Web Video Producers Talk Creativity and Corporate Sponsorship
It’s rare that a panel held at 8am can make you stay awake without the help of coffee, but the NSFW panel, held at the Time Warner building last Thursday, did just that. It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, considering all three of the panelists were in the comedy business: Streeter Seidell of College Humor, Andrew Steele of Funny or Die and Jonathan Rosen, producer of web series “Children’s Hospital” and “Wainy Days.”The panel was moderated by Cyndi Stivers, managing editor of EW.com.
Web-only television is a relatively new phenomenon; technology has only recently allowed viewers to be able to watch online video without having it be an exercise in frustration and the reality is most people would rather watch longer TV on their actual television sets and not tiny laptop screens. Traditional television producers are very hesitant to put their work online because of the difficulty in getting proper residuals paid back to them and was the reason for the Writer’s Strike in 2008.
However, the medium is here and it’s staying and by all accounts, all of the panelists appeared to be doing well. As is usual with independent media, the end goal still appears to “cross over” into the mainstream: College Humor’s MTV show was renewed for a second season and Funny or Die is in development with HBO to produce a series. Rosen was the only one who’d taken the opposite turn and said that Internet Video was a way for his shows to get made after all the networks had passed on it. He stressed on the experimental nature of Internet video, how there was more flexibility in what you could say and do. Both Steele and Rosen said it was far easier to get celebrities and well known actors to guest star in their projects since the stakes were “so low.”
Naturally, the conversation turned to how these projects make money: College Humor is based on ad revenues like most Internet companies and they do partner with sponsors like Mountain Dew. Funny or Die takes a similar approach, also partnering up with Absolut. The conflict between remaining true to their goals as creative comedians and the reality of having to make money was touched upon and all agreed that as purveyors of “NSFW” content, it was harder to find advertisers who may not want to be associated with their sites. At the end of the day, Steele mentioned that they always welcome sponsors, but the sponsors need to let them do their jobs and be funny.
Check out a snippet of the panel below, where the panelists discuss what effectively killed the original intention of both sites as being primarily user generated: YouTube.
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