|
June 30, 2006
Is YouTube a flash in the pan?
Is YouTube a flash in the pan? Josh Martin, an IDC research analyst, issued a report Thursday asserting that YouTube will struggle to squeeze profits from its video-sharing business, primarily because its audience has grown accustomed to paying nothing for the service. Fans of San Mateo, Calif.-based YouTube are even likely to buck attempts to post ads on the site because YouTube has largely been ad free since its official launch last December, according to the report. "In order to begin addressing its issues, YouTube must implement myriad changes," Martin wrote in his report. "The truly difficult task for YouTube is to change the entire culture of the viewers that propelled it to overnight success." YouTube spokeswoman Julie Supan declined to comment on the report but did say that company executives have offered Martin "no insight into our business." YouTube owns more than 40 percent of the burgeoning video-sharing market, and more than 13 million people log on to watch homemade movies that are uploaded by fans of the site every month. But even while the company's profile mushrooms, and more than a year since YouTube was founded, executives have yet to roll out a business model. YouTube representatives have said the company will sell ads, which will be introduced slowly in coming months. According to Martin, YouTube has little choice but to take the advertising route. The site's audience is likely to be unwilling to pay for subscriptions or downloads of premium content. He adds that the advertising model is no sure bet. Introducing ads may alienate viewers. In such a case, "how long until a (YouTube competitor), without advertising, emerges to siphon the YouTube defectors?" Martin asked in his report. There's also the question of whether YouTube can persuade blue chip companies to advertise on the site. There's been much speculation in the media on whether some of the content on YouTube is too unseemly to attract big advertisers. YouTube doesn't prescreen any content. The majority of the video clips involve budding musicians, comedians, filmmakers or just people clamoring for attention. Other clips are grittier. A viewer can often find clips of violent accidents and bloody shark attacks. Sometimes users post clips that include nudity and sexually graphic images. And then there's the question of users uploading content that's owned by someone else. In February, NBC requested that YouTube remove a clip from "Saturday Night Live" called "Lazy Sunday," that was widely viewed on YouTube, and the company complied. Since then, YouTube's relationship with NBC has vastly improved. This week, the two companies announced a cross-marketing deal that calls for NBC to post promotional clips from shows, such as "Saturday Night Live" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," on YouTube. But this isn't what YouTube fans want, says Martin. They don't want promotional clips that the network chooses, writes Martin, they want the funniest, edgiest skits SNL has to offer, or at least some of them. The problem, said John Miller, NBC's chief marketing officer, is that such SNL snippets are already offered on iTunes for a fee. Cable station E Entertainment also owns the broadcast rights to SNL segments. Making them available for free on YouTube isn't in anyone's best interest, said Miller. Martin said in his report that he expects copyright issues to plague YouTube and its rivals well into the future. In other news: "In the late 1990s Napster...achieved similar cult status (as YouTube) but was quickly abandoned when it attempted to become a legitimate business," Martin wrote. For some entertainment sites, going mainstream has meant losing their core audience, who are attracted to more rebellious sites. "Eventually, the paradigm will shift, where viewers accept watching advertisements to support their free video," said Martin in his report, "but not likely quickly enough for YouTube to reinvent itself in the short term." June 28, 2006
Who Killed The Electric Car?
Just back from seeing - "Who Killed The Electric Car? " Where to begin... first of all - if you have to decide between "Inconvenient Truth" and "Electric Car" , Gore wins hands down. It's a better movie. More carefully crafted. And more compelling. "Electric Car" is a great story - but it's not well told, and in fact the don't really answer the question. Why? Well first of all - just because you have money, and celeb friends, and an issue doesn't mean you can make a documentary. Seeing Dean Devlin's name as the producer in the opening credits is a clue. This is a HOLLYWOOD issue movie. Which means great hair and lighting - but short on the complexity and depth that makes a documentary work. Which is not to say that the role of an issue film isn't impossible in Hollywood. Afterall, Alex Gibney - who Directed the extraordinary ENRON: Smartest Guys In The Room - who is an advisor on the film - can single-handedly save this movie. There's no doubt the film makes points. The story of the EV1 is disturbing. I didn't know that Andrew Card worked for the Auto Industry. Bush = Oil. right. Cheney = Oil. right. Condi = Oil. Oh yeah. Hmm... But at the end of the day - "Electric Car" leaves you with this vague sense of uneasiness about Big Oil, Detroit, and Politicians willingness to trade the end of the world for a few years of high gas prices. Surprise--Nielsen to Track Cross-Platform TV Programming!
