What Advice Does An Online Video Star Have For Actors?

I ran into actor David Loren star of Big Fantastic's Prom Queen and Sorority Forever at a wrap party in Hollywood and he gave me some words of encouragement for actors wanting to act in online videos and come to Hollywood.

We were standing outside in the parking lot of The Twisted Spade card club in Hollywood - the first of its kind "Entertainment Only" card room. Twisted Spade Card Club is a members only establishment providing its members with a comfortable environment to play, learn, and enjoy the game of poker.

The grand opening day is November 1st by Invitation Only.

Prom Queen DVD Hits the Street

The Big Fantastic boys now have a DVD of their Internet Video Hit Prom Queen out and you can buy it at Amazon for as low as $7.85 as of this posting.

Can you guys tell us anything about how it got to DVD or was that all handled through Michael Eisner's Vuguru?

When Will We See New Online Video Formats From The Studios?

Sorority Forever: Episode 1 "Sisterhood"


Last night the guys from Big Fantastic invited me to a UTA / Wonderland Sound and Vision party for The WB's new show Sorority Forever. It was a fun little party in McG's office on Sunset BLVD in West Hollywood which as I was told was the former office of Ronald Reagan and SAG.

That really got me thinking about old vs new. To most people in entertainment McG is a hip cutting edge music video and motion picture director. To the kids of online video McG is established old media. McG IS Ronald Reagan.

Don't get me wrong, Sorority Forever looks like it's going to be a fun ride. It looks like it would make a great TV show and McG is truely a hip cutting edge director. I'm glad to see McG is partnering with Big Fantastic and creating online video but the video that is being created is basically a TV format. Now there's nothing wrong with TV formats. I have nothing against TV formats...except on the Internet.

I believe that if you want a successful online video series you have to create something that people can't get on TV because the TV viewing experience is still superior on a 42" plasma. The problem is that it's hard to get studios and networks to spend money on something that doesn't exist. Studios and networks need to know something has a chance of building an audience. And that's where opportunity lies for you.

In the early days of television radio formats were placed on TV because radio was where the money was. Today TV formats are being placed on the Internet because TV is where the money is and advertisers understand and have advertising that is built for those formats.

We have not yet begun to scratch the surface of formats for the Internet but there are a few shows that are testing the boundaries.



You Suck At Photoshop is one of those shows. If you haven't see the first season of You Suck At Photoshop I urge you to go check it out. EVEN IF YOU DONT CARE ABOUT OR WANT TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT PHOTOSHOP.

You Suck At Photoshop is a screen cast of a guy giving a Photoshop tutorial but as he works his mouse and keyboard you get back story of his life and subtext of his feelings towards the people in his life that are keeping him down. In addition to the linear video the star of the show, Donnie who you never see on camera opens the door for his audience to interact with the show.

You Suck At Photoshop is something you would never see green lit at a studio or network for regular TV but I wouldn't be surprised if it did show up on late night cable some day.

Beyond You Suck at Photoshop there are other new formats like Lonely Girl 15 that are developing but none have taken hold yet or built a huge audience and become a household name. Now is the time to put your thinking caps on and create new formats that studios and networks will be interested in licensing from you.

If you have a new format or know of one please share the URL.

When Can You Have Big Fantastic Ideas and Go After Them?

When Can You Have Big Fantastic Ideas and Go After Them? from 1timstreet on Vimeo.

I had the chance to wrangle the Team Big Fantastic (Chris Hampel,Douglas Cheney,Chris McCaleb and Ryan Wise) in front of my Flip Digital Video Camera at the LATV Fest and here is what they had to tell me about what they are doing in Online video and what you as a new online video producer should do.

Advanced Story-Telling Techniques for Video Creators

The New Media Expo is the world's most popular convention for podcasters, bloggers and online content creators. If you are serious about online video it's an event that you shouldn't miss.

This is part of a weekly blog series that highlights a session or event happening at New Media Expo - hopefully enticing you to come join us online video content creators in Las Vegas August 14-16, 2008.

The guys from Big Fantastic have had the opportunity to work on funded story based Internet fiction video. There are very few people who can say that and what they have to say will be very interesting.

Full disclosure I have played paintball with these guys and their pretty good.

Advanced Story-Telling Techniques for Video Creators
Track 4: Audio and Video Creation: "How To" Techniques for Making Compelling Content
Instructors: Big Fantastic
Description: In this session, members of the Big FANTASTIC team will show you how they craft a story in video and keep the audience engaged and coming back for more. Using real-life examples from their productions of online video hits "Prom Queen" and "Sam Has 7 Friends", you'll learn how to create compelling video content through creative editing, developing interesting characters and other post-producton techniques. You'll also learn how the Big FANTASTIC team has promoted their work and grown an audience that has attracted national attention. Fiction and non-fiction creators alike will find something they can apply to their own shows in this exclusive session.

