Being Featured on YouTube

Does being "Featured" on YouTube guarantee success for your video or show?

I would say NO, with a caveat. Just because you get featured does not mean viewers will LIKE your video or watch MORE of your videos. Does being Featured help a lot? Absolutely. So that's the caveat. You'll get considerbly more traffic to your video(s) by being featured, no question about it. But that does not mean they'll be repeat viewers, and for a web series this is vital.

Of course my personal opinion is the YouTube audience is NOT used to web series. They are used to "one hit wonder" videos. Some guy catching a bowling ball in his crotch or a cat with his tail hooked around a ceiling fan blade. Not that there's anything wrong with these, they just don't typically create repeat viewers (of course most of these videomakers don't have additional videos either).

For a web series (or a TV show or movie) story is KING. So without a good story, compelling characters, and excellent production value you will likely not build an audience.

But, being Featured on YouTube definitely helps your chances for success. :)

Why A Web Series?

Lots of folks have ask us why we made "Pink" into a web series instead of a traditional TV show or a feature film.

The obvious answer is that it's very, very difficult to get a TV show on the air as an independent production - and the same goes for feature films - very challenging to get films distributed. Oh, and not to mention, VERY expensive.

But the not so obvious answer is that web series are THE FUTURE. We don't look at the Internet as a red-headed step child to television or film. We look at the Internet as a THIRD MEDIUM. Of course the lines definitely blur here. You can download an episode of "Lost" or download many feature films these days and watch them on your computer. So in that respect the mediums sort of combine into one (which is what we believe the future of watching shows will be - heck, it's already getting there now - think Apple TV or Tivo's partnership with Amazon Unboxed where you can download movies from Amazon to your Tivo).

However, what we're talking about is ORIGINAL CONTENT made exclusively for a web-based audience (and/or mobile devices like iPods and cell phones). This point is important. We created "Pink" as a true short form show. It was written in roughly three-minute "webisodes" that together tell the entire story through a serialized format. This was NOT a TV pilot or movie we "chopped" up into segments and release online. There's nothing wrong with doing this by the way, but it's just not the way we did it on this project. This was created as an original web series.

The other extremely cool thing about producing a web series versus a traditional show on TV (or movie) is that it can be released to the audience much quicker, and on a world-wide scale almost instantly (in only a few short months we've had rougly 3 million viewers). Also, the producers (us) are not dependent on a distributor to release the show. This is very liberating. This puts a lot of control in the content creator's hands. And it really democratizes the entire filmmaking process.

Of course to succeed you need to make money, and that's where we are right now with "Pink". What is the best way to monetize our show and keep the series going? We'll let you know how it works out...

In the meantime, please tell a friend about the show! :)

Join Us On Myspace!

If you have a Myspace account please do a friend request on our page:

www.myspace.com/pinktheseries



Thank you!

Upcoming Press

"Pink" will be featured in a December article in the film industry magazine Markee. We'll try and post a PDF of the article or possibly a link.

Also, the satellite channel G4 TechTV recently did an interview with Blake Calhoun, the creator of the show. Not sure when the interview will run, but we will post info when we have it.

Graphic Novel

We're looking into reverse engineering "Pink" into a graphic novel. Taking the current live action web series and making an actual "comic book" out of it. The idea then will be to include this book with a future DVD release, and/or market it as a stand alone product. Stay tuned...

Two Million Views!

Recently passed the TWO MILLION view mark on YouTube! Thanks to everyone watching the show...

Blog Now Up and Running

The first season of "Pink" (10 episodes) are now all online. Best place to check them out are on our Official website, but you can also view them on YouTube, Myspace, Revver, Metacafe, BlipTV and Veoh.

Season Two is currently in the works and will be going into production in early 2008.

Please be sure to vote in our first online poll (on the upper right side of this page). We will be doing these once a month or so and look forward to your feedback!