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 Assuming you read as much as I do, then you might be just as surprised as I was to hear that Nielsen announced plans last week to begin measuring how consumers watch television programming on the Web, cell phones and iPods as well as all other digital devices. This all comes as a part of their Anytime Anywhere Measurement Model, which includes the People Meter and a number of other initiatives. Personally I found this to be an extremely newsworthy note, but it was buried as a two-paragraph article on page 24 of Adweek. If I ran a magazine, this would be right out there on page one! The decision to start tracking television programming across all these platforms is one that I have been waiting for since last Oct. 25, when the press first picked up on the announcement of the video iPod. That date was pivotal and will be a date I remember for years to come because it signaled a massive change in the consumer model for programming. Since that date, the on-demand content model has jumped forward by leaps and bounds--but I didn't expect the Nielsen announcement for at least another six months. The implications of this announcement for advertisers are actually quite large. First and foremost, this signals a potentially dramatic change in the upfronts as early as next year, because the networks will be capable of selling advertising space across multiple platforms with built-in accountability. For example, my addiction to "Lost" as a consumer can easily be fueled across platforms, but advertisers had no idea how to reach me this past season. I rarely watched the show on TV; I only watched it on iTunes or ABC.com. "Lost" was the No. 10 show on television last season (according to Nielsen as of the week of 5/14/06); however, this did not take into account the downloads on ABC.com (rumors were that around 5 millions viewers had watched portions of the show on the site by that same week), nor did it take into account that episodes of "Lost" were ranked at number 1, 5, 11, 14, 15 and 20 on the list of most popular video downloads on iTunes at that same time (5/14/06). In total, "Lost" was certainly better than No. 10--and had a substantially larger audience than the Nielsen estimate of 10.6 million viewers. An advertiser could not only reach a larger audience by placing its ads across platform, but would have more accurate numbers reflecting the actual views and the specific audience viewing them. With digital media, we can embed a tag at certain intervals through the programming that guarantee actual viewing by the audience--plus, we can amass more data on who the audience is, where they are viewing the program, how many times they view the program, etc. For an advertiser, this is extremely valuable--and for the networks, this is a premium audience which they can sell for their programs and encourages them to make these programs available across formats. If you thought there was any hindrance to the growth of the on-demand model in the next few years, this announcement removed all doubts. So why was this buried so deeply in the magazine? My only guess is that it wasn't thought out well enough--or else Nielsen requested this to not be a huge story. I'm sure there will be holes poked in their methodology over the coming months, but I truly hope they pursue its launch. A little information can go a long way here, and I applaud Nielsen for taking the initiative to develop this product. Get ready for Web 3.0! NBC Ends Feud, Partners With YouTube To Create 'NBC Channel'
NBC Ends Feud, Partners With YouTube To Create 'NBC Channel' But Tuesday, NBC publicly reversed course with a deal to become the first major network to partner with the burgeoning YouTube. The agreement calls for NBC to create an "NBC Channel" on YouTube to promote shows including "Saturday Night Live," "The Office," and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." New NBC content will be uploaded weekly, and the network will also host a competition for user-generated content, inviting YouTube users to submit their own 20-second spots for "The Office." In yet another twist of old and new media platforms, NBC will broadcast promotions for the contest on air, and will also air the winning submission during an episode of the show in August. NBC is providing signature graphics and music from "The Office" for the contest. For its part, YouTube will promote NBC's content throughout the site. YouTube has been advocating such a deal since at least December 2005, when the two media companies collided head-on over the posting of a popular "SNL" spoof rap, "Lazy Sunday," on YouTube in violation of NBC's copyright. Julie Supan, senior director of marketing at YouTube, told OMMA magazine earlier this year that the company tried to head off the earlier conflict, approaching NBC in late December about a possible partnership, but didn't hear back until NBC's legal warning arrived in February. YouTube immediately removed "Lazy Sunday," Supan said. June 24, 2006