Oh, you might also want to Book your hotel now and get your free Expo Hall Pass before they are gone.

Is Michael Eisner Still Pissed at Steve Jobs?

Last year Michael Eisner said, "Steve Jobs, not the studios, is the one making money on digital distribution," Eisner said at the Media and Money conference according to Remy Davison at Insanely Great Mac.

Yesterday Michael Eisner’s Vuguru and book publisher Putnam, launched the first of a 50 episode online video series called Foreign Body. It's a prequel/promotional vehicle for the soon to be released Robin Cook novel title Foreign Body. The video series is produced for Eisner by my paintball buddies over at Big Fantastic who also did Prom Queen for Michael and sold him their original series Sam Has 7 Friends.

I have great hopes for the Foreign Body series not only as an online video series but as a ground breaking business model for monetizing online video. Eisner has always been and continues to be a man with a vision of the future. (I like to tell this story so if you've heard it before please bear with me.) Years ago I had the fortune to work as a production assistant for Michael on the opening segments of the Disney Sunday Movie where Michael would say, "Hello, I'm Michael Eisner and Welcome to the Disney Sunday Movie." I was a terrible PA, always trying to do more than I was asked to do, but I did manage to learn a lot watching the leader of the Disney empire and how he handled things while he worked.

Way before the Internet, each morning Michael would be handed several sheets of paper that listed all the news worthy items of interest to a CEO of a entertainment conglomerate. Now you can subscribe to Emails, Blogs and RSS feed readers that assemble all the same information but back then when I was a kid I thought this was WAY cool. Another thing I saw Michael do was that he never got mad at anyone. Well at least not that we could see. If something or someone was bothering him he would call over his assistant Art who was also his pitbull. Art would take care of all the dirty work and Michael would smile and say, "Hello, I'm Michael Eisner and Welcome to the Disney Sunday Movie."

Years later as a producer I had the pleasure of traveling the country interviewing Michael Eisner's teachers. I video tapped his kindergarten teacher, the head master of his all boys school and even the professor that Robin Williams' character was based on in Dead Poets' Society. During that project I learned that Ethan Frome was Michael Eisner's favorite book as a young man. Knowing that really makes me examine the way Eisner is playing with online video.

Now I've not spoken with the Big Fantastic boy since they started working on Foreign Body and I sure hope I don't get them in any trouble with this post but I have noticed that the man who seams to be putting the most skin into the original content creation /online video game at the moment is not playing with all of the players.

You can find Vuguru's videos on Youtube, Blip.tv and of course on Veoh the video site that Eisner has invested in but you won't find Prom Queen, Sam Has Seven Friends or Foreign Body on the iTunes Store...yet.

If you visit Foreign Body's website you will find a link to iTunes but when you click on it you get a message, "iTunes Podcast coming soon. Check back June 3rd."

This makes me wonder, Is Michael Eisner still pissed at Steve Jobs? Or has he moved on? Or are there other reasons Michael hasn't been using the iTunes to get the views of his online video up?

Most of us online video producers have found iTunes to be the best thing in launching our viral video successes, including the Big Fantastic guys but for what ever reason Eisner hasn't been embracing Steve Job's wonder toy.

Any ideas?

Super Distribution Leaves the Gate with Cockpit

The Double Emmy®-nominated Douglas Cheney, Chris Hampel, Chris McCaleb and Ryan Wise, better known as the Big Fantastic Boys (to me) who brought us the dark online thrillers Sam Has 7 Friends and Prom Queen have "shacked-up" with former UTA Agent Brent Weinstein's 60 Frames to launch a new comedy titled Cockpit.

The story starts with First Officer John Pinneke's first day on the job. He meets his fellow employees including Flight Attendant Dan Wishbone who swears he's not gay.

It's a web series about the employees of Mile High Airlines and "what really goes on behind that cockpit door." It's very Reno 911.

The first episode doesn't really work for me maybe because the it doesn't deliver on the expectation/promise that the above thumbnail Key Art gave me when I first saw it but these are very talented guys so I've subscribed and I'm going to give them a few episodes to hook me like they did with Sam and Prom Queen.

