Why Hollywood must become constant mediaApocalypse How? Top Ten Dystopian FilmsReview: What the Buck?Victoria Lindsay latest in UGC violenceHome pageFilm newsRisky BusinessFilm ReporterBoxofficeRelease schedule (subscriber only)Confederates
Past Deadline
Risky Biz
Reading:
The Medium
NewTeeVee
Cinematech
PaidContent
Lost Remote
Beet.tv
DVD Spin Doctor
Cinematical
Greencine
IWantMedia
Dan Rayburn
Shelly Palmer
Hollywood Wiretap
« December 2007 | Main | February 2008 »
Quite possibly the last 2G1C post. I swear. I'm not addicted. Because that would be gross.
From Channel101, the short film festival in LA (which inspired Dan Harmon's VH1's Darwinian comedy program, Acceptable.tv), a new faux pilot called 2 Girls 1 Cup: The Show. Created by Christian Le Guilloux and Justin Roiland, the latter of whom was also the mad genius behind ATV's Mr. Sprinkles. NSFW (language), but hilarious.
According to the numbers from online marketer Team Rubber, 20% of YouTube vids receive about 50 views or less after 30 days on site.
It's tempting to infer from those numbers that you have a 1 in 5 chance of nobody watching. But I'm sure that chance is dramatically affected by the amount of social connections you have on-site, not to mention tags, compelling thumbnails, headlines, etc. The numbers I'm really interested in seeing: The difference in growth between two videos of the same content, uploaded by two separate accounts, each of which have different social circles.
While talking to a film producer over drinks this afternoon (yes, and it tasted good, shut up) and bemoaning the high ratio of online video dreck to hits, we snowcloned "crap is the new commercial". IOW, as commercials on television motivate you to change the channel, so crappy videos online motivate you to keep clicking through to find the good stuff (or just turn the puter off).
So it follows that video commercials are doubly irksome on sites like YouTube, because odds are a viewer has already surfed through non-adverted crap before he/she hits an adverted hit. Could be why viewers report remembering ads in online videos, but find them highly obnoxious.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Stuck around until the last panel of the day at the National Assoc. of TV Programming Executives annual conference in Las Vegas to hear from Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, the NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture once billed (incorrectly) as the anti-YouTube. It's been in beta for the three months, with little said about its performance to date.
True to his corporate parents, Kilar didn't offer much in the way of details. But he did admit one tidbit that was at once humorous and revealing: the long-forgotten 1980s series "Air Wolf" is something of a hit on the platform, among the top 30 series viewed. Other relics like "The A-Team" also do well, so well in fact that they rival the Hulu viewership of shows you would assume are the top of the pile.
"All these shows that you think are left for dead do better than current primetime," said Kilar, who seemed genuinely surprised that "Wolf" is still howling all these years later.
Odd resurfacing of cultural arcana? Yes, but also something that potentially carries with it real business implications: Even in a top-shelf programming environment like Hulu, the long tail of content remains powerful. If you make contemporary hits and primetime errata equally accessible on a platform, don't be surprised to see the latter actually attain some value.
Steve's .02: Can you label 80s primetime TV hits as long tail content? I honestly don't know, but the term seems off to me, since the long tail refers to relatively esoteric content that's not widely promoted. Even though Wolf's decades old, it's still a huge cultural waypoint for kids my age. The relative low sales of Wolf media compared to more contemporary fare -- is the show even released on DVD? Ah, yes. -- may make it seem like long tail content, but its cultural footprint suggests otherwise. A less acknowledged show, like say, the Melrose Place spin-off Models, Inc., would be more exemplary.
Maybe I'm just splitting hairs, since the long tail is primarily an economic model. By the marketplace's judgement, maybe Airwolf isn't as rad as I remember.
Of all the cross-platform media plays -- television to Web, Web to movie, etc. -- the one that makes the least sense to me involves promoting novels on YouTube. The conversion factor from seeing the video to buying the book has to be low.
But whatevs. When your promo videos are directed by McG, you already got all the attention/guaranteed sales/advance checks you need. Thus: this series of vids for the novel "Celebutantes", a Hollywood satire (redundant redundant!) by Amanda Goldberg (daughter of Leonard) and Ruthanna Khaligi Hopper (daughter of Dennis), which hits shelves Feb 5.
For the novel synopsis, may I meekly suggest this riveting (seriously) article in The Scotsman, God bless their ironic remove:
Their narrator heroine is a fictional amalgam of both Goldberg (33) and Hopper (35), although they're reluctant to admit it. She's Lola Santisi, a 26-year-old member of Hollywood royalty without a kingdom –- or even a condo –- to call her own, 5 feet 7-1/2 inch (in four-inch Jimmy Choos), the daughter of a 250 lb., Oscar-winning film director and a former model "who'd done her time with Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger and Richard Gere, pre-the Dalai Lama".
Likeable Lola is, according to her therapist, an Actorholic –- hopelessly addicted to dating narcissistic actors because she is trying to work out her relationship with her narcissistic father who's incapable of loving anyone other than himself, etc., etc. … She's also suffering, in psycho-babble terms, from Career Deficit Disorder, which is apparently very common with the "Adult Children Of's" among Hollywood's caste-driven dynasties.
Hilar hilar hilar. And the promo vid -- there are four scheduled, only the first has been released -- is glorious pop candy. Highly recommended for cartoon enthusiasts.
NBC announced the acquisition of lifestyle video magazine LX.tv this week, and by and large it looks like a good move. LX'll become the centerpiece of a new production unit at NBC, which'll focus on lifestyle programming. Like Wallstrip when it went to CBS, LX'll jumpstart NBC's knowledge of how to produce niche video content for the Web.
But here's the funny: LX.tv content is solidly unremarkable. I don't know the site's traffic, but as someone who also covers bars, restaurants, and fashion in the city, I can tell you I've never heard the site mentioned at all.
The reason's obvious if you're in the target demo and you spend any time with the site: It's slick, but boring. Instead of applying a youthful voice and presentation, founders and MTV alums Morgan Hertzan and Joseph Varet taken an otherwise scintillating group of topics and apply old school TV reportage techniques. A few pretty girls and doubletime camera tricks, but that's it. Where's the humor? The ironic retardry? It's like watching "Entertainment Tonight." Way too earnest an approach for topics that, to its 22-35 year old demo, are 'sposed to be fun.
