Posted by Steve Woolf

We're really proud to be able to say that EPIC-FU is nominated for a 2008 Webby Award in the Variety category of Film & Video! It's really exciting because we won the People's Voice Webby Award in 2007 for JETSET, which would eventually evolve into EPIC-FU.

Zadi, Rick, and I have all worked very hard to make a show that strives to be consistently creative and entertaining, as well as a resource of information and a tastemaker for our audience. We have some very tough competition this year, including our friend Alex Albrecht's show The Totally Rad Show, along with Tom Green, The NY Times, and our friends at Good Magazine.

If you watch the show and you like EPIC-FU, please take a couple of minutes to vote for us for the People's Voice award. If you're registered and logged in, you can click this link to go directly to the form. Otherwise you can find us by going to pv.webbyawards.com and going to Film & Video and voting in the Variety category. Thanks!

And a special thanks to Rick Rey, our erstwhile associate producer who gets very little of the credit for his work on the show, but has a lot to do with its content and creativity. Rock on, Rick!

Posted by Steve Woolf

A couple of weeks ago an EPIC-FU episode was featured on the home page of YouTube thanks to the generous selection of their editors. We expected to get a nice amount of views, but we never expected the episode to move past 3 million views when all was said and done. In fact, the episode is still compiling about 10-20,000 views per day as of the time of this writing.

We're obviously very happy that the show is resonating with the largest community of web video aficionados on the Internet. It's gives us a great sense of validation to know that we created a weekly show that can generate those kinds of numbers. Not easy to do these days.

What was especially interesting to us was to watch this video run away from all the other videos that were featured on YouTube at the same time as us. No other video crossed the million mark during the week we were featured. I spent quite a lot of time thinking about why that happened to try and understand the dynamics that affect viewership on popular video hosting sites.

For one thing, we've been producing regular content for a year and a half with JETSET and now EPIC-FU. So to some extent we can call the built-in audience a factor in the video's explosive views. But we didn't have a significantly greater number of YouTube subscribers than many other shows that have been featured and did not experience such a high number of views.

Another possible factor is that we always place a frame strategically in the exact middle of the upload so that when YouTube generates its preview thumbnail, prospective viewers are given a sense of the tone and personality of the show when reviewing the myriad choices for them to watch. However this image is quite small, and some videos that typically experience large view numbers have scantily clad women or mainstream celebrities as their preview image. Our preview image of this video is shown at left.

Then there's the title of the video: taking no sh1t, internet love song, writer's guild. A very typical title for us since we cover so much ground in each episode. It's somewhat provocative, but is definitely less so than many other videos.

Finally we come to the content of the video. We touched on a number of politically charged stories that engendered a great deal of discussion in the comments under the video. In particular we said some things about the Writer's Guild of America strike that is currently taking place. These statements seemed to provoke a really strong reaction from many viewers on both sides of the issue. Given the timing of the strike and the topical nature of the commentary in our video, this seems to be a strong factor in people watching the video and then passing it along to their friends to see, which is the really important factor in generating huge view numbers.

So without getting more scientific about it, it seems like we had a combination of factors that led to the breakout number of views. Good title, solid preview image, passionate existing fanbase, and provocative content. This is the kind of formula we strive to have in every show so that when the opportunity comes along to be promoted on a place like the YouTube home page, we are able to take maximum advantage of that exposure.

Are there any other major factors that I've missed? Why do you think this video has 4X the number of views of any other EPIC-FU video on YouTube?

Posted by Steve Woolf

I don't want to turn this blog into solely Smashface media mentions, we've just had a few more than usual lately. This was a really nice cover story in L.A. Weekly about our friends at UTA. Zadi and I are mentioned a couple of times in the piece when Gendy Alimurung came by to be present for the live show (then JETSET) we did back at the end of July.

It's a nice inside look into a typical week in the life of these guys, who are all trying to figure out the online video landscape with the rest of us. Agents typically get a bad rap, but Barrett Garese (the "nerd" in the article, on the right of the picture below) has been our main representative for the past year and he's been a good friend and contributed a lot of creative thinking to Smashface.

A lot of other content creators ask us about our experience with an agency like UTA, and this is a good view of what things are like. The notable exception is the out-of-context quote from Ryan Reber, who is *not* always schmoozing someone.

Congrats on the awesome article, guys!

Posted by Steve Woolf

In yesterday's Techcrunch article about Miro's new media player Zadi made a quick cameo. Ha.

