Well the gloves are off with each and every blog, site and column vying for the position of the most novel/innovative/incisive prediction for 2009.

This is difficult with any industry but the dynamic and ever changing nature of digital marketing makes it difficult to predict what will happen next week, let alone in several months time. It’s not just about predicting what will happen and what new things may appear its more about what will become highly relevant to people inside and outside of the industry. The shifting paradigm is from companies testing the water with certain areas (social networking), to them actually implementing results driven socnet campaigns with analytics and profitable ROI’s.

Anyhoo, it seems that lists are the standard format for predictions so here we are:

1) Dynamic ad insertion to computer games – on the brink of happening and being tested in the new Sims games where there is a poster for the latest Indiana Jones film as you walk down the virtual street. Or it could even be in Fifa 09 where the football stadiums have real advertising on the hoardings surrounding the pitch. Dynamic in that can be constantly updated with more and more video game consoles being connected to internet servers (eg x box live)

2) Mobile TV (and so ads) through BBC iplayer etc via iphones as iphone ownership proliferates.

3) Natural product placement within online social environments. Bebo is playing host to an increasing number of corporate led initiatives such as shows ‘Kate Modern‘. These shows may be sponsored by brands overtly or covertly but this is set to increase in 2009.

4) Predictions aren’t just about about ‘in with the new’, they also concern ‘out with the old’ – With the hundreds of niche products available (Twitter, Friendfeed, Flock) etc) we are probably set for a mini dot com bubble burst. In the loan friendly economic environment of the 00’s new start ups have gain the support of venture capitalists with relative ease. This support may be set to wane with the doom mongering and credit crunch. Therefore 2009 is to be a year where we develop, embrace and exploit the exisiting rather than constantly searching for the new.

Kathryn Schlieben | MSN Product Specialist EMEA

In preparing for a presentation I am making on video to a customer with a largely female target audience I was reminded that the explosion in online video viewing is not the same for all demographics.  In researching female online video viewers I came across Jupiter Research’s 2007 US Online Consumer Survey.  The survey showed that the percentage of online users watching video online is not the same for all segments of the online population.  Once we go beyond the core 18-24 year olds, the % of females watching video online is dramatically below the % of their male counterparts. Among 25-34 year olds, only 57% of online females watched video online compared to 78% of online males. 

For advertisers, this represents a golden opportunity to attract women to online video while at the same time participating in activity with their brands.  We’ve seen some female audiences served well – teens in particular (look at Bebo’s “Kate Modern” and “Sofia’s Diary“).  Some of the same learnings can be used to attract women in older audience segments.  Unilever has demonstrated this incredibly well with “In the Motherhood”. 

The first step is understanding how women are engaged with online video now.  Microsoft’s “3 Screens” qualitative research conducted earlier in the year provides some insight on this.  For example, we have the case of a working mum who watches one of her daughter’s favourite daytime television shows online in the evening. They can still have a bond over this programming despite it airing while she is at work.  Many mums look to online video for “me time” but as in this example also use it to facilitate shared experiences and family bonding. 

With all of the recent talk around growth factors for online video, it is worth pointing out once more that activating a currently underserved audience like this is unlocking a goldmine for brands.

Every now and then, when working on clients, we try to sell the odd short movies for our clients. Because it’s on the Internet, cost are low, etc.

But because of the nature of the web, it is very very difficult to actually drive an audience to a destination, as we’ve seen it before with Where are the Joneses (see episodic content on the web).

Some series have been successful, like Chad Vader

But many have failed.

The magic formula seemed to be combining screenwriting talent (preferably skilled at online narrative) and a succesful social platform.

For example:

- The guys from Lonely Girl 15 and Bebo have made one of the most successful online series in Kate Modern, with each episode racking up to 2 million views (in Bebo). Season 2 is on its way and seem to be even bigger.

- Or in the States, a project mandated by Sprint and Suave and developed by Mindshare, was combining the savoir faire of professional writers and the experience of real mothers, while adding a few B-celebrity to the mix and promoting it on MSN. It’s called ‘In the Motherhood‘.

They were getting an average of 5.5M views per episode and a fair share of positive reviews. Not bad by any standard. Season 2 is on its way, with a bigger budget.

Now, although budgets were coming along and getting a little bigger each time, Google has come to play. And what do they do? They just hire the best man in the business. No, not Rob Campbell (although they also have), but Seth Macfarlane, the creator of family guy.

I actually wish I was in that brainstorm. “Ok, so we need to do some funny content that we could put on our sites to get more ad money. Who’s funny? That Groening guy? He can’t do it. Ok. The Seinfield dude? Nope, too old. Ok got it, what about Family guy? That’s pretty funny. Everyone nods in agreement.” Ha, the easy life. I wish every brief was as simple.

MacFarlane has created 50 webisodes that will aim to attract “prime-time television advertising dollars to web-only video content” The Register.

This will be a very interesting project to follow. The webisode will be about 2 minutes long, perfect length for the web.

So this could be an amazing partnership. One of the funniest writer joining the most successful online property ever.

I one day asked one of the creative I worked with to write me something funny ( I was young and naive). He replied that if he was funny, he’d be writing for the Simpsons. He had a point I thought.

