Saturday, March 24, 2007

Brin 2.0: Revolutionizing Video Podcasting!

To see Thomas Brin in action, visit the official movie site at: Adventures of Thomas Brin

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About two weeks ago I posted this article about TBE3 production statistics. If you have not yet read it, please do.

The obvious conclusion from that article (and not-too-subtle statement on my part) is that for the Adventures of Thomas Brin vodcast cinema series to continue, there will have to be some big changes in the overall production workflow. Clearly I cannot spend 750 hours of my time producing and post-producing each new episode. Although I have no problem with putting that much time into the series since that is what it takes in this day and age of new media to get something started and noticed by the world, I do realize that going forward, it will not be sustainable.

Fans want Thomas Brin to continue. In fact, most fans want TB to be released more frequently than twice a year. In fact in fact (yes, a double "in fact" is like saying P.P.S. at the end of a letter), for Thomas Brin to realize its full potential as an Internet movie phenomenon, future episodes will have to be released more quickly.

I mean, who wants to subscribe to a fun scifi video podcast if it only comes out once every 6 months? It's like waiting all summer for the next episode of Lost, or for the conclusion to the season-ending Stargate SG1. If fans had to wait that long between each new episode do you think Lost or Stargate SG1 would be hits? Of course not.

But, those two very successful shows have large production budgets and a large team of people helping out. That is why old media held sway in the content creation arena. But times are quickly changing. Web 2.0 technologies are providing new ways in which content can be collaboratively created. What's even more impressive is that the overall quality of new media content is improving daily. In the not too distant future, new media visionaries will be creating high-quality broadband content on par with old media studios. The big difference will be that overall production cost will be much lower thanks to the power and flexibility of the new media tools and paradigms.

Introducing Brin 2.0

Brin 2.0 is a revolutionary new paradigm in the video podcasting arena. It is an open-source-like project where viewers from around the world can get involved in the production of future episodes of the Adventures of Thomas Brin. It's a way for fans to get involved directly with production efforts.

As more people with appropriate skills get involved with Brin 2.0, more episodes can be produced (and released!) in a shorter amount of time.

Brin 2.0 may very well be the first of its kind--a new media vodcast property that is globally produced! It is new media by the people and for the people!

To learn more about Brin 2.0, visit the Brin 2.0 page.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Thomas Brin: Episode 3 Production Results

To see Thomas Brin in action, visit the official movie site at: Adventures of Thomas Brin

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All Thomas Brin fans have now had a month to experience TBE3--that's Thomas Brin Episode 3 for all new fans. I was looking at the post-production logs to see how E3 differed from E1 & E2. The most obvious difference from a production/post-production workflow viewpoint was the sheer number of hours it took to bring E3 to fruition. TBE3 took just over 750 hours to produce. Since it runs almost 9 minutes, that equates to 83.33 hours of production time per minute of finished content. Holy cow!

Okay, I know that right away something peculiar sticks out. You're probably asking, "Do you really keep production logs?" The truth is, no. I keep scribbles and cryptic notes to myself on my ever-increasing pile of legal-ruled pads. But, they serve as my style of logs and I do have a very good idea about how many hours I put into producing TB. After all, once the actors have done their thing in the 2 days of shooting, the entire post-production responsibilities fall on my shoulders. I do all the animations and background mattes, composite the scenes, create the score, edit the final sequence, encode the movies, and program and maintain the website.

The real question your asking is how one person can do all of that, how I can afford to spend 750 hours of producing something that is viewed for free?

The answer is I can't afford to put that much time into Thomas Brin. I mean, the average employee in the United States works 2,080 hours per year. So, E3 took 36% of one-person's yearly worktime!

However, as a new media visionary (yes, self adulation) who heads a new media company (yes, self promotion), putting in long hours on projects that have yet to pay off is just part of the game. Besides, I don't work a 40 hour week. It's more like 100+ hours per week, every week. So, that means for TBE3, I used about 14% of my workyear.

But, it is clear that I cannot afford to release two episodes a year if each new episode is going to personally take me 750 total hours of production time--which it certainly will take if not longer. So, what's the answer to this production dilemma? Stay tuned for exciting news on a new initiative that I'll be announcing in two weeks.

Thanks for Watching!

Jeff Sayre
CEO & President
SayreMedia.com