Reel Pop

First Impressions: Hulu

Hulu, the long-awaited "answer to YouTube" co-venture between News Corp and NBC, launched in private beta this week. You can get a full rundown of Hulu's features from any number of sites. Here, I'd like to draw out the most powerful characteristics of the site:

Hulu vs YouTube
Comparing these two sites is a nuanced proposition. On the surface, they have little in common. Both allow you to view and share videos. But while YouTube offers user uploads, comments, and social networking features, Hulu is almost entirely presentational. Despite Silicon Valley's insistence that social networking features are tantamount to success, I would argue that 80% of consumers simply want to watch free video without comments or clutter. Hulu gives them that, and does it much better than any of the individual network sites. In fact, it does it better than YouTube. The basic competive landscape between then two sites is simple (see graphic below).

The real comparison between Hulu and YouTube is on the business level, i.e., will Hulu be a more profitable advertising machine for the networks than YouTube? I'm willing to bet the answer is yes, but only marginally. What Hulu really does is give the networks self-sufficiency in the online marketplace, thereby freeing them to be more aggressive in negotiations with YouTube, both in and out of the courtroom.

The Good Stuff for Consumers

1. Custom Embeds. Can't stress how important this is. The very fact that you can embed videos opens Hulu to a wide audience. Even better: You can custom-cut a section from a video to create your own clip (kinda like vidshare site Motionbox). What this does is empower the audience in a way previously accessible only to dedicated video editors. It will create discussions around single moments -- like, say, Miss South Carolina stumbling through an answer, or Jan saying something particularly funny on The Office.
2. Timeline Jumping. Extremely easy to jump to different parts of a video without the inconvenience of buffering.
3. Multiple channels/shows. Good out of the box selection: Fox, NBC, FX, SciFi, Bravo, E!, Fuel, USA, others.
4. Ease of use. A very simple, uncluttered interface that makes browsing and searching for titles easy. This is very important, because basically the networks are competing for the attention of consumers who want something for free. As one of those consumers, I have several choices: Bittorrent, YouTube, a variety of video-sharing sites, download on iTunes, Amazon UnBox, etc. Among those Hulu, hands down, offers the best combination of price and quality.

The Bad Stuff for Consumers

1. Time limits. You can only view the last five shows from a currently running TV program. Probably done to protect syndication revenue and DVD sales. Understandable, but not good enough. Hulu's forcing consumers into a course of action, the options of which include downloading illegally. Why not make it easy to download legally for a price?
2. Few movies. Only ten or so. Although they do have Conan the Librarian.
3. A few anemic features. Especially the "details" option on the player, which offers very little information, just like the "info" button on most cable boxes. Why not provide links to Wikipedia, or an in-house store of information about the video?

And now: Conan.

Japanese commercials with American actors

Via VSL, a YouTube repository of Japanese commercials featuring Ben Stiller, Hulk Hogan, Kiefer Sutherland, and other Hollywood stars hawking goods in 30-second spots. Below, Kiefer as Jack Bauer in a commercial for an energy drink.

Review: MySpace's Roommates

MySpace's Roommates rips off The Hills. That's ok. It doesn't take a wonder of production profundity -- or some special insight into the mammalian psyche-slash-boxer shorts -- to make apple-cheeked, pearl-teethed, nubile girls in bikinis alluring, bankable fare. It's simple T&A. No, no, wait. It's T&A and -- this being MySpace -- it's also interactive.

Let's start there. Roommates is a scripted faux reality show about eight post-college girls (four in an LA house, four mysteriously cavorting elsewhere) that promises character profiles, vlogs, and the opportunity for the audience to affect the storyline. IOW: You get to tell hot girls on camera what to do. Sort of like webcam stripping, but with a thin patina of MySpace respectability and a major advertiser (Ford).

There isn't much of a story so far to interact with. The season opens with a short introduction to the girls, who prance around their house in booty shorts and lingerie. There's a tiny dog. The girls fart on each other. That's episode one. Episode two's a girl's-night-in party which ends, apparently, with one of the girls (Heather) going out afterwards and hooking up. We find that out in episode three, in which the girls talk in the kitchen. Episode four: The girls watch TV. Episode five: The girls play in the hot tub. If you suspect I'm not doing the story justice, simple say "peace out, bitches" five times and you've reiterated the entirety of the dialogue.

There is one other component to the story. According to the storyline, the person filming Roommates is a pleasant looking fella named Justin, the girls' best male friend from college. Justin doesn't appear on camera. He doesn't talk. He's just always there. Kinda like Tom on MySpace.

If there's one thing that will save Roommates from complete mediocrity, it will be the interactive component. One worries, though, that this time MySpace is relying too much on that, to the detriment of creating something an audience would want to interact with in the first place.