But I guess he’d better be gear up, because they might be coming for his job.

After 322 episodes… 51 million cumulative video hits… 6 million bebo profile views… Two BAFTA Craft and WEBBY nominations and a Broadcasting Press Guild Award…

Season 2 of KateModern comes to an end this week.  It has been a phenomenal experience writing episode scripts and storylining on this show – the best writers room experience with Luke Hyams and Lawrence Tallis – and a frontline lesson in what works for this genre and medium.
There is a true difference between online drama and “TV show broadcast on the web”.

The season finale of 12 videos in 12 hours (together with the entire KateModern series 1 and 2) can be found here:- 
www.lg15.com/katemodern
and here:-
www.bebo.com/katemodern

The wiki maintained by the fans of KateModern and lonelygirl15 is here:-
http://www.lg15.com/lgpedia/index.php?title=Image:KM_Portal_Season_2.jpg

Here is a GMTV behind-the-scenes shoot:-

And an article in today’s SUN!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/article1345446.ece

All my KateModern links can be found by clicking on here.

And I’ll be talking at the SCREENWRITERS’ FESTIVAL 2008 in Cheltenham on Wednesday 2nd July in the session: Online and Multi-Platform narratives. 

Bebo, the UK web company recently bought by AOL, is launching its latest original web series, GAP YEAR.

According to NewTeeVee:

“six young people…will be sent on six-month trips around the world…They get a per diem allowance based on what guides like Lonely Planet recommended for the country they’re in. Each person travels individually, accompanied by a cameraperson/director, and will send in one 3- to 5-minute video per week.”

Not sure what will make this a deeply compelling series but I was amazed to see how many sponsors are involved:

“Endemol and Bebo have set up some activities and challenges along with its sponsors: Sony PSP, Trident, Canon (which is providing cameras), The Royal Air Force (RAF), Acuvue, Doritos, STA Travel, and Tourism Auckland and Tourism Australia (who are helping with activities).”

I’ll be extremely curious to see how the brands are intergrated into the content and if any of their target demo decides to watch.

Bebo has had success with the lonelygirl15 follow up “Kate Modern” and the currently running “Sophia’s Diary.”

Check out some Gap Year here.

Sony to Launch Video Service Through PS3; company hopes third time is the charm for piping movies and TV shows directly into the home. (The LA Times)

lonelygirl15 and KateModern Characters to Meet; crossover event kinda like the Internet’s version of when Magnum P.I. met Simon & Simon. (emailed release)

People Buying Smaller HD TVs; credit crunch has people shifting to 30- to 34-inch sets, taking a bite out of the 40- to 49-inch models. (Bits Blog)

Fix8 Adds Candidate Avatars; now you can have a web video chat as Barack Obama. (TechCrunch)

Revision3 Signs Deals with Hulu and Joost; just in time for the arrival of Veronica Belmont, new media studio expands its reach. (MediaWeek) (Disclosure: Revision3 produces the GigaOM Show.)

Rambler Media Set to Launch Rambler Cinema; video service will use Hiro Media for ads, signed content from TNT and Starmedia; holding company also owns Russia’s second largest portal. (Quintura)

Edelman Launches UGC Ad Studio; aspiring filmmakers can compete to make ads for the likes of Burger King, Expedia and Butterball. (USA Today)

Just watched the first two episodes of a new webseries out of Montreal called Take Me Back (via Neatorama)

The key elements of note are very nice production value and a complete lack of schticky humor.  In the first two episodes we meet a young guy who is followed and the kidnapped by a masked man who then seems to take over the life of the protagonist.

Although this is not the sort of breakthrough series I keep hoping to see, it definitely continues to raise the bar in terms of mature storytelling and solid filmmaking.  It feels far more compelling and sophisticated than things like Kate Modern or The All-For-Nots.

Looking forward to the next episode.

The latest news on the significant webseries front is that some folks are spinning off from the UK Bebo webseries Kate Modern to launch a new Brit-set webseries for MySpace.

“Big Balls Films and Pete Gibbons will make a pilot of the UK-set I Love Chieftown drama this month, with a full 60-”webisode” series launching in mid-September.

The drama will be based in east London and follow lead character Jamie, an aspiring filmmaker, as she follows an up-and-coming band and its journey to make it big.” (via)

Well, it sure does sound a bit like The All-For-Nots, Vuguru’s followup to Prom Queen from the makers of The Burg.  It is also another example of trying to find an excuse for the camera – something I think we are ready to move beyond in terms of webseries.  Everyone doesn’t have to either speak into a webcam or cameraphone.

Still, it sounds like a pretty big production with a 60-episode order.  I’ll certainly be checking it out.

Took my dear ol’ mum out for her birthday a couple of evenings ago to see David Lean’s film ‘Ryan’s Daughter’, screened in 70mm at BAFTA in Piccadilly. When I got to the ticket desk there was a good looking actress there whose birthday it also was. That was probably the first hint that my biorhythms were in fine fettle that day. The next clue was when we were handed two glasses of champagne as we walked in. It turned out that 25th March was also the birthday of David Lean – and this year is the centenary of his birth. So we walked in to a special reception with booze, nosh and some interesting faces dotted around the room. I should have made a better fist of pretending “I knew that” and having been so organised as to have arranged especially for fine champers, fancy fish cakes and famous faces. Among them were Peter Lean (David’s son) and Sarah Miles, Ryan’s Daughter herself.