The good people at Miro have worked really hard to develop their completely open source media player, and they are positioning themselves to take on Joost. They've created a great product, and we're fortunate that EPIC-FU (and JETSET earlier) have been default subscriptions for new installations for a long time. Thanks guys, and congrats on the new player!

Posted by Steve Woolf

Our friend Sunny Gault and her team from Viral caught up with Zadi at the Streaming Media West conference this past week. They sat down and talked about how the show evolved from "Jet Set Show" to EPIC-FU.

You can check out more videos from Viral on their network channel on Veoh, or on their blog site. Thanks, Sunny and team!

Posted by Steve Woolf

If you're in L.A. and into the entertainment industry, there's a panel that Zadi and I are on tomorrow at the Producer's Guild. Downside is it's $50 f you're not a PGA member ($20 with student ID), but it's a nice lineup of presenters and panelists.

Note: I reposted this entry at my personal blog.

PGA SEMINAR - "PREPARING FOR THE INFINITE CHANNEL UNIVERSE"

DATE: November 10th
TIME: 10:00am to 4:00pm
LOCATION: CBS Radford Studios (4024 Radford Ave. Studio City, CA 91604)

PGA Members: No Charge
Non-Members: $50
Students w/ valid ID: $20

CONFIRMED PRESENTERS INCLUDE:
YouTube.com - Head of Product Marketing Jamie Byrne
Break.com - CEO Keith Richman
Broadcaster.com - CEO Martin Wade & VP of Marketing Robert Gould
Revver.com - VP of Marketing Angela Wilson Gyetvan
Metacafe.com - Founder Eyal Hertzog
Veoh.com - Founder Dmitry Shapiro
Zattoo.com - VP of Business Development Gagan Palrecha and VP of Content Ian Greenblatt
Brightcove.com - Director of Product Marketing Sanjay Desai

1ST PANEL: CASE-STUDIES FROM CONTENT-CREATORS
- Dan Harmon, creator of Channel101.com and Comedy Central's "The Sarah Silverman Program"
- Matt Price co-creator of Comedy Central's Guacamole.
- Douglas Sarine and Kent Nichols of Beatbox Giant Productions "Ask a Ninja"
- Steve Woolf and Zadi Diaz of Smashface Productions "Epic-FU.com"

2ND PANEL: DEALMAKING & THE FUTURE OF DISTRIBUTION
- Lydia Antonini: Director of Development at Warner Premiere
- Kevin Tidwell: Columnist/Blogger Allthings.tv
- Gary Bryman: VP Creative - Short Form Content The Walt Disney Studios
- Bruce Smith: Owner of Omnipop Management

SEMINAR PRODUCER & MODERATOR: Dan Abrams, Executive Producer at BodogTV and Writer/Director/Creator of the "Bif Naked Bride" webisode series.

RSVP: kyle [AT] producersguild [DOT] org

SCHEDULE:
9:00am - Coffee & Bagels / Networking
10:00am - 8 Companies' Presentations
12:30pm - Lunch / Networking (attendees may submit their written questions to our "question jar" for vetting)
1:30pm - 1st Panel : Case-studies from Content-Creators
2:30pm - 2nd Panel : Dealmaking & the Future of Distribution
3:30pm - Selected Q&A for panelists & presenters
4:00pm - Event ends / Networking

Posted by Steve Woolf

As some of you may know already, earlier today we launched a new website and rebranded our relatively successful web show JETSET into EPIC-FU. So far the response has been very strong in support of the new name and feel. There is also criticism and confusion, which is understandable. Name changes are a big deal and people get comfortable with things.

In the run-up to the name change, the one thing we did not have time to properly consider was a communications plans to make our motivations clear. After all, there's really only the three of us doing all the production work, editing, and website design and development for JETSET and other projects. We've had some great support from Next New Networks helping us with the show's myriad distribution points. But the thought behind the name change needs to come directly from the show creators, myself and Zadi. We couldn't ask our partners to explain our decisions for us.

JETSET began as "The Jet Set Show" in June 2006. At that time the show was for a much younger audience, and the name was chosen specifically to sound friendly and snappy. Over the months we found that our sensibilities were suited for an older audience and we shifted the show's creative direction to suit. Things move awfully fast on the web. By September 2006 we were building an audience of teens. By December 2006 we were building an audience of college-aged people. The Jet Set Show had become JETSET -- we were looking for ways to make the surrounding look and feel grow up with our audience.

The past few weeks JETSET has seen phenomenal growth. In September we had over a million total views for the show. In October we did a million views for a single week. So, you might ask, what's the problem?

