This is why Barrett’s awesome. That, and he got reblogged by Wil Wheaton last week. Next thing you know, some restaurant will be naming a menu item after him.
Webseries Poker: Playing Your Cards Right
“I had Kings…” - Neal Bannen
If you know how to play poker - Texas Hold ‘Em specifically - you’re gonna be ok for this post. If not, well, it might not make much sense. You’ve been warned.
The impetus of this idea, as is often the case with ideas, was the convergence of two disparate events; in this case, a long and excellent webseries discussion with the Maestro, Tom Konkle (Safety Geeks: SVI, Invention with Brian Forbes) followed by the train home during which, like all my train rides home, I occupied myself with my Blackberry’s poker app.
I went on a run of pocket 2’s and 3’s. Three hands in a row I was dealt either a pair of twos or a pair of threes. “I wish those were aces,” thinks I, and the part of my brain that does math (always the slowest and least exercised cavity of my mind) points out that statistically you’re just as likely to be dealt pocket aces as you are pocket 2’s (221:1 - I looked it up). Each is just as likely, and yet it’s a whole lot easier to win with aces than to win with deuces. That’s the game.
“Profound,” thinks I, automatically downplaying any dismay I might feel over having been playing poker for years and this is just now occurring to me. “There’s a lesson in that, but what?”
It’s not that you can’t win with twos, it’s just far far less likely. Winning with pocket twos, even for the masters, requires an overwhelming confluence of playing skill and luck.
What does this have to do with webseries? Well, this is what I came up with:
Your Show is Your Hand
We’ve all heard the old adage about playing the hand that you’re dealt. It’s a bad adage, really. Almost any poker player can tell you that you should only play the hands you think you can win with. In general, you fold 7-2 and you play Ace-King suited. The goal of playing the hand is to win it, so most good players choose not to make that any harder than it already is. Fold your bad ideas, know when you can get away with placing your bet on 10-J, and don’t be afraid to wait for a monster hand to come up before putting all your chips in. There are very few people in this world that can play any hand and still make money.
The Medium is the Deck
In this medium, all cards are identical until the hand is played. Online video gives you the basic tools of the game. It tells you that you have 2 through Ace of Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades to work with. And yet, those basic tools lead to a staggering number of possible hands and play styles.
You Are the Player
Seems obvious, right? There are elements in this industry, however, that want to convince you otherwise. They’ll tell you that you are the hand and they will bet on you or fold you at their whim. They’ve set up an elaborate table and have convinced you that the only way to get on it is to be the hand. With the internet, this deception has never been more transparent. YOU were ALWAYS the Player, and the hand was always your SHOW. In the old model, creators were convinced that the only way to win (or even sit down) was to let someone else play their hands for them. The explosion of creativity that has led to the IAWTV, YouTube’s creator driven community, and the proliferation of online shows stems from a dawning realization that you, the creator, are the Player and you always have been. Many of us make shows and put them online for no (or almost no) money because it reminds us thet we’re in control of the hand, not the industry.
The Industry is the Board
The Board, otherwise aptly known as the community cards, make up 3/5ths of your hand. If the flop, turn, and river are working in your favor, your two cards become unbeatable. If they’re working against you, even the best starting hand can lose.
The ideal job of the distributors, agents, management, unions, guilds, and organizations like the IAWTV, is to lay out the most beneficial community (cards) possible. If the board is four Aces and a King, every hand wins and splits the pot. That’s idealistic in webseries and poker, however. What we can work for in building this space is to do our best to ensure that none of community cards are actively busting our flushes.
Marketing is the Playing Skill
When two players face off with identical hands, it’s inevitably the player with the most skill who wins. Likewise, between two similar shows the one that does a better job of getting out there and garnering attention is the one that will come out on top. Good marketing can make a lesser hand a winner. You can win with pocket 2s, but you’re going to have to play your ass off. And you’re going to have to get some kind of luck on your side, because…
Luck is Still Luck
It was tempting when considering this analogy to equate the audience with luck. Afterall, like luck, the audience can seem fickle and difficult to keep on your side. However, in the end, even the best hand played perfectly will often still need some luck to really win big. Luck is still luck. And the audience?
The Audience Just Wants to be Entertained
No matter what goes into how you play the game; how many books you read, how much you practice, how how much work and sleepless nights you put into it… at the end of the day, most of the audience just wants to see a great hand played brilliantly. Sure, some of your fans are aspiring pros trying to learn from your example, and those will be the ones you probably talk to most often as they hunt you down to pick your brains for tips and the minutiae of your grand strategy, but that’s the minority. Most of them, they could care less why you’d play Q-10 on the button but not on the blind. If you want the audience on your side, don’t make showing them your process the most important thing, focus on giving them what they want.
Give them a great hand played brilliantly, and they’ll be entertained. They’ll want to see you win.
Now then, who’s up for an East Coast New Media poker night?
Establishing a brand identity for an industry: What is a Webseries?