Beyond the fact that they have partnered with 60Frames Entertainment - (the newly-formed digital media financing and syndication company, has officially debuted its programming with seven new original online series) - run by Big Fantastic's old UTA Agent, is the fact that they are using a new super distribution deal with leading online video sites including Bebo, Blip.tv, Break.com Dailymotion, Heavy.com, iTunes, MySpace, Veoh Networks, Vuze, and on YouTubeTM at http://www.youtube.com/60frames. (Revver is missing?????)

According to their press release, "60Frames content will also be syndicated through Joost by February 1, 2008. This distribution network collectively reaches nearly 90% of all online video traffic. As of today, consumers can also access 60Frames content by logging onto www.60frames.com."

Weinstein stated: “The idea behind 60Frames was to create a set of financial, creative, marketing and distribution resources that professional artists could use to bring exciting new projects to life in an environment that provides artists meaningful profit participation, ownership, and control of their IP. We’re very excited about our initial offerings and future projects which we believe will expand, in terms of genre and form-factor, the notion of what ‘works’ online. By partnering with the leading online sites, we are giving artists’ content the widest possible exposure while maximizing revenue opportunities.”

Okay that's all well and good and it will be interesting to see how it all works but if you look at what is working right now this is a 180.

The Ninja Boys are keeping their new content just on their own site and using tradition page view advertising to monetize.

Cockpit is only one of seven new shows for 60 Frames and according to NewTeeVee
"each partner will sell its own ads for now, 60Frames will eventually sell sponsorships through Spot Runner, which incubated the company with UTA."

I'm really interested to see how this works out. I'm excited about what Brent is doing with 60 Frames and think his timing couldn't be any better with the writer's strike going on right now and of course I always love to see the Big Fantastic Boys break new ground.

What Revver Really Did

When Steven Starr and his indi-minded crew launched Revver they had a dream of connecting video content creators with an audience then connecting the video content and the audience with advertisers but beyond that they have created a community of Revver creators that are a Farm League for major entertainment companies. By offering money to talented video producers Revver attracted the likes of Ask A Ninja, Goodnight Burbank, Invisible Engine, Zoomilk, Psychic Bunny and Big Fantastic.



Several of these creators have since left Revver due to other deals but the Revver community is still alive and growing.(Last night Revver threw a great screening party.)

Sure these funny videos that the guys from Invisible Engine created for Revver of "What Revver Did" are lots of fun to watch but beyond these entertaining little online shorts what Revver really did was respect talent and reward talented people while letting them retain the rights to their own creations.

As someone who creates original video content for the Internet, as a producer, as an artist I truly respect what Revver has really done.

Thanks Revver!

Navigating Episodic Internet Shows

With the exception of Apple's iTunes Podcast subscription I have yet to find an enjoyable way of watching Episodic Shows on the Internet.

When Prom Queen launched earlier this year it was a pain in the ass to watch the shows in order and catch up if you missed one. Eventually team Vuguru created a weekly recap show but it was hard to figure out where I left off and it still required some work. When the Big Fantastic launched their Summer season of Prom Queen called Summer Heat, Vuguru sent out a daily email and this made it much easier to catch up if I missed an episode. I could just go to my Apple mail and sort my messages from Prom and click on the shows in order.

If you go to Youtube or Revver or Veoh or Metacafe or any other video site and search for your favorite Episodic Show you will find it and it's trailers/promos in some crazy order. If you are at work trying to find that episode that you missed before your boss walks by and busts you for goofing off at work you are going to bail and wait till later to find that episode if you ever get around to it.

So far there are no Episodic shows on the front page of Youtube's Most Viewed (All Time) All: page. This says a lot about how we are still in a time of "spectacle" and have not yet moved into "Story" as far as Internet video goes. Even the Internet's biggest "Hit" story Lonely Girl 15's most popular episode only has had 1,708,683 views and if you want to start from never having seen an episode of LG15 and get all caught up, good luck. There are over 21 pages of search results for "Lonely Girl 15" on Revver and I couldn't find Episode number one so I went to LG15.com. There I found a place to start and a recap video of season one that brought me up to speed but that was work.

We need to speak with our contacts at the video sites and ask them what they can do to help. One viral video could bring a ton of viewers to your show but if that viewer can't find the next episode or the previous ones in a nice neat way that is easy to navigate it will take us all a lot longer to build audiences. The big boys in Hollywood already know how to make a programming dial work. It won't be long before they figure this out too and make it even harder for us little guys to break through the clutter.

Sure there are work-arounds but that involves "work".

Prom Queen Summer Heat

Online Videos by Veoh.com




Michael Eisner’s / Big Fantastic’s Prom Queen’s Summer Heat hit the net last night. I did notice a little product placement from Verizon Wireless and THANK GOD John Travolta came out in theaters so that we don’t have to watch another commercial for Hair Spray the Movie. Those spots in Season 1 of Prom Queen drove me crazy. (If you can help it at all try to vary your sponsors or you will run your audience away.)

