Marc Andreessen on Charlie Rose

I want to download everything in this guy’s head. Truly a visionary.

A Stroke of Insight

Mike Hirshland of Polaris Ventures posted the below video on his blog with no description other than “This is incredible.” I almost never watch a video for more than 3 minutes. This was worth an exception.

Art Imitates Life – Minority Report User Interface

“John Underkoffler, one of Oblong’s co-founders, was the science advisor on the film (Minority Report) and built much of what we saw in the movie from what he was working on at MIT.

The gesture-based g-speak “spatial operating interface” (SOE) software platform has been in development at MIT’s Media Laboratory since the early 1990s…”

Full article here.

No English, No Problem

I caught the Polysics show last Saturday at the Roxy. Amazing!

Diet Coke & Mentos Professors Post Profit

EepyBird, the minds behind the wildly successful “Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments”, have made the leap from online video to television. Their newest video “Extreme Sticky Note Experiments” (below) aired on Sept 5th on ABC Family during the premiere of SAMURAI GIRL.

Below is the full lenth video. It’s pretty cool.

Biggest Web Series Ever?

Many web series and vlogs have become successful in that they are revenue positive and have garnered significant press but none rival the views or ad revenue generated by successful network TV shows. We in the online content world are more than ready for a series to break out and have televisionesque viewership and revenue. On that note, Seth MacFarlane’s web series CAVALCADE OF CARTOON COMEDY premiered today. Will this be the one?

It’s created specifically for the internet. The random, bit-like nature of Seth MacFarlane’s comedy requires little to no exposition and is therefore just as funny in short clips. There is an already established rabid fan-base (remember what happened when Fox cancelled FAMILY GUY)? And to put it over the top, the sponsor tie-in is actually entertaining.

Organic Online Content – Chromeo and Darly Hall

Daryl Hall of Hall and Oats hosts a monthly web series out of his house and this month the guest is Chromeo. Embedded below is a teaser for the episode. To get the full experience go to the LIVE FROM DARYL’S HOUSE website. My favorites are “Family Man” and “Tenderoni”.

This is a prime example of quality content that exists because of the internet. A devoted fan-base definitely exists for this type of content but it’s too niche for network and major cable television. Plus the format of releasing an episode once a month wouldn’t work on TV. If there was no internet, do you think this content would have been created?

It’s Simple, Kill the Batmobile

While skateboarding to work last Friday, I got a call from a co-worker telling me the batmobile was pulling onto Rodeo Drive by the Beverly Wilshire. I immediately diverted course and saw this:

I’ve been following 42 Entertainment’s Dark Knight ARG, I’ve watched every released trailor many times and I’m a huge Christopher Nolan fan. Needless to say, this made my day.

USA Today Cover Story Sparks Refute

UTAOnline made the cover of May 30th’s edition of USA Today. The article entitled “Amid rush to sign online talent, agencies ponder how to profit” broadly talks about the changing landscape of the entertainment industry. This article only touches on the surface of the subject but it is a great piece of press for our department (pictured below).

Last week, Hollywood insider blogger Nikki Finke posted an article written by “video game guru” Keith Boesky in reaction to the above USA Today article. At first glance, Keith appears to be attacking the major talent agencies’ approach to the online space. The article was originally titled “UTA, CAA, Endeavor Just Don’t Get It” before Nikki Finke changed it to the less pointed “Why Hollywood Agents Just Don’t Get It.” If you look past the intentionally incendiary opening, there is some quality insight. Below are some of his best points.

“By viewing the on line world through the lens of traditional media, the agencies are advocating unidirectional content for distribution via channels owned by other people and subsidized solely by advertising. During the original dot com days these same people acknowledged it was the people who made the shovels got rich during the gold rush, so why are the agencies making the shovel makers rich again? They are supplying the content upon which to build distribution channels, and they are ignoring the connections among the audience, as well as the pipe coming out of the home.

Value on-line is created by consumer engagement and community, not eyeballs alone. People are turning television off in droves…The winner in this market will be the one who figures out how to maximize consumer engagement and harness community. They will figure out how to make consumers use the technology to invite their friends to share an experience with them every day…

Some Valley companies are threatening to take this next step into content creation, but they will soon learn they are not as good with narrative as Hollywood. This is the place for the agency focus. I am not talking about a lunch box equivalent license grant to an on-line game. It is an implementation of a core IP, designed specifically for the media. This is, something people like Heroes’ Jesse Alexander and MIT’s Henry Jenkin refer to as “transmedia,” The IP exists independent of all media. Each media exploitation is tailor-made for the extant media. Rather than a Coen brothers video releasing on the Web and then being stitched together to show up on television. The Coen brothers IP would be interpreted by an ARG creator and turned into an on line experience, the Coen brothers would direct a film or television show, a novelist would write a book, a graphic novelist does a Manga or graphic novel, People magazine covers the production and more. Each element is unique and stands on its own, telling a different story, which points back to the core IP, thereby making the IP stronger and the consumer commitment deeper….

By no means are these the only options, but if they continue on their current path, the agents can rest assured their unidirectional content will be more entertaining than content created anywhere else, but they can also be assured they will be building networks owned by other people. They are painting themselves into the same corner they stand in today – all the content, none of the access.

If the agencies want to profit from the new opportunities, they have to stop thinking evolution and more revolution. Television is a solo experience. A show can build an audience, but it does not build a connected community, and with very few exceptions, the community has no impact on the show. The audience watches, and then shares around the water cooler the next day. The web is about community. Real time community. I can feel impotent in real life, I don’t need my computer tell me I have to sit and listen to what someone else has to say. My computer empowers me and let’s me join in, the entertainment on it should as well.”

Literary Marketing 2.0

Those of you that know me have heard me talk about this for a while. A web series is a fantastic tool for marketing just about any entertainment IP but it has to be done right. Make the web series a quality piece of content that can stand alone and truly be a part of the transmedia role-out of the IP and it will succeed in promoting the primary piece of the IP. Below is a great example of this (full disclosure: Big Fantastic is a UTAO client).