If there's a place where LX's content'll work well, it's not the web. Elevators and cabs, if you ask me. That's where NBC should focus.
The cannibalism of your childhood culture continues. In the disturbingly blue, live-action video linked here, you will learn the true etymological origins of "to smurf". Vid's in Spanish, which somehow makes it even more taboo. How do you say NSFW en espanol?
Besides an inescapable bent toward the prurient, I'm posting this b/c it's worth noting, in the aftermath of 2G1C, the amount of truly visceral smut that's making its way into mainstream culture. No judgements. What to call the confluence of pop culture with XXX? Pop shock? I guess there's not much new here. Porn-y fanfic's been around for years. But the accessibility of video makes it so much more consumable.
We all know how memes work, at least intuitively. They start with an original work, e.g., the jingly earworm of All Your Base Are Belong to Us, and mutate in theme if not in form, e.g., All Your Base Are Belong to Rumsfeld/Halo/Spartaaaa! (Can I just tell you, por favor, how much I'm in <3 with the Sparta meme?)
So the original work, which stands alone, becomes a framework for successive iterations, each of which can be seen as an argument for a different phenomenon. In the examples above, Rumsfeld's army overran Iraq, Halo fever gripped the gamer world, and the hirsutely homicidal visage of Gerard Butler was (is?) ubiquitous. (The combo of the Base and Sparta memes may = a memeplex, if you want to be a fundamentalist about it. In which case, I'd call Base the nuclear DNA, and Sparta the mitochondrial.)
IOW, memes are like mad libs. Just fill in the ______.
Which brings me to my favorite current meme, The Downfall. The videos have been circulating for a few months now, at least, but it wasn't until I saw The Downfall of the Cowboys iteration by Cracked, and subsequently The Downfall of HD-DVD, that I realized how devastatingly awesome this meme is, to wit: The Downfall video is a mad libs for syllogisms.*
Quoting Desi, lemme 'splain: The Downfall meme concerns a clip from the original film in which Hitler's generals explain to him the Allies' inexorable march towards Berlin. Hitler gets peeved, yells copiously about why Germany is losing, and collapses into exhausted dejection. "The war," he says, "is over."
Now take that scene, remove the English subtitles -- the original's in German, which is why the meme interpretations work -- and add any argument whatsoever. Why the Cowboys lost. Why Blu-Ray bested HD-DVD. Why the AMPTP is the great satan. Whatever's clever, they all work.
The humor part's easy. Juxtapose the world's most vicious dictator with a transient theme and you'll get chuckles. But even more devastating: the argument's presented from the losing side, from the lips of the most reviled human ever, and has the weight of historical inevitability. Who better to explain why someone/something lost than to put the reasoning on the tongue of Hitler? The Cowboys lost b/c they're Hitler. HD-DVD lost because its Hitler. The AMPTP is Hitler. :)
So that's a mad lib for syllogisms. I guess the opposite meme would be one based on the Bud Light sausages commercial. WTF, you haven't seen that? It's only the best thing ever of all time. Gary Larson, you almost got it right.
*I'm no logic expert, but I'm pretty sure The Downfall argument is an example of a syllogism. Original premise (we're screwed), supporting evidence (the Allies are coming), conclusion (the war's over). If I'm wrong, somebody drop some knowledge.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Perhaps it was inevitable given the never-ending hype. Now Apple has inspired a new documentary, "MacHeads: The Movie," about the cult following Steve Jobs' handiwork has engendered. Plenty of oddballs on display; my favorite line: "I've never knowingly slept with a Windows user. Never. Ever."
MacHeads was created by Kobi and Ron Shely of production company Chim65. No word on distribution yet, but if they can't at least get on iTunes...
If all this Apple love is giving you the creeps, check out a new "unscientific" poll from blog Internet Evolution where Apple ranked first as the most hated Internet company. Of course, Apple also finished second to Google on the love side, so make of it what you will.
By Andrew Wallenstein
With one of the few success stories in episodic online video series under his belt, Michael Eisner is giving it another go, and in unusual fashion. As the New York Post reports, Eisner's Vuguru Prods. is teaming again with the online production company Big Fantastic that spawned "Prom Queen" to create a new series inspired by the upcoming book "Foreign Body" by best-selling author Robin Cook.
The series will be 50 two-minute drama vignettes that introduce the characters to "Body," a thriller set in the world of international hospitals. The launch is in May, pushing to a finale in August, when the book comes out.
So essentially it's a marketing strategy, and a odd one at that--nothing in publishing to date has been successfully promoted by an online component, though plenty have tried. Reel Pop noted an interesting strategy used to market the latest Michael Crichton tome (as if he needs it) in 2006.
I was not a fan of Prom Queen, but Steve Bryant admired it in this review.
For about two years now the media's been kerfluffing itself over the impending, inevitable, and well-nigh poetic demise of television. Online video's been critically feted, the boob tube critically poo-poo'd, and those sundry tales of doom echoed in the empty stadiums of blogs.
Lately, it's only gotten worse. Writers are starting their own production companies. NBC is declaring an end to the pilot season. Women are turning off their TVs! Online video will kill your television, so you may as well turn it into something useful. I hear they make good aquariums.
Sadly, though lotsa folks are content to cheerlead this Bataan Death March toward a Kierkergaardian-slash-Elliott Smith either/or future -- either it's TV or video! TV or video! -- the reality is much more complicated.
"The TV did not replace the radio. Internet video is not going to replace the TV. P2P delivery is not going to replace all CDN delivery," writes video expert and Reel Pop friend Dan Rayburn. "These things are all complements to one another. We should see the TV for what it is, just another way to get different kinds of content for various viewing experiences."
In other words, don't forget about the law of the excluded middle. Happily, we have recent examples of said middle in HBO on Broadband and Vongo. And Hulu. And iTunes. And UnBox. And etc.
If you're not inclined to take my word, or Dan's, perhaps you'll lend an ear to VC extraordinaire Bob Pittman, who knows a thing or two about investing in new markets created by the Internet. Take a look at that linked interview. Though I disagree with Pittman in some instances, he takes a healthy, skeptical eye to the video hubbub. And his main lesson is important. Write it on your forehead, repeat after me:
TV won't die because TV's too convenient.
By Gretta Parkinson
Tragedy plus time equals money—for eBay sellers, anyway.
