tv Web content producer moves to Fox TV.

According to the LA Times, Bite-sized TV is a company that produces talk shows, among others, for the internet.

The article also talks of how LA is seeing web-based startups are trying to produce entertainment for Youtube, Hulu, and so on.

There are opportunities, but, as Louise Levison said, can big money be made on the new media? Let's keep observing.
 
He's making bite-sized videos (hence the corporate name) of 2-3 minutes each.

Bloom will produce mini-shows of one to two minutes — as well as feature films — at a new studio that opens soon smack-dab on the Walk of Fame.

...

Bloom believes that if his content is compelling enough, bite-sized shows could be packaged on major television programming.

This seems to be a common strategy, to get enough of an audience so as to upgrade to TV or film. A few minutes per webisode would be VERY doable for me. :)
 
IDK. I made a 3 minute short and everyone kept complaining it was too short and they wanted more
 
I have started jotting down several scenes, and one may be a pilot for a web series. There are lots of fan-based productions on the internet, and they use CGI that is obviously not too expensive, but it works.
 
I'm sure you have looked at BiteSized and the types of shows
they produce. They are not producing narrative series - which
is what you want to do. They do gossip and reality shows. There
seems to be a never ending lust for those.
 
I'm sure you have looked at BiteSized and the types of shows
they produce. They are not producing narrative series - which
is what you want to do. They do gossip and reality shows. There
seems to be a never ending lust for those.

I haven't looked at them, unfortunately, but I do know of Felicia Day's "The Guild" and "Riese: Kingdom Falling", which were bite-sized. Are you suggesting a web episode be 20 minutes plus commercials to make it 30 minutes?
 
Are you suggesting a web episode be 20 minutes plus commercials to make it 30 minutes?

No. I was suggesting you look at the types of shows BiteSize produces.
I'm surprised that you read articles and then do not look at the company
the story is about.
 
That's a trend I've noticed with youtube - the most successful short-form work there is non-fiction. I've noticed this with our own work - on average our documentaries pick up 10-100x the views of our short fiction films. I think the key is that non-fiction work is more clearly topical, and more likely to appeal to an existing interest in the audience, whereas fiction is a harder sell because it isn't so clearly focused on a single topic.
 
That's a trend I've noticed with youtube - the most successful short-form work there is non-fiction. I've noticed this with our own work - on average our documentaries pick up 10-100x the views of our short fiction films. I think the key is that non-fiction work is more clearly topical, and more likely to appeal to an existing interest in the audience, whereas fiction is a harder sell because it isn't so clearly focused on a single topic.

If I had to guess it would be that most short films suck pretty hard.
People have likely given one or two a chance and since given up on it as a form of entertainment
 
Hmm, that may be part of it, and it's certainly a tempting thesis, but I don't know if it's accurate. It suggests that if you can just make a good enough film, and/or get people to give short films another chance, they'd realize what they're missing and watch & share it. And even if you've made the world's greatest short film, and people don't watch it, it's not your fault - it's all those people making crap screwing it up for you.

The problem is I don't think it reflects how people view things online accurately. There's a few ways you can discover a short film...

The first is searching for it. The problem is most people don't specifically seek out short films. They do seek out information about their interests, and when they do that they often find videos that are focused on that interest - which biases discovery towards non-fiction, topical material.

The second is through recommendations from friends, via social media, email, whatever - this is viral discovery. But before their friends can share it with them, they have to discover it themselves (see above). Once they have discovered it, they have to feel that it's something their friends would be interested in enough to share it. Again, this biases sharing towards topical material - people likely have circles of friends that are into the same topics they are, so they're likely to share material that covers those topics because they know it will be of interest.

I think this is why the most successful short narrative projects tend to be fan films or web series - they're tapping into a more specific interest than just a generic genre. People watch them because they're fans of a particular character, or video game, etc - not because they're looking for a short form of entertainment. Some of them aren't even particularly good, but they still get a lot of views - because they satisfy a particular topical interest, much the same way non-fiction videos do.
 
Hmm, that may be part of it, and it's certainly a tempting thesis, but I don't know if it's accurate. It suggests that if you can just make a good enough film, and/or get people to give short films another chance, they'd realize what they're missing and watch & share it. And even if you've made the world's greatest short film, and people don't watch it, it's not your fault - it's all those people making crap screwing it up for you.

The problem is I don't think it reflects how people view things online accurately. There's a few ways you can discover a short film...

The first is searching for it. The problem is most people don't specifically seek out short films. They do seek out information about their interests, and when they do that they often find videos that are focused on that interest - which biases discovery towards non-fiction, topical material.

The second is through recommendations from friends, via social media, email, whatever - this is viral discovery. But before their friends can share it with them, they have to discover it themselves (see above). Once they have discovered it, they have to feel that it's something their friends would be interested in enough to share it. Again, this biases sharing towards topical material - people likely have circles of friends that are into the same topics they are, so they're likely to share material that covers those topics because they know it will be of interest.

