Freyburg

Mashable gets it exactly right. The Streamy Awards are an annual event meant to celebrate the best in web video, but this year they did so with a crude, juvenile ceremony, for which they soon apologized. More to the point, the entire exercise heralded web series done by B-list celebrities and wannabe types who haven’t made it into Hollywood’s inner sanctum (but surely desire to, more than anything.)

As Mashable points out, all of this entirely misses the point. Media has become democratized, with the ability to mount a compelling, great looking production within the reach of anyone with a laptop, a DSLR or higher-end camcorder, and talent. But for some reason a lot of the web video world’s supposed luminaries want nothing more than the supposed legitimacy of recognition from old media. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, and in the end it’s really a fool’s game. Why jump onto a sinking ship?

Haven’t given you an update on my professional work in a while, so here’s a sampler of what Freyburg Media has been up to:

The always-excellent Mashable has posted a list of eight companies who are leading the charge to online television. They profile everything from Hulu (not available in Canada, and despite Rogers lame attempts, we have no equivalent) to online networks like Revision3 and Next New Networks.

Personally, I think we’ll see an accelerated move towards online video and longer-form content in the next year. Of course I have a dog in this fight, but the writing is on the wall for broadcast, just like it was for print and radio.

All indications point to “maybe.” But The Beast from Cupertino recently purchased a huge data center, and the possibility of Apple moving into the streaming video space would be a perfect fit for not only their rumored tablet device but also for the TV in your living room. Everyone hates the cable companies, and if Apple could do an end run around them, they could repeat their successful reshaping of the music industry Throw in saving print through the tablet and the ability for anyone to broadcast from anywhere and you’ve got a media revolution. Maybe.

A number of big Hollywood stars have released big Hollywood films this summer which have taken big Hollywood nosedives. This downturn in the drawing power of many A-List stars is starting to worry the movie studios, and as usual they’re blaming technology. Apparently the fact that someone can text, Twitter or email their friends and give a film a scathing review in real time is a bad thing. Of course, as Gawker points out, if the movies themselves were any good this wouldn’t be a problem. I just saw District 9 on the weekend and (like everyone else) who saw it, I’ve raved up and down about the action, effects, and great story. And there’s not a star to be found in that film (which was shot for $35 million, and delivers every cent.)

Then there’s the fact that the old saw about people “escaping through movies during tough times” just doesn’t hold water anymore. That may have been true in the Thirties or even the Seventies, when the alternatives were few and far between, but nowadays people can either play video games, watch Youtube, or find any other number of free alternatives on the internet. Sure, they may not be quite as shiny as Hollywood product, but they also don’t take away $15 from your wallet and steal two hours of your life away.

It looks like web video series are finally hitting the big time, but not in the way the movie studios expected. Though TV networks and film conglomerates continue to try to appeal to an online audience, they do so with the same tired, lowest common denominator formulas that work n mass media, and the end result is pap like Quarterlife.

Enter The Guild. Created by Felicia Day, the web series chronicles the misadventures of a group of gamers involved in an MMO, or rather it milks the comic potential of what goes on beyond the game. The series has already been picked up by Xbox Live, and now a music video for the upcoming third series (which will also star geek hero Wil Wheaton) has hit over 1 million views, in addition to being the #1 tune on Amazon and iTunes.

How did this happen? Only a few years ago, this kind of traction just wouldn’t have been possible, but thanks to the internet, a small production company can target a sizable niche and actually do much better than studio product that targets everyone and pleases no-one. Plus the Guild just feels genuine, interacting with its audience about something they enjoy, rather than talking down to them and getting everything wrong.

Andrew Warner runs Mixergy, a show consisting of Skype interviews with entrepreneurs building startups that are changing the way people do business. His latest show features Leo Laporte, who worked for Tech TV for years before being laid off. Rather than take that lying down, Leo moved right into podcasting and in a few short years has built up something of a new media empire starting with This Week In Tech, also known as TWIT. In this episode of Mixergy, Leo explains how he delivers well-produced niche content at a lower price than the networks are capable of, and what other new media producers can do to emulate his success.

Full disclosure: I worked with Leo on-air and behind the scenes last year on “The Lab with Leo Laporte,” and still maintain occasional contact with him. I also met and had a great conversation (and a few beers) with Dane Golden, Leo’s right-hand-man at TWIT, at Macworld 2008. But before any of that happened, Leo’s move into podcasting made me think that it was possible for myself and fellow nerd @legopolis (and later, @dubbayoo) to start Radio Free Skaro, my own podcast devoted to all things Doctor Who, as well as concentrate on web video as the dominant growth area for my own company, Freyburg Media.

Lego + Wu-Tang = AWESOME!

I’ve been digging around Current.com, partly to see if there’s any way I can make a buck or two for Freyburg Media, and partly because there’s some really good content on the site. Here’s a story about how Argentines have coped with their recession (something we’ll have to start doing soon)…

and here’s another report from Angola about China’s rising influence in the region.

DJs Techtard and Malificent join Jonny Vancouver to talk about Galaxion, a celebration of games, booze and 80’s tunes.