Flooding The Market

     The Internet I both love and hate you equally. For all the great things you have done for me you just might be my undoing. I am happy to say that being a writer on the Internet is great. I can say whatever I want get some feedback from people and even make a little money. I also run a web entertainment channel that I write and direct shows for. I also make some money from this. The Internet on personal level has done a lot for me. It's allowed me to find some work, build an audience, and to produce the TV shows I've always wanted to make. Heck, I even got a few viewers out of it. What more could I want?

Actually I would like a lot more. Yes, I get to do all this. All the while still working a regular job. This isn't me complaining this is me telling you about the struggle. I produce web series. I've been doing this for almost five years now. And I've gotten a little notoriety for it. And that's it. In the mean time every single writer, director, actor, funny guy from your office has decided they want to make videos for the web. Any moron can go on to have a million views on YouTube because they did something nauseatingly stupid. I would kill for a couple million views. It would be the pay off for all the years of hard work I've put in. It would also give me that foot in the door that I need to move on to the next level. Every time I read about a overnight sensation on the web it's ninety-nine percent of the time someone who never intended for this to happen. Which also means they inevitably don't know what to do next and just become a quick joke on Tosh 2.0. Great show but also extremely sad from a professional point of view.

Not to mention that all these little web companies are not only competing against each other but also the sad idiot from down the block, not to mention the fact that all the big names in comedy decide to create a site that would completely marginalize anyone else doing web series. Funny or Die has some produced some great videos that have gone on to be seen by millions of viewers. It also helps to get viewers if your videos can star the biggest people in comedy. Sadly I do not have Will Ferrell number on my speed dial or he would be starring in every sketch I could get him to be in. This is inherently the problem the web for filmmakers was the one last place to get your stuff seen and to connect with an audience. The film festival routes for most people is a dead end. You could go work in LA and after about twenty years of getting coffee maybe they'll let you get your hands on a TV show. The Internet was our last ditch effort to build our careers. Except it has now been invaded by major Hollywood studios and the biggest names in the business. It's hard for a small shop to compete no matter how good your business. If you run a hardware store and Home Depot decides to open right next door who do you think is going to win out.

Let's face it every person making content on the Internet is doing it for the viewer. This has created a saturation level of the highest level. With so many people asking for your attention and time it's hard for a viewer to make a decision. More than likely they are just going to go with name and person they recognize. Even on Facebook a place where we can connect with our friends and family is too over saturated. Not a day goes by that I get three of four people asking me to join there Kickstarter campaign or go see there play. I am given too many choices and options so I just end up doing nothing or going with the most obvious choice. Because we are always posting and blabbing about every little thing we do in our lives that when we actually need people's attention it no longer matters. The Internet is a bunch of people screaming please look at me. If you walked into a place that was filled with people screaming that you would walk back out.

The other problem that has arisen from all this content plastered everywhere on the Internet people have come to expect constant material. We are competing with everyone else for there time. So the only way to keep it is to keep churning out funnier and funnier videos all the time. It's easy enough to keep pace for a while. But to produce content that is above a YouTube level it costs money and time. And since no one is really making money yet off the Internet; this means a lot. My company we produce a lot comparatively but if we have to take week or two off for work or money related problems the viewership when you come back is almost half. The Internet has a created a very fickle viewer. We have to be giving them content all the time or we aren't worth there time. This is both unfair and unreasonable. But yet the only way to keep up is trying and give the viewer what they want.

So this is the frustrations of creating content that matters on the Internet. And if we don't support the ones that are doing something different than your usual talking head YouTube video, then eventually that's all you are going to get. Be on the lookout for creators making content that is a little above the standard fare. Tell people about them. Or in ten years the Internet will be nothing but low level idiots next door. Or the exact trash Hollywood already produces except filtered out of a hundred channels. Don't let the one last outlet cheap creative outlet being drowned out in sea of mediocrity.