Web TV should be judged on the web
Vu Bui cowers from the Giant Nazi Woman of the SS on Apple TV in 2007!
Photo courtesy of Lan Bui.
“It’s been a long road… getting from there to here.”
Well, after a long campaign of reluctantly asking my fans and colleagues to nominate A Comicbook Orange for a Streamy, I can finally sit back and concentrate on the show while the voting process takes place. Wait, no? People are setting up For Your Consideration screenings and sending out DVD screeners? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!
At first glance, the new For Your Consideration trend in web series looks like fun. Who doesn’t love getting dolled up and hanging with their friends and colleagues at a shwanky bar/theatre in Hollywood? But the more I think of it, the more I cringe.
A lot has changed over the past 5 years. When I launched Kitkast back in 2005, the Yahoo Videoblogging Group was up in arms over the fear that “shows” will overtake the personal vlogs that they loved so dearly. In time, they embraced the change and new fears emerged. Fears that Hollywood will come in and stake their claim on our turf.
All of these fears have now come true. Most web series getting recognition in mainstream press are big studio productions, the unions now have new media contracts and a lot of web series are throwing red carpet premieres for their work. The good thing about all this is that it generates more interest in the industry bringing in new viewers, more acting talent and a classy image. The sad reality, however, is that it also makes it more difficult for low-budget (and no-budget!) productions to get noticed.
So when it comes to hearing about For Your Consideration screenings and DVD screeners, I feel a little uneasy. Here’s why:
- The Streamys are for web series. Not for (how does it look and sound on my) TV series or (look how glorious this could’ve been as a) film.
- The Streamys are for international web series. Not for Los Angeles based producers with the time and budget to make DVDs and throw parties.
I can’t convince people to refrain from holding screenings or sending out DVDs to promote their work, but I can make decisions for how I will vote as a member of the International Academy of Web Television. As such, I make the following statement:
I solemnly swear to judge Streamy nominees based on their web series on the web.
If I get a DVD in the mail, I won’t watch it… and if I go to a screening, I’ll go for the networking opportunity, not the viewing.
Think of it as net neutrality, but for web series. All producers should be judged on equal ground… that ground is the web.
Thanks for posting this, I have also been alarmed at the number of FYC screenings, and wondered if other people felt the same way. I had it on my list of things to discuss on New Mediacracy.
Personally, I feel everyone is entitled to do whatever they want to promote their shows. It’s definitely a sign of commitment, something we all know you need desperately when making a webseries. I hadn’t heard about DVD screeners, that’s really weird. I agree that WEB series should be viewed on the WEB – however, many people view webseries, over the web, on a BIG TV. I hit that fullscreen button whenever I can, and someday soon I’ll actually get my computer hooked up to the TV for good. And while I, too, enjoy the networking opportunities presented by those screenings/meetups, it fundamentally changes the experience of watching a series – it becomes a communal viewing experience, just like movies and TV. Maybe that’s good. Maybe it’s bad. Time will tell for sure.
I have to correct you on one thing – International includes Los Angeles-based creators, too – so part of fairness should be not discounting shows just because they’re made in “Hollywood” by “people” that we “see nearly every week” (that’s the Zagat version). It would be easy to do so, and I also pledge to judge the shows on their own merits, not location or marketing budget.
Thanks again for bringing this up – I’m really curious how other people feel about it.
cmc.
Hi Chris,
You’re absolutely right, “international” DOES include Los Angeles. The most important thing for us all to keep in mind, though, is to make sure the IAWTV extends outside of LA, so that LA doesn’t become a “Boys’ Club” per se.
Signed,
The other CMc. ;)
I hear you, Casey. In fact, my first reaction was the same as with this blog. And I agree – we should all be judged by how we look/work ON THE WEB, not on the big screen. The Streamys, as you say, are web awards. And all this extra work has interrupted my other webseries work these past couple of weeks.
