Thanks to the person(s) who nominated me, I appreciate your vote of confidence!

Thank you for nominating me to run for a seat on the board of directors. I am very passionate about our industry and driven to uplift our achievements and professionalism. Here is an outline of my thoughts on where I feel we should take the academy in the coming months. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

International- Though the IAWTV has held meetings in Los Angeles and New York, the web series industry is not restricted to these cities and we should be mindful not to exclude our international membership. As an international member (Canadian), I proposed the live-stream for the last meeting in Los Angeles and I feel it’s important to continue this inclusive way of thinking, and to encourage the international community, with the help of the Membership Committee, to join the academy and help educate and build the communities in their area. All this can be simple with some basic equipment and guidance from the Technologies Committee.

Education- Education is a wonderful tool to build exposure and community in our organization. I’d like to help the Events Committee oversee regional (local) member-organized workshops, public live-streamed peer-group panels, and blog posts on the IAWTV web site to help build our community involvement, knowledge and industry as a whole.

Advocacy- It’s time to get back on track to advocate our professionalism and devotion to this field by following up on the many issues that have recently plagued our community (e.g. Net Neutrality, IMDb excluding web series, etc.). I would like to work together with the Communications Committee to prepare statements on the issues, help the Industry Standards Committee create standards and best practices, and assist the Events Committee in facilitating protests.

Awards- I feel it’s important to celebrate our community and its’ achievements by giving it the awards show it deserves. Like many of you, I was dismayed by this year’s Streamy Awards and would like to work together with the Awards Committee to oversee the script, content, security and guest treatment guidelines for next year. Our show needs to represent the spirit and hard work of our industry and its’ stars (whether they be from the web or the mainstream) in a respectful tone.

About me: I have been working in the web TV industry since 2005 and have appeared in over a dozen web series. I have written about the industry for The Guardian, spoken on numerous panels across Canada and the US, and coordinated open community-based meetings to share knowledge with those interested in the field. Aside from being a member of the IAWTV, I am also a judge of the Canadian New Media Awards and have organized meetings with SAG and AFTRA on behalf of New Media West to discuss the details of their new media contracts. I have a Diploma in Communications, a Bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies and worked as a diplomatic assistant before pursuing my career in new media full time. I speak English, French and Korean. (For more, see my biography and resume.)

Casey McKinnon
New Media Producer/Actress

All candidate statements should be emailed to the IAWTV membership and posted on the forum today. May the best candidates win.

My guest appearance on sci-fi comedy web series Hurtling Through Space at an Alarming Rate went up last month! Be sure to check it out, if you haven’t already. There could be a Streamy Award nomination for Best Guest Star in there somewhere… ;)

I was really excited when creator Mike Davies suggested I play the role of Kalm. Not only am I a lover of old Trek, but I’ve even read The Eugenics Wars series that explained the rise and fall of Khan Noonien Singh (which I was critical of, but still quite enjoyed) and, as an actor, I was ecstatic to be stepping into Riccardo Montelban’s Shakespearean shoes.

My only disappointment was that I felt the final edits downplayed the lesbian undertones I was going for with the character. However, to their defense… the character wasn’t written with lesbian undertones in mind, that was just my creative interpretation. In fact, at one point we were even talking about having a lesbian kiss between me and Taryn O’Neill! I felt that after Mike Davies grabbed Hottie McHotterson to make out in the middle of the video game face off, Kalm’s naturally vengeful reaction would be to grab Taryn’s character and kiss her, therefore undermining Mike’s attempt to throw Kalm off. I even got the “ok” from my boyfriend Rudy… what a forward thinking man!

Unfortunately, we never shot the kiss and the lesbian flirty looks between me and Taryn O’Neill were pretty much cut out… but I can always hope that Mike’ll write it in a future episode… Right, Mike? Pretty please…?

And, for the record, I’m not the only one who wants more hot girl-on-girl action… here’s the IM chat I had with Rudy just after he showed the episode to his co-workers:

At South by Southwest this past March, IMDb founder Col Needham said that a web series category will be added to the directory in the second or third quarter of this year (ie. anytime between April 1 – September 31). Unfortunately, I realized in early October that they still hadn’t made the change and I contacted Needham for a comment. On October 5, 2009 I wrote:

Hi Col!