After many conversations on branding, outreach, and education for the webseries industry, I’m happy to announce my intention to launch a new community project, http://whatisawebseries.com, a web site that serves a very basic purpose: it answers the all too common question “What is a Webseries?”
The simple truth is we need an easy to remember location that provides an explanation of what it is we do, whether for our families and friends, the media, future creators, or potential sponsors and investors.
WiaW will serve as an encyclopedia with only one entry… a university with only one subject. In it’s most basic, top level form, it will be a place for the idly curious to grasp in a few seconds the concept behind our industry. Eventually, I would like the site to become a comprehensive overview of the industry and its history.
I can really only work on it on weekends at this point (this project is unaffiliated with CJP, and my work there comes first), but I hope to have the site launched within a few weeks – at least in a basic form (this is what a webseries is, these are some examples of shows, these are a few sites you can watch them on).
In the meantime, anyone who would like to help with the project is welcome to contact me. Help with writing content, graphic design, or coding are all appreciated.
Prior to the site going live, I welcome your thoughts and input on the project. I’ve created a FB fan page with a Discussions tab for an ongoing discussion of what content the site should have, and how that content will be organized. You can find it here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/What-is-a-Webseries/133448053356220
The site also has a Twitter account for announcements, just follow http://twitter.com/WhatsaWebseries
In order to mitigate the costs of developing, launching, and maintaining the site, I’ve created a modest crowdfunding project on IndieGoGo. Obviously, supporting the site with a financial contribution is not required. However, as an incentive to helping me get this off the ground, I’m pre-selling ad spots for webseries shows for anyone who contributes $50 or more. (The site will NOT be for profit or ad supported, I’m putting ads for shows on the site to help you promote your work and use your show as an example for visitors of the site, similar to what I did with Broadcast Assassin.)
If you don’t have your own show (or even if you do, I guess) you can certainly reserve ad space on behalf of a show you like but aren’t involved with.
The IndieGoGo project can be found here:
http://www.indiegogo.com/What-is-a-Webseries
I’ll be making the site available to the IAWTV Communications Committee for certain things, if they wish, and welcome the Standards Committee to leverage the site for passing along whatever recommendations they eventually arrive at. Additionally, I will be exploring possible ways to integrate the site with Clicker’s web originals directory, WebTVdb (when that gets going full steam), the broadband content networks, and the community at large.
This is not my project, really. It belongs to and benefits all of us. I’m just taking the initiative and getting the ball rolling.
And when the site is live, not only will the industry finally have an outlet for branding itself, but we’ll finally have an easy answer the next time someone asks us “Webseries? What’s that?’
The Delicious Scent of IAWTV
Two quick unrelated notes:
1) The Los Angeles IAWTV meeting is tonight. Based on Tuesday’s NY meeting, most of the time will likely be spent on the newly announced committees and establishing a structure for electing replacement board members. The IAWTV letter discussing the new committees and their functions, originally intended for members but leaked and published on WebSeriesNetwork.com, is excerpted below.
Now that the IAWTV is gearing up to really take some action and solicit the active involvement of its membership, I’m really interested to see what the buy-in from the LA side of the community is like. The committees, if supported by the membership and greater webseries community, have the potential to be important catalysts propelling things forward, with knowledgeable industry vets at the wheel.
2) Want to know what’s catching my attention? I’m still getting into the habit of using it regularly, but you can check out what’s been catching my eye by taking a peek at my new Delicious bookmarking profile: http://delicious.com/broadcastassassin
-Jeff
Letter from Elizabeth Flack, IAWTV Exec. Director, to IAWTV Membership:
Dear Academy Members,
My sincerest thanks for everyone’s support and patience during the
last couple weeks, while we prepared a plan to move the Academy
forward. At last Friday's Board meeting the formation of five key
committees, which are vital to helping the Academy become operational,
were approved. The committees are:
Awards
Communications
Events
Industry Standards
Technologies
We’ll also be reactivating the Membership Committee to begin reviewing
new applicants and addressing concerns surrounding the current
application process.
For those of you who have already volunteered, I will be in touch in
touch shortly about how you can start helping right away with work on
these committees. For members who have yet to volunteer, if you are
inspired to donate your time and expertise to one of these committees,
please feel free to contact me at (REDACTED).
...(snipped)...
In the near future the Academy will be calling for nominations and
holding elections to fill the open Board seats for the rest of the
term which expires at the end of this year, so please keep an eye on
your email and the member forum for election information.
And last, but not least, don’t forget to mark your calendars for the
next membership meetings in New York and Los Angeles, where we will be
talking more in depth about moving the organization forward.
IAWTV Membership Meeting – New York
June 15, 2010 @ 2:00pm (EST)
IAWTV Membership Meeting – Los Angeles
June 17, 2010 @ 7:00pm (PST)
Best,
E
--
Elisabeth A. Flack
Executive Director
International Academy of Web Television