Some might argue not enough time has passed since Heath Ledger’s unexpected death Tuesday, but posters featuring Ledger as The Joker in the upcoming “The Dark Knight” are are disappearing fast online, with some bids approaching the $70 mark. After various reports claiming the actor’s death has forced Warner Bros. to rethink their marketing campaign for the film, the movie posters—specifically one with Ledger finger painting “Why So Serious?” on cloudy glass—have become increasingly valuable to Batman geeks and Heath fans, like me.
Does the fact that I desperately want one make me soulless and insensitive? On the one hand, one of my favorite actors just died too young and too tragically, shortly after wrapping what looks like an incredible film from a timeless franchise. I could argue that the poster is not just a collector’s item, it’s an homage, like the iconic James Dean “Giant” and “Rebel Without a Cause” images.
On the other hand, I’m not sure that members of the online community should be capitalizing on the death of anyone...especially since it hasn’t even been a week. Not to mention the fact that those Joker posters were creepy long before any real-life context made them even creepier.
At least I’m losing money, not making it.
MTV's gay & lesbian network, Logo, announced the launch of 15 vlogs across its family of Web sites today. Many of the vlogs have been around for a few episodes, though some are legitimately new. All of them, however, have names that are ab fab (obvi):
And more. Recommended viewing. If you're gay.
Starz has renewed TV and film deals with Sony and Disney -- plus locked up back library deals with Warner Bros., MGM, and Universal-- that'll give its download service Vongo (not to mention its TV properties) access to a fat suit's worth of content. More details at THR.
Vongo, meanwhile, is becoming a huge online content aggregator. Starz doesn't release subscriber numbers, but they've got a lot of premium content locked up through 2012. What's interesting about the service, though, is that Starz said last year that Vongo (which allows streaming of the flagship channel online, plus video downloads) doesn't cannibalize the channels on TV. Apparently, 70-76% of users don't even subscribe to premium cable, e.g., Starz or HBO, on their sets. Definitely something for the brass at HBO to consider as they roll out their online offerings.
The "duh" moment approacheth. A slew of surveys out recently show that viewers, droopy-eyed from interminable reruns, are turning to the all-singing, all-buffering, all-day-long entertainment of the Web.
Let's put aside for the moment that all the surveys are authored by "Internet consultancies" with a vested interest in raising the perceived value of their online services in the wake of the strike (hi Mindshare, Interpret, and Burst Media, hi hi!). I mean, while what they're arguing is true -- that the Interwebosphere is infinitely more gee whiz than teevee -- they obvi have ulterior motives. They just want rebound sex. So hot.
Up first: Mindshare says 92% of peeps know there's a strike now, as opposed to ~30% in November. About half the 1,000 folks polled said they're spending more time online now.
According to Interpret, DVD movies, DVD TV shows, video games, and something called "reading" have all benefited.
And Burst Media says 16.5% of women may actually start turning off their TVs.
Get. Out.
P.S. Apparently people are also doing more laundry while they watch TV, too, which is inspiring and totally not the case at casa de Reel Pop.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Though I got a chuckle this morning from a new viral marketing campaign for the upcoming 20th Century Fox film "Meet the Spartans," apparently tech company VOIP did not. The problem is Carmenhasacrushonyou.com,
a cute promotion that allows you to insert a photo of your friend and his or her phone number, creating a clever customized video message from "Spartan" star Carmen Electra in which she will proclaim her love for said friend, and even send an automated phone call to the submitted digits.
If that campaign seems an awful lot like an Oct. 2006 marketing campaign for NBC's "30 Rock" featuring the voice of Alec Baldwin, you are not alone. VOIP sent out a press release today stating that it had retained an intellectual-property law firm to protect its patented "click-to-call" technology. The release doesn't name "Spartan" or Fox's marketing firm, Jetset Studios, by name, but the timing seems a tad coincidental.
For the record, the Baldwin campaign was funnier.
So the Hollywood news about YouTube at the beginning of this week was that Michel Gondry would be editing the homepage from Cannes. But by mid-week, the biggest news in town is Heath Ledger's pill-chomping demise. Not to mention the Tom Cruise scientology vids are still racking up views. But if you go to the YouTube homepage right now, you don't see any of this. You see a seemingly-random selection of featured videos. Wouldn't YouTube's homepage be more compelling if it featured timely content?
To answer the question, we have to ask ourselves what YouTube's mission is. If YouTube was a purely editorial publication, similar to a newspaper or news site, then yeah, the homepage should offer timely content.
But YouTube sits at the intersection of varied interests: webcammers making journal entries, auteurs creating short films, brands touting products, politicians touting themselves, etc ad infinitum. If we're to follow the newspaper analogy, in order to serve all these interests YouTube would have to advertise all of its content -- sports, international news, business, etc -- on the front page. Not an easy task, or necessarily something to strive for.
Not to mention YouTube also offers plenty of tools for finding the most viewed and discussed videos. If you're interested in seeing the movers and shakers, just hit up the videos tab.
Even so, I feel the YouTube homepage's lacking. The "videos being watched now" widget is almost useless; the thumbnails are too small to give any indication of what the videos are about, and the number of users watching videos at any one time means the selection is entirely random. Displaying each video's length over the thumbnail is an excellent communicative tool, be even so, that area's not compelling to me. The "Your Subscriptions" section is useful for obvious reasons. But I take issue with the "Featured Videos" section, primarily b/c each video is given the same font weight title and space. Not to nitpick, but there's a reason why old school newspapers used headlines of different sizes -- to communicate importance and urgency. I get no sense of that on YouTube's homepage, even when I click into the "most viewed" and "most discussed" tabs.
YouTube's homepage has come a long ways since its inception. But the site's an indispensable part of our cultural narrative now. The videos on the site have a tremendous effect on everything from entertainment to politics. But you'd never know that by looking at the homepage.
If you're not a football fan, you can skip this post. But the following two videos are excellent examples of how to use found footage to comment on current events.
First up, an excerpt from The Downfall, in which a Hitler tirade about military losses, delivered in German, is re-subtitled to comment on the Cowboys' loss to the Giants in the NFC divisional playoff game. The Downfall excerpt has been meme'd ad nauseum, but this rejiggering is the most hilarious, mostly b/c the joke -- already an absurd juxtaposition of a genocidal madman and a sports fan -- never loses its logical momentum, up to and including the whimpering frauleins in the hallway, concerned about Hitler's newly-purchased, never-worn Terrell Owens jersey.