From Bambi Fransisco - (http://bambi.blogs.com) One-off moments in time Compared with whimsical one-off moments in time captured on video, big media productions just don't seem to matter online. Take a quick scan at the top 100 most popular clips viewed on Google Video, and you'll note that a large majority are far from professionally produced. The No. 1 video, at this juncture, is a 13-second clip, titled "Girl caught cheating." Of all video sharing sites out there, one would think that Google's would be a place where branded productions could get attention. Yet without promotion on Google, CBS content apparently is getting lost in a sea of colorful photo thumbnails, seemingly far more popular if only because they ask little of our time. Consider another example. The most recent Apple data shows that 30 million videos -- music videos as well as episodes of popular shows, like Desperate Housewives -- have been sold since October 2005, when Apple's store began to offer video. YouTube, the fast-growing video phenomenon, claims that 50 million videos are viewed each day on its site. Put another way, more than 2 million videos are viewed per hour on YouTube vs. 5,000 videos purchased per hour on iTunes, arguably the most successful distribution platform for digital content. More of this article and my response to comments: » Continue reading ""YouTube ‘bigger than MTV’ for advertisers
By Carlos Grande in Cannes ADVERTISEMENT But successful future campaigns would need to imitate viral content - so-called because of its rapid spread online - by being easy to consume repeatedly and to forward on, said Mark Tutssel, worldwide chief creative officer at Leo Burnett. Advertisers would also have to invite consumer interaction, by allowing people to create their own commercials and comment, even negatively, on brands, Mr Tutssel said. Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, he said: “Marketers must learn to let go of the control they think they have over their brand.... Once consumers have interacted with brands they will not go back to being shouted at by marketers.” The speech, a joint presentation with Contagious, an industry magazine, came as the festival, the leading awards for the $400bn a year advertising industry, awarded a Grand Prix to a campaign designed to look like a homemade internet video. The advertisement appears to show Mark Ecko, a graffiti artist, defacing Air Force One, the US president’s jet. It claims to have reached 135m people via the internet and subsequent free press coverage. All week at Cannes, advertising and media executives have grappled with the implications of virals which have reached millions of people via the internet, often by-passing traditional media. A few have involved no spend on media, offline or online. Industry executives are also worried that the fastest growing part of internet advertising, namely paid-for search, could turn brands into commodities. But arguing that digital media can tap consumer enthusiasm for brands the Leo Burnett presentation, dubbed Wildfire, cited examples including the Chevy-Tahoe car brand which invited consumer to create their own web commercials. This attracted 5.5m people to a website and produced 22,000 entries, of which only 16 per cent were negative. A VW Golf advertisment shown on YouTube.com also drew 1.9m people. In an FT interview, Paul Kemp-Robertson, editor-in-chief of Contagious, said: “On sites like YouTube, advertising can be an acceptable part of the landscape, sitting alongside music or films. People may not be interested in advertising but they are interested in brands. Provided you offer them something entertaining and useful, allow them to interact and reward themfor their interest, they will accept you.” Other successful “virals” have included a clip created for the John West fish brand. This was voted the most popular US commercial even though it has not aired on US television. True to their interactive ambitions, the presentation speakers asked delegates to keep their phones on during the talk and to text their views, which will be published online. June 20, 2006
Today's WTC News
I was at the WTC site today - for hours. I stood by the fence. Watched the tourist groups with matching shirts file by. Listened to the sidewalk preacher scream till her throat was raw. Watched the man with the Santa Clause beard play the fluet. It was a remarkable show. Crazy, Emotional, Confused, seeking answers without realy knowing what the questions are. It was New York at its best. And the site of the World Trade Centers will clearly continue to be the focus of debate, controversy, and discussion. But it's also the source of inspiration... as the contruction finally seems to begin after years of false starts. I don't claim to understand the politics of the site, or the number of entities that have been wrestling over control of the site. But i think this solution feels like it brings alot of the formerly fighing factions together. I hope i'm right. June 19, 2006
Great Times piece today:
Todays Times hits the ball out of the park - and even quotes Michael Moore criticizing the Time. Worth a read.
