Category: Peer Production

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

Relax, Peer Producers, the Robots will Finish Your Film for You

There are two ways to look at the news in the following article.

Either it’s a case of, “Wow, all our video-creating prayers have been answered!”

Or… read article

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie

promotionChapter 64 – Promotion Revisited
by Leesa Dean

Last week, there was an article in The Wrap that said more Game of Thrones fans watch fan-generated videos on YouTube than official GoT content. In fact, less than 11% of GoT videos viewed are from the show’s official channel. And the thing I thought was: Instant free promo! Wow. If you’re lucky enough to have that happen.

One of the hardest parts of releasing a web series is promoting it. When I first launched, I stupidly and literally thought, ok, I’ll release this video, go to sleep and wake up in the morning to millions of views and internet fame.

Wrong. read article

Peer Production: SPOOKED Episode 3

Crate & Barrel – sorry, we mean Geek & Sundry – are really rolling on this web series, turning out the episodes so quickly that even the Flashes at TVWriter™ can’t keep up. But we really want you to enjoy Episode 3…which may or may not put us in the position of being all caught up.

What the hey – we’d always heard that Felicia Day was a fast chick, but this is superhuman video making!

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie

 Chapter 63 – Rollo Returns/MCNs
by Leesa Dean

Another super busy week with meetings, writing, editing or, as showrunner/creator extraordinaire Shonda Rhimes would say, “doing.” Feels great to be in the midst of all of this with little time for much else.

And right in the middle of it all, Rollo called.

For those who’ve just started following this blog, Rollo is a guy who contacted me right after I launched. A former senior level exec, he’s been out of work (mostly) for a number of years and trying to figure out a smart direction. He wanted to be attached to Chilltown, be involved in the web game and I ultimately decided to move on. We’ve (more or less) remained friends. His stories of late 90?s/early 2000?s excess, if nothing else, are fun to hear. We agreed to meet at my new favorite ramen place in Hell’s Kitchen for beers and soup. read article