Month: July 2014

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie

Chapter 66 – Is Crowdfunding Worth It?
by Leesa Dean

This week’s entry is gonna be short. I’m actually taking a mini-vac and leaving early today, but wanted to write a bit more about crowdfunding. And just how important is it right now if you’re doing a web series.

I’m part of the camp that believes that the primary way videos should be paid for on the web, as annoying as it sometimes is post release, via advertising. If you’re lucky. Very lucky. In other words, to me, at this moment in 2014, if you’re an indie web producer, crowdsourcing is a losing exercise.

Why? Cause nearly everyone I know who’s done it recently hasn’t met their goal. And I’m pretty plugged into the web community. I know one person who did and it’s only because they had a bunch of relatives and some close friends with money contribute so it created the illusion that fans actually were contributing. In fact, after that series was released (post crowdfunding), it barely got any views. I mean barely. read article

Why Comcast isn’t worried about getting its TWC merger approved

Well whaddaya know? The business of politics turns out to be just like the business of showbiz. Here’s what happens when these two worlds collude. (You thought we were going to say “collide,” didn’t you? But that’s the sad point: They don’t collide.)

comcasticdayby Kate Cox

Comcast has been using every trick in the book to drum up approval for their pending merger with Time Warner Cable. They’re spending big on lobbyists, filling campaign coffers, relying on revolving doors, and strategically funding feel-good initiatives. But those are just icing on the cake. What really gives them confidence in their merger plan? The buddy-buddy relationship they’ve developed with regulators.

The folks over at MuckRock filed a Freedom of Information Act request and got their hands on some unsurprising but disappointing e-mails between a Comcast executive and a high-ranking Antitrust Division attorney at the Department of Justice. read article

The Imagination Institute wants you…

…Do you want it?

According to co-founder Scott Barry Kaufman, a new website called The Imagination Institute “is dedicated to making progress on the measurement, groth, and improvement of imagination across all sectors of society.”

It’s based on the assumption, with which TVWriter™ heartily agrees, that imagination is one of humanity’s most precious resources. So it follows that knowing more about what constitutes imagination and what conditions help it grow would be a great benefit to us all. read article

Peggy Bechko: Writers, are You Writing?

focus

by Peggy Bechko

No, really, are you writing the projects you want to and need to complete? Are you getting those ideas down on paper? Writing stories? Writing articles?

Or do you feel like you’re not getting any writing done despite the fact that you sit in front of a computer for hours, fingers flying? Do you feel like you’re accomplishing little to nothing, that you’re procrastinating, not getting to the writing you need to do?

Of course you’re writing. I’ll bet you’re sending emails to friends and business associates, probably texting like crazy, posting to Facebook, maybe writing promo blurbs. How much writing does all that add up to? Have you added it up? How many words did you write with all that? read article

WGA W July 2014 Calendar of Events

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