Intellectual property is the problem. We have big, big plans for the show, and the term "jet set" is everywhere.

Creatively we also had a strong concern that the name JETSET no longer served any descriptive purpose in defining the show. To borrow a phrase from the great Rodney Dangerfield, if I had a nickel for every time we were asked if JETSET was a travel show, I'd have a shitload of nickels.

We always described our show as the new pop culture. What we meant by that was the strictest definition of the new POPULAR culture. Fred Seibert summed it up perfectly when we were in New York -- for most people over 25, MTV defined popular culture through music. For the people growing up now, the Internet is the defining cultural engine. Our show was always about exploring that culture and talking about all the people who were empowered by a new kind of media. That is the new popular culture as we see it. And that is an Epic Fuck You to the establishment in all the best and most meaningful ways.

Logistically a name and brand change is a huge pain in the ass. But the longer you wait the worse it gets. We've waited too long as it is. Even though JETSET has a following in the online video world, it's still in the very infancy of its development. One of our goals as a company is to take our shows across all forms of media, new and old. As we embark on that process, all of us content creators have to make sure we fully own everything we create so that we never have any baggage to lug along when great opportunities come knocking.

With those thoughts in mind we want to get as much feedback as possible about the branding change, so please keep sending us emails, Twitters, Facebook messages, Myspace messages, SMS's, everything!

Posted by Rick Rey

Without having all the stats in front of me, I would venture to say last week's JETSET was the most watched episode ever. As of right now it has over 630,000 views on YouTube alone -- just one of our distribution outlets. Those are crazy numbers for a weekly web show. But this post isn't about tooting our own horn. It's about consistency in the online video space.

For most web shows, including JETSET, viewership varies from episode to episode. Sometimes you have a great week (like we just did), and sometimes you have an off week numbers-wise. Because consistency is so important when it comes to stats -- especially in an emerging arena like online video -- I think it's important to decrease variance as much as possible. And by that what I really mean is decrease the number of "off weeks," because a steady increase (or explosion, even) in views is never a bad thing -- as long as you can keep doing it week after week.

I thought it might be interesting to start a series of blog posts on the factors that influence variance in online video stats. I'm hoping a few of you will chime in with your own thoughts and experiences, and perhaps together we can get a better grip on the part of this industry we think we have least control over.

Let's start with a factor that many content creators are focused on, but at the end of the day doesn't play a huge role when it comes to variance: Subscribers.

Subscribers are our bread and butter. They are the people who commit themselves to watching you on a regular basis. It's your base audience and certainly your most important. However, your subscriber base doesn't have a huge effect on your show-to-show variance -- and for the most part, you can reasonably predict what percentage of your views will come from your subscribers.

Think of it this way. If you screw up and have the worst episode of your career, are you going to suddenly lose a huge number of subscribers? Unlikely. Hopefully you've already won them over, and in my experience the web audience is relatively forgiving (except when it comes to YouTube comments).

And likewise, if you go above and beyond and create a ridiculously amazing episode, can you expect to double or triple your subscriber base? Again, unlikely. As many of us know, getting new subscribers ain't easy. The truth is, as sad as it may be, not that many people are subscribing to web shows when compared to the total number of people watching them. Steve has been talking about this phenomenon lately, too. I can tell you from personal experience I rarely keep up with my subscriptions in iTunes. The majority of video I watch online is browser-based.

This isn't to say RSS is useless, or we shouldn't be concerned about our subscribers. Rather what I'm saying is, there's a huge number of people out there you can reach through a multitude of contexts. You may never get them to subscribe, but that doesn't mean you can't get them to come back every week. And that's really the key to all of this -- penetrating the non-subscribers week after week.

I look forward to continuing this discussion in future posts. Please chime in with your thoughts.

Posted by Zadi Diaz

JETSET and Smashface Productions were recently mentioned in a Guardian article written by our friend and online producer Casey McKinnon. The title reads "Will Hollywood kill the web-only stars?" I wanted to thank Casey for the highlight and to write about my thoughts on the topic.

In the article Casey asks if Hollywood is creating a "new" media if they bring television to the internet. Here are my thoughts on the topic at hand, and what I think Hollywood should be thinking about:

Television is not the Internet
Just like theatre wasn't radio, radio wasn't film, film wasn't television, the television is not the internet. We all watch films on our television, but it's an inherently different experience than watching it on the big screen. The same goes for the internet. Thinking about the audience experience will dictate whether or not you're utilizing the medium to its fullest capacity. A three-camera shoot is par for the course on TV, on the internet it's definitely NOT going to knock my socks off.