This second video -- an excerpt from Eddie Murphy's Coming to America -- is interesting not for its re-imagining, but because the 1988 footage captures perfectly the results of the Giants win over the Packers in the NFC Championship. Hilarious. I'd be interested to know whether the popularity of the clip has any residual effect on sales of the Coming to America DVD. Somehow I doubt it, though I'd still argue that the clip is great publicity for Paramount. (I don't see the DVD on Amazon's movers and shakers -- tough to crack -- but the flick's up 36% on IMDB's Moviemeter). The cost of licensing the minute-long footage might be prohibitive, but if the NFL had jumped on the vid it would've been a great promo tool.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Hours after the news broke out, it was truly fascinating to see that Ledger dominated the search engine requests that day. Not surprising of course, but it's interesting to see what form those searches took. When I checked out Google Trends at 6 p.m. PST, some interesting patterns emerged:
The first 19 most popular search terms all seemed to be related to Ledger. Breaking the streak at No. 20 was 'Beth Modica,' a New York assistant district attorney about to be indicted for providing 'booze, pot and sex' to her son's hockey team. At No. 22, the more respectable 'Louisiana caucus.' Forty-four of the top 50 search terms were Ledger-related.
Interesting to see what entertainment-news sources people turn to most in times of celebrity crisis: there are five different spellings for 'E! Entertainment' in the top 50, with 'e news' in the highest of any news source at no. 9. Then again, that could have something to do with the Oscar nominations that dominated search pre-Ledger early in the day, but I wouldn't be so sure; first mention of 'nominations' in and of itself doesn't come in until No. 87.
The second most popular news brand was 'Entertainment Tonight' (#21), 'Perez Hilton' (#24), 'Access Hollywood' (#65) and 'TMZ' coming in at a surprisingly underwhelming No. 68.
The second most popular search term was 'Keith Ledger' while No. 37 was 'Keith Fletcher' and No. 38 'Keith Legend'; that's what those fancy Australian names will getcha.
Surprised to see high visibility for Ledger's next reported film project, a Terry Gilliam film "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (no. 11). They spelled that correctly, but not Heath Ledger??? Meanwhile "new Batman movie" comes in at No. 17 while the actual title for the film, 'Dark Knight' doesn't show up until No. 19.
All in all, Google Trends leaves me with the strange feeling I've just stared into the churning abyss that is the American psyche. I need to lie down. Maybe I'll match up these results with the totals that come in at day's end.
Steve's .02: There's a predictable schload of Ledger tribute videos on YouTube as well, with this interview about the upcoming Batman movie receiving about 700k views yesterday across vidshare sites, according to VidMeter. But looking in YouTube's most viewed and discussed videos for the week, Keith Ledger vids pale in comparison to political topics and the Tom Cruise scientology footage.
By Andrew Wallenstein
We should have known it couldn't be that simple when the trailer for the new "Star Trek" film arrived online last week. Not when J.J. Abrams is involved, master of the Internet marketing strategies that pushed "Cloverfield" to No. 1 at the box office this week and will probably bring "Lost" back to top shape on ABC for a midseason run. Sure enough, Abrams is at his old tricks again; just go visit the trailer and click on the blinking red light to the right of the "Under Construction" sign. It leads to...well, I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet, but it looks like the start of some kind of online adventure akin to what we've seen from him before. The adventure continues at NCC-1701.com
By Andrew Wallenstein
Disturbing news just out of New York with the apparent death of actor Heath Ledger; pills were found at the scene, according to The New York Times, which suggests drugs may have been involved. His upcoming role as the Joker in the "Batman" sequel"The Dark Knight" has already been a popular trailer online. It's a reminder of what an incredible talent this guy had.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Tragic news for Web surfers just starving for the photographs of swimsuit-clad females that are sorely lacking on the Internet: BET.com has dropped such a section from its website. "B-Girls" was removed either as part of a long-in-the-works plan to expand the site or as the result of pressure from online activists, depending on who you believe. Either way, it's interesting to note that this may be an example of where content companies may draw the line as they attempt to attract advertisers. Swimsuit photos are a great way to binge on page views, but not exactly the kind of thing the Krafts and McDonalds of the world want next to their banner ads.
Nowheremen, the immersive, alternate reality game (ARG) that's been seeding the web with videos and clues since last September, debuts its first episode today at 2:22pm ET. The game follows the story of a young valedictorian who disappears mysteriously on the day of his high school graduation, leaving a trail of spooky clues behind.
Personally, I don't have much truck with these types of participatory experiences. Mostly because I don't have the time (and if I did, I'd be playing Audiosurf). But also because I don't want to be disappointed, Ralphie-like, when the whole thing's revealed to be an advertisement for Ovaltine.
That said, I haven't played along with Nowheremen, so all I can say is the game looks very involved, and the videos are enticing. Something worth keeping an eye on.
As I was mulling over the odd tech-lessness of the J.J. Abrams-produced flick Cloverfield -- no smart phones apparent, no Internet, no GPS devices anywhere -- I ran across Craig Rubens' post on NewTeeVee about the exact same detail. Craig's take on the apparent tech lacuna: Cloverfield should have been released online as a mysterious download, and surrounded itself with a rat's warren of Flickr photo clues and fake profile pages, which all-lead, Wonderland-like, further into strangeness.
IOW, Cloverfield should be like Lost. And I have to respectfully disagree.
While Craig's insightful in outing Cloverfield as tech-less, what I think he's missing is how Cloverfield succeeded precisely because it eschewed the contrivance of web mystery. Without any marketing beyond a handful of trailers, J.J. Abrams' name, and a single iconic poster -- all of which hinted at monsters, but never revealed them -- the film set an MLK weekend record with $46M in box office sales. No photos of the monster were leaked (well, they were hard to find, anyway). The movie and its contents were a mystery (or in Abrams-speak, a mystery box). And its that mystery which compelled the audience to seek out the movie and then be intrigued enough to follow a shaky handycam through an hour and a half of action.
Remember how rewarding that final aerial shot of the monster was, that image you'd been waiting months and months to see? That shot was the impetus for the secrecy. And it worked to the tune of $46M.