Just before Sarah Miles arrived, I’d been unwittingly sitting beside one of her best friends and talking to my mum about how Ryan’s Daughter is my other half’s most loathed film. Why she gave me the middle name Diplomacy I’ll never know. I did a good one last year with Nicholas Hoult of Skins and About A Boy fame. I’d been reading the first scripts for Skins and was blown away by them. I was speaking at a 4Talent do for Raw Cuts at the Electric Cinema in Portobello Road and Nick was also talking, being a real supporter of the NSPCC. “You’re shooting Skins down in Bristol aren’t you? Awesome script. Let me guess who you’re playing… Is it the nerdy one? [Sid]” “No.” “Ah, right, so it must be the devastatingly handsome one. [Tony]” Note to self: Never ask: are you Australian? (ask Are you a Kiwi?). Never ask: are you an American? (ask Are you Canadian?). Ask: are you the devastatingly handsome one?

Any way, she really does loathe the film. So did much of the audience and the critics at the time from what I understand. Lean didn’t make another film for 14 years in the wake of Ryan, so stung was he by its poor reception. If you look at it from an Irish point of view, it is on the dodgy side. The Irish in the movie range from a dribbling retard, to a black leather clad gun runner, to a priest with Republican sympathies and a bottle of Jamesons tucked away in his dirty black soutane, to a treacherous father with verbal diarrhea to a silly adulterous girl. But I think it was always the drooling John Mills that really irked her.

So I went in ready to enjoy in widescreen the scenery of the West Coast I love so much (as captured by Freddie Young) but to scoff at the story and characterisation. Producer [Absolute Beginners, Mona Lisa, The Crying Game] and boss of the National Film School Nik Powell introduced the film, followed by a nice anecdote from the lead actress highlighting the contradictoriness of Lean’s character (he told her off for throwing away a sliver of soap from his hotel room which had “a good three days left in it” and then bought her a Lamborghini a few weeks later). It must have been the weirdest experience for Sarah Miles watching her 29 year old self up in 70mm widescreen – she told me she’d never seen the film before except on video, she doesn’t like watching herself – at the age of 67. It was enough of a momento mori for the rest of us. Ryan was written by her late husband, Robert Bolt, who passed away in 1995. The film started with an overture of the musical soundtrack with the curtains still closed. At three hours thirty it had an intermission. So very much a blast from the cinematic past. The thing was I couldn’t help myself – shagging in the bluebell woods beside the burbling brook, rescuing rebel arms from the crashing waves, padding barefoot across the beaches of Dingle – I was suckered, I came out feeling I’d just watched something romantic and epic and Technicolor from a bygone age.

Lean was the prime-mover behind the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He gave half of his huge royalty shares on Bridge over the River Kwai and Dr Zhivago to help get the Academy up and running. (He didn’t bother including Lawrence of Arabia as the studio had told him it would never show a profit – dontcha just love creative accounting a la Hollywood.) So Lean was the first Chairman of the Academy and a life-long supporter, very keen on film retaining its “dignity” through proper screening in well equipped public auditoriums.

The cherry on the (birthday) cake – the birthday, BAFTA, biorhythm thing that seemed to be conjoining on the day – was that, unbeknownst to me (I found out the next morning) the nominees for this year’s BAFTA TV Craft Awards had been announced during the day and Big Art Mob was nominated in two of the three interactive categories, on top of its nomination the week before in the BAFTA TV Awards. It’s up against Dr Who, X Factor, Spooks, BBC iPlayer, Kate Modern and Bebo among others so pretty much a shoe-in

Craft was very much Lean’s background having emerged into directing via editing. He cut for Powell & Pressburger during the war, as well as for Noel Coward on In Which We Serve. His first writing credit was for adapting Coward’s This Happy Breed which starred the marvelous Robert Newton under Lean’s direction (his solo directorial debut). There was nothing remotely televisual about Ryan’s Daughter. It was steeped in the craft and love of cinema. No better way to celebrate a birthday.

So now we’re deep into the mystery of “Who Killed Kate Modern”

as Jaci Stephen explores in her Guardian article today…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/03/digitalmedia.web20

The only way I can explain writing for this medium is by comparing it to working in Television in the 1950’s…

…And more than a little exhilarating grappling with the 2008 equivalents of boom mikes, back-screen projectors and valves…

No Valentine? No problem! Today’s “3sday’s 3Q’s in 3 Min” comes with all the sweet sentiment of a box of chocolates, but without that bad stomach ache afterwards.

Every Thursday, socialTNT channels the spirit of citizen journalism by putting bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. In addition to helping PR peeps pitch these individuals more effectively, the videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters, PR/communications practitioners and marketers on the future of media.

This Thursday, socialTNT chats with Liz Gannes, Editor of NewTeeVee. In today’s “3 Q’s in 3 Min” Liz shares best practices for PR pros, and also explores the future of online video now that the writers’ strike is over.