But here’s the deal: I’ve got a show with a tiny budget, whose Season 1 ended this past summer – a LONG time ago in web terms. Ages. While GOLD was critically acclaimed, I haven’t been able to find any funds for Season 2, nor for any of my other projects in development. And, as this space matures, things like Streamy noms are gonna help us all find that funding. I don’t have any money for FYC advertising to the voting members of the IAWTV. I couldn’t afford a big premiere when my show came out. I can’t compete monetarily, production-wise or advertising-wise. But what I do have are:
1) A show I think is damn good and deserves to be seen
2) Design skills (I’m a designer for my day job, as is my co-exec producer)
3) Technical skills (we do our own post around these parts)
4) A computer with a DVD burner
So, I can make a simple FYC packet. Is it slick or expensive? No. Each packet cost me well less than $1. Does it look nice? Yeah – we’re designers. We have to shoot and edit our series around 50hr/week day jobs. It’s nice when those day jobs can help us out this way. But here’s a secret – I only sent out like 40 of them, because I could find snail-mail addresses for only 40 IAWTV members.
As far as screenings go:
This weekend my show is in a FYC screening in Hollywood with four other shows. Again, not a big budget deal. An opportunity presented itself, and five of us creators banded together and secured a space for two hours. I can tell you, we’re all desperately hoping that enough people show up and drink enough to cover the bar minimum so we don’t have to put it on our credit cards because we’ve no budget for this, any of us. We’re doing our best to make it a nice event, but it’s not ’cause we’re rich or anything – everything has been leg-work and donations. (I hope to see y’all there, BTW).
And why do we do either of these? Because discovery is the enemy of webseries. It’s true for awards season as it is true for general getting eyeballs to our series the rest of the year. At least 50% (probably more) of the audience that comes tomorrow night has probably never heard of GOLD. 75% or 80% will have never watched an episode. If I can, through my own sweat, get my show to more people, I’ll do it. If some of those people are Streamys voters, all the better. I want to compete in this marketplace, and in these awards, and this year it seems that means screenings and screeners if you can manage it. I can do this, not because my show is rich, but because I’m fortunate enough to have those tools. I don’t have the (geek) celebrity juice ComicBook Orange does (huge comic book dork here – I’ve watched every episode with rapt attention). But I’ve got design skills and technical skills and friends with access to Cinespace, and a crazy ability to operate on very little sleep. I’ll use that to as much advantage as I can.
–
All that said, I’d love to see a “no screening/no screener” campaign next year, across the board. I’d love us all instead to do FYC websites (as I’ve done as well – http://www.goldtheseries.com/streamys ) and have the url posted on an official IAWTV board somewhere and compete that way. That’s the fairest way to do things, IMO, and I hope we can convince the IAWTV that that’s the way it should be done, and maybe even codify that into the rules.
But there are no such restrictions this year, and no mechanism to get my Streamys FYC URL to the IAWTV voters. (same is true for my screeners and screening – the IAWTV members who were directly notified were names pulled off a list and matched with addresses and emails pulled from, again, gruntwork searching done by me late at night when I should have been sleeping) This year, we’ve got screeners and screenings, along with our tweets and emails and facebooking and whatnot. I say we work within the framework this year, and use all of what we’ve learned this year to make next year as clean and fair as we can manage. And, when the landscape changes radically next year (as it always will on the interwebs every year), we take those lessons and apply them forward. It’s all we can do.
In the meantime, we compete as much as we all can, and hope against hope that enough people watch our independent works of passion that we get a nomination or two. And, that someday (someday) we can walk away from our day jobs and just make beautiful things for a living. I think that’s all most of us want, in the end.
Later,
-David Nett
Long-winded Creator of GOLD
http://www.goldtheseries.com
“The Streamys are for international web series. Not for Los Angeles based producers with the time and budget to make DVDs and throw parties.”
I can tell you that some producers in New York are already concerned about the IAWTV being too west-coast centric. It came up at the NY IAWTV meeting last November. It would really be a shame if the Streamys degenerated into LA web producers simply congratulating themselves. It would make the Streamys a joke and I don’t want that to happen because our industry needs some credibility. The IAWTV should do something (not sure what) to make sure the awards are seen everywhere (not just NY and LA) as legitimate. The Streamys need to be about the work, not about where you live and who you know.
As a IAWTV member with no horse in this race, I’ll say what I said to a friend of mine about FYC physical screeners and packets: PLEASE, NO. For me, it’s a very basic clutter thing, though — I get enough unsolicited screeners and so forth to be freakin’ grateful that my mail address isn’t publicly available. I also don’t plan on attending any of the upcoming FYC screenings, though part of that is my own schedule and part of that is me already being familiar with the shows screened.
What I would appreciate is an ad-free way of watching content, which is the one huge advantage of a DVD screener (which I’ll often just watch on my laptop anyways) or special screening room. Keep it digital, but make the process easier for those interested to engage with these shows.
I do agree that special screening events do hurt the small time creators. I’m editing the pilot for a new web series right now and seeing all these events made me cringe a little, because it now seems like something I’m going to have to consider doing.
I think the solution to this all is openness and transparency from the voting body. I love the idea of an FYC website submission that is what is used to judge the content by voters. It is fair to all creators that evens the playing field of budgets and location.
I’m not against premiere parties or screening events at all. In fact I’m planning on attending yours tomorrow night David. When it comes down to it, I think we all want the same thing, and that’s a fair chance to get our series seen. Perhaps next year there will be a better solution and we won’t have to worry about people putting on these events and can just enjoy the chance to see some great web series up on the big screen.
~Matt Newcomb
Director, Executive Producer Hollywood Wasteland
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by caseymckinnon: My response to all the web series For Your Consideration screenings/screeners: http://bit.ly/cD47Np – What do you think?…
@David, I understand how you feel about wanting to make sure you get the fair chance to be seen, especially since there’s been so many other shows taking the spotlight since last summer, but it is our duty as members of the IAWTV to look at every entry and make an informed decision. So, based on that, no one should worry about not getting a fair chance to be seen…
Btw, I’m still planning to come! I’m using it as a networking opportunity… have we met in person yet?! I look forward to meeting Alan Loayza too… I love his photography work.
@Eric/Liz/Matt: I agree 100%.
Interesting post. Clearly many have been thinking the same thing.
It would be nice to see some online screening parties for those who are not able to attend LA-screenings. Who is up for it?
Just name a time and web location……..the technology is there so lets use it.
This is about web content so lets have some online fun and bring the world wide community together.
Casey –
Great post. I completely agree that a show should be judged — and viewed — on how it looks on the web. But Chris McCaleb has a valid point as I also stream shows to my TV whenever possible, and as Web and TV continue to converge, I suspect the ‘web series’ nomenclature will dissolve as it all simply becomes entertainment that can be viewed on whatever screen is most preferable or convenient (just as it is happening in the reverse with viewers watching full length television and film content on their computers and smartphones).
That said, your stance on the big screenings of web series is precisely why we opted to create a ‘Device Party’ for the launch of our series THE STEPS (http://www.watchthesteps.com), whereby attendees bring their personal devices to the event to watch the first 4 episodes on their laptop or mobile phone. Our goal is to reinforce the association between personal computing devices and quality entertainment, and Mac Authority and Dell will also be in attendance to display the show on their Mac and PCs.
In addition, while the actual event is happening in Chattanooga, TN, where the series was filmed, we didn’t want to alienate the rest of the world from the premiere, so we partnered with Ustream to livestream the event so that anyone can tune in tomorrow, 2/19 at 6pm PST to see the show: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-steps So, it becomes an online viewing party that opens up the content to everyone as opposed to only a select few.
I think a simulcast scenario like this would work well for other series, too, who want to expand reach by harnessing the power of the web to distribute content worldwide, and reaffirm the strength of the medium to deliver quality programming on a small screen.
Gennefer
Space Truffles Entertainment
http://www.twiter.com/Gennefer
http://www.spacetruffles.com
@Gennefer: Wow, what a unique launch party idea! I’m curious to hear how it goes. I think that I, personally, might be too excitable at a party to watch a video on my iPhone, but who knows!
As for the TV thing… it’s definitely something I thought about since Galacticast is available on Apple TV and TiVo and A Comicbook Orange may be available on Apple TV… I can’t remember. The difference with the screener DVDs is that suddenly the audience can watch the show in stunning HD, using codecs waaay better than web video. I just feel that this would create an uneven ground to judge the series(es).
