Oh Good! The Amateurs are leaving!

[Mark Suszko]

Do you ever read the comments on youtube sites when they are enabled? (shudders, considers taking a Silkwood shower)

That’s the viewer base. AND some of the producers.

I wouldn’t worry too much. There will always be room for quick shaky footage of someone accidentally getting kicked in the whatever, as well as cute, serendipitous wonders and discoveries, in and among the more structured content.

[Herb Sevush]

[Ned Miller] “Hopefully the public’s idea of what is viewable will rise a bit”

I wouldn’t get too happy too soon. When Tom Hanks and the others find there is no real way to monetize their investment beyond that which will support a kid working out of his garage, they will leave Youtube quicker than they came.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Mark Suszko]

Herb, even then, they might stay, using the exposure as a “loss leader”.

I think YouTube and things like it will stay around for a long while yet. I predict Facebook will keep trying to incorporate more youtube-like functionality as part of their strategy as well, as it helps keep people welded to their platform and thus their ads.

Youtube has been a Godsend to the sector of folks doing community media, that used to only have local cable access and LPTV stations as their only media outlets. Youtube has a yin and tyang to it, in that it allows isolated individuals to find and affiliate with others who have interests like themselves, thus building new communities never before practical.

On the downside, youtube and the web in general, also create narrowly-scoped tribes or niche groups without any need or reason to try to integrate and engage with a wider public, and that’s bad for a healthy society.

Back on the good side, as for profit journalism keeps failing and getting weaker, DIY documentaries and nwes reports released to YouTube are a ray of light to the world, sometimes the only real media “on the ground” where the news is happening.

These applications greatly overshadow the use of youtube for commercial sales pitches or corporate communications today. Its a place where the low barriers to entry make almost anything possible to try, and this is a good thing. Wading thru all the Cr@p to find the pearls is the trade-off, and it’s fair.

[Bill Davis]

The war is largly over even if most people don’t realize it.

Push media is in a long, slow, inevitable decline. Pull media will replace it. Push won’t go disappear any more then radio disappeared when TV replaced it as the dominant entertainment form in the 1950s. But it will change just like radio has into something serving a segment, rather then serving the nation as a cohesive and pervasive media as it did during the Fibber McGee era.

In order to compete in the new era, content MUST be search friendly. During the recent Olympics summer games, more eyeballs pulled content from more diverse events then viewed the networks pushed content.

The day I downloaded my first season of a current TV show to watch, commercial free, on my treadmill was the tipping point for me. Now I use Netflix on my iPad and can pick and watch series as desired, cut off from the broadcast schedule.

That’s the advantage of Pull, over Push.

This reality is why YouTube, et al, have grown so fast. It’s a superior way to meet the true needs of the audience – who will always prefer the flexibility to watch precisely what they want – when and where they want.

My 2 cents.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Herb Sevush]

[Bill Davis] “The day I downloaded my first season of a current TV show to watch, commercial free, on my treadmill was the tipping point for me. Now I use Netflix on my iPad and can pick and watch series as desired, cut off from the broadcast schedule.”

Watching TV series on DVDs has been around for years. At this point in time the internet is a better, faster way to deliver product to the ancillary “broadcast” market.

Everything you download from Netflix was created for what you call the “push” market. Call me the next time, or the first time, somebody makes money producing something created directly for the “pull” market.

At some point in the future your projections will probably be true. For the moment the “pull” market is just another ancillary aftermarket for the “push” producers.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Bill Davis]

Don’t suppose you’ve ever Googled Top YouTube moneymakers – but if you did, you’d note that the top earner pulled in more than $ 300k last year in google ad revenue. The top five pulled in more than $150,000 each. And that’s in an almost completely “wild west” market with hardly any organized business structure in play. The top kid, Shane something, had had nearly half a Billion views last year.

If that same 18 to 34 demographic (actually probably 14 – 28 which is more valuable!) showed up to watch ANYTHING on NBC or CBS in a tenth those numbers of returning serial viewers, it would be on the cover of AdAge heralded as the great savior of the modern TV.

I used to own an advertising agency, so I understand audience metrics pretty well.

Pull will kick Pushes butt faster than you think. Or do you think it was an accident that shows like NBCs Revolution pilot was distributed FIRST in a web PULL mode in order to generate marketing buzz, a full week before it showed up on broadcast?

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Herb Sevush]

[Bill Davis] ” you’d note that the top earner pulled in more than $ 300k last year in google ad revenue. The top five pulled in more than $150,000 each.”

Lets put that up against what the top earners of broadcast or theatrical programming earned – that ratio is the ratio of importance between “push” and “pull.” When that ratio even begins to approach 1:1, then I’ll consider the market transformed. I do believe it will happen; I don’t believe it will happen in the next 5 years.

[Bill Davis] “I used to own an advertising agency, so I understand audience metrics pretty well. “

That might be a source of our differing viewpoints. I don’t view watching a season of Mad Men on Netflix the same way I view getting ad money for people watching a cat video, even though in a business sense they might be equivalent.

[Bill Davis] “Or do you think it was an accident that shows like NBCs Revolution pilot was distributed FIRST in a web PULL mode in order to generate marketing buzz, a full week before it showed up on broadcast?”

Yes, that’s what the internet currently is for — buzz. Call me when someone produces a pilot like that for internet distribution as the primary market.

Bill, I’m not a content producer but I have friends who are, they are very successful and bright, and when we get together and talk business everyone of them is trying to come up with ways to make internet distribution work monetarily for them, because we all can see it coming. So far no one has a clue how to make a living that way. I’m sure it will happen, I’m just as sure it won’t happen today.

15 years ago, during long on-line editing sessions I used to talk about collaborative editing over the internet, with media independent of physical proximity to either editor or client. It was obviously the future, it was going to happen, the only question was when. Well 15 years later it’s almost here, I regularly review work with editors thousands of miles away using Skype video and Adobe Anywhere is about to be released. In another few years this will be common practice. But that’s 20 years since I saw it coming down the pipe.

The future is coming, but it takes longer than you’d think, even if you can see it in your minds eye.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Herb Sevush]

[Herb Sevush] “But that’s 20 years since I saw it coming down the pipe.”

It’s also 20 years since I saw it coming down the pike, but hey, spell checkers can’t fix everything.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Walter Soyka]

[Bill Davis] “Push media is in a long, slow, inevitable decline. Pull media will replace it.”

What is the difference between push media and pull media, from the production side?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Bill Davis]

[Walter Soyka] “What is the difference between push media and pull media, from the production side?”

In the creation phase, virtually nothing other than understanding that the modern PULL consumers are largely mobile and impatient – so content times have to be as short as humanly possible.

The big change is in the last stages of post where you’re preparing for distribution. Waaaay back a few years ago that was spending an hour or so authoring and burning a DVD — or before that an LTO tape )

Today the big difference is the importance of developing keyword strategies and similar metadata additions so that when the work gets distributed, theres a strategy in place so that the on-line audience actually has a chance to find it on-line.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.