In December 2006, Liz left her very PR-pitch popular position as writer covering the Web 2.0 beat at GigaOM to edit NewTeeVee, a new media focused blog published by Om Malik’s Giga Omni Media network. If you or your client is a start-up specializing in some aspect of new media–particularly focusing on the convergence with video or broadband–this is the place to be.

When Liz agreed to the interview and gave me a pier number as an address–and then told me to meet her by the docks–I got a little worried; had I sent a bad pitch and was about to get offed? Silicon Valley can be a bit of a mobster state. Plus, Om’s stogie-smoking imagery and all-encompassing media network are pretty mafia-like. Not so, said Liz. They had just moved and didn’t have any markings up yet.

Fun Facts About Liz:

• Before moving to Palo Alto, Liz used to live a couple of blocks from me in SF’s hipster-haven Mission district
• Graduated from Dartmouth College with a Bachelors in Linguistics
• A night person, she wakes up late and then catches up on the daily news by reading a couple hundred RSS feeds
• While not opposed to being pitched through Facebook and Twitter, Liz sees those as personal realms — email is best
• Liz organizes the NewTeeVee Pier Screenings in SF
• Introduced me to my new Video Valentine: blip.tv

Watch as Liz tells us a little more about her beat, names the most influential new media innovation in 2007, and let’s us know what makes a good communications professional.

What was the most influential new media trend in 2007? Or, for PR pros, how do you add value to your reporter relations? Let us know in the comments!

Don’t miss a post: Add us to your RSS reader [what’s that?], or Sign up for our Email.

[The above photo, “Liz Gannes” by joeywan on flickr, used under Creative Commons.]

The fellas from LG15 (Greg and Miles, two of the three co-founders) pulled by yesterday on a trip to London. As I’ve made clear earlier on Simple Pleasures, I’m a big fan of LonelyGirl15 as an indicator of what can be done in the realm of interactive drama. I’ve also indicated previously that I’m not quite as convinced by Kate Modern – whilst I like the logo, I’m not crazy about the acting and I’m still confused about the point-of-view (don’t they feel a little socially awkward interacting with others with a camera constantly pointing out from in front of their face? or who is that cameraman following them around? – as the drama moves out of the bedroom, it needs to be recognised that the mobile equivalent of the webcam is CCTV). Now that was a great title – ‘Stars of CCTV’ – by Slough’s finest Hard-Fi. I never got to see that Scottish film Red Road but there’s got to be a great CCTV movie to be made (by all accounts Red Road was a pretty good stab at it). Likewise – thinking about the product placement-driven nature of Kate Modern, there’s got to be a great comedy interactive drama to be made around the sometimes less than subtle weaving of mundane products into the storyline. Of course not all the products punctuating Kate Modern are mundane. FilmFour’s Hallam Foe featuring Jamie Bell got the Modern treatment in an imaginative enough way, including both a cardboard cut-out of the aforementioned star and a live encounter with him in a bar. So it was good yesterday to close the circle and introduce LG15 to the Channel 4 Film & Drama department.

Greg always talks with fabulous energy about LonelyGirl’s narrative, his retelling is always infectious and makes you want to do a box set binge. Equally charming and infectious was Mike Bolland who chaired a panel I was on at the RTS in Birmingham the night before about the first 25 years of Channel 4 with Dorothy Hobson, author of Channel 4 : The Early Years and the Jeremy Isaacs Legacy. Mike was one of the original, first generation Channel 4 Commissioning Editors, responsible for some C4 classics including The Tube and Comic Strip Presents. He recounted with glee the youthful energy around the nascent channel and the latitude Jeremy Isaacs gave him. As we rounded off the evening, I tried to bring out the commonality between then and now – the experimentation that comes with the dawn of a new era – back then the era of independent television production, now the dawning of the digital age, a far more significant revolution with the transition of media to on-demand and two-way/interactive.

And what a lovely example of the experimental and interactive character of our modern media age I had a couple of nights ago, albeit with primarily analogue technology. My older son (10) had to record a piece of his persuasive writing for his homework, to which end be borrowed a crappy old dictaphone from his grandma. The younger one (7) found it around the house and began by recording a spoof interview about his brother. By the end of the evening the pair of them were recording amusing two-hander comedy interviews. By the time I resurfaced the next morning they had recorded a full-on drama with sound effects, initially provided by long abandoned toys and then by GarageBand.

Meanwhile back at LonelyGirl, Greg quit being a lawyer to start the basically homemade webcam show. Miles was a plastic surgeon when he veered off on the new media route. For all the chopping&changing of these fast-moving modern times, one thing is for sure – there’s a wealth of creative opportunities in them thar hills…

What an exciting day! I get in to work this morning and this plops on the electronic doormat:

“Dear Adam,
I’m delighted to inform you that your entry ‘Big Art Mob‘ has been short-listed in the Community Engagement category of the inaugural MediaGuardian Innovation Awards. The shortlist will be formerly announced in MediaGuardian on 28 January and the winner at the awards ceremony and dinner on 6 March at Indigo2, O2, Greenwich. The debate at the judging day was lively and hard fought, so congratulations on reaching the shortlist stage of an event which we hope will become a benchmark for innovation in media in the UK.”

Next up a message from the fellas at LG15 that they’re coming a’visitin’.