I’m just looking out for the little guy… and that means me and 99% of other web series creators out there.
I think when you talk about theater screenings of web series the first question you have to ask is, will seeing my web series on the big screen better serve the the show versus seeing it as it was originally intended? IMO, if your show plays better on the big screen I question if it was meant to be a web series in the first place. Philosophically, I believe web series should be essentially made for the internet shows and not inferior versions of what we can currently get in theaters or on TV. That most likely means your not using a traditional three act screenplay story structure that people are accustomed to seeing on a big screen.
TV and film are passive audiences while content viewed on the web is seen in front of a keyboard begging for some sort of interaction such as the social viewing mentioned above. So when we say that TV and the web are converging that doesn’t mean we should automatically try and make shows that look like TV. I don’t get why that would be anybody’s goal although that seems to be the trend. In addition, just because the tech exists does not mean everyone will have it. You produce content to the system capabilities that the average user possesses. If you are doing that your probably being viewed in the YouTube channel default size. Your D.P. is probably recommending using more close ups and less long shots which might not translate well on the big screen.
Lastly I remember once Will Smith was asked the difference in performing in TV vs film and he said since film screens are bigger your gestures have to be bigger. And while we have the ability to go widescreen I still believe an actor tailor’s his performance for the size of the screen.
Just my 2 cents.
Casey – I’m so glad you’ll be there. I don’t think we’ve actually officially met (I think I actually was in a conversation once with you and Brett and few others, but no one introduced us. I do remember I wanted to ask you a cool-sounding comics question, but my brain couldn’t think of one. Webstarstruck? ;-). I’m excited to officially meet ya.
And I hear you about the IAWTV’s duty – I hope you’re right. In the end we may get 5-10 IAWTV members at our screening if we’re lucky. The rest will hopefully watch GOLD the hard way. I – like you – am looking forward to seeing everyone and meeting some of the folks I don’t know. I still hold out hope that after the screening a guy with a top-hat and monocle will stop me in the lobby and say, “Son – your art deserves to be seen! Here’s a big bag of money with a dollar sign on it!”
Gennefer – that sounds like a cool event. I’m curious to see how it goes.
Last: Anthony – I believe you’re right. I’m actually crossing my fingers that GOLD will work on the big screen. We tailored so much to a small viewing portal. The storytelling does change depending upon the size of your window. We’ve got no sweeping wides at all, and a LOT of close meds and close-up in our stuff. Don’t know how that’s gonna work on the big screen – we’ll see…
-D
Casey,
Thank you for doing a post on this. We’ve been discussing this quite a lot lately amongst our production team. My opinion is that I’m against all of this For Your Consideration nonsense. We all want our shows (and web entertainment as a whole) to succeed and for that we need to get more eyeballs on the screens. I just don’t see this as the right route. Even if viewers are watching web shows on their TV’s or TV-sized monitors, they’re still watching on small screens as our shows were meant to be seen. We were lucky enough to have a DP with a great camera on our show and it would probably look all right on a movie screen, but it was never intended to be seen that way. Many folks making entertainment on the web are using consumer and prosumer equipment and would be poorly served trying gain interest via theatre screenings.
My thinking is that if you want to have a screening and your show can handle it, go for it, but not in connection to trying to win over judges for the Streamys. While I’d certainly be honored if my work were nominated, I don’t think an awards show known largely only to those already working in and watching web content is going to bring us legitimacy, recognition, and increased viewership. Gennifer’s model, on the other hand, sounds really cool and might be worth trying out down the road.
David, if you read this, please know that I’m still a big fan of you and your work, but we’re going to have to disagree on this one. I know you’re doing what you think is best for GOLD, but these screenings may be setting a bad precedent that’s hard to undo by next year. If it leads to a second season of GOLD, you know I’ll be thrilled (darn you and your cliffhanger) and I wish you the best of luck.
Actually, the best of luck to all of you working on your own projects. A year or two might be a long time in internet time, but the medium is still young and we’re going to have to try out a lot of different things before we know what works. Balancing the promotion of our individual works and the medium as a whole is going to be tricky.
