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This is a special "Behind the Red Carpet" interview from Streaming Media West 2009 with Zadi Diaz, new media producer, host and co-creator of the award web series EPIC FU. Zadi and her husband and long-time creative partner Steve Woolf are respected pioneers in the web television space. Zadi spoke at Streaming Media West 2009 panel session, Web Television Comes of Age and was interviewed on the Red Carpet by Peter Cervieri.
Zadi had a few minutes to share some advise to producers who are trying to break into the web television space.
"First, think about the story you want to tell. Really know the audience online. Who's the audience online? Who are you going to be talking to? What's the community like? Look at all those things and how you're story fits into that, look at all the niche audiences. "
Zadi said that partnerships are important, and that you should align yourself with passionate people behind the scenes. If you're good at storytelling but not editing, it will show and will bring your quality down. So focus on what you're good at and build your support system to get help with the things you're not good at, like videography, editing or marketing.
This is similar advise Zadi shared in this related post: Epic Fu on How To Make a Kick-Ass Web Show where she runs down all the tools you need to make an awesome web show, from ideas to equipment to distribution.
Zadi also talked about how storytelling is evolving, and how immersive it's going to be through online video and alternate reality gaming (ARG) experiences. She noted XBOX 360 Project Natal, which does away with the game controller for a hands-free gaming experience through motion detection and speech recognition, as an emerging next-generation social and entertainment network.
Description: 12/16/2008 – "Strap yourselves in as we run down all the tools you need to make an awesome web show, from ideas to equipment to distribution. Plus, the FU of the Week is served by Tim Gibbons, exec producer of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and Golden Globe winner, who is exploring new media with a passion!"
"Geek" culture is what we're about, and it's the new cool culture for this generation. Being a geek is all about having a passion for something—films, bands, technology, video games, going green—and that passion makes you totally kick ass! EPIC FU is all about stoking the flames of geek passion, and therefore improves your kick to ass ratio with every viewing. Created by Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf, EPIC FU is a new way of thinking about popular culture -- it's about conversation and interaction. Entertainment is a two-way street now. EPIC FU is a Webby Award Winner and a two-time nominee with a large and growing audience.
Known as one of the world's most popular conventions for podcasters, online video creators and bloggers, the 4th annual New Media Expo, took place in Las Vegas last weekend. In years past, the Expo was was primarily focused on audio podcasting but this year saw a rise in videocasting. Founder Tim Bourquin said that now it's 50/50 audio and video.
Videocasters are big and with personalities like Gary Vaynerchuk leading off with the first keynote address it helped set the tone that you can be your own new media brand, and with 60,000 daily viewers of his Wine Library TV, you know Gary Vee definitely means business. He's a hero and celebrity in the videocasting and blogging community and is one the first to reach mainstream success crossing over to TV audiences with his appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Ellen Degeneres Show. His blog says, "Gary’s fame can be attributed to his pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business building."
With over 2000 attendees, Tim Bourquin calls the Expo "a fantastic weekend of education and networking!" and the conference program describes it as "a hands-on, exciting, "how-to" event with practical conference sessions about how to produce high-quality online audio and video content, grow a loyal audience, and even make a few bucks with your content in creative ways." Steven Hodson of Mashable wrote about this last month in his post, Video Blogging Is Not The Frontier You Might Expect, where he made the point thatvideo blogging is not the same as traditional text blogging and that it's evolving into the next new territory of social media communication. So who attends the NME? Audience demographics can be viewed here, and the graph below charts the main reasons why they attend.
While I didn't attend the Expo myself I managed to view a few videos around the topic of the video blogging boon. Along with Gary Vee's keynote another favorite was an amazing live demonstration by Will it Blend.
Gary Vee was also later joined by iJustine and Walt Ribeiro for panel session on what's the direction of online video. Ben Parr moderated the live session which was streamed live on Ustream and covered topics like mobile, live mobile streaming, Nokia N95 and Qik are the catalysts, life streaming and privacy vs. meeting everyone is the world.
Gary Vee said that in the mainstream world nobody knows the Internet celebs but give it time, we are the early adopters, live video, Twitter, Friendfeed, lifestreaming - people who have content will rule! You can read Ben Parr's post here or click on the photo to link toview the video below.
Live streaming video by Ustream Also, David Tamés of Kino-Eye.com sat down with Steve Woolf (Epic Fu), Zadi Diaz (Epic Fu), Steve Garfield (SteveGarfield.com), and Walt Ribeiro (Ustream.TV), for a conversation which was planned to be an audio podcast as he says below but turned out as video. Recorded on Saturday, August 16, 2008 topics discussed included "what was best about the show, issues as the big-players enter the space, and Net Neutrality."
The video is 19 minutes and David Tamés shared this about producing the video,
"I had originally planned this to be an audio interview, but when Steve Garfield gave me the video he shot video with his N95, it became a video. When I combined his video and my audio, I was impressed that the audio sync drifted less that a frame from start to end. The N95 is an impressive little camera, suitable for minimalist double-system sound with a digital audio recorder as we used it here."
This video features Tim Bourquin talking about how the NME evolved and where it's going. Watch more videos here.
I read some mixed reviews from some of the attendees which I've listed below and Bourquin himself went on record saying that he may quit the Trade show business altogether. But it doesn't change the fact that many attendees and presenters alike saw video becoming more of niche player in the blogosphere. Related:
