The Secrets of Their Success
"In the season one finale, Donnie finally got some perspective on his life and decided to vanish, and we were able to use the vanishing point tool," Hitch says. "In 4 minutes, we were still able to give a very good, clear tutorial on how to use it. But it was also a really strong metaphor for what was happening with Donnie’s psychoses at the moment."
You Suck at Photoshop—which aired its first episode in December 2007 and has been viewed more than 20 million times total—is financed by My Damn Channel, which contracted Hitch and Bledsoe’s production company, Big Fat Brain, LLC, for original content. Under the site’s model, Big Fat Brain maintains ownership of its shows, but My Damn Channel can exclusively license them for a period of time, Hitch says.
"Rob Barnett, who started My Damn Channel, is an old media exec from back in the day at MTV and VH1 and CBS," he says. "He decided to create My Damn Channel with the intent of giving complete freedom to the artists. No notes, like Hollywood is wont to do, and just stand back and let the creators create great stuff."
The show is filmed as a screencast, which means viewers cannot see anything but Hoyle’s computer screen as he performs various Photoshop tasks and berates audience members for their lack of skill. This lo-fi approach has its limitations, but Hitch says he enjoys pushing screencasts to the limit in terms of storytelling, introducing characters through chats on Facebook and Skype and inserting subtle jokes and references for astute audience members to pick up on.
"I think that the web is positioned to be able to have that alternative storytelling going on," Hitch says. "Production value rarely comes into play."
The screencast format also gives the show a more "intimate" feel, according to Hitch, allowing him to build a loyal fan base of about 300,000 Hoyle fanatics by engaging them directly. (For example, when Hoyle put his wedding ring up for auction on eBay in episode four, the listing received more than 50,000 views in 4 hours and prompted a lengthy Q&A session.) Hitch says he enjoys this kind of audience interaction and, as a result, is uninterested in moving away from the internet.
"We’re not really interested in any medium but the web for that exact purpose because, in 2009, the idea of this dynamic distributed storytelling trumps any other medium out there, and particularly TV," he says.
Tony Valenzuela: Freedom Fighter
When Tony Valenzuela began developing 2009: A True Story in the summer of 2007, the fear of terrorism was palpable, and Barack Obama wasn’t even expected to win the Democratic primary, much less the presidency. Valenzuela himself also seemed an unlikely candidate for breakout success on the web, working as the creative director for an advertising agency focused on the entertainment industry. Still, after meeting a friend’s 18-year-old niece, who had attended a beer bust in honor of Saddam Hussein’s hanging, Valenzuela got the inspiration he needed to do just that.
Figure 6.Tony Valenzuela (left), creator of 2009: A True Story, and Jeff Hunt, director of photography, work out a scene. The series, which debuted in April 2008, focuses on Sara, an 18-year-old girl living in California after several new terrorist attacks devastate the U.S.
2009, which debuted in April 2008 and has amassed more than 5 million total views, focuses on Sara, an 18-year-old girl living in California after several new terrorist attacks devastate the U.S. The story is told mostly through webcam messages in which she directly addresses the audience, an approach necessitated by the show’s low budget, which totaled $25,000, according to Valenzuela.
"I think letting your budget be your aesthetic is an important part of creativity," he says. "I think that if I would’ve said, ‘Here’s the part where all of the army shows up, and there’s 50 tanks or whatever,’ I didn’t really have the budget to do that. So the webcam was me speaking to the audience in a way that they understand and using a method that they all use."In the show, the U.S. government begins doing away with various personal liberties as the terrorist threat grows larger. But for Valenzuela, the experience was all about freedom. He eschewed outside funding and monetization, supplying the show’s budget entirely on his own and showing no advertisements to ensure that he could follow the story wherever it took him. He says the very nature of the internet also helped, as, while working in advertising, he saw many shows get "democratically neutered" by the large number of stakeholders and interests involved in any one project. He says internet content creators don’t have to worry about this because there are usually fewer people involved in a web series. For example, when Valenzuela wanted to change the ending of Green Eyed World, a new web series currently airing on YouTube, he had to call only one person and was told to follow his gut.
"It’s that direct contact," he says. "It got done, and the ending was better. I didn’t have to call 10 people. I didn’t have three pages of notes on the change."
Valenzuela is "a huge believer in YouTube," and while 2009 does have its own website, visitors are pushed to YouTube when they want to watch a video. Furthermore, Green Eyed World has its own branded YouTube page that features links to star Katie Vogel’s music, a Facebook discussion window, and more. For Valenzuela, this is the way of the future.
"I believe that YouTube is the destination," he says. "Creating all these subportals, it kind of makes us feel better that we have these main pages that are really cool. But at the end of the day, it’s about getting people in one place focused to enjoy the experience."