...at least according to the himself incredibly talented Glasgow Phillips, whose terrific book The Royal Nonesuch I recommended a few days ago.
If you don't believe me check out his post Thomas Rigler is Clearly a Genius on The Royal Nonesuch blog, a destination well worth a visit.
Also check out this vintage edition of Backdoor Hollywood featuring Phillips as the host of a tiki-themed movie review show.
In a novel approach to both online advertising and original content distribution, Google announced a new project with Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the animated series Family Guy. The web-only series entitled Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy will be distributed exclusively through Google AdSense.
An article by Brooks Barnes in the New York Times today outlines the innovative plan:
Google will syndicate the program using its AdSense advertising system to thousands of Web sites that are predetermined to be gathering spots for Mr. MacFarlane’s target audience, typically young men. Instead of placing a static ad on a Web page, Google will place a “Cavalcade” video clip.
Almost too subversive to be true: This could be a very effective way to get original content seen and monetize at the same time. Google calls the new service Google Content Network.
Advertising will be incorporated into the clips in varying ways. In some cases, there will be “preroll” ads, which ask viewers to sit through a TV-style commercial before getting to the video. Some advertisers may opt for a banner to be placed at the bottom of the video clip or a simple “brought to you by” note at the beginning.
Creator Seth MacFarlane receives a percentage of the ad revenue as part of his deal.
But the partnership with Mr. MacFarlane represents a bold step into the distribution business, one that, if successful, will surely send shock waves through the entertainment business. “Cavalcade” is not only from a high-profile Hollywood talent, but also carries a multimillion-dollar production price tag, by far the largest amount spent on original Internet content to date.
Mike Shields in Mediaweek reports about the first bona-fide hit on Sony's fledgling broadband network "Crackle". Apparently The Jace Hall Show racked up 500,000 plus viewers within only a few days since its launch in June.
"The new series, the latest in a string of originals which have either launched or are scheduled to premiere on the fledgling Crackle.com, appears to be right in most young tech savvy males’ wheelhouse.
Uber-producer Hall, who’s worked on projects ranging from the third Harry Potter film to World of Warcraft, uses the talk forum to indulge viewers’ love of entertainment, particularly gaming, while also showcasing Jackass-like high jinks such as indoor skydiving.
Hall also features celebrity interviews with the likes of That ‘70s show veteran Wilmer Valderrama and Chuck star Zachary Levi."
Here a clip from the very well produced segment co-starring Zach Levi.
From Crackle:
For his second book Shining City, novelist Seth Greenland took matters into his own hands: In a video produced for his website and YouTube, the author takes us on a hilarious guided tour through a shiny version of the City of Angels.
At the same time comment on creating entertainment for the ADD generation and holding on to the slow pacing and beauty of the written word, Greenland's author video gets straight to the point: Patterned after intros like masterpiece theater, the author introduces his video lamenting the losing battle of words vs. imagery, only to reveal he's doing all of it comfortably sitting down in his underwear.
Can it get any better?
Ron Hogan has written extensively in Galley Cat about the fairly new and very effective tools book trailers offer both authors and publishing houses alike. The LA Times Book Review also caught up with the trend and dedicated a feature called Straight to Video in a recent edition.
I've been guilty of producing for the genre myself, we just uploaded our third satirical campaign spot for Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. This one is all about "Jane '08:Truth".
Another example of how YouTube owns this election: On their YouChoose '08 initiative comedy gems and informative bits and pieces from voters like you and me co-exist in harmony with complete archives of campaign spots from the various camps. Refreshing.
The maverick comedy team of Public Service Administration recently added a particularly delightful episode: "He said it first" spoofs a breaking news story about presidential candidate John McCain from the pov of the newsroom. Here's the bleeped version just in case.
During peak times, 5% of Internet users are hogging 50% of the bandwidth?
How to reply if you're a service provider? Metering? Open access? Tiered plans?
Mark Cuban already cast his vote and kicked of a thunderstorm: Why Tiered Broadband is a Wonderful Thing and ASIVS.
'Leave and take your bit torrent client with you.'
While cable giants like Comcats and Time Warner and telecoms like AT&T are figuring out how to add valves to their pipelines to reign in some of their hard-core users, industry mags like Mediapost's Blogs have long been engaging in the debate.
Now the New York Times is weighing in with a clarifying survey from Brian Stelter.
