize. (At Space Shank, we do both — we create content to sell AND to leverage our position into getting bigger and bigger writing/producing gigs.)
• Be funny and approachable. The two go hand-in-hand, I think. Bob and I made an effort to lighten the business talk with some jokes. Some hit, some missed, but hey, if nothing else, be entertaining!

One last funny experience from tonight’s panel. Now, we knew we were a big deal because we were a part of this prestigious panel discussion. However, about halfway through the event, my wife noticed that our nameplates had a small, itsy-bitsy typo on them. It listed our company as “Spank Shark Media.” Hilarious. Juuuuuuust when we thought we had made it to the big leagues.

It’s cool. Special thanks to the Writers Boot Camp and Script Magazine!

New Media Panel
Monday, September 21, 2009
7:30 PM
Writers Boot Camp in Santa Monica

Hosted by Script Magazine/Final Draft, the panel will also include Donna Michelle Anderson, Aaron Mendelsohn, and blip.tv’s Rafi Mamlian. Details:

The Screenwriter of Tomorrow: What New Media Really Means for Writers
Everyone has heard the term New Media tossed around, but what does it really mean for the screenwriter? Have we learned how to monetize DIY content? Do the writers of today have to pick up a camera to survive? Can being transmedia make the difference in your writing career? Learn from writers working in new media and related media (graphic novels, short film, etc.) how you can expand your career by thinking outside of your writing space.

For more info, or to RSVP, visit ScriptMag.com.

Let us know if you’re coming, and we’ll look for you in the audience!

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.

We’ll be posting our thoughts on Twitter leading up to the big moment (as well as our thoughts during the LATV Fest conference), so if you’d like to follow us, here you go…

• @alecmcnayr
• @bobbyg
• @spaceshank

You can also follow our MRTC actors at: @adrock44, @doriendavies, and @ealexenriquez.

We’re also hoping to score a big win tomorrow in their NextTV Competition of which My Roommate The Cylon is a finalist.

You can help by texting, “VOTE 22″ to 88398

It’s the first in a series, and, yes, we made it before the Michael Jackson news broke last week…

ROCK WITH YOU (Old Dance Video from 1980)