The point is this: Sometimes blinders enhance the moviegoing (or television) experience. We don't always need that marketing smoke and those participatory mirrors. Abrams demo'd that by creating a tech-less movie that appealed to a tech-savvy audience.
In a world obsessed with hoaxes, rife with leaks, and overfull with chatty bloggers, Abrams pulled off a bigger trick than creating some intricate and -- at this point, let's face it -- hackneyed web game. He one upped that. He put butts in theater seats.
UPDATE: MMM's Chris Thilk points out that Cloverfield did indeed have a web ARG attached to it. Well damn, doesn't that just contradict, uh, everything I just wrote. But I still maintain that Cloverfield succeeded despite eschewing current tech in its storyline; the blinders of the videocamera contrivance enhance the suspense, rather than ruin the suspension of disbelief.
By Andrew Wallenstein
The blogosphere speculation on deep job cuts coming at Yahoo has grown deafening enough that it's presumably true. The only point of contention is whether it is hundreds, as The New York Times insists today, or thousands (watch Valleywag weigh in next with "millions." . Yahoo PR doesn't exactly deny it here, and WSJ was kind enough to write a pre-obituary of sorts.
So the layoffs are a foregone conclusion, but here's my question: How deep will the axe cut into Yahoo's media group, or what's left of it, if at all? Vince Broady obviously saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship last week after getting pushed aside. Drew Buckley took off with Terry Semel. There were rumblings that some kind of new initiative would materialize by end of 2007 after a September streamlining, but that has yet to materialize.
Damned if I know how Yahoo's content peeps will be affected, but my gut tells me we'll know just where the company's ambitions are in that sector once and for all once the cuts are made.
By Andrew Wallenstein
There's an interesting range of reactions on the blogosphere today to the news of HBO on Broadband, the most interesting being from Silicon Alley Insider, which proclaims "Why HBO's New Download Service Won't Be a Hit."
Granted, the platform is not without flaws, but the solution offered by blogger Henry Blodget is bizarre: HBO should offer its entire library online at an extra cost. Eventually, it could evolve into a "digital-only Netflix."
I'm not even sure where to begin on this one. First, that's just what cable subscribers love: an additional fee. Because the sticker shock of basic cable + digital cable + HBO + high-speed data isn't enough at this point. There's more subs out there just dying to fork over even more dollars to take a deeper dive into HBO's archives; how many times can you watch "Police Academy 5" anyway?
If you followed Blodget's thinking, you would presume HBO on Broadband is comprised of four episodes of "Not Necessarily the News." But they've got a full range of their original programming out there, more than twice the volume of HBO on Demand and the new titles get their quicker than they do on VOD. There's also studio movies up the wazoo. With 375 titles available at any given time, is depth really the problem here?
I think Blodget's misunderstanding cuts to the nature of what HBO is trying to do here. This is not an online-video strategy per se; it's really a customer-retention tool. For all of HBO's success, the subscription churn rate is ridiculously high and the company will do just about anything to make the overall service stickier.
A "digital Netflix" only makes sense if HBO were to suddenly disaggregate its business and throw open its vaults to everyone in the interest of reaching consumers anywhere. But that will never happen: Cable operators provide the lion's share of the billion-plus in profits HBO pockets annually for Time Warner. Until that business starts nosediving--and there's no indication that's in sight--protecting the gates to its library makes a helluva lot more sense than throwing them open for an extra price few will pay.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Today's THR has a look at HBO on Broadband, especially the irony that its introduction overlaps with a somewhat contradictory Time Warner Cable initiative: metered billing for high-speed data. Imagine streaming "The Wire" when you've got one eye on the clock.
But I wanted to provide more detail on the HBO on Broadband experience here. HBO on Broadband is available via an application downloaded to the desktop in just a few minutes. It can be accessed via log-in and password.
Shows are download-to-own and expire from a subscriber’s hard drive after four weeks of becoming available on HBO on Broadband. That means if a subscriber downloads the latest episode of “Wire” three weeks after it is placed on HBO on Broadband, that would leave only one week of viewing time.
I wish I had a photo, because I thought Bud.tv poofed into pixelated non-existence after its wretched debut last year. Not so, if the giant advertisement I saw this weekend in Times Square is any indication. Sixty feet tall and luminous. Good money after bad.
As you may have read on the YouTube blog Friday, Michel Gondry will be editing YouTube's homepage from Sundance all this week. In the video he posted announcing the promotional stunt, Gondry demonstrates his curatorial duties by picking his nose. Which makes YouTube videos...boogers? I was expecting a Rubik's Cube.
How do you aggregate an aggregator? For web sites, it's relatively easy because you're redisplaying the same information: kayak aggs-up airlines prices, techmeme aggs-up blog headlines, diggdot aggs-up Digg and Slashdot items, etc. These are efficient systems that add value through organization or presentation.
Now consider Revision3's latest show, The Digg Reel, a 3-5min show hosted by Jessica Corbin, which aggregates "the best and highest-rated" Digg videos. Like many shows before it -- Entertainment Tonight, Talk Soup, whatever -- Digg Reel uses the infotainment format to repackage news. But in this case we're talking about repacking web video from a specific site. And unfortunately, the show fails to impress.
The idea behind the show is simple enough: Exploit the popularity of Digg and the enthusiasm of its users, plus the popularity of online video and those videos' constituent cheerleaders. On the one hand you act as an entertaining filter, and on the other you attract the notice of the Digg users and video auteurs you cover. They in turn (one hopes) will mention the show favorably -- "look, I'm on The Digg Reel" -- and create a virtuous circle of link love. It worked for the Gotta Digg girl, right?
But it doesn't work for The Digg Reel, and here's why: the show takes Digg's efficient formula and adds editorial, but that means that either the editorial's gotta be better/funnier than the comments you find on Digg (as is the case with Rev3's Diggnation), or the presentation has to be more efficient. Neither is true. Why watch The Digg Reel when you can just watch the videos on Digg and chat with other users in the comments?
You may argue that there are people out there who only want to see what the best videos were, and don't care to participate. Sure. But then, isn't most of Revision3's audience tech savvy in the first place? And wouldn't they find it easier to browse the top Digg videos per day/week/month, rather than watch a less funny version of VH1's Web Junk?