His article from June 15 compares the potential of 'Internet metering' to the industry's clumsy business models from the early days:
'The Time Warner plan has the potential to bring Internet use full circle, back to the days when pay-as-you-go pricing held back the Web’s popularity. In the early days of dial-up access, America Online and other providers offered tiered pricing, in part because audio and video were barely viable online. Consumers feared going over their allotted time and bristled at the idea that access to cyberspace was billed by the hour.'
Stelter compares some of the plans in discussion and the perspective is grim: Bandwidth allotments appear to favor the very casual Internet user simply sending e-mail and reading the news.
Streaming an hour of video on Hulu, which shows programs like “Saturday Night Live,” “Family Guy” and “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” consumes about 200 megabytes, or one-fifth of a gigabyte. A higher-quality hour of the same content bought through Apple’s iTunes store can use about 500 megabytes, or half a gigabyte.
A high-definition episode of “Survivor” on CBS.com can use up to a gigabyte, and a DVD-quality movie through Netflix’s new online service can eat up about five gigabytes. One Netflix download alone, in fact, could bring a user to the limit on the cheapest plan in Time Warner’s trial in Beaumont.
What this could mean to our fledgling rich media loving industry is pretty obvious:
“We hate it,” said a senior executive at a major media company, who requested anonymity because his company, like all broadcasters, must play nice with the same cable operators that are imposing the limits. Now that some television shows are viewed millions of times online, the executive said, any impediment would hurt the advertising model for online video streaming.
Pretty incredible stuff from Lisa Donovan aka Lisa Nova. Part-time cast member on MadTV, the comedienne and genuine YouTube star has posted a series of two episodes of her her new character Twitter Whore. The intro and Lisa's high-pitched voice acrobatics alone are worth the price of the admission.
The character is addicted to her blackberry like there's no tomorrow, and only twittering away 24/7 offers temporary relief. Or not...
Just some stats: 2 days after posting, Twitter Whore has managed to rack up 200,000 plus views, 1,600 ratings and 1,200 plus comments. Does she know how to engage an audience or what?
Here she is in Twitter Whore episode 2.
Amazon and the Tribeca Film Institute are launching reframe, a nicely categorized site with downloads of rare films, including documentaries and indie pictures, as well as eclectic and barely available work from Sally Potter, Alain Resnais and Marguerite Duras.
Downloads through Amazon's Unbox into your PC or Tivo vary from 12.99 for Alain Resnais' Night and Fog to 26.99 for Hubert Sauper's Darwin's Nightmare.
Gregg Goldstein reports in the Hollywood Reporter:
Tribeca, Amazon to digitize rare films. Launching with 500 titles; 1,500 more within a few months.
"The Tribeca Film Institute is partnering with Amazon to launch Reframe, a Web site for rare film and video owners to digitally convert and sell their titles.
Launching Monday at ReframeCollection.org, the site will provide free digital copies of video and "at-cost" conversion of films to content owners, then rent or sell the digital download or DVD versions on a nonexclusive basis. Reframe will use Amazon's DVD on Demand service for physical copies and its Unbox service for digital downloads to rent or sell.
TFI CEO Brian Newman said the site will launch with 500 titles, and about 1,500 will be digitized within the next few months. Reframe's goal is to host 10,000 titles within the next year. Experimental works from such filmmakers as Sally Potter and Ken Jacobs, archival footage and other rare materials will be available via the site's search engine.
Major funding for the venture was provided by the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation."
My friend Erin Gates produced this hilarious movie directed by Jody Hill and starring Danny McBride as Fred Simmons, the King of the Taek Won Do Demo (?!).
It's being endorsed by the pantheon of American comedy: Will Ferrel (whose company helped distribute it), Ben Stiller, Seth Rogen... Go see!!
They created some terrific virals for FunnyorDie, also co-founded by Will Ferrel.
Need to say more?
Jane '08 trailer # 1 of our fake campaign ad series has been quite successfully stomping in support of 'Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict'. The viral clip has been picked up by bloggers everywhere and already reached more than 1000 views on YouTube and close to that number on Zannel.
We decided it was time to send installment # 2,'Jane '08: Leadership' into the running.
Decide for yourself.
Talking about campaigns:
Nice "Exercise your Emmy Rights" campaign-themed spread from Universal in the current Emmy Magazine by the way: Every Universal show in the running received the presidential campaign treatment.
My favorites:
'Support Our 'Heroes,' 'Baldwyn * Fey - All the Way,' 'Get a Clue / Vote SVU' and 'D'Onofrio * Noth tough on crime'.
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