A Four-Link Summer Reading List

Just wanted to share a few blog posts and articles that are worth a read today...

- 'Web TV is a hit. So where's the big money?' from the SF Chronicle. From the story:

Even with a YouTube partnership, contest winnings from Internet video clearinghouse Metacafe and other recognitions, [the video series] "Break a Leg" has grossed about $2,500 for two years' work.

"We're in a funny place," admitted director-producer-star Yuri Baranovsky. "I don't know how many people get how much work it is to make this."

"Break a Leg" embodies the key contradictions of the brave new world of online video entertainment. It's easier and cheaper than ever for individuals to produce their own work and put it up for global audiences - on sites like YouTube, Revver, Veoh and My Damn Channel - but it's almost impossible to make a living outside of the established TV and film industry.

- Venture capitalist David Beisel on the next phase of online video. Beisel writes:

...I believe we’re entering a second phase of the online video space in which the discovery mechanisms for (semi-)professional content, coupled with the increase of professional content available online in a distributed fashion, will facilitate a willingness of users to venture beyond YouTube to consume video across the net. But it won’t happen overnight. Especially when I hear that the dirty little secret from many independent video producers which maintain their own destination sites is that an overwhelming number of their views come via YouTube and not on their own distribution.

- Mark Cuban on 'The Way to Save Internet Video' (link it to the traditional television distribution systems, he suggests)

- Finally, the Xbox 360 game console will now deliver Netflix streaming movies (at least to the 5 million users who pay $50 a year for a "gold" membership, and also have a Netflix subscription)

Where Documentaries Collide with Games, Social Networks, and Virtual Worlds

Every summer, the Bay Area Video Coalition runs the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, which has quickly become one the world's foremost petri dishes for experimentation at the intersection of film, games, social networks, and virtual worlds.

If that's an intersection that interests you, the list of projects just accepted into this summer's workshop is well worth a look.

Here's a sample:

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE
Project Director: Paco de Onis
The ICC is the first permanent international tribunal set up to try individuals for crimes against humanity. "The Reckoning" is a documentary about the critical early years of the ICC as it issues arrest warrants in Uganda and puts two Congolese warlords on trial and shakes up the Colombian justice system. Through the Institute, the team will develop a social network, a casual game application for educational distribution, and a cell phone/text messaging tool to bring stakeholders into the network in order to increase understanding and awareness of the ICC, and generate a global discussion about international justice and the role it can play in deterring mass atrocities.

Barry Diller Gets Into Gaming ... Lloyd Kaufman Will Head IFTA

- Portfolio has an interesting Q&A with Barry Diller of InterActiveCorp. He just invested $50 million in GarageGames, which is developing graphically-rich games for the Web. A snippet:

L.G.: What have you got here? The Xbox?

B.D.: The Xbox and the PlayStation—and of course they’re incompatible with each other. And they’re whiz-bang on graphics—they’re beautiful. But on both sides of it—on the equipment side of it that you have to purchase in on, the production side where you make a game—you’re spending huge amounts of money. The Web, as is proven in so many other areas, is a pretty good distribution mechanism for programming. And very few people have done really high-graphic Web games in a system that will have—in InstantAction.com, which is a gathering place both for people who make the games and for viewers to get them—where there’s one easy-to-use, fast place to do pretty sophisticated games. So we think it’s a really original and good idea.

L.G.: Does this attract you because you know there’s a market for games and people like to do it, or is it because you yourself enjoy them?

B.D.: No. I mean, I enjoy doing it. I enjoy playing games, but I am not the audience, you know. I’m too old and I have too many other things that I do. But I shouldn’t even say that. Even if I had nothing to do I still wouldn’t be playing games hour upon hour. But, you know, if you get me started, it’s great—it’s great fun.

- I like Karina Longworth's post about Lloyd Kaufman being chosen to chair the Independent Film and Television Alliance for the next two years. (Kaufman is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment ... and has very strong opinions about indies being the ones to embrace new technology first.) Here's Kaufman's full quote from the press release:

"The independent community today faces rampant media consolidation and challenges to copyrights in the digital universe, and I will work closely with the IFTA Board of Directors, member companies and IFTA’s executives to give our fellow independents more control and opportunities in both the U.S. and abroad. New technology will continue to be our new frontier.”

“Independent film has the most creative, inspired and resourceful people working in the business. We shape future trends and inspire tomorrow’s creative talent, and IFTA will continue being at the forefront of this movement.”