And I guess that's the problem here. It's hard to aggregate Internet memes offline. They lose that participatory power, that feeling of exploration and discovery. All that's left is the presentation you bring to the show. Revision3 plans to add more features and commentary to The Digg Reel, but as of now, the show's very much lacking.
By Andrew Wallenstein
With the latest installment of the "Rambo" franchise about to hit theaters later this month, it's almost quaint to recall back in May how Lionsgate first tested the waters of the Internet with an ultraviolent trailer on YouTube. Believe it or not, there were concerns that the audience may not be ready for the kind of bloodlust Sylvester Stallone hadn't unleashed in a few decades.
Well, as the premiere draws near, it's heartwarming to see how the latest trailers only amp up the gore factor. Here's an exclusive cut on No Good TV, and three more on the movie's official site on Break.com. Share with someone you love.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Just when I thought Internet sneak peeks at the upcoming "Rambo" were too gory, along comes footage of another new film that made my skin not so much crawl as as it did leap off my skeleton. And the kicker is there's no visible gore--it's just two kids sitting in a wading pool.
It's the first five minutes of the upcoming Village Roadshow picture "Teeth" (opens today in New York and Los Angeles) which dramatizes a mythical biological condition known as "vagina dentata"--as a God-fearing family man, I can't bring myself to explain what that is.
"Teeth" may be the most effective example yet I've seen of a film whetting viewer appetites with a little excerpts of the film, as so many (too many?) others have done lately including "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," "Cloverfield" and "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." A film that likely would have gotten lost in the shuffle of bigger releases catches my eye with footage that would have been too risque to explain on broadcast TV.
My nightmares thank you.
By Andrew Wallenstein
At first blush, the idea had a brilliant, albeit evil, simplicity to it: What better way to indefinitely extend the rental period on Apple's new movie rental service than by monkeying around with the clock on your computer?
And though Gizmodo declared a victory in that regard early in the day, it was soon forced to admit that it hasn't quite figured out how to outthink iTunes. I'd say you gotta wake up real early if you want to fool Steve Jobs, but I don't want to give Gizmodo any crazy ideas about rigging its alarm clock.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Though I'm not much of a film buff, I'll cop to having woken up psycho-early on the West Coast the morning the Oscar nominations come out. Well, no more: The good folks at Oscar.com are not only distributing video of the nomination announcements on the Web, but are then archiving the footage for people who plan to wake up at a reasonable hour.
Itinerant funny man Will Carlough recently posted another episode of Paraphrase Theater, a series of movie scene spoofs in which dialogue is paraphrased in a droll vernacular. The latest is All The President's Guys (after the Redford flick, natch), but my favorite's the Star Wars piece, Tarkin and Friends. Carlough plays each character:
Princess Leah: I, uh, smelled your foul stench when I walked on board.
Admiral Tarkin: Uh, good one. I wanted to ask you, where is the secret rebel base?
Princess Leah: yeah well, I'm not gonna tell you.
Admiral Tarkin: That's fair.
Would that HBO would contract with Carlough to paraphrase The Wire. Any series so critically-felated needs some levity.
Related: the hilarious series Movies in Five Seconds.
I wish Gawker had jumped the shark, too.
But sadly -- happily! -- the OG media snark blog (as OG as media snark gets post-Suckdom) is back in the spotlight after founder Nick Denton posted several videos showing Tom Cruise professing his Scientology zealotry. This after the religious group (club? sect? cabal?) forced down several of the videos on YouTube. They've got a history of breaking the Internets.
On the videos: Honestly, not that weird. No couch jumping, but a lot of railing against psychiatry (a la his anti-Brooke Shields tirade) and touting of Keeping Scientology Working, a policy letter written in 1965 by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and which Cruise repeatedly refers to as "KSW". He also sprinkles about Scientology acronyms like tiny croutons: PTS, a "potential trouble source". SP, a "suppressive person."
Really, Cruise seems to be baffling himself. He talks in circles. He makes arguments like a preacher -- lots of emphatic statements, dramatic pauses, "NOW is the time," "we HAVE to DO something," etc -- w/out resorting to specifics. "When you're a Scientologist, everything's so clear." Everything, except WTF am I talking about.
Cruise's spiel actually reminds me of the huckster psychics Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in "Dangerous Minds", his November New Yorker piece, in which Gladwell refers to "the Barnum Statement, the assertion so general that anyone would agree", and the Fuzzy Fact, "the seemingly factual statement couched in a way that 'leaves plenty of scope to be developed into something more specific.'"
As for Gawker: Bully for Denton. After a few months of bad press and acrimony between editors (three of which left. Or is it four. Five?), he's made the blog integral again. At least to the folks sniggling over Tim Cruise and spaceship religion. No judgments here.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Stage 9, an online entertainment group housed in Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, isn't ready to launch several short-form video series in development, but that doesn't mean you have to wait indefinitely to get a glimpse of what's in the works.
One of the series coming out later this year, the sci-fi action series "Trenches," has a pretty robust website up already. "Trenches" comes from Shane Felux, who proved he could turn out a space odyssey of viral proportions on a shoestring budget with "Star Wars: Revelations" in 2005. The trailer (above) is pretty remarkable as low-budget recreations of intergalactic warfare go; believe it or not, it was shot in a quarry in Virginia.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Twice over the past three months, Katie Couric has seen videotape of herself talking to her crew while off-air mysteriously pop up online. The first, which emerged in November, showed Couric mocking Dan Rather. The second, above, captures Couric in the heat of election coverage chatting about everything from her head cold to Cindy McCain's distinctive eye color (ice blue).
The source of the second clip, Harry Shearer's area on MyDamnChannel, is no surprise; the comedian has been finding all sorts of obscure broadcast feeds for years. There's been plenty of talk on the blogosphere about how Couric has been the "victim" of a prank. Given the boatload of bad press she has gotten suggesting she is unworthy to host the evening news, this can't help much.
But here's the thing: I find the Couric footage strangely endearing. Her grating chipmunk laugh aside, I find I can fall in love all over again with the spunky sprite we once knew from NBC's "Today," the one that has been entombed behind her new sober, gravitas-coated facade. The evening-news stylebook dictates she tamp down any sign of warmth and spontaneity, which makes these clips feel like clandestine S.O.S. signals of the cool chick beneath the surface.
Which begs the question: Could it be that Couric actually wants these clips out there?
