A Comedy of Errors
Last night, after months of campaigning, nominating, voting, publicizing, etc. the Streamy Awards finally took place. My show A Comicbook Orange was nominated for Best Hosted Web Series, one of the toughest categories in the ceremony since we were up against some of the best shows online. I spoke to Alex Albrecht before the award show and told him I’d be totally cool losing to him, and he agreed he’d be happy to lose to me too. In the end, he won… and that’s cool, he’s a great dude.
The day, on the whole, was a textbook definition of epic fail. Many people have been writing about this today and I agree 100% with their assessment of what went wrong (I suggest reading Jace Hall, Blake Calhoun and Barrett Garese‘s blog posts for the full lowdown). My biggest personal issue with the show was that it disrespected the professional industry that I (and many others) have been working so hard to build over the past 5 years. The constant jokes about lack of funding in web series, lack of viewers, etc. cheapened our hard work, especially when a lot of the attendees ARE making money and have more viewers (and less publicists) than cable television shows.
The awards show was embarrassing and there are so many more issues I can get into, but I won’t. What I will get into are my favorite moments from last night, which actually have nothing to do with the actual ceremony:
- Meeting people IRL: Always the best part of any get together, I was so happy to finally meet Nick Holmes, James Gunn, Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Zoë Bell and Gennefer Snowfield in person. Whether we were getting some “air” in the lobby during the show or having heated discussions at the after party, these people all made my night.
- Technical difficulties working in my favor: Whilst getting some “air” in the lobby, the show was having major tech problems. At one point the DVD replayed nominee videos, including this clip of A Comicbook Orange, and the video apparently paused on my face. FOR A COUPLE OF MINUTES!!! I heard about it afterwards and thought it was pretty funny… I only wish my agent George Ruiz‘s contact information was up on the screen too! ;)
- Ted Raimi is my new best friend: At the after party, Ted gave me a passionate 3-5 minute talk about how I should have won. I had heard this from a few friends before, but Ted was truly adamant about it. Zod bless him, and Zod bless Suzanne Keilly who backed him up on it all. Love you guys…
- Zoë Bell wins the Community Award: Though the after party took place at a restaurant, no food was served. Zoë wins my Community Award for ordering 10 pizzas at the after party for everyone! Hell, she even got kicked out of the after party for doing it! This chick fucking rocks… and if I was serenading her at karaoke, I would sing “Just What I Needed” by The Cars in her honor.
Congrats to all the winners, including my friends Zadi Diaz, Alex Albrecht and Felicia Day. I was especially touched by the emotional acceptance speeches by Mark Gantt and Jesse Warren, Bernie Su and Rachael Hip-Flores, who all make me feel a little teary-eyed with pride for our community and our industry.
A special thanks goes to Chris Hardwick and Ze Frank for bringing real comedy and class to the event. I would be ecstatic to see either of these guys hosting the Streamys next year. Pretty please? *Bats eyelashes*
And last but not least, thanks to everyone who believed in us and helped us get nominated for a Streamy. Your sweetness does not go unnoticed… I read all your tweets and Facebook messages with shiny eyes. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart.
[Above photo courtesy of The Bui Brothers]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Casey McKinnon. Casey McKinnon said: I weigh in on the @StreamyAwards: http://bit.ly/94Rj0I [...]
Well said. We all know plenty went wrong. It’s really nice to hear you talk about the things that were good last night. Thanks for that.
Yes, I didn’t like the hosts jokes he made about the nominees or that Video segment where he asked “normal” people about web shows! Very disrespectful! Tell Alex we are gunning for him next year ;)
I’m sorry you and your fellows were dissed at the show. Self deprecation can often be received with chuckles but it never builds up, it only tears down.
So when do we get to see pretty dress pics?
Word.
Oh don’t get me started on the man on the street video segment.
We can build it stronger, faster and more powerful for 2011 – I believe!
@Mark: Thanks, man… There’s so much to say, but thankfully everyone else is saying it. I think I’ll take a breather on bitching ;) And, yes, the man on the street segment made me want to kill.
@John: Agreed. ;)
@mojocrowejo: Thanks, dude. As for the dress, I’m still waiting for an awesome pic to pop up… I’ve seen some pics, but nothing I want to post yet :P
@Nick: Best. +1. EVER.
@Rob: I believe too! But we need to figure out the relationship between Tubefilter, the IAWTV and the Streamys. The IAWTV is non-profit, but Tubefilter and the Streamys are something else… let’s take a breather and assemble the troops once we’ve all had a chance to relax and rethink.
Congrats on having the grace and goodness to take the high road. I mightn’t have chosen that path. I aspire to a nomination at next years Streamys and the show I’m working on is a labour of love, created by skilled, brilliant folks. And me as well. I was taken aback by the tone of much of the award show. I think we all know that sometimes technical things just go south but having a pessimistic and defeatist tone to the “humour” of the proceedings really detracted from the effort that all of the nominees and the rest of the online community dedicate to their work. The obvious attempt to project edginess came off as a declaration of unprofessionalism or a simple lack of care. If there’s anything that can be said about the greater online broadcast community is that the creators care intensely about their work. All the best from the great white north!
Cheers,
Lindsay
Thanks, as always, for the analysis, Casey. Given a moment (so we can all recover a bit from our exhaustion this past month), I think we can fix this.
[...] I read the many blogosphere post-mortems, though – my reaction to the Streamys was basically: a mess, but [...]
I think the huge technical errors coupled with the “web video is inferior” jokes really made for an uncomfortable atmosphere. And I agree, Casey, many of us *are* making $$$ in web tv (or in my case mobile tv)… and the jokes just aren’t that funny anymore. They seemed very 2007. I told Ze last night I sincerely hope he is next year’s host. Chris Hardwick’s a good pick as well. Nice to see you and Rudy!
[...] I completely agree with Casey McKinnon’s recent post about the Streamy Awards’ counter-intuitive mockery of their own medium: we shouldn’t [...]
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[...] comment on yesterday’s Streamys post by Amanda Congdon sparked a new thought in my head. She said, “…many of us *are* [...]
So well stated Casey. I hate when people not in the industry joke about the industry in a way to lessen it (and therfore try to boost their own fading momentum) Be it the mainstream news media getting on people like me or the mainstream “hollywood” scene belittling folks like yourself. It is sad on their part and crazy short-sighted of them…because, the world changes..every day…In my world, newspapers are already dead. In your world “real” talent is taking more and more attention from the mainstream TV and Movie industry. Eventually, and I have had this happen 4 times in 5 months, a mainstream media person will be coming to you for a job, or a role, in something you are producing online. That day will come as long as people like you and Rudy continue to combine their most intense passions with their intense love of the process and attentions to detail. It is inevitable. Talent and what is true can be seen through any fog the mass mainstream can throw over it. It will happen for you guys on that level, because it is already being drawn towards you. You guys may be too close, but we out here…we feel it.
[...] was more corporate than we wanted a web video awards show to be, but in time (and especially after last year’s Streamys) I grew to look back on it with shiny [...]