I’m all about everyone’s work being judged equally. I’m also a big
supporter of Web series creators whether studio or self-funded doing
whatever they can to stand out among the hundreds, even thousands of
other Web shows on the world’s most infinite distribution platform:
the Internet.
No matter where you stand on last year’s post-Streamys debate on
whether studio or celebrity-driven Web shows like Battlestar Galactica
or Dr. Horrible should have been placed in the same category as
independents like After Judgment or The Hayley Project, the fact is
those wins and subsequent releases of studio/celeb-driven shows like
Cinemash, Bannen Way and CTRL sent a message to the many indie
creators who spent thousands of their own dollars to make something
they love: Stand out ‘cuz the proverbial playing field may not be so
level.
My guess is the driver behind this year’s whole FYC screening/DVD
screener thing (which has actually been driven mostly by independent
creators again, pooling even more money from their own pockets) is,
that fear of having to go head to head with a Neil Patrick Harris or a
Rosario Dawson or Joss Whedon and doing what every Hollywood studio
does this time of year: Send out screeners and host screenings; put on
a show to prove your show is just as worthy of nomination as Lisa
Kudrow’s.
The Web TV medium is still overwhelmingly indie and many of the higher-
profile studio/celeb-backed shows aren’t as expensive or successful as
their big name parents may suggest; but yes, they do get more
mainstream press because 99% of the world doesn’t even know what a Web
series is so how wil the New York Times explain it? By using examples
of brands, movie and tv studios everybody knows who are just now
dipping a toe we’ve been swimming in for years.
As for the idea of only judging a show by the medium it was created
for, I think that’s a little short-sighted. After reading your post,
I watched Comicbook Orange on my Roku (you’re on Amazon VOD) and on my
Apple TV on both YouTube and the iTunes download. You know what? I
still loved it as much as I do watching it online each week. I own The
Guild and Prom Queen on DVD. Still love ‘em because they’re GOOD.
As a member of a few unions, I get a lot of screeners for movies I
couldn’t possibly catch all of in the theater. Should I penalize a
movie like The Hurt Locker which I didn’t see in the theater just
because I’m being asked to watch it on DVD? It was made for the big
screen but I can’t evaluate its merits sitting in a theater. Should I
say ‘Sorry Katherine Bigelow, I judge my movies based on my experience
paying $10 to watch it in a dark theater.” If the content is good, the
content is good. As a fellow IAWTV member, I would hope the community
would trust us enough to be fair in our assessments given the medium
in which we choose to work.
It should also be noted that Blip.tv, the patron network saint of
indie Web shows is the one delivering more independent content to the
TV than anyone else. My shows are on Roku, Tivo and Boxee thanks to
them. I watched most of my assigned first-round Streamy submissions
on TV.
Lastly, I’ll agree that screener spamming, like any email or Twitter
spamming just sucks and I don’t recommend it but I don’t think we
should be judging a creator’s methods of getting us to notice their
work. Let’s save the judging for the work itself.
Casey,
As I told you on Twitter, this post is wonderful. It really sums up what Eric, I and the rest of the crew I work with have been saying about this FYC trend. As I’ve said to other people, I’m not opposed to an FYC campaign, but I think it should take place online so there is an option for anyone who wants to participate. A lot of creators in outside of L.A. feel very burned by these FYC screenings in particular because they are the embodiment of the very geographic exclusivity that the web is supposed to overcome. I would like to see an IAWTV codified ban on FYC screenings and mailers (since I can’t imagine that unsolicited mailers are welcomed by most of the voting members), and a push to make FYC campaigns entirely web based.
David – I understand your reasons for participating in this screening, but I agree with Eric that it does set a bad precedent for future years. Frankly, if an FYC campaign is important and you want it highly visible, it makes the most sense to me to make that your main page for the duration of the voting season, especially if you’re not using that main page to actively release new content. Depending on how the website is structured, this can be very easily accomplished. Otherwise, the FYC reel could and maybe should be the address submitted on the certified submission. I do wish you the best of luck with your screening, but I can’t regard it in a positive light because of the geographic exclusivity of it.
