From Prom Queen, Hope for Original Online Content Springs
Prom Queen was a nifty little experiment. It’s a show (regular humans would call it a TV show or web show, geeks might call it original episodic online video content) about high school kids, a soapy trendy mystery thriller for the Generation Y set. Each episode is a briskly paced 90 seconds, and new ones were rolled out one a day for its inaugural season. There were about 90 episodes in all published over a 12-week schedule earlier this year.
The popularity of the show – more than 15 million streams according to NewTeeVee – has led to increased interest in creating video content that premieres online.
TechCrunch reports that MySpace and the Producers Guild of America are collaborating on “The Storyteller Challenge,” a contest that will feature short (5-7 minutes) pilot episodes created by the public, or a fancy dressed up way to say that they’re looking for good (and cheap) user generated content that might be able to sail as the next Prom Queen. It sounds like The Storyteller Challenge will be similar in some ways to Fox TV’s On the Lot, a reality show that features aspiring directors competing against one another. In fact, Storyteller winners will be awarded $25,000 and given a shot at signing a deal with Fox television, on top of getting their stuff featured on MySpace Video.
The Fox/MySpace team may be trying to compile a “user generated” funnel to grab talented directors and shows, premiere them online, and then take the best ones and put them on television.
NewTeeVee sums up the story very well:
The truth is, MySpace (and any other popular social network) is a great medium for building audiences for shows, especially online shows where maintaining character profiles and such comes naturally. And while the web is growing saturated with online video contests, this one still offers enough exposure, moolah, and chance for a deal to turn a few heads. However, bringing a show out of its web pilot and onto TV is a shaky proposition.
In the meantime, it has been announced that Prom Queen has been picked up for a second season.
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