Streaming Media West 2009 Red Carpet Interview - Zadi Diaz, Epic Fu

In this Streaming Media West 2009 Red Carpet interview, host Peter Cervieri of ScribeMedia.org sits down with Zadi Diaz, new media producer and co-founder of Smashface Productions, her production company with husband Steve Woolf. She is co-creator and host of EPIC FU, the award-winning web series about internet culture, as well as co-founder of Pixelodeon, a screening festival recognizing innovation in global online video.

Zadi talks about the growing pains felt by the web television industry and how her show built a community and grew from into a full-time job. In 2006, her small production company began making web shows, called JET SET then, which they distributed through multiple video sharing sites. They wanted to make what they were passionate about a career find partners to help with the business and marketing. Distribution was a time-consuming task several years ago, but when TubeMogul came along they were able to better reach their audience who were on a number of different sites.

In 2007, they entered into a distribution and sponsorship agreement with Next New Networks who gave them a licensing fee for each episode. They moved to Revision3 the following year in June 2008 with other web shows like Wine Library TV, but parted ways in December 2008 after the Revision3 restructured programming. Currently, Epic Fu is independently run and distributed through Blip.tv, and Smashmouth productions is busy working on a number of interactive web projects including J!NX Television Spots, PBS and Hacking Hollywood.

Zadi appeared as a panelist on Streaming Media West 2009 panel session, Web Television Comes of Age, in which she and moderator by Marc Hustvedt, Co-Founder, Tubefilter & Editor-in-Chief, Tubefilter News, Tubefilter and other panelists Thom Woodley, Partner, Chief Creative Officer, Dinosaur Diorama, Jenni Powell, New Media Consultant (LonelyGirl15, The Guild, Legend of Neil) and Brent Friedman, Co-Founder, Electric Farm Entertainment (The Gemini Division, Afterworld) discussed what it takes to create, market and sell a web television series. The TV Worldwide has a video of the session here and an embeddable version will be available on Streaming Media.com/videos in the coming weeks.

Look for more Red Carpet interviews coming soon!

Introducing Streaming Media TV

Today, Streamingmedia.com launched their new portal for original video content, Streaming Media TV, featuring the first episodes of two new shows: Bandwidth Bastards, a weekly collection of commentary and news analysis from Nico McLane and A.M. Arno, and Jan Ozer's Peer Review, which will analyze how top video sites are doing in production categories such as background, lighting and exposure, audio, editing, and encoding. Since it was founded in 1998, Streaming Media has been dedicated to providing education and information to industry professionals and corporations in the utilization of digital media technology through its three core business areas: StreamingMedia.com, exhibitions and conferences, and research and publications. For over 10 years, StreamingMedia.com has become the premier online destination for professionals seeking industry news, information, articles, directories and services. The site features thousands of original articles, hundreds of hours of audio/video content (comprised mainly of conference archives and audio podcasts), breaking news, research reports, industry directory, and case studies that showcase the latest real-world streaming media implementations.

But over the years many have wondered -- with all this wealth of information about online video and streaming -- where's the original video programing? Well, the answer to that is Streaming Media TV.



I spoke with Streaming Media Publisher Joel Unickow about the launch of Streaming Media TV and he has this to say:

"We've actually been publishing videos on the site for over 10 years now, but the most recent sessions from our shows like SMEast and SMWest are found on the Audio/Video Archive section of the site, since they are most timely and relevant to today. Our writers have been expressing great interest in running their own webisode shows on our site for some time, and they are doing a great job with their content, both in print and now in video. Eric, our editor, has been the real spearhead for the initiative. We see StreamingMediaTV as way of adding a new dimension of coverage, of the space itself.

We've been barked at for a while to get this going, I mean, let's face it, this is StreamingMedia.com, so expect to see more video coverage including how-to tutorials, reviews, interviews and opinion video. We hope that our viewers will send in their comments and suggestions so we can provide the best programming that suits their needs - we are listening."