The Industry

While television networks are still the central focus of what we currently call “television,” the industry itself is changing due to technological advances and the emergence of cable channels as producers of original programming. Some even suggest that in the not-so-distant future, it will be the computer screen and not a television set that the majority of Americans view “television,” and that the networks could simply become a means to “advertise” their online content. In addition, the webseries medium offers anyone with a video camera and a creative vision to film their own television series, while podcasts and blogs enable fans to discuss and debate their favorite shows like never before. Suffice it to say that the industry is changing, and the future looks to be both exciting and better because of it.

—alterna-tv.com

The Wisdom of Felicia Day: In Her Own Words

Forbes magazine calls her both a “mogul in the making” and “guru to the Internet content crowd.” The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, refers to her as “nerd-tastic” while the Wall Street Journal claims that she is a true “web entrepreneur.” It doesn’t matter the moniker, however, as Felicia Day has proven ever since The Guild first premiered in 2007 that she is the unspoken ambassador of the webseries medium and one of the few who have mastered the nuances of the budding industry. In addition to creating, writing and acting in The Guild, she was one of the main stars of Joss Whedon’s online musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, appeared in The Legend of Neil and The Webventures of Justin and Alden and branched out with a second multiple-hats-wearing webseries, Dragon Age: Redemption.

With such an impressive resume and equally talented, it is no wonder the Felicia Day is often considered to be the “Queen of the Internet.” Through the years, she has given numerous interviews in which she not only discusses The Guild, her acting career and love of gaming, but personal insights on how she found success within the medium and words of advice for potential independent creators as well. Taken together, these snippets into the mind of Felicia Day offer an overview of an industry still in its infant stages and the ongoing changes facing both the television and online video industries.

“It’s sort of the Sundance of our time,” Felicia Day told IGN in December 2008 in regards to the webseries and the Internet. “This is where people are going to be discovered and be making new content. And the cool thing about it is there are no rules. It’s not like you have to make a two minute episode or a ten minute episode. It’s really whatever your story is. And I know that there are a lot of frustrated people in Hollywood, who aren’t allowed to tell their stories because they’re either not telling them in the way the studios or networks want them to, or it’s not appealing to as many people. The cool thing about the Internet is I can make a show about gamers that would never get made by traditional means, and I can find an audience for it. I think that it’s kind of the democratization of media in a sense.”

OCTOBER 17, 2011 (READ MORE)

 

 

The Pitfalls of Independent Webseries Production

Somber news rumbled through the stratosphere of the Internet in July 2011 when actor Jonathan Nail announced that he was shutting down his webseries SOLO. The professionally polished, well-written and highly entertaining effort followed the misadventures of Scott Drizhal (portrayed by Nail) as he finds himself stranded in space when his one-man mission to Mars reality show is cancelled after a mere thirty days. While poor ratings led to the faux series-within-a-webseries to bite the dust, an equally real world reality led to the demise of SOLO—money.

“I knew there was going to be some loss, but I was only looking at the success that The Guild was having,” Nail told NewTeeVee in early August. “I wasn’t paying attention to the fact that no one is really making money in this space. Naively, I though that this could get picked up somewhere like SyFy and I would make my money back, or that the audience would support it so I wouldn’t have to invest any more of my money.”

In 2010, Jonathan Nail originally constructed a novel approach to webseries creation. Instead of filming an initial first season with the funds available, he invested his resources to produce three quality episodes to both showcase SOLO to perspective investors as well as create an early buzz for the project. “We are currently looking for more sponsorship, but the hard part right now is proving return on investment,” Nail explained to Clicker at the time. “Our show is created in a way that it is a welcome opportunity for sponsors to jump in at this moment. Now that we’ve created these three episodes, anyone could become a sponsor of the show with very little money and get a lot of coverage.”

AUGUST 22, 2011 (READ MORE)

 

 

The History of Cable and the Future of Online Television

The history of cable spans fifty years and is filled with inventive entrepreneurs, a combination of government action and inaction, technological advances, lowly start-ups, megamedia giants and lots and lots of money. The World Wide Web is often seen as a foe of cable with its ability to easily transmit online video, yet the Internet’s progression draws heavily in comparison to that of cable’s own development. “History repeats itself,” or so the saying goes, and the same holds true for both the past, present and future of what is known as television—and maybe for the webseries medium as well.

In her book Television in the Multichannel Age: A Brief History of Cable Television (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008), author Megan Mullen traces the cable industry from its early days of necessity, to its slew of programming options, to the dominating distribution system of today. Modern day cable was known as “community antenna television” (CATV) back in the 1940s, and began life like most industries when a handful of entrepreneurs saw a “need” and designed a product to fill it. Television in the early days of the medium was transmitted over the airwaves with a broadcast signal. The problem was, however, that not every area of the United States was in range of such a signal. The idea thus formulated—separately and simultaneously in various parts of the country—to place a powerful enough antenna in a high enough position to catch the transmissions, then use a cable to bring that signal into a home. From there, businesses emerged as more and more people within these communities wanted to likewise check out the latest craze sweeping the nation, and were willing to pay for the service as well.