Last time we spoke (SXSW last March) you said that labels for web series on IMDb should be pushed out in the 2nd or 3rd quarter. I just wanted to touch base and see if that’s gone through since I haven’t seen any changes to existing listings. Any updates on the subject that you can share?

Best,
Casey

I hadn’t heard back from him for a while and was starting to think the company was avoiding the issue, but on November 27, 2009 he replied as follows:

Hi Casey,

Sorry for the delayed reply … we’ve been finalizing our plans for 2010. Unfortunately circumstances changed following March and we have not yet been able to complete the work required to support web series. Much of the delay is because this area is incredibly complicated and affects a large number of IMDb software systems. We want to do this work properly to ensure that new title types of all kinds can be added more easily in future. The work has been rescheduled for 2010, but learning from past experience, we cannot be more specific on a launch date, sorry. In the meantime web series can continued to be added as if they were TV-series and will be converted over once they are properly supported.

Cheers,
Col

So, for the time being, I encourage all web series creators to go ahead and submit their show as a TV series. Let’s take over the site with our awesomeness… seriously. Here are a few pointers I’ve written down to help you get your show listed:

• Provide detailed credits of all the people who’ve worked on your series
• Include links to all of your show’s online profiles, especially fan pages and Twitter profile if you have a large audience of followers
• Link to all your major video upload sites, making sure to include sites that display high viewcounts
• Be sure to mention any public screenings or film festivals your videos have appeared in
• If you’ve received any mainstream press (newspapers, magazines, TV), provide a link to the article/segment online

No matter what you do, your title will probably not be accepted the first time. When they send you an email explaining why, wrack your brain, add more information and re-submit the title. Once the title has been added (and you may not get an email notification that it’s up), go ahead and add information on specific episodes… I’m planning to do this over the holidays ;)

Hope this helps you. I also hope that IMDb follows through with their plan to add a web series category… this is a popular industry we’re in, and it ain’t “new” media anymore.

Four years ago today, Rudy and I launched the first episode of Kitkast. Though Rudy had made some web videos (video blogs, vlogs, video podcasts, umm… vodcasts?) before, this was the first time we launched a web series… a serialized show. We’ve devoted countless hours to our passion ever since, and I thank every single person whose clicked play, commented on, and shared our videos with their friends.

So what am I doing today to commemorate the occasion? Acting in another web series, of course! I’m up in Vancouver right now, and I can’t say anything much, but it’s going to be EPIC… and reminiscent of Galacticast in some respect. I’ll give you the details when they’re public.

Year five promises to be even better. More guest spots, collaborations, and new content! Thanks for all your support… you make the late nights worthwhile.

Speaking of late nights… this week’s A Comicbook Orange video gave me a late night a couple of nights ago. Enjoy!

For over two years I’ve been advocating the need for a web series category on IMDb. At SXSW this year, I was given hope when IMDb founder Col Needham announced their plan to roll out tags for both web series and individual web videos in the second or third quarter of this year. Well, the third quarter ended a week ago, and I still don’t see either tags on the title submission page.

How much longer do we need to wait? How much longer must we submit our web series as “TV Series” or (straight to DVD) “Video” titles?

I sent Needham an email the other day asking for an update, and just sent an email through the IMDb contact page last night. If you’re a producer with the same concerns, I suggest trying to touch base with them through your own networking channels. Let’s get this pushed through!!!

Thanks to Rick Rey, NewTeeVee, Tubefilter and Tilzy.tv (David Nett) for also writing about this subject earlier this year.

Zod bless the Dominion of Canada! I’ll be judging the Social Media category of this year’s Canadian New Media Awards. No, I will not take bribes (unless they’re Dark Chocolate cupcakes from Sprinkles in Beverly Hills which would be next to impossible for any Canadian entrant… HA!).

All jokes aside, I’m really happy to be chosen…

The event will take place at nextMEDIA Toronto on December 1st, so go enter your web site or show so I can judge it, fellow Canadians! (Warning: it’s not free to enter, but there’s an early bird special of $125 if you enter before September 18th.)

And to those yanks out there who didn’t already know it… I. Am. Canadian!

Why do we praise the mainstream for adopting new media? Is it the excitement that we feel when our industry is being validated, or is it just our kindhearted nature to pat the mentally challenged on the back when they finally learn to do something right. Unfortunately, I believe it’s a hint of both.

