Last week Johnny Boston of Raw Digital sat down with Allen Stern of CenterNetworks for a conversation on the state of online video.
Raw Digital’s main differentiation from other production houses doing online video is its background in film and television. This is not just a guy with a HD camcorder shooting against a blue screen. This is high production values. So inevitably the conversation came around to monetization. Here’s Allen’s take:
One of the discussion points we disagreed on was around monetization. From what I gather, Johnny believes that you must be able to completely monetize (on a large scale) before beginning production of the video show. While I believe having some monetization in place, it’s also important to move forward. Though I understand that creating a video production is different than a blog or Web application.
Video costs money. Even if it’s going on YouTube.
We had an even longer conversation about advertising, and web start ups (especially videobloggers and podcasters) who think that by attracting a pile of viewers and putting up an ‘advertise with us’ page, that advertisers will come knocking down their doors. But that will have to wait for another post.
Here’s the full story.
Congrats to Johnny Boston, big cheese at client Raw Media and director of “My Name is Alan And I Paint Picture,” for two great reviews of said documentary.
The Times had this to say:
(W)hile Mr. Cowan’s story is sympathetically told, it’s ultimately a springboard for the movie’s lucid explanation of how creativity and mental illness interact within the brain. The film insists that there’s medical proof of art’s healing power — that with the right mix of medication, therapy and routines, schizophrenics with substance-abuse problems can make creativity their sole addiction.
And New York Magazine similarly raved:
Johnny Boston’s involving documentary about Alan “Streets,” a paranoid-schizophrenic artist from Britain trying to make it in New York, walks a fine line between easy sentimentality and dry, clinical analysis. But despite the obvious pathos of its subject, the film somehow manages to avoid both pitfalls, thanks mainly to its foregrounding of the artist’s imaginative and vibrant work, which often comes alive through simple animations.
My Name is Alan is currently screening in New York and will be in Los Angeles later this month. For more info, go to the web site.
Client Raw Digital just announced a deal with Hearst publication CosmoGirl! to produce an online soap opera series to debut in the Spring of 2008.
Here’s the details:
The three to four minute webisodes will air three times per week for five weeks. The soap opera series will live on cosmogirl.com and will follow best friends Jaime and Anna as they navigate through the trials and tribulations of their junior year of high school. Set in a small town in Michigan, the antithesis of The OC, the two heroines will be faced with hard times that will leave viewers questioning whether or not their perfect world will crumble before they graduate.
…
Casting for the soap opera series will take place this fall. One role will be left open for a CosmoGIRL! reader to win the chance for a part on the show. The series will launch in Spring 2008.
Link.
Considering their readership, this is a great move for CosmoGirl! and a great opportunity for Raw Digital. 20 years ago, the typical CosmoGirl! reader (well, Seventeen reader) was running home from school to watch General Hospital. Now they are watching YouTube.
[1:38 PM] He’s talking about other devices with WiFi couldn’t navigate login screens. So, it will indeed have Safari. It’s like I’m Nostradamus, or something.
Link.
Disclosure, The Mac Observer is a client.
Coming up from my vacation long enough to tell you that Thomas Mahon is featured in a special section in today’s Wall Street Journal. He’s in on page R5 of the special Small Business section.
I’m not a subscriber but if anyone is and can give me a link, it would be greatly appreciated.