I haven't tested this myself (i own but a poor iPod Nano), but Tooble.tv apparently lets you download video directly to your iPod. Requires a small download, and is Mac-only for the time being, though a Windows version is under development. According to the site's literature, Tooble converts YouTube files to MP4s. At first glance, seems a little like a tiny Miro with its search ability (though only YouTube).
The old Apple TV: $300, received video from your 'puter, had a cool screensaver, was 'sposed to sell 1 million units in its first year, sold 400k.
The new Apple TV: $229, downloads directly from iTunes, movies start playing w/in 30 seconds (Amazon UnBox takes hours), is the new hotness.
In all the hubbub, there's some rush to compare Apple TV to iTunes in terms of disruptive potential. Not going to be the same deal: iTunes video capability launched in 2005 in a market empty of competitors. Turned peeps on their ears. Apple TV entered last year -- and flopped(ish) -- because it didn't differentiate itself enough.
The new Apple TV also has a host of marketing vectors to contend with: competing with cable companies, competing with Netflix, set-top-box clutter, DVD machines, even net-connected televisions, all of which compete among convenience, volume, and pricing. Apple TV needs to fit into that mix. Starting with $4-5 rentals from the big studios -- including 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony, MGM, Disney, Lionsgate, Universal, and New Line Cinema -- is a great start.
So is it all good news for the consumer? While the idea of a complete end-to-end video solution is appealing to marketers and clutter-eschewing OCD'ers, it's not so fetching for anyone concerned with Apple owning their movie library. Or, of having yet another proprietary system for their movie content. In the future, when you move your video library, you'll basically have to move two to four boxes. It ain't just a stack of DVDs or VHS tapes. Apple's not going to change that.
What's amazing to me is that anybody approaches these news announcements as if there's one ring to rule them all. The future is a messy, multi-boxed, rent/buy world. The consumer's satisfaction won't be set by one singe provider, but by their success in navigating all the available options. And the market winner won't be the best service, it'll be the service that advertises best. Take that to the bank.
By Andrew Wallenstein
60Frames Entertainment is launching a slate of seven new short-form original series, the first wave of 50 programs coming out this year from the unit. It's great to see a company approach Internet entertainment with serious ambition.
Having perused the new offerings, it is great to see one of the best comics you've never heard of doubly employed by 60Frames: Jordan Black, a former "Saturday Night Live" writer who was last seen in the blink-and-you-missed-it-though-I-actually-really-dug-it Comedy Central series "Halfway Home." He's got two different series on 60Frames including "Black Version," in which the comedian re-enacts famous movie scenes from a distinctly African-American perspective worthy of Dave Chappelle. If anything on 60Frames has a chance to break out, it's Black.
By Andrew Wallenstein
There's a flurry of announcements coming out of Macworld today, but none more than astounding than the full range of movie studios that signed on to adopt a rental model. We knew 20th Century Fox was coming down the pike, but there was no indication that everyone else was jumping on the bandwagon, too--there could be no bigger vote of confidence for the new service. Apple chief Steve Jobs disclosed that 7 million movies have been sold to date, but you've got to wonder how quickly Apple will exceed that total on the rental side of the business, which is more appealing given the lower $3.99 fee for new releases.
We've knocked Jobs around a bit for his handling of the NBC Universal controversy, but the participation he is getting from Hollywood this go-round restores any faith Apple may have lost in recent months.
CNNMoney relaunched today and is promoting video heavily on the front page. According to AJC [via], the site will soon produce 15 or more videos per day, six of which will be related to content in Fortune, Money, and Fortune Small Business.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Methinks the writer's strike has created a sense of diminished expectations over at NBC and MGM given the premature boost of confidence it just gave new midseason reality series "American Gladiators". After just two primetime episodes of solid ratings, said companies aren't just renewing this revival of the once-syndicated muscle menagerie for a second season, but adding all sorts of multiplatform goodies, including a website where footage of the original series can be viewed (plus an animated series (what??) and a national tour (double what??). Let's put aside the fact that original "Gladiators" footage commands minimal curiosity--isn't all this too much of an investment for a series that has yet to prove itself in the long haul? Primetime TV is littered with reality series that started with a bang only to go to whimper mode by episode three.
Steve's .02: Soggy blanket, Wallenstein. I agree that it's too early to deem Am'r'can Gladeeayters an unvarnished success, but, FWIW, every single person dude I've talked to loves this show. And loves Hulk Hogan's blonde wig.
And with the new AG, NBC managed to do something I didn't think they could: Update '80s cheesery w/ advanced camera work and pacing, not to mention competitors with compelling backstories, w/out an over-reliance on visual effects and trickery. And, given the country's general malaise right now -- confusing primary season with undifferentiated candidates, interminable war abroad with a confusing array of political and religious parties, dire economic outlook at home -- it's no wonder AG's simple joe-versus-joe narrative is compelling.
As for the online components, I think they'll bolster the accessibility for a younger generation not steeped in AG's spectacle, e.g., the atrociously hairsprayed Malibu, and the rage-filled 'roidosity of Nitro. I have my doubts about the cartoon (the kids, they like the anime these days), but a national tour is a recreation of the wildly popular tours the original series undertook. I guarantee if AG comes to Madison Square Garden, every skinny-panted hipster and Wall Street flack'll be in attendance.
The director of the Snakes on a Plane rip-off Snakes on a Train, Eric Forsberg, has another knockoff debuting this week: Monster, a rip-off of the upcoming J.J. Abrams flick Cloverfield. I find these knock-offs completely riveting, like alternate versions of reality wondrously full of cheese-laden actors. Check out the trailer at Slashfilm. Also check out this article in the NYTimes about the "mockbusters" genre of films, including Transmorphers and The Da Vinci Treasure.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Behold the subtle eloquence with which filmmaker David Lynch regards the gadget du jour, Apple's iPhone, and what it portends for the future of cinema. Hang on to the end of the video when he punctuates his insight with keen analytic flair. Some clever soul managed to mash-up this outtake from the "Inland Empire" DVD with a commercial for iPhone. This isn't the first time Lynch has played media critic; witness his measured, nuanced take on product placement, too.
By Andrew Wallenstein
First, there was "7-Minute Sopranos," which hilariously condensed multiple seasons of the hit HBO series' storylines so that viewers didn't have to spend several hundreds of dollars on DVDs to catch up (that segment has since been updated to incorporate the last season, and is now "Nine Minute Sopranos." It was both creatively ingenious and, for Johnny-come-lately fans, a true public service.