Then a note from the boys at Preloaded that Picture This has 11.4% of its audience staying for over 30 minutes at a time and 4.7% over an hour.

Then the gorgeous Slugger O’Toole over in Beal Feirste points his dedicated audience in the direction of the excellent ‘3 Minute Wonder’ tomorrow night on Channel4 (at 19.55) complementing the Picture This series. It looks at the disappearance of the fortified RUC police stations in Northern Ireland. As someone who got married in Derry, I’ve a certain familiarity with these particular architectural fantasias. I remember sitting in a pub in Forkhill in South Armagh and admiring the painting on the wall of the locality from which the police station had already been disappeared, years before the Good Friday Agreement.

Finally a lovely young laydee comes up to introduce herself at the climax of the Cultural and Creative Leadership Mentoring Programme at the ICA (on which I have been mentoring Caroline Bottomley of the Radar Festival). Said laydee is none other than Zoe Margolis aka Abby Lee, the Girl with the One-track Mind, in the flesh.

Now that’s a good day by anyone’s standards.

But not as good as yesterday when I found out my mum’s cancer had not come back. Now there’s really good vibrations.

hasta Vincent Cerf, uno de los padres de internet asegura que la television se acerca a un momento critico parecido al que atraveso la industria musical con la aparicion del reproductor MP3. y es que la emergencia de nuevas tecnologias siempre alienta las profecias sobre la extincion de sus vecinas, tal y como paso con la aparicion del video, de la que se auguro que haria desaparecer las salas de cine, y anteriormente, que el cine mismo seria la condena a muerte del teatro, etc…

es innegable a fecha de hoy, que los cambios que van a producirse a medio plazo debido a la fusion de la television, la tecnologia movil e internet, van a provocar una revolucion en nuestros habitos de consumo audiovisual y por lo tanto, la reconversion de estos tres medios en una nueva industria adaptada al consumo interactivo.series como “Kate Modern”, en Bebo, tienen una audiencia de 25 millones de personas cuando en las televisiones convencionales con “parrilla”, estas cifras de telespectadores son cada vez mas utopicas.la emergencia de nuevas posibilidades tecnicas siempre genera expectativas de un futuro glorioso, y curiosamente, muchas de esos deseos nos hacen imaginar mundos utopicos donde la tecnologia mejora ostensiblemente la comunicacion entre los seres humanos y, teoricamente, los hace mejores. normalmente estas excesivas expectativas causan grandes frustraciones, sobre todo a los que buscan nuevas oportunidades de negocio en mercados virgenes, pensando que donde antes habia desiertos ahora habra vergeles…

pero la verdad es que como decia Swift en su carta a Alexander Pope, todo aquello que se achaca a la sociedad proviene de la individualidad humana, y por tanto en un momento historicamente marcado por el branding “one to one”, nos vamos a dar cuenta, mas que nunca, de que nuestras grandezas y nuestras miserias siguen siendo las mismas, salvo que ahora, las vamos a poder observar desde una perspectiva de mercado casi cuantico.

por ejemplo, he descubierto un gran invento, el “voicethread“, que permitiria tener un brain storming interactivo con un equipo a distancia, o incluso compartir esbozos audiovisuales con tus clientes para generar mejores sinergias y una atencion mas personalizada e implicada en el proceso creativo, pero como siempre, el hecho de disponer de esta maravillosa nueva herramienta y de tantas otras… no garantiza a nadie el talento necesario para crear una maravilla como este video interactivo de “The Arcade Fire” que he descubierto hoy mismo.

en definitiva, vienen nuevas oportunidades para explotar nuestros talentos tanto a nivel usuario como a nivel empresarial y/o profesional, pero no nos engañemos… seguiremos siendo igual de inutiles o de brillantes de lo que ahora somos: que no se nos suba el 2.0 a la cabeza ahora que a nivel interactivo, todavia no podemos vernos ni nuestros propios pies.

I have to admit I’ve never been a big fan of Ralf Little. Firstly the spelling of his christian name, is that for real Ralf or an actor thang? Then I never really got into the Royle Family. I thought the premise was ok but none of the characters was likeable to me or admirable. It’s easy to mock northern life and the joke wore thin on me too quickly. Ralf’s character just seemed like the most pathetic of a pretty dense bunch. Then Ralf appeared in all those celebrity football events and programmes and he just seemed to be so irritatingly self-satisfied as it was possible to get. That jokey big mates stuff with the Soccer AM crowd used to drive me nuts in particular – I know it’s probably just envy on my part.

Anyway today he featured in the Sunday Times in an interview for the Style section no less (his smugness must be quite unbearable now). We learn that after The Royle Family ended he headed out to Los Angeles to try his chances in the Hollywood Hills. It’s a natural career path of course from Ancoats to Laurel Canyon but let’s not be churlish. He spent his time playing footie, of course, with Robbie Williams for Hollywood Utd and messing about in his pad in the Hills. Whatever.

Then he rather casually throws that one meeting with a producer took his particular fancy and to cut a long story short he’s now one of the main characters in the internet weblog-drama Kate Modern. It’s a kind of interactive reality TV but shot in bite-size daily chunks and accessed via the Bebo social-networking site. It’s so cutting edge it’s like thrusting your hand into a bucket of Gillette razor blades. And Ralf’s now the darling of all those 11-24 year olds who frequent the site. Is it popular? Well it has attracted just the 30m views worldwide in the last 3 months.