THERE have been all sorts of pronouncements in the past week about the ambitions and absurdities of the Iraq war, but nothing in newspapers, on cable or even out there in the blogosphere matched the impact of a deft little turn in the middle of "The War Tapes," a documentary about — and filmed by — a New Hampshire National Guard Unit stationed in Iraq that opened in theaters two weeks ago. Specialist Mike Moriarty is filming his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Kevin Shangraw, as they bounce along in a Humvee. He asks his leader for his take on the broader mission, and Sergeant Shangraw comes straight off the dome with a government-issue rationale. "Well, I think it's a fantastic opportunity for the Iraqis to establish a new history in the country and be able to be a free and democratic society, which in turn should stabilize the whole Middle East and create a freer and more stable earth as we know it." "Tell me how you really feel," an unseen Specialist Moriarty prompts. Sergeant. Shangraw waits a beat as the bleak landscape flies by in the window before answering. "Then, after that happens, maybe we can buy everybody in the world a puppy." It is mordantly effective filmmaking. "The War Tapes" has the stock characters of any war movie — the gung-ho guy, the wiseacre, the bookish one — but the fact that they are actually fighting the war not only gives them a perspective on events most of us are seeing through a straw, but also a ferocious credibility. The movie is less diatribe than a vérité tour of the vagaries of war in general and this one in particular. (Much of the unit's mission involves guarding convoys of supply trucks from Halliburton, driven by highly paid civilians.) "The War Tapes" is one of a rash of current documentaries feeding appetites for information and coverage beyond traditional channels of information. "An Inconvenient Truth," a filmed version of former Vice President Al Gore's slide show on global warming, has turned the most boring of issues — and public personalities — into an entertainment. "Who Killed the Electric Car?", a whodunit about the death of electric vehicles in California, landed with enough impact that the Smithsonian removed its only electric vehicle from display last week. "The Road to Guantánamo," a hybrid of documentary and feature techniques, seemed to neatly prefigure the recent events at the prison. THE current surge in politically inflected documentaries seems like a mashed-up, digital version of the 1960's, when books like "Silent Spring," "Unsafe at Any Speed" and "The Other America" came out of nowhere to define public debate. Those interested in advancing specific points of view these days are picking up the 800-pound pencil of filmmaking, in part because digital technology has made it easier to deliver complicated political messages in a visual narrative. But the cluster of serious, point-of-view documentaries may also represent something else, a coup d'etat on the status quo. Just as those big books of the 60's took on the elites of the day (chemical companies, Detroit engineers) these films betray a disaffection with their postindustrial counterparts (Hollywood, the traditional news media) for filling theaters with brain-dead blockbusters and neglecting important stories. "Documentaries used to explore issues, but there has been an extraordinary explosion of political advocacy," said Sheila Nevins, president of documentary films at HBO. "I don't think the evening news is doing a good job of expressing the confusion about the state of the world, and this is a soapbox that a lot of people are turning to." Michael Moore, whose "Fahrenheit 911," and "Bowling for Columbine" set the template for the new political documentary, believes there are two reasons we are seeing these films in theaters. "Mainstream media, especially The New York Times, has failed to cast a skeptical eye on those in power," he said. "The other reason is that Hollywood has not done the job of producing interesting films of substance. If journalism isn't doing the job and fiction isn't doing the job, nonfiction has stepped in with compelling characters, good stories and important films." Sgt. Zack Bazzi, one of the stars and battlefield auteurs of "The War Tapes," said the war he fought in (and probably will again) is the one he saw in the documentary, which was directed by Deborah Scranton. "The strongest message of the film is that you have three primary characters who have very different views of the war who do their jobs to the best of their abilities with no regrets," he said, speaking by cellphone from Vermont. Suddenly, gunfire erupted in the background. "That isn't real. Those are blanks," he said, explaining that he had volunteered for a few days to assist in training a unit that was on its way to Iraq. "No film or book is going to capture the exact reality of a war, but this film comes as close as any I have seen," he said, moving away from the explosions. "This is another vehicle to relay the message and help bridge the current disconnect people feel with the war. It helps civilians be better citizens, to not confuse the war with the warrior." The current impulse to fight back by picking up a camera is generally considered a liberal reflex — there are very few politically conservative documentarians. But much of the most bracing work comes from people who were not ideologues to begin with. Dean Devlin, an executive producer on "Who Killed the Electric