Wilson – With all due respect, I utterly reject your comparison of using DVDs for feature films as an applicable corollary to the experience with web video. In a world of limited releases, of course a DVD would be a substitute for seeing a film in a theater. If it’s physically impossible to see it in it’s original venue, of course an alternate is needed. But when all of your content is readily available in the medium it was created for, that’s how it should be viewed. With the resolution and size of current televisions and monitors, it effectively doesn’t matter which small screen you watch on – it’s still a small screen experience. But I see no reason for physical screenings in theaters or DVD mailers when all the content is readily available on the internet. If you want FYC campaigns, keep them on the net. I’m glad that you have the technical capabilities to watch the web on your TV. However, at the end of the day, it’s still web content being streamed to a small screen. Let’s keep it to that so that we’re not artificially raising some parts of the playing field over others.
Michelle Dunlap
Editor of Issues: The Series
Great conversation here! As one of the 5 FYI web series producers participating in the FYC screening in about 17 hours, I’m very interested in reading this discussion. I totally understand people’s visceral reaction to holding FYI screenings. It hadn’t even occurred to me to do it until I attended one a few weeks ago and then was (thankfully) invited to participate in ours. I’m a newly minted IAWTV member, myself, and I can tell you it feels a little awkward to tread in territory that is clearly so new and fraught with so many potential pitfalls (including unintentionally pissing people off). Frankly, when i first heard of the FYC events, I was dismayed. And now, my series, Life with Kat & McKay, has picked sides and joined the FYC team. Here’s why: I heard that more than 1,000 comedy web series were submitted for Streamy Award nominations. Now, having a comedy series of my own, what chance do I have to stand out in the crowd when I launched November 19th and my advertising budget is precisely $0? How many of you on this site have heard of my show? Two hands went up? Right. So, for me, hitching my little homemade, hand-painted wagon to some higher profile shows not only makes good sense, it behooves me as the producer to do so because my show isn’t just a vessel for my dreams, it includes the dreams of a wonderful ensemble cast who have been patiently waiting for some kind of pay-off for their hard work, commitment and talent. How could I say no to an opportunity to let them shine for a night? That said, I love David’s idea of having future FYC screenings to be online, with URLs posted to the IAWTV website. That way, it evens the playing field for people who don’t get the lucky break of having Safety Geeks call to see if they’re available to do a joint FYC screening. Thanks, guys!
[...] yeah, I was a little bummed that people thought screeners were such a bad idea… Obviously, Casey is a person whose opinion I admire, and I recognized virtually almost every [...]
I have to say, I’m really glad to see such an impassioned conversation spark up on this topic. I’ve elaborated on my motivations for creating DVD screeners in a new blog post (http://bit.ly/aDKQCr) but the gist is this: We’re all just trying to get our show’s seen be people. There’s no shame in trying out different strategies. I’m working really hard to make an awesome screener package that IAWTV members will enjoy receiving, and will illustrate what makes our show unique. Whether a creator is throwing a party or mailing a screener, or building a website, or something no one has ever thought of, we’re all just playing to our strengths and opportunities. People are going to have different ideas on how to get their show the exposure they think it deserves, but it’s unfair to fault people for trying.
First off please come to our screening. It’s just regular people trying to get seen. It might as well be in Iowa given how connected we are. This is not a Hollywood screening party, this is a party that happens to be screening at a place on Hollywood Blvd because it was the only affordable screen open for the next month.
I am one of those broke web producers putting on the FYC screening Friday, Dave Beeler and I thought we should do something, anything rather than get quietly ignored again this year and we thought having a screening would help get some eyeballs on our work and perhaps get it acknowledged with nominations.
The OPPOSITE thing I want to have happen is to have the fact that I spent my hard earned cash to screen Safety Geeks with the other friends series that night means it’s bizarrely held against us or hurts our shows chances at getting nominated for anything. That would stink. That’s upside down. I will not believe that would happen. Would it?
I am proud of our show and of the shows we are screening with because each show was an act of will.