And I go on about my blog attracting nearly 10,000 blogs in 8 months. Ummm.

Well, well done Ralf you must be unbelievably smug sorry happy with your decision to get onboard and become the most famous face on ’snack tv’. Well he tells us that ‘I had a moment at a party last week when the cast were introduced as being on the most successful internet TV show in the world. You can’t take that stuff away, really’.

No you can’t, you smug b*stard.

pp

“Movies, television, DVD, internet. It’s all the same thing, just different configurations…it’s an incredible landscape.” Quincy Jones, Film Producer

Described by The Simpsons creator Matt Groening as “a funny film-making genius”, Hazel Grian, Creative Director of Licorice Films, has been at the sharp end of cutting edge new forms of interactive content, including Alternative Reality Gaming and online drama. In November 2007 I caught up with Hazel in Bristol to chew the fat on her involvement in KateModern, the first drama commissioned by a social network, and the state and future of the strange-shaped genre known as interactive drama.
(NB: This is a bastardisation of what was originally an academic essay so forgive the over icing of the digital cake.)

Convergence of television and the internet

Marshall McHuhan, the guy who dubbed the wired world the “global village”, believes the content of any new medium is actually from an old one. This certainly applies to the recent phenomenon of online video and the convergence between broadcast television, digital television and online content.

Television has become a predictable, institutional ‘old’ media – but its original ambitions were akin to those of interactive media today – immersion, extension and communication. Its form has evolved through its history – a storytelling medium enabled by technology. Television is considered a ‘push’ medium – like print and newspapers – whereas the internet is a ‘pull’ or search medium, its take-up dominated by communication over publishing.

Convergence disrupts the tripartite relationship of print, telecoms and broadcast. Broadband offers the ‘multiplexing’ of TV, potentially an additional video platform (e.g. 4oD, iPlayer) but also an enriched, additional experience.

Throughout the 1980s and 90s audiences became more active, critically aware and discriminating. This has led to a rejection of television in favour of genres exploring interactivity, niche interests and virtual reality where viewing is replaced by active participation.

Cross-platform content creates permeable boundaries and intertextuality between forms, blurring the boundaries between producer, distributor, consumer and reviewer. Content is not always top down publisher-led, but blogs, chat rooms and message boards create a market for perishable, instant content. Interactivity also allows for emotive, collective participatory experiences.

Also dubbed “transmedia” storytelling or “polymorphic narrative”, multi-platform creates different entry points into the product’s heavily franchised world. And many platforms equates to more cash – there are more platforms for a brand than ever before. But it’s not a noughties phenomenon: “Wizard of Oz” was a book (1900) then a stage play (1902), then a film in 1910 and 1939, which spawned variations like “The Wiz” and “Wicked”. The heavy corporate hand has been a part of transmedia rich history; the first Broadway production of Oz featured its own sponsor placement content: the Irish wizard sings “Budweiser is a friend of mine”.

Interactive drama – a brief history

Online interactive drama is a synthesis of broadcast drama, live role play, game play and interactive social media, relying heavily on a sense of user engagement, interactivity and playfulness. However, interactivity creates a dilemma of intellectual property – who ‘owns’ the content, therefore who can exploit and monetise it? Fan fiction – cultural fan production – especially creates added dilemmas. Harry Potter Puppet Pals, a totally unauthorised puppet response to the films and novels of JK Rowling, is gathering quite a following of its own thanks to bottom-up user platforms like YouTube.

Interactive drama is an evolving phenomenon, relatively immature in its development. The first experiments (2001-5) were single platform with “Wheel of Fortune” (2001), broadcast simultaneously on Radio 3, Radio 4 and online where viewers were told to ‘bet now’ to access 90 million possible permutations of the story. This complex, futuristic approach was later replaced with the controlled and easily understood method of voting – viewers chose between three ‘voices’ in Radio 4’s “The Dark House” (2003) voting on a love triangle on Five’s “Family Affair” (2004) and a life or death ending in “Casualty” (BBC1, 2005).

The next wave (2005-7) productions were more truly interactive, exploiting the nuances of the internet. Nickelodeon’s CGI animated “Jimmy Neutron” was an early 360 degree cross-platform application – existing on TV, video, comic, internet and film. BBC’s “Jamie K” and “Wanabees” (2006), both aimed at teens, could be seen as the first interactive dramas – ‘broadcast’ online, allowing the characters’ ‘friends’ (online viewers) to vote and build up ‘friendship scores’.

During this period, broadcast drama became increasingly cross-platform e.g. “Dr Who” (BBC) online games relating to plotlines, “Hollyoaks” (Channel 4) enhanced content on mobile phones and “Skins” (E4) mini-‘webisodes’ available online. Interactivity allowed for deeper character development and for users to interact more intensively than in the weekly broadcast of a typical TV soap opera.