[view the site | read about Roommates at hollywoodreporter.com]

No such thing as oblivious

There's a local-kid-makes-good story going round today about how an 18-year-old London student's YouTube vid about the iPhone was picked up by Apple's ad agency. The heartwarming lesson: Normal people can be advertisers, too. Or something.

Really? This story seems implausible. Or, at the very least, disingenuous. First of all, according to the NY Times story, the video had only been viewed 2,000 times before it was picked up by Apple. Hmm. Some marketing peon must've had a hard time upselling that idea based upon such a small popularity base. Or maybe he didn't, since the video is so similar to/derivative of Apple's current style of advertising. Either way, Apple's decision to incorporate UGC is little more than a PR stunt.

And then there's this myth of the oblivious multi-media producer who toils away out of pure "passion." There's no such thing as a person who doesn't understand the global reach of YouTube. YouTube may have been a means for sharing amongst friends at one point, but anyone who posts to the site now must know they're sharing with a tremendous audience. Everyone's hoping to get discovered, whether they admit it or not.

Interaction vs. storytelling?

After reading Rex Sorgatz's excellent article in Wired on our increasingly game-based reality, I was struck by how much this ethos has infected online video. IOW, interaction is sometimes being used in lieu of story development. Examples: Vuguru's Prom Queen, MySpace's Faintheart, MySpace's Roommates, and any show (online or otherwise) that promotes social networking or user-created components. While it's too early to make any definitive judgements in this regard, it's certainly a possibility that networks are starting to see user interaction as a proxy for story creation. It's kinda the same dynamic as reality TV vs. scripted. Cheaper. More profitable. Easily digestible. And utterly flattering.

The Venice Walk

Since you've been wondering what happened to Bob Hegyes after Welcome Back Kotter, let me disabuse you of any hope that he's made good by pointing you towards his magnificently horrendous new show, The Venice Walk.

From the press release: Anti-O.C. Teenagers on Probation. Bad kids getting Badder. And who better to tame new age juvenile delinquents than an older aged juvenile delinquent? He’s not a Crip. He’s not a Blood. He’s a Sweathog! Robert Hegyes, Epstein from Welcome Back, Kotter, a veteran actor, writer and director, has created a new series for the Internet with partner and feature film scribe, Craig Titley (Sam Raimi’s upcoming remake of 20 Thousand Leagues Under The Sea) revolving around a retired NYPD Gang cop turned Venice Beach Juvenile Probation Officer, and the seven Venice High School delinquents who must report to him.

Break a Leg

A friend at Slate forwarded this online comedy series to me today. Swingers + Gamblers  = Swamblers. Plus a Scandinavian guy named Jennifer. Recommended.

Chevalier + Darjeeling = what exactly?

This is amazing. Next week theatres will begin to show Anderson's 20-minute Hotel Chevalier prequel before Darjeeling. I reviewed Chevalier for Reporter a few weeks ago. In brief: There's awkward conversation, talk of feelings, and no resolution. The short ends. It's kind of like a Raymond Carver short story, if Carver's stories were illustrated by Dr. Seuss. Or maybe Chris Ware?

There's no immediate lesson to be learned from the studio's/Anderson's decision to include Chevalier with Darjeeling in theatres. You can't really construe the decision as a victory for "online video" (whatever that means), since any merit to the piece is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that Natalie Portman appears nude in it. Not full frontal. She's sorta in a Rodan-meets-Jane Fonda repose. But still. "Natalie Portman nude" sells tickets.

Then there's the question of whether Chevalier actually served its purpose, which was to drive interest in Darjeeling. Darjeeling, at $2.5 so far, doesn't seem to have benefited. Does that mean that cross-medium promotions don't work well?

No easy answers to these questions right now. Despite that, I argue that deciding to release Chevalier online was a smart move. And I guarantee if Darjeeling was released online shortly thereafter, the studio would have a whole lot more than $2.5 mil in their pockets.

Roommates

MySpace's first exclusive series, Roommates, debuted today. Here's the story in Forbes. I'll watch a few episodes before reviewing it, but so far I'm not impressed. Between episodes of Prom Queen, NBC's Coastal Dreams, our collective titillation at lonelygirl15, it's pretty easy to see that professional online video -- far from being some new vanguard of media -- is becoming little more than amateur porn.

FWIW, I like how the soundtrack's immediately available for purchase.

NBC leaves YouTube

NBC, one of YouTube's first big media partners, seems to have ended their relationship with YouTube over the weekend. General speculation on the reason is because Hulu, the joint venture between NBC and News Corp, is expected to launch sometime this month.

But that doesn't make much sense, at least not from a publicity POV. If a media company's goal is to use video to drive television viewing, then putting those videos in front of as many people as possible would seem to be the best strategy. On the other hand, if NBC/News Corp is using Hulu as an ad sales vehicle, then that would explain why the YouTube channel was pulled.