Creative Approaches to Social Change

Maura Minsky, Scenarios USA from Dowser on Vimeo.

Dowser is a media organization that reports on "creative approaches to social change in order to help people understand how to build better communities and a better world." You can't go wrong with that.

Today is the soft launch of their new Web site, so I hope you'll visit them. I edited four short videos for them this year, and the movie above is the first posted online. More soon. Enjoy.

IMDB Web Series Credits

I know a few of you Web producers will be interested in a comment received yesterday from Casey McKinnon (of Galacticast, A Comicbook Orange and Kitkast fame).

She makes it clear: it's time to dust off your Web Series resume and get ready to go through that IMDB submission process. If you recall, she asked Col Needham, IMDb founder and managing director, about this issue and -- to the relief of a zillion video makers -- the answer was yes.

Hi Ted,

The audio file I provided is really only half the story since I went to talk with him one-on-one after the Q&A. He confirmed that it's happening and said that it would roll out in the 2nd or 3rd quarter of this year (anytime between April 1-September 30).

We've been waiting a LONG time for this... looking forward to it.

Best,
Casey

Not yet known, however, is how IMDB will deal with its qualification requirements. I would expect factors will be the size of a program's audience, media coverage, and maybe awards.

So will the Webbys and the Streamys be competing to be the "official" award for Web shows? Will we see credits for daily web shows that list "412 episodes" and will there be a debate about what counts as a "significant" media source? Certainly.

It should be an interesting year....

The Other IMDB Story

There's been a flurry of excitement over the idea of an IMDB category for Web Series (or one-off Web shows).

A few sites are currently reporting that Col Needham, IMDb founder and managing director, has said there will indeed be such a category. For example, Casey McKinnon is reporting exactly that from this year's SXSW fest:

Online Video Categories Coming to IMDb

"The answer is a resounding yes. In the second or third quarter of this year (anytime between April 1st and September 30th), IMDb will roll out the ability to tag a submission as either a web series or an individual (one-off) online video."

I've listened to her audio of the question, though, and it sounds to me as if he says they are "toying with the idea."

I wasn't there, however, and she seems certain -- even presenting that timeline. I do think they'll have to address it, of course -- and I'll be very happy to see it happen. I've got a lot of credits for online work that would be added.

Another discussion of the big picture, written by David Nett, is well worth a read:

IMDB and Web Television

We'll see how this one works out.