All kidding aside, I was talking with the Big Fantastic boys last week at the LA Podcasters Meet Up and they said shooting this little mini-season of Prom Queen was a lot of work and a lot of fun.

After looking at the first new episode I think it looks like watching the mini series will be fun as well.

Now if the rest of us can set up product placement deals as easy as Mickey E life as an independent producer will be fun too.

Making the Right Deal So You Can Buy a New Car

Online Videos by Veoh.com



It’s a pretty exciting time in the world of independent content / video podcasting / pocasting / videoblogging / online video production. The Big Fantastic guys inked a deal with a Hollywood mogul , Tiki Bar TV and
Keith and the Girl signed a deal with Wizzard , the LonelyGirl15 guys struck a deal with Bebo on a new series Kate Modern in London and the Podacast WallStrip was acquired by CBS for 3 to 5 million dollars depending on who you talk to. It really feels like things are happening but online creators beware, I don’t see any of the independent content producers I know driving around in new cars… yet.

My whole life I’ve dreamt of a studio deal. Wait, that’s not true. When I was a kid I wanted a Webco Black Diamond BMX Bike and a surfboard. I’ll start over. My whole adult life I’ve dreamt of a studio deal, a deal where I would be warm and safe, a deal where I could have an office on the lot with my own parking spot, a deal where I would come up with “wonderful”, “creative” and “brilliantly evil” ideas that the studio would green light and that I would then go write, produce and direct. Then the studio would distribute my production for the whole world to see. But then I discovered the Internet and how my dreams have changed.

Once I figured out what I could do with the web I created a fictional videoblog/online story that had millions of hits and I realized while I was waiting for that studio deal I could write, produce, direct AND distribute my own projects. I loved it. It was great. I could come up with whatever I wanted and just go do it and for the past seven years I have. Millions of people came to see my work but they didn’t leave any money just a big fat bandwidth bill. I quickly learned I didn’t know how to make money on the Internet.

So I kept at it and kept at it and finally came up with French Maid TV . It has brought me millions of views, I get paid money to make it and it is way more fun to make than any studio or TV project I’ve ever produced. Sure I have to deal with clients that put their “marketing speak” into the voice over but other than that I have a lot of creative freedom. It has brought me a big Hollywood agent and meetings with studios all around town. I’m out pitching all my “wonderful”, “creative” and “brilliantly evil” ideas and it feels pretty good. But wait, I still don’t have a studio deal and as far as I know neither does anyone else who creates online video. The closest thing to a studio deal that I know of is what has happened to Big Fantastic.

The Big Fantastic guys made a show called Sam Has 7 Friends for $50K of their own money. They got millions of views. They got a big Hollywood agent. They had meetings all over town. Then they pitched a new idea called Prom Queen to Michael Eisner and he bought it. Not only did he buy it he also bought their online hit Sam Has 7 Friends. Can you believe it? These guys pitched and sold a new series as well as their old series to the dude that used to run Disney! Incredible. Side note: I used to be a production assistant on Michael Eisner’s “Voice of Disney” intros to the Disney Sunday Movie. You know, “Hello, I’m Michael Eisner and Welcome to the Disney Sunday Movie.” More about that another time.

Now the Big Fantastic Guys (who I love) are working around the clock the same way they did when they produced Sam has 7 Friends and they are getting paid for it! It’s great. Right? Well, I don’t see them driving new cars or in a big office on the lot yet and the other thing that crosses my mind when I drive through the studio gates is that they don’t own their content anymore either. Makes me want to ask someone for some advice. What a second, maybe I can Ask A Ninja? Let’s see the guys at Beatbox Giant created an online show, Ask A Ninja
They got millions of views. They got a big Hollywood agent. They had meetings all over town. Then they got something pretty cool. No, it wasn’t a studio deal with an office on the lot. They got a big advertising deal with Federated Media . But best of all, they still own their content. They still get to write, produce, direct AND distribute whatever “wonderful”, “creative” and “brilliantly evil” ideas they come up with and if they can keep it all going, I’ll bet we will see them driving around in new cars soon.

Now if one of my “wonderful”, “creative” and “brilliantly evil” ideas ever gets bought at a studio I don’t think I’ll be able to turn the deal down just yet cause the market place hasn’t developed enough yet for me to survive full time on French Maid TV but I will ask my agents to fight hard to get me the best deal possible bcause the lease is running out on my SUV and I don’t have enough money to buy a new one… yet.