The Streamy Awards took place last Sunday and the photos and videos have been slowly rolling out over the past week. Below are some of my favorite images taken of me, Rudy Jahchan (writer of A Comicbook Orange) and Josh Allard (director of A Comicbook Orange).
And last, but not least… the annual Galacticast intro re-creation (and boobie grab):
Sunday’s Streamy Awards has been replaying in my head for the past two days and I’ve been thinking a lot about the self-deprecating jokes made at our industry’s expense. One target in particular has been bugging me, the notion that no one is making money in web video. This bothers me because I’ve been working in the industry for almost 5 years and have seen most of my friends go on to make a living on web video, not to mention myself.
A comment on yesterday’s Streamys post by Amanda Congdon sparked a new thought in my head. She said,
“…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.”
Very 2007 indeed. And 2008. And 2009. And 2010!
The reason there’s an ongoing joke that no one’s making money in web TV is because every year there are more and more people coming into this industry (awesome), but they don’t know anything about the history and past achievements of others in the industry (shame). Anyone who only started paying attention to web video after The Guild and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog wouldn’t know how Congdon, the first Rocketboom anchor, got picked up to make video blogs for ABC in 2006, or how Wallstrip was acquired by CBS for five million dollars in 2007, or how A Comicbook Orange and The Jetset Show (now Epic Fu) were both picked up for license agreements under Next New Networks in 2007.
And those deals were just the beginning. Every year more people are launching web shows and more people are getting offers of licensing deals and buyouts. Why, then, are people still asking us to show them the money?
The reason is simple: It is in the nature of the Web TV industry for people to start with no money. As long as there are new people starting their own show, there will ALWAYS be people making content for free.
Our industry, like many others, is like climbing a ladder. You have to prove you can make good quality, engaging content before you can make a dime. Whether you want to join the YouTube Partner Program, get your show picked up as the next Crackle series, or sell your TV pilot to the SyFy channel, you need to start at the bottom like everyone else. If you’ve never made anything before, how is anyone supposed to fund your seedy idea? You need to show them the content before they can show you the money.
And, sure, not everyone will be able to climb the ladder, but that’s life. If you’re having difficulty finding an audience, sit back and take a good look at what you’re doing. Is your target audience online? Where can you go to find them? What can you do to get them to watch? All valid questions that I can’t answer for you.
With all that in mind, let us all stop making snide comments about how there is no money in web video. If you’re not making any money, you need to be asking yourself why. Does your content suck? Does your pitch document suck? Do you need to cut down the number of times you put “vagina” in your script? Maybe. One thing is for sure, Web TV is a very public growing process and, like any other career you’re passionate about, you have to work hard at it to truly excel.
Keep on truckin’.
[Above image courtesy of Kevin Dooley]
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:
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]
“If you want to win a war, you must serve no master but your ambition.”
Disclaimer: We highly respect all the Streamy nominees we’re “attacking” in the following videos and mean no disrespect.
Above: Best Hosted Web Series nominee A Comicbook Orange attacks Best Vlogger nominee Brigitte Dale.
Above: Best Hosted Web Series nominee A Comicbook Orange attacks Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series nominee Zoë Bell.
Above: Best Hosted Web Series nominee A Comicbook Orange attacks Streamy nominee Felicia Day.
About these videos: Rudy and I came up with this idea a few weeks ago while talking over Mexican food. Initially, we thought it would be funny to “attack” our actual competition (The Totally Rad Show, Know Your Meme, Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, and Diggnation), but then we realized it would be funnier if we “attacked” people we’re not even up against. We wrote these scripts in an hour, shot it on green screen in another hour and I spent my extra time editing it between episodes of A Comicbook Orange.
So, before I get into to problems and solutions, let me just say that I appreciate all the volunteer work people have been doing to prepare for the Streamy Awards. I’ve been waiting four years for the 2nd Annual Vloggie Awards (not gonna happen), so it’s vitally important to me that the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards are successful and that the event continues for years and years to come. That said, however, these are the early years of the awards show, an adjustment period where we need to work through the kinks and adapt our methods to best serve the medium; web series.
A lot has happened over the past week: members of the IAWTV voted to finalize the nominations for the Streamys; official nominees were announced; and a For Your Consideration mail plan appeared online (later to be removed after many community members disapproved). As with any new award show, there are some issues that need ironing out… in an effort to keep this blog post brief, I’ll try to do some of this using point form.
The nomination process, as judged by members of the IAWTV, was a long and difficult one. Members were sent an email on February 21st with a link to a web form on Polldaddy.com and were given until February 27th to complete it. The biggest problem was that there were hundreds of videos to watch and no way to save the form as you went through the different categories. This meant that voters had to either do it all in one sitting, or keep their browsers open and computers on until they completed it. Personally, I was scared my browser was going to crash… luckily it didn’t, but apparently Zadi Diaz’s did. FIVE TIMES! Perhaps a lot of this stress could have been alleviated if we had an ability to save our progress and continue another day.