I think this is why the most successful short narrative projects tend to be fan films or web series - they're tapping into a more specific interest than just a generic genre. People watch them because they're fans of a particular character, or video game, etc - not because they're looking for a short form of entertainment. Some of them aren't even particularly good, but they still get a lot of views - because they satisfy a particular topical interest, much the same way non-fiction videos do.

Okay well I can address reasons 1 and 2 with my most recent experience.
I sent personalized messages to every single person on my friends list with a link to criminal bounds. Just a 3 minute video trying to get people I know to watch it. I think I may have gotten 50% to watch, and some of those needed a lot of cajoling. I think that's pretty terrible for people I know and also it only being 3 minutes. And this is the first time I've tried something like that, so it's not like I already used up my cultural capital on a past video

Couldn't even get my ex gf to watch it, she spent 10 minutes telling me how she didn't have 3 minutes to watch. :huh:

In a couple of months when I go through and send follow ups with my sequel linked I'll get exact numbers on how many I messaged and how many watched
 
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That's my point though - it's not enough to share it with someone. It has to have some point of interest for them to commit time to watching it. When you share it with everyone you know, the only specific point of interest is that you made it - that's apparently enough to get half of them to watch. It's unlikely to be enough to get them to share it with their friends (other than mutual, but that doesn't really help get your numbers up since you've hit everyone you know). Even if they all did share it with their friends the likelihood that it brings in more viewers is low because at that point they don't know who you are, so it's just another short video. Your short is a crime drama, which is probably too generic a topic to generate much interest beyond your friends because it's just one of thousands of crime dramas, and there's probably not a lot of people who are passionately interested in crime dramas in general.

It's similar to the situation of trying to get distribution for a low budget film - make a crime drama with no recognizable stars and you're not likely to get much interest. Add a name actor or two and your odds increase significantly - because it adds a point of interest that can be leveraged in marketing to convince an audience to commit their time (and money) to it.

Couldn't even get my ex gf to watch it, she spent 10 minutes telling me how she didn't have 3 minutes to watch.

Well, this may be an example of where your particular point of interest is actually working against you! :lol:
 
No. I was suggesting you look at the types of shows BiteSize produces.
I'm surprised that you read articles and then do not look at the company
the story is about.

I did a research overview on the company, but that did not mean I had to watch its shows, which involve a different format and genre than what I'm interested in.
 
true enough about the point of interest.
i can't really advertise that i have the cleanest murder of any tv show or movie without giving away the ending.

although next two episodes i can target fans of 24 for episode 2 and fans of breaking bad for episode 3.. not entirely sure how to go about targeting those fan bases but at least it's a start
 
although next two episodes i can target fans of 24 for episode 2 and fans of breaking bad for episode 3.. not entirely sure how to go about targeting those fan bases but at least it's a start

So I'm guessing episode 3 has meth in it, and episode 2 has... I actually don't know anything about 24, can't stand the show based on the little I've seen of it. But looking at Breaking Bad, I'm not sure 'meth' is the point of interest necessary to pull in fans of the show to your film. Now if you've got Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Bob Odenkirk, or even Jonathan Banks making an appearance in that episode, I think you've got a shot...
 
So I'm guessing episode 3 has meth in it, and episode 2 has... I actually don't know anything about 24, can't stand the show based on the little I've seen of it. But looking at Breaking Bad, I'm not sure 'meth' is the point of interest necessary to pull in fans of the show to your film. Now if you've got Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Bob Odenkirk, or even Jonathan Banks making an appearance in that episode, I think you've got a shot...

Episode 3 has a borderline genius that isn't successful due to red tape in the normal world, is under duress and becomes a criminal mastermind.

Episode 2 has a terrorist bombing and a computer hacker supporting a field agent

Both have originality and aren't a rip off, but there's definitely some similarity, like how episode 1 had a dexter vibe.
 
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I just don't think those are specifically aligned enough with your audience's interests to act as marketing points. If you did something like "Jack Bauer Must Find A Public Toilet NOW!!!!" or "Dexter Takes Out His Frustration On Trees In Alaska" you'll probably be able to get fans of the shows to give it a look, and if they like it share it with their friends. If you just have something that's got a similar premise or situation it's not necessarily enough to tap into their specific interest in those shows.
 
I just don't think those are specifically aligned enough with your audience's interests to act as marketing points. If you did something like "Jack Bauer Must Find A Public Toilet NOW!!!!" or "Dexter Takes Out His Frustration On Trees In Alaska" you'll probably be able to get fans of the shows to give it a look, and if they like it share it with their friends. If you just have something that's got a similar premise or situation it's not necessarily enough to tap into their specific interest in those shows.

Assuming it were aligned, I don't know what steps I would take anyway.
I think you can tag 24 in a post on Facebook and say.. hey 24 fans, check this out. But I wouldn't know where else to attempt it. Maybe a fan forum.

Marketing is a bitch
 
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