Innovate
Are you using the web to dump stuff that didn't work on television? I say dump away, that's the beauty of the web, you can upload and distribute ANYTHING. Just don't expect it to work, and don't expect me to watch it. What are the tools that you're using to push the boundaries? At Smashface we get excited about new ideas and possibilities. If you want to add more same-ness to the mix, well I guess you're a C student. There are a lot of those. Go sit in the back.

Listen...
...people are talking to you! This is not a one way street. I repeat - this is NOT a one way street. This is the internet superhighway baby. There are pit-stops, communities, and dirty whores around the bend. You can not make a great show unless you take off the blinders and look at what's happening around you. I mean, really look and listen.

Know who you're talking to
If you knocked on my door and tried to sell me encyclopedias, I would laugh in your face before I slammed the door shut. Maybe I would also spit in your face (depends). And you expect me to not laugh in your face when you tell me I can't watch what I want to watch where I want to watch it? There are no boundaries online, the state and country lines are blurred. You are talking to a global audience. Yeah -- it's that big. And you are also talking to people who have options. TONS of them.

Find your crew
On the first day of school do you: A. wear brand new clothes, say cool things and hang close to the "cool" people? B. Stand in the corner scorning all the posers? C. Think about your classes and how excited you are to be taking super-calculustic-expialidoicious regents level? D. Wake up wondering if today was supposed to be the first day of class?

Pick one. On the web, for every multiple choice, there is a multiple answer. The niche. In spanish there is a saying "para cada gusto existen los colores" (Or something like that. My spanish proverb recollection is bad these days.) Basically - for each taste, there's a color. Pick a color. There's a whole rainbow. Just don't mix them all together, it ends up looking like shit.

Experiment
Please, please don't tell me that a thirty second pre-roll advertisement is a good idea. I don't want to hear it anymore. We're talking micro shows. The average web show is what, 5 minutes? It should all be relative... and it should all make sense. We're still fighting a battle where advertiser and producer can live in beautiful harmony. I believe it can happen.

It's still personal
On the small screen you're still talking/showing/communicating with one other person on the other side of that screen. At most, they call a friend or two over to take a look at what they're watching. Usually, they'll just send a link. Please keep that in mind when you're creating, selling ads, or just talking. Don't talk to me like I'm a four year old. Don't try to sell me the most popular shade of lipstick. It's really not the lowest common denominator. You're talking to me.

It's all media
Yes. It is. And all media is a changing landscape. It's also a sort of spiral. We take things from old media and apply it to new media. Some of it works, some of it kinda works, and some of it definitely does not work. It's a constant battle trying to define a landscape when all you have is a machete in your hand a map of the old world. But hey, machetes are freaking cool. And there's nothing like the feeling of hacking down a couple of old leaves and sitting down with a cold beer to enjoy the sunrise (not that I advocate drinking in the morning). This will be one hell of hell of a journey -- that is one thing that's as certain as the sun is rising.

Posted by Steve Woolf

Many moons ago, I wrote a blog post on my personal blog site about how comments do not equate to a community. I had a lot of gripes with the lack of accountability in regular comments, the linear and inflexible nature of the tools available for commenting, and the general one-dimensionality of the experience.

For the longest time Zadi and I were watching the open source projects and commercial sites offering web community tools in the hopes that we could roll out a social component for JETSET. Drupal was the leader and the obvious choice, but quite frankly it lacked attractive templating options. It is also pretty far from a turnkey tool, or at least it was when we were reviewing packages.

Then we found Ning. We were immediately impressed by how easy it was to set up a social network site, customize it, and be up and running. In two days in May, over ten total hours, we built the MIX site that still looks the same today. Our hardcore fans could immediately begin uploading photos and videos, talk in threaded forums, customize their own profile pages, connect over common interests, interact with us about show topics and ideas, and so much more. Just like that, we had a real community.

Ning is always updating their product, but there are a number of tools that are definitely lacking. The inability to make top users low-level admins to help moderate the site is one thing that stands out. And without getting into the source code, it's difficult to change the layout to add things like a leaderboard banner ad across the top of the page.

But on the whole the tools are stellar. Wait til you see what we roll out in a couple of weeks with the JETSET relaunch. Total Ning API and feed integration into the main jetsetshow.com site with AJAX calls to make it fully dynamic. I can't wait to get that puppy up and running!

We're also glad that we were able to help introduce a number of online web shows to Ning!