MySpace had a great deal of success with their short form webisode, “Prom Queen”. The heavily hyped ode to teenage drama drew over 15 million streams during its run and is gearing up for another season. MySpace is looking to take the format to the streets, now soliciting film makers for their own shorts with a chance at earning some money. It’s part of a series of new ideas MySpace has been trying, which earlier this week included a user generated comic.
MySpace and the Producers Guild of America have launched a contest called “The Storyteller Challenge”. The contest will solicit 5-7 minute television pilots from film makers. The entires will be displayed on a dedicated MySpace community page beginning September 4th, 2007. The top two winning entries will each get $25,000 and an opportunity for a development deal with FOX. The top two entries will be picked based on a combination of user ratings and an expert panel from the producer’s guild. The finalists will be weeded out over the course of two rounds ending January 6th and January 25th of next year.
The winning videos could be featured on MySpace Film and MySpaceTV. According to ComScore, MySpace properties drive 39% of video streams.
The new program is similar to what the freshly relaunched Crackle is trying to do by dangling production deals in front of aspiring actors and directors. While most video sites have abdicated viral video to YouTube, professional content is still a booming market. Contests with the lure of fame and fortune are an efficient way to pull new talent from the crowds on the cheap. It’s a good time to be a film student.
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This is a good idea - but there is an inherent problem with this media.
Seeing a video as a stream on a computer as a 6 minute short means little time for character development and most likely will result in instant shock or sex appeal and stereotyped personalities. Forget about subtlety or complex character development or even intriguing plots.
You have just 30 seconds to get their attention and interest at the most otherwise they will leave
Its great to see the major networks leverage their audience to help support aspiring talent. That is essentially the model that Famesource.com was built upon - connect talent with fans and provide tools to helps members gain the exposure they deserve.
Allen Vartazarian, co-founder
Famesource.com - Claim your fame!
http://www.famesource.com
nice post
I’ve been featured on MySpaceTV AND YouTube so far, and I can definitely say that being featured on MySpace helps you gain tons of exposure. The video that they featured from my series received over 300,000 video views within a day.
I’ll most likely enter this contest.
http://www.dateunknown.com
Isn’t this a total rip-off of “The Prom Queens” from Z.com, back in the day?
Big media co’s put their toe in the water. Finally!
Rumor is there is a new Sub $1500 HD Hard Drive Cam, hitting the market that also works with Mac FCP workflow…
When the media production chain and bogus upload via our broadband providers breaks free, then we will see the big floodgates crack open..
2 more years….
Good to see you in Seattle Mike. Nice day. T.
News Corp buying Myspace for $580 million will go down as one of the largest merger-and-acquisition scandals in U.S. history. MySpace will be worth more than $10 billion in five years time. News Corp got an amazing discount as it only paid pennies for MySpace. News Corp was able to do that as it did not inform MySpace’s shareholders that MySpace’s revenues were growing at 1200 per cent. Murdoch is a cheat and a crook. The founders got ripped off big time. It was an eye popping theft.
Louis, make some sense. “News Corp did not inform MySpace’s shareholders that MySpace’s revenues were growing at 1200 per cent.” Why would MySpace shareholders need News Corp to tell them how their own company was growing?
Stock,
The MySpace shareholders didn’t know about the potential of their firm. Intermix CEO Richard Rosenblatt witheld information on the true worth of MySpace as he was acting in collusion with those asses Murdoch and Levinsonh. The MySpace shareholders were led to believe that MySpace was unable to turn its traffic into revenues which was totally wrong.
Contest are also a good way to bring attention to something that does not deserve attention.
A REAL contest:
Let’s have contest to see which BIG DOG could raise the most money to improve the quality of education in URBAN areas.
Did you know that some students don’t have working bathrooms in their schools ?
We must create Education 2.0 or or improve Education 1.0!
MySpace will be around in 5 years time, I doubt itll be worth 10 billion. Simply because new and better things will overcome MySpace. No matter what MySpace does, it’s a fad. Unless they make some serious changes over the next couple of years… and a stupid TV series isnt going to cut the cake for that.
Eh, this is alright, I guess. http://www.cavenger.com is waaaay better though. I’d rather watch Entourage on there anyday than watch some stupid girls homemade videos
Ahh, I for one am not big on shorts. They take too much time to find and end too quickly.
hi i enjoyed the read