“Dubplate Drama” (2005), commissioned by E4 and MTV Base, was an interactive format for TV, similar to the 1980s publishing phenomenon of Bantam’s “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. A six-part gritty urban drama about grime musicians, it starred urban celebrities Miss Dynamite and Rodney P (So Solid Crew) and was available on 3 mobile network and Sony’s PSP. Each episode ended in a dilemma cliff hanger, encouraging viewers to text in what they should do next. The producers believed the social element of the drama as a means of getting teenagers to discuss complex social issues.

Kate Modern – drama played out online

KateModern is an online, interactive drama commissioned by Bebo – the UK’s most popular social networking site with 31 million users, predominantly youth and teen. Bebo proves a great proposition for marketers: users spend on average 41 minutes online, making it a more “sticky” platform than television, and a means of reaching the lucrative teen market, turning off their TVs in droves.

Aimed at teens, it is part-comedy, part-drama, part-mystery (described as “a kind of Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Skins”) telling the story of troubled art student Kate and her three friends. Running from July to December 2007, users can send messages to the characters, help solve puzzles, vote and generally participate in the story. The interactivity is principally through the Bebo network rather than the ‘vote now’ model, however, few episodes are shot at a time, allowing for user feedback to be accommodated within a defined plot arc. This is a revolution from the pre-digital means of influencing drama where a letter to the editor or BBC’s “Points of View” (featuring the ever-youthful Anne Robinson and her infuriating wink) would be the primary form of viewer feedback (other than voting with the off switch).

KateModern is produced by the team behind the Lonelygirl15 phenomenon – the most subscribed YouTube channel showing the diaries of an attractive American teen who becomes embroiled in cult activities – which intrigued and frustrated new media exponents and marketers, and was later revealed to be staged.

Set in London and boasting a cast including Ralf Little (“The Royle Family”), it combines the inter­activity of social networking – where fans can do everything from commenting on episodes to interacting with characters – with scripted “webisodes”. It is a UK sister series to Lonelygirl15 - aping its ideas of an undercurrent of horror, cult themes and humours – but KateModern stays in the realm of fiction, encouraging the intense quasi-realistic relationships between viewers and makers in soap operas.

Live events including concerts and “flash mobs” link the real with the fictitious world. Actual up-and-coming band, “The Days” feature in the plot, with the intent of leaving viewers guessing what is real and what is fiction.

With a speculated £1 million budget – similar to a comparable terrestrial drama series – KateModern is commissioned by Bebo and financed by sponsors including MSN, Pantene, Gillette and Orange who have difficulty reaching a youth market on TV. Unlike typical film and TV product placement, the brands are integrated into characters’ dialogues and plotlines. This links with recent advertising trends of integrated marketing, brand profile and below-the-line marketing e.g. ‘seeding’ discussion of brands in internet chat rooms. Paramount Pictures UK used the drama to get characters to discuss plotlines from their new horror film “Disturbia” and episodes mirrored the film’s plot and themes.

The writing team behind KateModern are Luke Hyams (“Dubplate Drama”) and Hazel Grian. Hazel has a varied background as an actress, writer and director in TV, theatre, short films, animation and radio, working particularly in improvisation, comedy and science fiction. Prior to KateModern she created MeiGeist, an Alternative Reality Game, collaborating with HP Labs and Watershed Media Centre, which was the first to use video in addition to actors, live events and online game play. Regular short-listing in Watershed’s Depict! 90 second film challenge was a good learning ground for things to come.

Luke and Hazel’s writing process started with a sketch of characters and the same genre and rules as LonelyGirl15. Unlike TV soaps, each episode was micro, condensed and variable length, running from one to four minutes (15 to 20 minutes of content a week). The narrative presents a single vision (i.e. each episode is self-contained) and linearity but recognising it may be experienced in non-linear fashion, and to appeal to the ‘YouTube generation’ who prefer short bursts of activity and will likely fast-forward what they see as ‘the boring bits’.

The directing is intentionally lo-fi ‘guerilla’ style, with no ‘hidden cameras’ but video diary style, with characters seen reportage recording on mini-DV cameras and mobile phones, with intentionally staged ‘pieces to camera’ rather than the usually ‘fourth wall’ theatre or television drama approach. The production is more similar to user generated content video uploaded to YouTube than “Play of the Day”.

Hazel’s greatest challenge as a writer was working with sponsor brands to make product integration fit with the show’s dark material – like reflecting Ralph Little’s excitement at installing a wireless router and integrating references to Tampax (‘What, is she on her period again?!’). Hazel believes:

“The advertiser dominated framework made me experience what it was like to work in 1950s television on the original advertiser soap operas.”

Some product placement worked better than others as a natural synergy between brands and actions e.g. Live Maps and MSN Messenger – but the constant ‘name checks’ can grate on the viewer. The character Charlie works in PR and creates viral adverts for brands within the narrative, making the advertising self-referential.

Hazel believes interactivity creates a richer user experience – a role play between audience and producer. It creates a new dimension and depth of exploration with a story, from ‘lurkers’ to active participants and hardcore fans. It also creates a complex relationship – Babylon 5 producer J Michael Straczinski went online daily responding to fans posts. Hazel posted ‘in character’ as Kate, responding to fans posts and messages (she later trained a junior web producer to do this). Interactivity and reaction is essential to the dramatic believability of the form. Hazel believes that future audiences:

“…will not simply be ‘viewing’ or ‘watching’ interspersed with an injection of hated, in your face advertising. What you will be producing for your audiences must be commissioned and sponsored ‘experiences’. Film and television will have the feel of live theatre. Cinema and radio with the feel of a conversation.”

