New Mediacracy

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It's a special edition of New Mediacracy from New York City with a group of rock stars who know the worlds of production, distribution, advertising, and especially, brands. The whole thing was put together and moderated by Jeff Koenig, and brings together Eric Mortensen, Director of Content at blip.tv, Jeremy Redleaf, the creator of Streamy Award-winner Odd Jobs, Wilson Cleveland, producer and head of CJP Digital Media, Jack Ferry, co-creator of $99 Music Videos, Melissa Schneider, also co-creator of $99 Music Videos, Tina Cesa Ward, producer and director of Streamy Award-winner Anyone But Me, and Susan Miller, Obie Award-winning playwright and also producer and writer of Anyone But Me.

This is a great follow-up to the LA bubble discussion from a previous show, but it also fills in the blanks with a ton of info about creating shows with brands, the state of advertising in online video, and the problems with celebrities attaching themselves to web productions. For me, the biggest take-away was not about a bubble around LA or New York City, but how clear the division is between YouTube-focused creators and everyone else. Give it a listen, and post your thoughts in the comments.

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Nothing like getting a bunch of passionate believers in the power of story together to talk about how the web is creating a paradigm shift. This episode we've got Chris Preksta of the forthcoming web series Mercury Men, Nicholas Robinson a recent studio executive with Vuguru, Bernie Su of the acclaimed Compulsions series, Mark Gantt of The Bannen Way, Chris McCaleb with over 300 episodes of experience in scripted web drama, and regulars Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf discussing the timeless tenets of story in a fast-paced digital world.

There's a lot of talk about what parts of a story have to be identified and nurtured, the problem of sustainability for finite scripted web series, the ways we approach pitching and developing stories with digital studios, and the challenge of evolving writers into story architects that know how to take parts of a core story onto other platforms. This is one for the writers out there!

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DSLR filmmaking has taken the web by storm, and now it's being used in mainstream film and television work. But is it a passing fancy that will just as quickly disappear? On this episode we talk about the ups and downs of DSLRs with Lan Bui, Vu Bui, Kent Nichols, Brett Register, Chris McCaleb, Zadi Diaz, and Steve Woolf.

This show should leave new filmmakers with plenty to ponder (and Google), and it should help experienced creators interested in working with DSLRs know what to expect. There's a ton of information discussed, so even shooters experienced with DSLRs should be able to benefit from the talk about glass, lights, and audio. Post a comment and let us know if you enjoy this kind of "special edition" New Mediacracy!

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It's a lively one, and a bigger group than usual joins us on this episode, which we recorded immediately after the first Los Angeles meeting of the IAWTV which took place at the WGA. Tony Valenzuela, Casey McKinnon, Barrett Garese, Brett Register, and Rudy Jahchan join regulars Chris McCaleb, Zadi Diaz, and Steve Woolf to share their thoughts on the meeting and what it means for the future of the first organized member body dedicated to web video.

We spend some time talking about the Streamys, but a lot more time talking about the things we took away from the meeting and what the ramifications are for everyone invested in making web video a sustainable, progressive medium. Also, we drink wine and laugh a lot.

Most importantly, listen and leave a comment so we can get some outside feedback on the topics we discuss, such as the idea of the new gatekeepers, why we are trying so hard to replicate tv and film models, the vision of the IAWTV, and Chris McCaleb jumping out of planes.

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It's another great evening with independent content creators in downtown Los Angeles. This episode we hang out with Kim Evey, producer of The Guild, Sean Becker, director of The Guild, and Jenni Powell, production maven and associate editor of Tubefilter, along with regulars Chris McCaleb of Big Fantastic, and Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf of Epic Fu.

There's a lot of discussion around the Streamy Awards and everyone's personal experiences around what happened that night, and at the Celebrate the Web event that Kim and Jenni organized later in the week. We touch on the divisions among web video creators and talk about the upcoming new season of The Guild. Come hang out as we chat for over two hours and get more than a little drunky on five (!) bottles of wine.

This week we learn the intricate details and challenges that Eqal founders Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried faced in creating Lonelygirl15, one of the most unique and compelling web video phenomenons to ever happen. Along with core NM crew Chris McCaleb, Zadi Diaz, and Steve Woolf, it's well over 3 hours of stories about that crazy time, what it took to build a truly interactive fictional web series, and the path it led toward creating a venture-funded social entertainment company.

Miles and Greg talk about the way the Internet investigated every clue in the Lonelygirl15 videos in an attempt to figure out who the character was, including frame-by-frame analysis, botanical reports on plants that appeared in videos, and triangulation of products in Bree's room that people used to attempt to determine a geographic location. We also talk at length around the evolution of Umbrella, Eqal's web video social platform, and their recent buyout of Spark Capital, one of the venture capital firms that funded their original investment round.

In short, this is another can't miss conversation for anyone interested in creating truly progressive entertainment from people who are literally years ahead of the pack. Also, we get into a fourth bottle of wine for the first time ever, and things get hilarious...

This week we hear the inspiring story behind one of the most successful web shows of 2010, The Bannen Way, with filmmakers Jesse Warren and Mark Gantt. Zadi Diaz, Rick Rey, and Steve Woolf talk about their origins in new media and Jesse and Mark offer story after story about the door being closed on their project by other people and their refusal to accept it.

This one is not to be missed by creatives and filmmakers out there who are frustrated with the system and need to hear people talking about never taking no for an answer. Jesse and Mark tell stories that neither of them ever heard from each other before, and we get into gritty detail about the way The Bannen Way was conceived, created, packaged, and delivered.

We're back with Steve Woolf and Zadi Diaz chatting with Brady Brim-DeForest and Jamison Tilsner, the respective CEO and COO of Tubefilter, as well as two of the co-founders of the International Academy of Web Television and the Streamys. With the 2010 Streamy Awards less than 3 weeks away, we get up to speed on how this event evolved, the form and substance of the IAWTV, and talk in-depth about the criticism of the Streamys from other content creators over the past couple of weeks.

It's a conversation in downtown Los Angeles with an annoying cat in the background and a bottle of wine. Come hang out!

Sitting around a table in downtown LA this week, it's a conversation about web video with guests Rudy Jahchan and Casey McKinnon, and regular participants Chris McCaleb, Zadi Diaz, and Steve Woolf as we talk shop about the web television industry. We booze it up and chat about Streamy voting and nominations, the Good Knight's Quest premiere party in Hollywood, and whether the walls of the LA web video bubble are getting too thick.

There's a lot of talk around what worked and didn't work in the Streamy nominee voting process, web series creators who can and can't make web experiences that work, and how much Chris hates the word "content."

This week join the conversation with Brett Register, Craig Frank, Rick Rey, Zadi Diaz, and Steve Woolf as we talk at length about what a web series actually is, the upcoming Streamy Awards, the International Academy of Web Television, and the ghost of Pixelodeon. Oh, and we drink a lot of wine (except for Craig Frank).

There's a lot of talk about the new generation of Los Angeles entertainment-driven web video makers, the proliferation of scripted series, the lack of quality out there, and the experience of creating non-fiction content versus fictional content. We also touch on some of the hot points around screeners for web series to prompt to Streamy votes, branded entertainment, the small presence of international participants in the International Academy of Web Television, the brief run (and revival?) of WebTVDirt, and east coast versus west coast versus midwest web series creators.

NOTE: sorry about all the cell phone interference in this episode. Next time, all phones in airplane mode!

UPDATE: Jon from Hawaii won the Buckyballs! Thanks for listening the whole way, Jon!