If I streamed the show from a T1 line to the projector would that make it more legit? :-)
Do we not vote for a film if it’s seen on DVD instead of in a theater? Seeing it on the web no longer means “at a computer” anymore already and it’s blurring more and more. It’s the show not the delivery system. Is it any good? Does it do what it set out to do? With no other means of reaching out and competing with high profile web series what more can we do but try something like this?
Want to get criticized? Stand up and do something.
I would love to to meet you Casey, I like your work and I imagine we might be friends given our interests. Hope so. Have you seen our show? I have seen yours.
I have been at so many events where I am sure you were there but for whatever reason we haven’t been introduced or had a chance to talk. I hope we will at the screening Dave Beeler and I are hosting tomorrow. We want it to be a fun celebration of us…the little guys.
We don’t have the chances and backing that the front runners have, maybe you’ll see a show that night and think it deserves a nod. I hope so, because we might not have been on the list you got of shows to look at online from the IAWTV.
We don’t even know how to reach the group that is supposed to be judging us and that I am a member of myself. I would say that 50 to 60 percent of the websites I was directed to watch a show and pre-judge did not have a title sequence with character names and who played them nor did they have a cast and actor listing printed anywhere so literally, I had NO idea who the actress or actors were who were playing the role.
I had a suggested actor name on a list and a show and page with no indication who that actor was or what character. because the show page didn’t tell me and the show didn’t either. At the screening we can at least put a few faces to roles, we put main characters with the actors face in the titles and maybe we will get some hard work acknowledged. I felt bad spending up to an hour poking around trying to see if there was a picture or something of an actress I thought was good to see what her name was or if I had a name who she played. I combed the site or googled to see who she might have been playing or what she looked like. That’s GOT to be hurting the nominations.
Maybe that’s why “UNNAMED BIG TV ACTOR IN A WEB SERIES” might win, even without a title sequence or cast list they can win because we already know what they look like from TV and movies.
But then, doesn’t that defeat discovery and encourage voting for the same ol people cause at least I know who played the character because they had years of studio’s PR working to make sure I knew who they were?
Great debate everyone. We’ve always been the little guys not getting noticed so its surreal that we are putting on something that any “little guys” object to. We are you. Funny world.
Hope you have fun and at least give Safety Geeks, GOLD, Redemption, Life with Kat and McKay, and Space Hospital a chance to have their moment. This night might just be all there for us. At least, we tried something.
I have the ultimate solution to this problem: each web series nominated should select a representative who will fight in a battle royale. Last one left alive wins.
Of course, this is ultimately a flawed solution in itself and will then spawn a series of blog debates such as “how should series select their representative? If they send their strongest and they die, what does that mean for the next session of the show? If they send their most expendable crew member, they’re just shooting ourselves in the foot. Or wait, will there be guns?”
But beyond my sick sense of humor: there is some really fantastic discussion going on here. I think it really boils down to this: we are a web-based community predominately made up of indie-spirited creators who enjoy the thrill of being able to do things our own way because the conventions of other forms of media have not satisfied us. So hopefully we can channel that energy into new and creative ways to showcase the fruit of our labors. And maybe that don’t have to involve bloody murder. :)
That is my challenge to you all: get your shows out there creatively. I’m thinking of maybe organizing an online live screening where the characters of the show are in the room interacting with the viewers as they watch.
I’m not really sure that the discussion of TV v. computer v. mobile viewing of shows really means much. Everybody is going to watch web shows in their own way anyway so there really isn’t any standard. I used to watch video podcasts on my iPod but at this point we watch everything, including A Comicbook Orange on an 82″ screen via AppleTV in our family room. To each his own…
On another note… Within three hours of my previous response above I started receiving private message solicitations from strangers for my vote.
Are there any rules about Academy members accepting “gifts”, or as some might call them bribes? Where does one draw the line? Can you send out an iPOD loaded with your web series to Academy members as a “gift”? Food for thought.
“But I see no reason for physical screenings in theaters or DVD mailers when all the content is readily available on the internet.”
- There are some series that are geolocked and, unfortunately, that has been officially endorsed by the Academy. Sad given that we are talking about web series here. Does the “web” not stand for World Wide Web?
I see your point modelmotion.
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