New hope for shows made for web

By Brian Stelter in The New York Times:

After a protracted drought, money is trickling back into the professional Web video industry. So-called branded entertainment deals like the one by Ikea are becoming more common, helping to nourish new programming. And venture capital firms are also paying new attention to the industry. My Damn Channel, which distributes “Easy to Assemble,” will announce a $4.4 million infusion of financing on Monday, joining companies like Blip.tv and Machinima in raising money this year.

The promise of Web video has risen and fallen over the last few years. What makes the current round of interest more compelling is the realization in the industry that Web video will not supplant television viewing anytime soon, just complement it. That partly explains why the companies have stopped labeling themselves “TV on the Internet.”

“We realized we were putting a burden on Web-original programming by trying to make it like TV,” said Lance Podell, the Next New Networks chief executive, who now calls his company a provider of “Web original programming.”

Being Victor - MTV's first web drama

By Jemima Kiss for Media Guardian:

MTV has revealed its first digital-only drama Being Victor, which has been quietly building up interest through an in-character blog and Twitter account since early July.

Following the popularity of issue-tackling reality shows like 16 and Pregnant, MTV wanted to combine a scripted drama with conversational tools, said MTV digital media director Dan Patton. The idea, he said, is to allow young people to talk about and deal with subjects in the series including sexuality, promiscuity, suicide and young carers. After three years at MTV, Patton said it is by far his favourite project and a chance to show what digital can achieve.

While I've found one writer blogging about it, I can't see any writers officially credited.

Bebo halts online drama commissioning

From Mark Sweney and Mercedes Bunz for Media Guardian:

Bebo is cutting jobs at its UK operation and freezing commissions from its web TV production arm, which has been responsible for groundbreaking shows including KateModern.

The social networking website has been forced to make cutbacks to its UK, US and Australian operations following an announcement by its parent company, AOL, that about 100 employees from across its total operation would be cut.

Girl Number 9 - online drama

An interesting experiment in online drama started this week: Girl Number 9.

Written by Dan Turner and James Moran in six short parts, it has a well-known cast including Gareth David-Lloyd, Joe Absolom and Tracy-Ann Oberman and is (I think) a completely independent production.

There's an online forum and Twitter streams for the individual characters - see bottom right of the About page.

In an interview with Simon Brew of Den Of Geek last week, James Moran explained how the Girl Number 9 came about and how he approached the writing.

Did you have to be any more ruthless with your writing given the strict time constraints of the on-screen narrative?

Extremely! We only have a few minutes to hook people, so I have to write incredibly lean, tight scenes. I always had a fairly lean writing style, but now even more so. I kept starting scenes later and later, and ending them earlier and earlier, until they were almost subliminal. We were able to let some of them breathe a bit more while shooting, but even then, it's a really fast paced, condensed type of storytelling. Which really works well for this type of thriller.

E20 - EastEnders online

From the BBC Press Office:

EastEnders is set to venture beyond the television screen as Walford takes a big step into the wider world of the web with its first online spin-off series next year.

BBC Vision Multiplatform has commissioned the EastEnders online spin-off to go live in January 2010 in the run-up to EastEnders celebrating its 25th anniversary on February 19th.

As part of the BBC's drive to develop and nurture new talent, EastEnders: E20 has been written by 13 new London writers aged between 17 and 22 who attended a summer school where they created and wrote the online drama.

US deal brings movies to YouTube

It might still be best known for showcasing unlikely talent, but Google's YouTube is increasingly looking to establish partnerships with established content providers.

Last week, as Brian Stelter and Miguel Heft report for The New York Times, YouTube signed deals with Hollywood studios including Sony, Lions Gate and MGM (the content will currently only be available in the USA).

“We think the prime-time slot of the future is very much user-programmed,” Shiva Rajaraman, a senior product manager for YouTube, told reporters in a conference call Thursday. He said users could come home to a mixture of TV shows, music videos and amateur videos.

For Wired, Chris Snyder wonders whether the deal represents a fundamental shift in strategy.

The moves signal a significant evolution for YouTube away from its beginnings as a platform for homegrown video — roots that helped catapult the site to mad popularity while also creating friction with copyright holders over thousands of unauthorized video clips submitted by the YouTube community.

The changes will not impose download or streaming fees for premium content, although Google CEO Eric Schmidt hinted at the possibility down the road in an earnings call on Thursday. ("We do expect over time to see micropayments and other forms of subscription models coming," he said.)

Rather, YouTube said it will offer new technology, dubbed Google TV Ads Online, to insert ads in the middle of video clips, rather than just at the beginning or the end. It will also allow partners for the first time to use their own video players on the site.

Josh Schwartz's new web drama

Last month Josh Schwartz, the man who created The OC, launched his latest series, Rockville CA, online. Unfortunately it goes out on thewb.com which is not available in the UK but there is a preview on YouTube (above).

In The New York Times, Schwartz spoke to Ari Karpel about the show.

Warner Brothers is hoping the duo can grab the attention of the coveted female 18-to-34 demographic in particular. The studio allowed them a creative freedom not typically given to producers at the network level.

“They said, ‘Here’s what your budget is, here’s how many episodes we’d like,’ ” Mr. Schwartz said. “I gave them a rough shape of what the show would be, and then we got to go discover it, cast who we wanted to cast and write the scripts without notes.”

The bite-size episodes presented Mr. Schwartz with a new challenge. “It’s not like you’re doing an hourlong soap where people are dying,” he said. “It’s smaller. Part of the excitement of doing it was figuring out how to tell stories in this format. It’s less incident-driven and more observational.”

The New York Times also has a round-up of some of the highest profile web series so far.