If Web Video is past its prime, what’s the next “Big Thing?”

It used to be (and not so long ago) that aspiring actors, directors, and producers had a home off (and off-off) Broadway to share their work and potentially be discovered.  And people flocked (or so the stories go) to the many small, sometimes hidden away and hard to find blackboxes to be among the first to see the next “new thing.” I recall being in a class where actor Frank Whaley fondly recounted the pre-email days when he and friend Ethan Hawke plastered the town with fliers advertising productions for their theater company, Malaparte.  In fact, more than a few now-well-known artists note in their bios how they got their start in the theater…the reason many find themselves arriving in New York to launch their careers.

New York in the 80’s and 90’s saw the growth of quite a few successful theater companies like Malaparte (Labyrinth, Naked Angels, & The Atlantic for example), which brought together up-and-coming talent (such as Whaley, Hawke, Calista Flockhart, Marisa Tomei, Sarah Jessica Parker, and William H. Macy…just to name a few) and relative “unknowns.”

In the late 90’s came the New York International Fringe Festival, advertised as “175 Shows, 11 Days, 21 Theaters, No Mercy.”  The Fringe became the place to “be seen,” especially after the musical “Urinetown” was discovered and moved on to a wildly successful Broadway run (if you never saw it, by the way, it really is a hilarious show).  Similar festivals have cropped up in recent years, such as the Summer Play Festival and the New York Musical Theatre Festival – both highly regarded for production quality and value…so much so that, while it can be an excellent (albeit competitive) springboard for new writers, is quite challenging for the actor or director without substantial credits or solid representation to find a way in.

A similar history could likely be charted through the world of independent film:  Once a way for ambitious actors, directors, writers and producers alike to make their mark, it is now an expensive and daunting venture where producers are - more often than not - compelled to pad the production with “names” in the hopes of generating a return on the investment.  The end result often meets the festival circuit, but with high competition and few distribution opportunities offered – as many independent houses disappear from the scene – the light at the end of the “discover me” tunnel is flickering at best.  (Although the possibility of new hope with Video On Demand is discussed in a May 12^th article for the LA Times).

Then – YES THEN – the “next thing” came to be:  Web content produced for the internet!  Hooray!  Brilliant!  An avenue on which to share your wares with an unlimited audience!  A way to produce work on a shoestring if need-be!  This. Is. It.

…or WAS it?

That’s right.  No sooner do we see some delightfully creative and funny (and successful) shows/shorts/scenes pop up on the old InterWeb (check out “The Guild” and “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” if you haven’t already), than the voice of gloom and doom comes to rain on our parade.   According to an article posted August 25^th on the Wall Street Journal Online, “the exuberance” over online content has “dissipated.”  The article backs up this assertion with comments from Scott Roesch general manager for Atom.com (described on their website as “an internet startup now owned by MTV Networks” and “partnered up with Comedy Central”):  “Web video is no longer at the stage where if you build it, they will come,” says Roesch.  He goes on to say that “Atom is scaling back its development budgets.”

The LA Times piece also adds (like my earlier observation on theater and independent film productions) that even web-based content is now turning to projects featuring recognizable “names,” again, surely in hopes to achieve a certain level of financial return on the venture.

This trend is understandable from the perspective of those on the financial end, especially given the current state of the economy, to play it safe.  However, for those on the creative side, this may be marking the end of one “big thing” and the search for the next.

I still believe that all hope is not lost (just yet) on the web-based content front.  While it may be true that distribution deals from internet hosting sites is headed toward a down swing (perhaps because production costs exceed ad revenue), it IS true that casting directors (independent, network & studio) and perhaps those in network development departments still have an eye on the internet for up-and-coming talent.  One former network CD confirmed that a majority of her day was spent scouring hosting sites (like YouTube, Vimeo, and Veoh) for the best of the best.  In addition, it appears that United Talent Agency (one of the top in the world of representation) is maintaining it’s presence on Veoh, where they have a Channel dedicated to the up-and-comers who wish to submit their work directly to the agency along with their own Channel celebrating their client’s work.

So, don’t put away your video recording devices just yet.  The way I see it, no one is going to discover how brilliant you are if you are simply whiling away the hours lamenting the “state of things” in your living room.  Get out there!  Shoot something!  Post it!  And in the meantime, let's keep our eyes peeled for the next “big thing.”