The Pattern of New Content
Posted on July 24, 2006
Filed Under Channels and Content |
If you sidestep the hype and the unbelievable mega numbers (the 30 billion MySpace hits last month) there are signs of the web being used for what five years ago we might have guessed would be its purpose, sidestepping the Hollywood studios and the TV channel commissioning editors.
The examples I’m thinking of - The Strand, mediastorm, mixcast, are not yet setting the world on fire but let’s consider. There is some serious talent behind these intiatives.
The Strand is Dan Myrick’s by-pass Hollywood vehicle. In a recent interview he told me for artistic and commercial reasons he is pursuing the web as a viable distribution model, one that puts him in direct contact with audiences. Myrick is one half of the team that produced The Blair Witch Project, soa guy who knows about innovation and the web.
The Strand didn’t fire first time round but Myrick is going back into production soon and he’s ramping up the Internet viral effect. Strand now has MySpace home page and there are other plans in the pipeline. The real positive about The Strand’s under-performance is Myrick is not giving up - more will be produced and more effort will go into creating a buzz.
The Strand is not an interactive or co-created product and nor are those on Miscast or Mediastorm. These are productions that, if anything, show more respect to tradition and traditional production values than anything on the TV or in movies today.
Mixcast are screening an underground movie about homelessness, highlighting people who’ve made the choice to be homeless. Brian Storm has a film about Chernobyl.
Would these be typical long tail, niche projects? My guess is if broadcasters had the courage still to be funding and showing these types of films then they would be mainstream.
In effect what’s currently hapenning is that the broadcasters are becoming niche, having post sight of what audiences need, having lost sight of how radical audiences are, having started to run they keep on going.
Are there lessons here for other areas of the IT/Media village? SMS.ac, a mobile content distributor that courted controversy by issuing cease and desist orders to bloggers and for allegedly dubious marketing practices recently announced a charter for mobile users. It sets out rules for transparency in charging.
SMS.ac no doubt false-started first time round but they’ve been winning some kudos for trying to put things right. Old fashioned values again.
There’s plenty of it going on and I don’t think we can ignore the fact that whatever technology does to facilitate communications, in the end the purpose is to convey values.
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