Where New TV is At: YouTube's Next New Networks

YouTube's Investment in User Generated Content

Exciting news about YouTube's acquisition of Next New Networks and creation of YouTube Next, a team that will focus on 'supercharging content creator development on YouTube, driving deeper expertise in partner audience development, and incubating new ideas that can be shared with the broader community.'

One of Next New Networks' projects is Beyond the Trailer which is a YouTube movie review channel fronted by Grace Randolph (in the video above) because she says 'Movie Critics Can't be Trusted'. She is very funny and her channel shows what a little bit of marketing and investment can do. Apparently since signing with Next New Networks, she has developed her show and built up a strong audience (in September 2010 alone, BTT racked up 2.8 million views).

Essentially, it seems that Next New Networks is YouTube's plan to help amateurs/or online producers take it to the next level. What I find personally exciting this this invitation from Next New Networks:

So what's your specific interest? Is there a community you're a part of that lacks, wants or needs shows that only the Internet can provide? Let us know. And if you're a writer, producer, or creator who's passionate about your community, then maybe you should join Next New Creators and be a crucial part of our next new network.

What does this mean for broadcasters/production companies?
Mike Henry at Ad Age Digital writes about the impact of this acquisition and investment in YouTube talent, and sees it as a red flag to traditional producers and production companies. Henry says they need to get more serious about their Multi-Platform strategies and investment, and offers these 5 tips if the want they want to be well positioned to compete with the the going-Pro YouTube creators:

5 Useful Guidelines to Producing Online Content:

1. Start with great characters and stories
2. Consider not the just age/gender/psychographic of their audience, but where and how this audience will likely consume the content
3. Carefully develop production strategies and cycles to deliver assets that can be packaged in different ways for various platforms, audience and markets
4. Consider and explore international markets from project inception
5. Place a high value on the social networks attached to talent with whom they work

My Dream Road Trip and App to Make it Possible

I've always thought how great it would be to mash up the IMDB film location page with Google Maps. About a year ago, I researched locations to my favorite movies and created my dream road-trip via Google Maps, plus tagged where I would visit my friends  Have a look below, I have plotted to visit the backdrops for many a road-movie or seminal film for me (it's a work in progress) ranging from Into the Wild to True Romance.

                                     View Lisa US Road Trip in a larger map

The point is, I only ever used IMDB to research locations and some other random sites, then I would tag the locations on my map. It was a fairly laborious process. Then I found this site today: Filmaps. It's a Film & Tv location Wiki using Google Maps, people are posting up their own tags to filming locations. You can search by film/TV series, check out the Goonies breakdown, or Into the Wild. It is pretty amazing. The only negative thing about the site, is it still doesn't get around the problem of being able to help you map out your own personal trip or plan a schedule (it doesn't let you extract the information, all the maps are locked).

Film & TV Location Tourism on the Rise

After watching surf movie Blue Crush, I went off to Oahu's North Shore (I should really post about my surf-girl culture immersion for a month there, surreal) to explore and live in the film's beautiful setting. As Filmaps' puts it:

'Sometimes the charm of the places where the films have been filmed wakes up you adventure soul and you would like to discover even visit the exactly place where the scene is taking place'.

I think there could be a market for an online service such as this, the Telegraph writes about the surge in visits to British TV locations last year.

Iconic Sights App Idea

I want to develop an online service in which people can entirely self-plan an iconic sights trip. This service is about really personalizing it; creating one seamless visit and saves you researching and flicking between a thousand screens all the info. Here's how the App would work:

• Get given a blank map of the country or area you want to visit
• Tick the iconic/film/tv-sets/books/events/areas you like to visit by country - a plot would be worked out for you by Google Directions/Mapquest. It can go from big road-trips to a day-out in London.
• A complete road-trip is produced for you, including ideas for lodging, costs, suggested activities, movie/book/music fun facts- just basically make it an amazing foolproof schedule and very easy to book stuff.

You are just integrating google-maps+iconic sights+tourist operator service= How brilliant would that be?

Random

The one thing with funny thing with google maps earlier, is I typed in Thelma and Louise, and I found this. Look closely, yes they live on as Louise Drive and Thelma Avenue in Ohio....

                                       View Larger Map...

Power of the Convention: Comic-Con

The Red Sonja re-make - the buzz of Comic-Con 2008

Getting my Comic-Con On

I was day-dreaming earlier about being my alter-ego Red Sonja, it was treacherous, there was a Barbarian man to contend with, a killer lesbian queen to ward off and all with just a chain-mail bikini and sword to my name. Then I came back to earth and wondered; what did happen to that Red Sonja remake? Back at Comic-Con 2008, some Hollywood Studio announced they were making the film, starring Rose McGowan and directed by my guru Robert Rodriguez, and I was very excited. They released some stunning images, created a lot of talk and then there was.... nothing. I have since learned that the film has been shelved for various reasons, including copy-right infringements, finance issues and quite significantly a huge bust up between former lovers McGowan and Rodriguez.

I have always been fascinated with Comic-Con (I have now a real reason to attend, I am intent on this film being made) and how it got to be such a huge deal. New Media Strategies posts here about its rise, and the power of a fan at a present-day gathering. Back in 1970, the convention started out as a small gathering in San Diego for comic-enthusiasts, who would occasionally get to meet the creators behind their favorite stories and get a tantalizing sneak-peak at new characters and titles. Over 30 years later, it has transformed into one of the biggest events in the entertainment calendar. It's now huge multi-media showcase, promoting everything from niche anime to big Blockbusters films and Comic-Con fans wield extraordinary influence: they can pretty much commission their own content.

However reporter, Wes Taylor, is quick to point out how Comic-Con shouldn't be seen just as a celebration of fan-power, but as an adept marketing tool for content creators to 'plant their next big thing indelibly into the collective consciousness of the critical-but-rewarding geek masses'. So who's ideas are invading who? Is it Fans vs Marketers? Does it matter? No, not in my non-fiction world, I see it as a mutually beneficial love-in, in which fans get to at least have a say in what they consume, or as co-creation agency Facegroup advise about fans “let them create it and they will embrace it”. So it seems a win-win situation, well it was until I read about the Guardian in visiting in 2010, they couldn't help noticing that this idea could be back-firing, citing the recent failure of Tron.

It seems the key to making Comic-Con work for you as a producer/promoter, is controlling how much you share of your content and working hard at protecting the most vital thing: the plot. What Comic-Con really owns, is its ability to tease.There is a lot of little show and tells to get you going, which is why for me, a good poster campaign like the one for Red Sonja seems to really work in creating the right amount of fan anticipation. So much so, that it is now time to go back to my own fan- story to rescue my heroine from Barbaric Development Hell, it would make one amazing movie.