These entrepreneurs soon realized that stronger antennas also meant the opportunity of picking up even more channels. Thus what began as filling a very specific “need” soon developed into something entirely different. Residents of a particular city, for instance, may already have a television station with an adequate strength to reach its citizens without cable—but with cable, these residents could access two, three, even five additional channels that they would never be able to receive otherwise. The advent of microwave antennas only increased the number of cable options. Because of the Earth’s curvature, broadcast signals can only travel so far, but by placing a series of antennas at geographical intervals, a signal could be relayed over extensive distances.

AUGUST 15, 2011 (READ MORE)

 

ADDITIONAL ALTERNA-TV.COM ARTICLES:

Mr. Draper Goes to Wall Street AMC has not only forged a reputation for quality programming but embarked on a different path than most cable channels, including spinning off from Cablevision and forming a digital production studio (August 8, 2011).

57 Channels (And Nothin' On) Observations on how an increase in television viewing options can make quality programming hard to find, a problem that extends to the online worlds of both TV shows and webseries (June 20, 2011).

Blip.tv Expands Upon Its Winning Formula and Philosophy Examination of the online video network blip.tv and its basic philosophy, partnership with independent creators and further expansion as a destination for webseries fans (May 23, 2011).

The Quest to Be the Next New Network Exploration of Next New Networks and its acquisition by YouTube, as well as how companies like Deluxis Entertainment are positioning themselves to be online video networks (April 25, 2011).

Even in the Realm of Distribution, Content May Still Be King Just as cable channels needed original programming to distinguish themselves from the competition, the same may hold true for distribution companies like Netflix (April 11, 2011).

A Different Kind of 'Television Everywhere' Exploration of the television future advocated by Andrei Jezierski in his book Television Everywhere and how it benefits the networks, content creators and fans of the medium (March 21, 2011).

Subscription Funding for Television and the Webseries Exploration of the subscription model as a form of funding for television shows like the cult-classic Firefly as well as for webseries productions (February 28, 2011).

The Hulu Vision for the Future of Television Analysis of the online video provider Hulu, the obstacles it has faced and its potential role in the “future of television” as advocated by CEO Jason Kilar (February 14, 2011).

Television Insiders Offer Thoughts on the Cancellation Process Exploration of why the television industry relies on ratings in determining the fate of a series and how various factors play a role in a show’s success or failure (January 31, 2011).

The Promise and Potential of the Webseries Medium Observations on the potential of the webseries and how a number of quality productions showcase the promise of the medium’s future (January 24, 2011).

The Webseries and the Lost Art of TV Theme Songs While current television shows no longer have catchy theme songs like the classics of the past, a number of quality webseries have filled the void in recent years (January 3, 2011).

TV Tunes and the Soundtrack of a Generation Pittsburgh cabaret actress Christine Laitta has tapped into an entire generation with her TV Tunes Sing-a-Long showcase, a generation raised by television (December 13, 2010).

KoldCast Succeeds Where Other Companies Have Failed Examination of the online video network KoldCast TV and the role it plays within the growing webseries medium (December 6, 2010).

Webcomic Insights for Webseries Creators Webcomic creator Carolyn Belefski discusses her experiences in the medium, which relate to webseries practitioners as well those within the comics field (November 10, 2010).

The Wisdom of Comic Guru Scott McCloud and the Webseries Writer Scott McCloud’s book Reinventing Comics offers advice for practitioners of the webseries just as much as it does for those of webcomics (November 8, 2010).

The Battle for Television Viewing Supremacy With network television ratings dropping and more people canceling their cable services, Apple, Google and Netflix have now joined the online video viewing explosion (November 1, 2010).

Comcast, NBC Universal and the Question of Net Neutrality While the Comcast merger with NBC Universal will no doubt benefit NBC, Comcast’s actions could also have a negative impact on independent online video production (October 11, 2010).

The Failure of Lone Star and the Fragmentation of Television Exploration of how the failure of the FOX drama Lone Star, which was cancelled after only two episodes, is a reflection of the fragmented nature of television (October 4, 2010).

How to Tell Your Story Digitally: PodCamp Pittsburgh 5 Chris Whitlatch, manager of marketing and communications for the Pittsburgh Foundation, discusses the art of storytelling as part of PodCamp Pittsburgh 5 (September 24, 2010).

Successful Business Plans Slowly Emerge for the Webseries Despite popular belief that there is no money to be made in online video, a number of successful webseries have found ways to generate a profit nonetheless (September 17, 2010).

Cable versus the Internet is Slightly More Complicated As a multitude of high profile online companies position themselves to challenge cable’s supremacy, the upcoming battle is more complicated that it may appear (September 3, 2010).

Crackle Continues Its Commitment to the Original Webseries Article exploring Sony’s commitment to both Crackle and the webseries medium, including high profile productions that are then turned into DVD movies (September 1, 2010).

The Recent Rise of Independent Television Festivals Article examining the latest component of the television revolution, with emphasis on the Los Angeles-based ITVFest as well as the New York Television Festival (August 13, 2010).

Cable Channels + Original Programming = A Win for All The recent rise in original programming on cable channels like AMC and FX has proven to be a benefit to the channel, television creators and fans of quality television (August 4, 2010).

Abrams and Whedon Discuss the Webseries Medium J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon held a panel discussion at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con where they discussed various aspects of the industry, including online video creation (August 2, 2010).