Car?" decided to finance his first documentary after General Motors killed its electric car program and insisted that the cars, including his, be returned. "Both the director and I lived that story," he said. "I think that now that you have high-quality digital cameras that produce images that can be edited on PC's, it is a much easier matter to put together a film. And audiences are much more comfortable with unscripted entertainment because of the ubiquity of reality television. It seems more real." But verisimilitude does not equal impact, and it's an open question whether these documentaries will achieve any real-world effect. Books like "Silent Spring" and even "The Feminine Mystique" put long-ignored issues into the mainstream, altering or sometimes creating a debate. But even that rare documentary like "An Inconvenient Truth" that breaks through to wide release is up against the tyranny of mass consumption. It's likely that more people saw "Cars," an homage to joyous combustion, on its opening weekend than will ever see "Who Killed the Electric Car?" or "An Inconvenient Truth." The choir of the converted may line up for the latest cause, but most people who clog the multiplex are not going to be talking about global warming as they drive away. "A book is far more consequential," said Ralph Nader, who brought at least a corner of Detroit to account with "Unsafe at Any Speed," a meticulously reported account of G.M.'s willful neglect of safety issues. He pointed out that although the Gore documentary was getting visibility, a serious, handsome book of the same name had been produced. "No one ever sent a documentary to Congress. Films land with immediacy and get people angry, but they do not create a civic motivation," Mr. Nader said. "The usual homily is that a picture is worth a thousand words, but when it comes to the documentary versus a traditional muckraking book, I think the reverse is true." Mr. Nader, Mr. Moore and others suggest that a lightweight traditional media that is both afflicted with A.D.D. and rife with agendas has left filmmakers and citizens looking elsewhere for their information. In "The War Tapes," Sgt. Stephen Pink walks into a dorm room with his camera at Fort Dix, N.J., where soldiers are preparing to go to Iraq. One soldier protests. "We're not supposed to talk to the media." "I'm not the media," he retorts as the soldier turns away. Sergeant Pink persists. "I'm not the media, damn it!" June 16, 2006
New documentary “Wet Dreams”
www.efilmcritic.com/ Rebecca Romijn steps out of the blue and into the Bellagio to choreograph one of their famous water fountain routines in the new documentary “Wet Dreams.”
Romijn is calling up to discuss “Wet Dreams,” a new documentary in which she explores a subject near and dear to her heart–choreographing the water fountain display outside the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Like many of those who have seen the attraction over the years, she was astounded by the sight of thousands of gallons of waters shooting up into the air in routines perfectly choreographed to various musical selections. Unlike many, she, along with best friend Steve Willis (who directed the film), wanted to try her hand at staging such a routine herself. The film chronicles her efforts from trying to convince the people at Wet Designs, the folks who put together the routines, that she is serious about this ambition to finding the perfect bit of fountain music (Ennio Morricone’s “The Ecstacy of Gold” from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”) to putting all the elements together, first on the computer and then in the fountain itself. While the result is admittedly a vanity project, it is an uncommonly endearing one because the subject is so unlikely (who would have dreamed that so much technical effort and manpower went into a dancing-waters routine?) and because Romijn is such an appealingly goofy guide–she is clearly having the time of her life doing this and that sheer enthusiasm comes through throughout the film. Appropriately, "Wet Dreams" will be premiering at the CineVegas Film Festival in Las Vegas on June 12. And if you want, you can go from the screening over to the Bellagio, where Romijn's piece is still running in their rotation three times a day. How did the idea of personally choreographing a water fountain display first come about for you? My best friend Steve Willis and I, like millions of other people around the world, have gone to Vegas and been completely mesmerized by the giant fountains at the Bellagio hotel. It started off as one of those ridiculous ideas where you sit there and think “How cool would it be to blankety-blank?” and then you let it go. With this, the more we talked about it, the more passionate we became about it. Then we started talking seriously about it and then we’d laugh at ourselves for taking it so seriously but we couldn’t let it go. We decided to try to figure out the proper channels and we had to get in touch with this company called Wet Designs, the company that is responsible for handling the fountains. At first, they wouldn’t take us seriously–go figure–and we finally got a meeting to go in and pitch something to them. The idea of choreographing one of those fountain shows to music that we got to pick out just sounded like the most satisfying and fulfilling thing to be a part of–that fountain in Vegas is like the biggest instrument in the world and a fabulous form of expression.