Last week, ABC followed suit with its own take, "Lost in 8:15," which was a clever wink at the original "Sopranos" version as well as a nod to numerals that have taken on a mystical significance on that show.
But now that there is yet another one for "The Wire" (see above) I must declare a moratorium on this budding specialty. The bloom is off the rose now that a third show has shrunk itself; it just doesn't seem that clever anymore.
Plus, with all the energy that goes in creating these crash courses, I would rather see those resources applied to a more elaborate online presence for veteran programs that allow fans to enter the program in the middle of its run. Rather than some snarky rundown that does more to make you laugh than really understand what's going on with a show, why not try a more elaborate, but still condensed, presentation where, for instance, a video is prepared on each major character. That way you can really join a show in progress even if you've missed a few seasons. ABC has done this before in primetime, devoting entire hours to rehashing hits like "Grey's Anatomy," but why these episodes aren't prominently displayed on ABC.com, I have no idea.
So God help you if I find another entry into this exhausted genre. Knock it off. Seriously.
Gay men are the best observers of celebrity culture*, which is why Perez Hilton's an acclaimed personality, and American Idol's hosted by Ryan Seacrest. To see the gay celebrity critic who'll most likely share Perez's post-Internet career arc, check out What The Buck.
One of the most popular entertainment shows on YouTube and hosted by Connecticut star-boinker Michael Buckley, WTB's a thrice-weekly, 5-minute-ish, infotainment riff covering the vicissitudes of Lindsay's sex life, Brangelina's babies, Britney's Britney, ad infinitum.
Employing a combination of predictable, smarmy gay patter (rapid transitions, appropriation of female speech patterns, heavy use of "love you bitch", etc) almost as hackneyed as my bemused interest-slash-sober condescension, WTB's won YouTube awards for the 12th most subscribed show (all time), and 6th most viewed comedian (all time).
And for good reason: Buckley's facility with words, and deft takedowns of newsmakers, e.g.: "Frickin mama lynn spears. This is how she reacts to crisis. 16 year old daughter gets pregnant, sell the story put her on a magazine cover. Other daughter has mental illness, invite a made-for-tv doctor as cast by Oprah Winfrey to the hospital."
And from WTB's special on Lonelygirl15: "This is the story of an ordinary girl. Her name is Brie. She is cute. She is nerdy. She is a sixteen year old puppet with huge eyebrows and a New Zealand filmmaker's hand up her ass."
See what he's done? He's taken the riotous fabulosity of Perez -- whose critical genius peaked with pink crayon doodles on celebrity photos -- and couched his popspeak in intelligent and often self-deprecating wit, thus appealing to both the celeb fanatics and the black rim-glasses set. He's a super-gay, pop-obsessed, Red Bull-fueled Ira Glass.
Hence the speed. The patter never stops, with the only pauses for breath literally pauses for breath. Buck's the first video personality I've seen who's co-opted the comedic rapidity and snappy editing of Ze Frank -- a quick and breathless pace convenient to short form viewing online -- without copying Ze's signature cadence. Kudos.
Buckley's already appeared on the CW and Fox. Expect him to hit the even bigger time in 2008.
Check out What the Buck on YouTube and at BuckHollywood.com
* IMHO
Pew: Daily Traffic to Video Sites Doubles
48% of Internet users frequent video sites, up from 33% last year, while (here's the doubling) 15% reported visiting a YouTube-ish site the day before, up from 8% last year. Women lead the increase.
Nielsen: Traffic to some vid sites has doubled since Writer's Strike
Also cites the Pew study above. "YouTube's audience was up 18% in the two months after the strike started, and newer video-sharing sites such as Crackle have
also experienced unprecedented growth.
In September and October, Crackle enjoyed an audience of 1.2m users which doubled to 2.4m in November and December, it found."
Spent an hour this morning playing around with Fancast, the TV channel guide / trailer depo / streaming video portal that Comcast debuted at CES this week. Overall, it's a gorgeous site that has the potential to be a great video directory, but Comcast needs to improve several aspects of the user experience. Here are a few of my initial observations:
Fancast sits at the tension point between Comcast's desire to promote its networks' long-form content and the Web's user-generated, social abilities.
It's a good directory for TV and DVD content, but not UGC video. That's probably a good decision on Comcast's part; Fancast can't battle YouTube. I certainly would never consider using a TV company's web site to find content created online.
But Comcast should consider adding the ability for users to comment, add tags, and interact with each other around the videos. Conversations spark pageviews, and pageviews spark ad dollars.
By Andrew Wallenstein
Las Vegas Convention Center seemed like 30 Rock on Tuesday at CES, with a host of Peacock-bred talent broadcasting their respective programs from a slick set planted right in the middle of NBC Uni's booth. Maria Bartiromo (pictured above) handled CNBC duties from the floor, not to be outdone by "Access Hollywood," "Closing Bell" and more. Wish I could be there tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. PT when Brian Williams blows into town to tape the evening newscast. Here's more on what NBC broadcast at CES.
By Andrew Wallenstein
In the tsunami of information that has come out of CES this week, one announcement I feel hasn't quite gotten the attention it deserves: A deal between Google and Panasonic that will allow viewing of YouTube videos on TV. At first blush, it seems preposterous: Video clips that look blurry enough online will somehow be more appetizing on big-screen TVs? And yet, if and when YouTube works out image-resolution issues, this is a compelling service. When I think of how many times I sit in front of my TV while watching YouTube videos on my laptop, it only makes sense that I should be able to push those videos to the bigger screen.
Steve's .02: I'm not sold on the value of this service, especially considering that it's not entirely up to YouTube to "work out image-resolution issues". The resolution of YouTube videos is largely dependent upon the quality of user-uploaded vids. As long as kids are uploading vids from crappy cell phones, YouTube will reflect that quality.
If Paidcontent.org has it right, ousted Yahoo chieftain Terry Semel has settled the score with his former employer, luring Yahoo Originals exec Drew Buckley and Yahoo media strategist Jeff Karish to his new venture, Windsor Media. What Windsor is exactly isn't clear, but it looks like Semel, a former Warner Bros. honcho, wasn't about to try out early retirement.
