MTV picks up 6 new series, including Bo Burnham comedy
Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous
After graduating high school, Zach Stone, played by young comic star Bo Burnham — who dominates the social media world with over 100 million views online and was the youngest comic to perform on a Comedy Central special — opts out of college and hires a documentary film crew to help him pursue the new American Dream: becoming famous with no apparent talent whatsoever. Bo personifies the voice of today’s teen generation in an honest, irreverent and ultimately triumphant way. “Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous” produced by 3 Arts. Executive producers on the series are Bo Burnham, Dan Lagana, Luke Liacos and Dave Becky.
YouTube Releases ‘Creator Playbook,’ a Handy Guide for Building an Audience Online
YouTube has released a 70-page Creator Playbook aimed at helping video creators build their audiences online. This is exactly the kind of thing that would come in handy for actors looking to build their own careers, in addition to filmmakers. The digital download, which YouTube says will be updated regularly, looks to be an excellent resource on building an audience (not just with YouTube, but by using Facebook and Twitter as well).
No-budget indie makes 200K through iTunes. Twin filmmakers Michael and Mark Polish, whose previous credits include Twin Falls, Idaho and The Astronaut Farmer, have released their latest feature through iTunes — with zero advertising. Joining the advertising budget is the production budget itself, which officially clocked in at $0 (they didn’t count food and transportation, though even if you do, we’re still talking “no budget” filmmaking). Instead, social media — chiefly Twitter and Tumblr — have led to the film generating word of mouth online, and as a result For Lovers Only (iTunes link) has already made over $200,000. More…
Blip.tv shows make money…
Blip.tv this week redesigned their website to reflect a new desire within the company to make it much much easier to find good content. Working with the top 5% of their content creators (yes, I don’t know how they work that out either) they’ll actively curate the content, meaning you should see dramatic increases in traffic to your work. Blip.tv prides itself as the home of original web series online and the numbers are impressive. “Last year we had producers of shows making $500,000 a year on their Web series,” said Mike Hudack, chief executive and co-founder of Blip.tv. “In 2011 we expect that number to hit $1 million for some producers.” You share 50% of ad revenue with the site, a much more generous share than you could possible hope for with YouTube. “The goal of the redesign was to figure a way to help people discover new and original series on our site,” said Dina Kaplan, a co-founder of Blip.tv. “People have no idea where to go and where to find original Web video online — which can be a daunting task — and our redesign definitely solves that problem.” Itzon is another site offering revenue share, also curating good content with a slightly different bias, pitching itself as an online festival. Worth checking out.
Paramount these days tracks the social media profile of talent, because millions of Twitter followers and the like can help open a movie.
If you want to make money on YouTube your sole place to make money, you have to strike a balance between spending less and producing more. Because the more you produce the more followers you gain.
Pillow Talk With Andy Samberg by Chris Hardwick pg.146
With more than 440 million views on YouTube, Andy Samberg has become the comedy king of viral videos. Chris Hardwick talks to the funnyman about how the Internet is changing the world of comedy.
Why would I talk to a TV executive at this point, and ask them what they think?” he said. “If I have this idea for a TV show,” he noted, “I can just put it up on the Internet.
YouTube to Spend Millions on Actor-Created Content
Backstage.com