It’s creepy, I know. It is such a huge, huge thing and people have no idea about how much goes into it–all those nozzles are basically little robots. How long did it take to finally convince the Bellagio that you were serious about your intentions? As we see in the film, you even used an appearance on “The Tonight Show” as a forum to plead your case at one point.[/]i Desperate times call for desperate measures. Once we finally got a meeting with Mark Fuller from Wet Designs, it didn’t take long at all. I think he sensed our passion and that inspired him and gave him confidence in us. I think he was still curious about what we would try to pull off. Everyone had their doubts–we’d never choreographed a fountain before–but we just knew that really wanted to do it and we were sure that we could do a good job. What are the qualities that go into the ideal musical selection for a fountain show? It has to have a lot of drama–a lot of build and crescendos and places to punch in for the water to have a greater effect. We had spent so much time collecting music that we thought would be appropriate and we came in with a bunch of songs. We picked “Ecstacy of Gold” because we loved it, it’s Western, it was unlike anything else that they had at the Bellagio and it had a tremendous amount of drama. Morricone is a fantastic composer and we really loved the piece. Like I said before, it is a fantastic form of expression and you can’t compare it to anything else. We knew that if we picked a piece of music that we loved so much and felt so connected to and then got to see that much water dancing around to it, it would be the most satisfying thing ever and it was. Besides the Morricone piece, we see that an operatic version of “Unchained Melody” and Ewan McGregor’s rendition of “Your Song” were also in consideration. What were some of the other songs that were initially kicked around early on? Let me think of what we were looking at . . .now I can’t remember. We’ve actually been invited to go work on Steve Wynn’s new hotel in China–Wet Designs is putting in a giant fountain with fire and lights and colors and they invited us to work on the first three. Sadly, I can’t go be a part of it because I have a prior commitment but Steve is going over to do them and he is using that Shirley Bassey remix of “Diamonds are Forever.” I know–there was one of the London Philharmonic doing Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and it would have been beautiful. One of the reasons that the Morricone piece is so striking, even if you aren’t a film geek like myself, is because it sounds different from what you might normally hear in Vegas while a more familiar tune like “Unchained Melody” is definitely more in line with the surrounding environment of Vegas. With “Unchained Melody,” we had a recording of this opera group singing it in Italian–it was so beautiful that you almost didn’t recognize it at first as “Unchained Melody.” It was one of those piece where you would listen to it and then, maybe a minute in, think “Oh, I know what this is!” What was the experience like of going to the Bellagio and actually getting into the fountain while setting the actual program up.? It was so crazy but it was so good. It felt kind of dangerous but it was really exciting. There is a lot of water that comes down on top of you–you can handle it but it was a tremendous amount of water. When did the idea of documenting the experience and turning it into a film come about? Was that always part of the entire process? No. We really wanted to just do the choreography and that was all that we wanted to do but when we were having so much trouble going through the channels to get it done, we decided to document the process. We kind of thought that the fact that we were taking it so seriously made it feel like we should be documenting it. When you are inspired by something and you are really passionate and persistent about it, that is something that should be documented.
Beyond–it was the most exciting thing. It was so satisfying and way and above anything that we expected. “Wet Dreams” will be premiering at the CineVegas Film Festival and you will have another movie debuting there called “Lies and Alibis.” It’s a really fun caper movie. It’s a great ride and it has a fantastic cast of people–Steve Coogan, Selma Blair, Sam Elliott, Henry Rollins and James Marsden, who I did the “X-Men” films with. It was a really fun little movie and it is a great ride. Speaking of that, while I believe that I was asked by the website to do this interview primarily because they knew that I wouldn’t spend the entire time asking about “X-Men” . . . (Laughing) Thank you!