This morning Marc Hustvedt, founder of web television news site Tubefilter twittered the above message announcing:

Marc Hustvedt: Disney becomes equity partner in Hulu, the premium content battle with YouTube heats up. This will be good for content creators.. [Link]

His positive and enthusiastic remark set off a brief, but meaningful discussion on whether the new partner will, in fact, be good for content creators:

Casey McKinnon: @MarcHustvedt The problem is that Hulu is a gatekeeper, not an open platform. Have they spoken about opening themselves up? [Link]

Marc Hustvedt: @caseymckinnon, @ebregman, @nickpepito – indie creators will benefit too, it’s about first creating competition to distribute content [Link]

Nick Pepito: @caseymckinnon, @marchustvedt I think Hulu will move beyond studio content & begin to sign indie, they’ll have to. [Link]

Casey McKinnon: @nickpepito Hulu doesn’t “have to” do anything. It’s a site owned by NBC/FOX/ABC, who have obvious vested interests. [Link]

I’ve been getting more @replies on Twitter about this topic, so allow me to explain further in 140 characters of more…

As I mentioned on Twitter, Hulu is a site owned by three major networks; NBC, FOX, and ABC (Disney). They use the site to distribute their TV shows online in order to garner more views and to prevent the black market propagation of their shows on torrent sites. With the exception of made-for-the-web production Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, Hulu is available exclusively in the United States.

Though Dr. Horrible was an indie production – a very expensive one – creator Joss Whedon has obvious ties with FOX that, no doubt, helped him distribute his content on Hulu. Most other web series listed on Hulu also have mainstream ties, like:

• The show is a web-based series created by a major network (Example: FEARnet)
• The show is created by or stars known celebrities (Example: Pink)
• The show is made by talented indie creators – most probably living in Los Angeles – who have been lucky enough to get a licensing deal (Example: Squeegees)

Sure, there are exceptions to the above ties to the mainstream, like Gary Vaynerchuk’s The Thunder Show (aka. Wine Library TV), but with his growing popularity it’s not absurd to assume the other shows have licensing deals or friends in high places.

So what does the ABC Disney partnership mean for us indie creators? Nothing until we see a more open platform on Hulu.

Some have mentioned on Twitter that Hulu needs to shift their entertainment to include more indie web content or their numbers will flatten over time… and I wish that were true, but mainstream TV shows made by already famous people have a built-in audience. Indie web series creators have a much larger ladder to climb to get the same viewership as people like Joss Whedon, and the best thing we can do is to “never give up and never surrender!”

This is why I am unperturbed by the new ABC Disney partnership. In essence, it’s just more of the same… and a very obvious merger. Also, let us not forget that ABC has been distributing their shows online for a long time now… they just had a less than desirable user experience. So, to celebrate their partnership with Hulu in a world where content should be (and already is) cross platform, is rather redundant.

Marc Hustvedt believes that creating competition to distribute content will eventually help indie creators, but since Hulu and YouTube are in a competition over TV shows and movies I feel that indie web productions are being left in the cold. Perhaps someday we’ll be reminiscing on all the crazy videos we used to watch on YouTube… whatever happen to those anyway?

Meet my band… my new Rock Band (from left):

Vocals – Me
Bass – Leah Culver
Drums – Bonny Pierzina
Guitar – Veronica Belmont

We’ll be playing at the Next New Networks/Tumblr party at SXSW (event details available on Upcoming and Facebook):

Date – Monday, March 10, 2008
Time – 9pm
Location – Cedar Street Courtyard, 208 W. 4th Street, Austin, TX 78701 (Map)

See you there…

Contrary to my previous post about SXSW, I’m now on two panels instead of one:

Panel: How to Rawk SXSW: Achieving Geekgasm
Date: Saturday, March 8th
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
Room: 19AB

Panel: Online Adulation: Use Don’t Abuse Your Fans
Date: Monday, March 10th, 2008
Time: 3:30pm-4:30pm
Room: 8

Add it to your schedule and stop on by!

We launched a new web site design this weekend, so if you’re reading this on your feeds you might want to come check it out.

It’s part of an effort to focus more on my acting career, so I’ve added pages with my resume, photo shoots, notable press, video reels, and links to my work and some of my best friends on the web.

My favorite features of the redesign are the sexy font (Countdown – Energy Corporation’s font in the original Rollerball), the random tagline generator on the upper right and, of course, the epic background photo by Vu Bui.

Credits:
Coding and late nights by Rudy Jahchan
Background photo taken by Vu Bui
Site design by me