The show’s Executive Producer, Miles Beckett, believes “viewers interact with the characters in a way which is impossible with television.” Yet the rules of ‘old media’ drama are still tightly obeyed: “We have very consistent conflict, resolution, cliff hanger at the end of the week, A-plot action, B-plot character and interpersonal development.”

The jury is out on the popularity of KateModern. Although scoring three million views in its first eight weeks, in interactive media, the depth of interaction is more significant than numbers and viewer’s belief in the show’s authenticity could be compromised with its overt in-your-face productisation. All sponsors have signed for a second season, indicating they belief the association is boosting their brand. KateModern is a microcosm of contemporary entertainment convergence –interlinking localisation (based in London), regionalisation (a UK version of a US format) and globalisation (distributed to a potential global audience).

Hazel believes the future of interactive drama will be a TV-style model of broadcaster fee with core sponsors, not product placements. She is currently working on a production with Henry Normal/Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow productions sponsored by Ford. Rumours of a MySpace interactive drama at $400,000 per episode may be greatly exaggerated, but Bebo have already commissioned its next online hit: “Sofia’s Diary”.

Hazel believes comedy and parody work best for online drama – serious online drama doesn’t yet work yet as the medium itself is not yet considered serious. Interactive drama is still seminal and embryonic – investment and publicity is skewed more in its innovation than in meaningful content. But she remains optimistic of the future: “New roles are emerging from new forms of entertainment; I feel I am not at the forefront at an exciting time.”

The jury is likely to be out for some time on the uptake of interactive drama. The non-linearity of interactive drama may encroach a dramatic vision and never step out of the deepness of Hollyoaks. However, rich integration of character, personalised responses and the ability to influence action may in time prove a more rich medium, closer to emulating the emotive responsive of theatre than television or film. Many computer games already combine live action film or humanistic CGI characters within sophisticated interactive platforms, shaped by the user’s vision and their unique exploration of the game’s virtual world.

The trend for users migrating their time away from broadcasting and onto interactive platforms is likely to continue, and so will evolve how new hybrid medias work with audiences to create collective dialogues (e.g. MMROGs, social networks) and new interpretations of dramatic forms.

I am going to be hosting a public forum at Federation Square with the creative team behind one of the world’s most successful and controversial online serials, LonelyGirl15.

With over 50 million viewers world-wide and the backing of major brands and advertisers, LonelyGirl15 and the recently released KateModern are leading the way in the realm of online video content. Meet and listen to Miles Beckett and Luke Hyams, creators of LG15 Studios as they explore and discuss the explosive phenomenon of online video entertainment.

The forum is happening on Thursday the 1st of November, from 3pm at the Australian Centre of the Moving Image.

$25 Adult, $20 Concession. Tickets are strictly limited and available at www.portablefilmfestival.com

MEDIA RELEASE: “Portable Film Festival” brings Cutting Edge International
Practitioners To Australia.

The creators of KateModern have hit down-under to launch their brand new web-based UK series, now
accessible online. Miles Beckett and Luke Hyams, producers of the unique series, have taken full advantage
of the potential of online video entertainment, distributing their new teen drama via the web. A spin-off
of their original LonelyGirl15, KateModern already offers the promise of success, with current views for the
series upward of 8 million.
LonelyGirl15 was phenomenally prolific, with more than 60 million views since its launch in 2006. As the
world’s most popular interactive drama series, LonelyGirl15 marked a new trend in entertainment, allowing
audiences to access cutting edge entertainment when and where they desire.
Set in the streets of London, KateModern follows the lives of four young adults, as they struggle to find
their personal identity, in a world of unfolding mystery. Audiences are invited to participate in web-based
interactivity, such as posting messages for the show’s characters, exchanging plot ideas and uploading their
own videos to the characters’ profile pages.
Key cast and crew from the KateModern series will be appearing at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image
(ACMI) on Thursday 1st November at 3pm as part of the Portable Film Festival’s ‘Portable Symposium’.
Miles Beckett will be available for interview throughout the period.
Limited tickets still available online: www.portablefilmfestival.com

Girl Power – current episode from Kate Modern

[click above to watch - Bebo embed code not working and what do I know about HTML?]

Marks out of 10 for acting?

Marks out of 10 for writing?

And who is stalking Charlie with a video camera? Why?

What do people feel, as a potential audience members, about this?:
“At every stage that a user is involved with the story – whether they’re blogging, uploading photos or simply watching the latest episode – there will also be the chance to be involved with the brands that take part in the story.

No, I’m not talking about traditional product placement but the integration of brands from P&G such as Gilette and Pantene, Microsoft’s Windows Live, Disney and Orange into the plot in a way that gives users a reason not only to remember the brand, but creates a long-term relationship with that brand.”
(from a speech by Joanna Shields – President, International of Bebo – at an Royal Television Society Dinner in June 2007)

LG15 it ain’t…

Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.
W. H. Auden

	dont nobody give a fuck,dis shit stupid S. C. Entertainment Street Certified Entertainment Presentz