Well, there was another director was had been in place, Matthew Vaughn, who left the project just weeks before the beginning of production. Whoever was going to come in was going to have to hit the ground running big time. It was a tremendous responsibility and it required somebody who was a huge fan of the X-Men and that was Brett. He had huge shoes to fill and he had a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and more energy than anybody. He really came in and took over and I think everyone was relieved to have someone who was so enthusiastic come in and take over. Editors Note: this may be the same project as the recently announced "Wet Dreams" project being repped by Steve Carlis' new Hub Studios group, where Romijn is listed as a "Producing/Directing/Talent Partner." http://www.thehubstudios.com/ June 14, 2006
There's a graphic novel online at Smith Magazine that is so gripping it's not to be missed.
“SHOOTING WAR is a commentary about where we’re headed in Iraq and the larger war on terror as well as the role of bloggers in telling the stories of the future,” says Anthony Lappé, the novel's writer. Lappe is a pretty remarkable and rare new kind of storyteller. He's the first of a new generation of filmmaker/journalist/activists who takes issues seriously - and uses all the tools at his disposal to make his stories heard. At GNN - the Gurila News Network - he's the Executive Editor. At GNN He is the co-author of GNN's True Lies and the producer of their Iraq doc, BattleGround. Here's how the Shooting War is described: The Story of Shooting War June 03, 2006
MTV and the tiny screen...
When the New York Times focused on MTV, they launched me into a crazy career flashback. The article begins: "One morning earlier this spring, Dave Sirulnick and a group of fellow MTV executives gathered in a 29th-floor conference room overlooking Times Square to observe a time-honored television ritual, one they'd performed dozens of times." I've been in that room. I've led that ritual. And the irony is - we may have been near the answer to some of those questions back in 1994. When Dave Sirulnick and I Co-Exectutive Produced MTV UNfiltered, there was a gentle struggle between the stories that the audience wanted to tell, and the 'story' that the network itself told. Why? Because the truth is that high school is neither cool, nor hip, nor fun, nor sexy. It is - for most teens then and now - awkward, and uncomfortable, and really scary, And so back in 1994 - when the 800# started ringing... it didn't stop. Why? Because after months of planning we'd done the unthinkable - and asked the audience to tell us their stories. And teens, so accustomed to being talked 'at' rather than listened to, were desperate to be heard. Today - little has change, save for the fact that the folks at MySpace and YouTube (the two dueling monarchs of teen self-expression) have let the genie out of the bottle. Now MTV, which knew all this long before there was anything called the 'internet' - is struggling to catch up. How they're going about it, and how most mainstream media companies are thinking about it - reflects the thinking of most professional media makers. The secret plan, the deeply held hope, the dreams that media execs dream in deep REM sleep is that this whole thing is simply about fractionalization. More platforms, more places for them to get to show their media stuff. Yes, true it is less fun to play to smaller crowds. So having to make media for TV, VOD, Cell Phones, the Net, DVD's, iPods, and other places and devices means there's more time spent repurposing, and less time making actual shows. But even with audience fragmentation - the media wise men figure, they'll still be able to turn their brands and channels into what most media consumers are hungry for. MTV is betting on that. But in a moment of unvarnished honesty -MTV President Christina Norman told the Times "If anybody says they've figured this out right now, they haven't." But it is figured it out. By kids who now spend thier time making TV rather than watching it. Search on "Stupid Stunts" on YouTube and you'll get more teen antics than MTV could ever hope for. No Advertiser standards, no FCC, no Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. On the web any wardrobe that comes off is coming off on purpose. Now that may not be entertainment - and in fact it may simply be porn - but user-generated content is fast eclipsing MTV (and CBS, and CNN, and PBS) as the most created, shared, viewed and forwarded form of media ever know. Which brings me back to that conference room at MTV in 1994. We were watching a video shot by a teenage boy who'd painted his room black, his windows black, wore only black clothes, and wouldn't leave his room. He did have a TV, and had seen UnFiltered on it. So we'd fed ex'ed him a camera - and he'd taken us on a tour of his room and his gloom. This was before anyone was voted off any island, or before real world got too real. But in this video - there was the roots of user-generated content. And MTV had it in their hands. At the time, i'd been sure that a we could have embraced the viewers and given them a voice that could have become a network all its own. But it wasn't to be. MTV wanted to talk. I wanted to listen. And now everything has changed. Media is being made, not consumed. Cell phones are content makers - not simply passive receiving dishes. And the 'niches' that content is created for is increasingly not any larger than a some group of friends. Can MTV monetize my son and his 6 friends making videos for each other and sharing them on the web? Not from a conference room on the 29th floor of Times Square. NY Times TV Experience...