Another issue was the videos themselves. Some videos were embedded in the header of the poll, but they weren’t necessarily the videos that were submitted by creators in the $10 certified submissions. In fact, they included videos published in 2010 and trailers, both of which shouldn’t count in the voting process. These mix ups, and the fact that not all shows were embedded in the header, meant that we had to visit every web site of every web series – which caused more issues since not all sites clearly displayed the date their videos were published (pretty important since we’re judging videos published in 2009).
Note: Streamy organizers are aware of the embed problem. If they embedded the wrong video for your series, please contact Joshua Cohen at joshua at streamys dot org with the proper embed code.
Yesterday I noticed an email in my Spam Filter confirming our nomination for Best Hosted Web Series (W00T!). The email was sent on March 2nd and had detailed information on dates and deadlines for sending materials to help prepare for the final voting process and the Streamys ceremony. For those who were following Matt Enlow’s and my blog posts on For Your Consideration Screenings and DVD Screeners, this is where things get a little more controversial.
Screenings
It was announced in this email that there were going to be IAWTV For Your Consideration screenings in Los Angeles and New York on Thursday, March 11th. Nominees were asked to submit a one-minute video of their show by March 6th to screen at the events. This sounds pretty cool, I gotta admit, but there are a few issues that arise from this:
I love meeting my colleagues (especially at Tubefilter’s legendary meetups), so this is a fun idea, but I’m not sure showing one-minute of each show is going to give people a really good look at what’s out there.
Mail outs
Also included in the email was a link to the new For Your Consideration program, which offered nominees a chance to send DVD screeners or an email to IAWTV voting members. This was the pricing breakdown:
And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Upon hearing of this, many of us took to Twitter to get our frustrations out. Shortly thereafter we started to chat on TinyChat to discuss our concerns (unfortunately for me, my mic wasn’t working so I couldn’t really explain my stance… which is why I’m writing this blog post today). Over 50 industry professionals joined the discussion, including Streamys organizer and Tubefilter co-founder Brady Brim-DeForest, ICM agent and IAWTV board member George Ruiz, and many web series creators. A few things that came out of that conversation were:
If anything, the best thing I think to come out of this discussion is that we’re creating a dialogue. Creators and Streamy organizers are having meetings and organizing the future together instead of apart. This is important, especially if you want the awards show to last and not fall victim to the same politics that killed PodTech’s Vloggies.
Note: The Streamys 2010 For Your Consideration Program (mail-out) is no longer available. It was taken down after the discussions last night.
As I said before, new media is about adopting new technologies. So why not create a web site around the nomination and voting process?
Public Submissions
Firstly, it’s really nice that we have the public submission option, but why not separate it from the certified (or creator) submissions? We could have a 100% fan-submitted (non-IAWTV) award for each overall series category. The Streamy Awards may choose whether they’d like to include this in the official ceremony, or if they’d prefer to announce the winners at the Craft Awards Ceremony, or even a live stream! (Online fans might prefer the latter) Separating the public submissions from certified entries would make it easier to manage the next suggestion I have for the future of voting.
Certified Submissions
Create a private site where creators can:
These profiles will make it much easier for voting IAWTV members to navigate through the hundreds of series they have to review (there were over 60 nominees for Best Comedy Web Series ALONE!) and find the videos they should be watching. This site can give all series a level playing ground when the member voting opens. Much like the Polldaddy form used this year, a similar form can be built into the web site linking to the series profiles, and giving IAWTV members voting accounts that allow them to make their choices and SAVE them along the way.
Once the technology is completed, this will actually give Streamy organizers LESS work. They won’t have to collect so much information because creators would have already done it themselves!
And you may find yourself… asking whether the certified submissions for this new site will cost. Let me know what you think of that idea. Should it be free? Are you willing to pay a small fee (this year’s certified submission was $10)?
And you may find yourself… wondering how to submit an embed code for your series since some corporation owns your work and you can’t upload it publicly? Blip.tv offers a private upload and embed service. You can upload your video there, set it to private, take the Flash embed code and submit it to the new site!
And you may find yourself… disapproving of the site because you want to judge on the show’s interactivity on the web? Fine! Link to the original web site to go see for yourself, especially in the case of Best Interactive Web Series. Again, I don’t want to take traffic away from the original sites, I want to make it easier for voting members to see the correct eligible videos and give everyone a level playing ground to be “screened”.
What is your opinion on all this? What do you think of my proposed solution? Have an idea on how to improve the process? Suggest it in the comments below!
Note: Keep in mind that some comments may be held for moderation, there is no need to submit your comment twice. Please do not use this as a way to promote your web series, but as a way to find the best solution for the future of the Streamy Awards. And, lastly, please be patient and kind with your fellow creators’ ideas… let’s keep this civil! We should come to a logical solution, not a revolution.
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