What was interesting, and worth retelling - was the Times video shoot. At some point after the reporting for the print piece was done, I got a call from Erik Olsen who was the video producer for the Times. He said they wanted to do a video segment, and would i sit for an interview. A few days later i was sitting with a one-man-band crew from the Times (actually Olsen with a Panasonic MiniDV camera). He did a thorough interview, and clearly had consulted with Glen Collins, the Times Reporter who had interviewed Pam and I for the paper. But Olsen wasn't a photog with a list of questions. He was a reporter in his own right... asking questions - pushing a bit - and then shooting B-Roll and collecting footage for the piece. I didn't know what to expect - given that all of my prior experiences with Times TV had been through Discovery/Times and tended to be with full crews and TV folks. But Olsen is a true "Platypus" a phrase created back in 1997 by Dirck Halstead - then the Senior White House Photographer for Time Magazine (www.digitaljournalist.org). What Dirck saw back then has come true. The coming together of stills and video, and the need for newspaper photographers to develop a wide range of storytelling skills to participate in the coming multi-media world. The result of my first experience with a Times Platypus was noteworthy. The actual Video Segment is narrated by Collins, shot and editing by Olsen, and far more than a re-telling of the print piece. But speaking as the subject of the piece, and given the sensitivity of the subject... i think i'll be watching more video on the Times site in the weeks ahead. The 500 Hours of 9/11
By GLENN COLLINS Those images, captured largely by amateurs, are moments from more than 500 hours of videos and films, the largest collection of raw visual data from what historians say is the best-documented catastrophe in history. About 1,700 clips from the collection have attracted more than a million hits in the three months since they were put on Google Video.
Now his collection is the largest asset of his dormant television production company, CameraPlanet, and Mr. Rosenbaum is working out an agreement with the Bank of America, the company's primary lender. He wants to structure a deal with a donor, buyer or partner that would keep the collection from being sold piecemeal, would repay the company's debt of more than $500,000 and would make the videos available to researchers, filmmakers and the public. » Continue reading "The 500 Hours of 9/11" |  |
About Me
Docu-Blog/Steve's POV
A look at the world of documentary film, indy film, television, and the evolving digital tools and communities that are impacting the way stories are told today and in the future. My Bio at indieWIRE
Recent Entries
» Is YouTube a flash in the pan?
» Who Killed The Electric Car? » Surprise--Nielsen to Track Cross-Platform TV Programming! » NBC Ends Feud, Partners With YouTube To Create 'NBC Channel' » » YouTube ‘bigger than MTV’ for advertisers » Today's WTC News » Great Times piece today: » New documentary “Wet Dreams” » Categories
blogs (1)
conferences (2) Documentary (19) Festivals (2) IPTV (12) mov (1) NEWS (8) podcast (2) Rosenbaum (26) tagging (1) Technology (27) Television (9) the Long Tail (7) tribeca (3) video (7) WMV (2) Archives
July 2007
March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 September 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 Complete List of Entries Search
Links
MagnifyMedia
daringfireball Jeremy Allair Om Malik B&C Blog PVRblog Unmediated Corant HD for Indies Wold Changing socialbuzz EsterDyson LongTail Ross Mayfield calacanis Berkman ThomasHawk CharlieO AVC Total Entries: 393 Comments: 2011
Blogs hosted by blogs.indiewire.com Powered by Movable Type 3.2 |
|
When the New York Times came out on Tuesday - the size and scope of the article was a bit of a surprise. But the quality of the reporting and the concern for detail was to be expected, after all it was The New York Times.
May 30, 2006
