Reel Pop

I'm probably going to hell for this blog post, but have you seen SpiritClips? Launched Sept. 10, this online video repository aims to uplift the viewer with heartwarming vignettes that are right out of a Hallmark Channel movie. Like opening short, "Sally," in which a put-upon diner waitress gets an unexpected pick-me-up from a mentally challenged customer.


Said waitress is played by Nancy Travis, the veteran actress ("The Bill Engvall Show") whose involvement in the project probably has something to do with the fact she's married to the creator of SpiritClips, movie producer Rob Fried ("Collateral). In the sea of sin that is the Internet, this site is wonderfully highminded in intent.


Except for one little niggling detail: SpiritClips is a pay-per-view site, with subscriptions ranging from 99 cents per video to a $25 per year. Which begs the question: is Fried out of his saintly, pure-hearted, Nobel Prize-deserving mind?


Let's get real: No one pays for online video except porn. That SpiritClips is the diametric moral opposite of porn does not qualify it as an exception. And yet every now and then you hear from some benighted soul who thinks there is a market out there for this kind of venture. I'm reminded of CrushedPlanet, another subscription-only delusion from the producers of HBO's "Taxicab Confessions" (which I probably would pay for online incidentally).


In interviews, Fried has compared SpiritClips to e-cards, which has some traction as a paid offering. But even if some sappy albeit nicely produced trifle like "Sally" is in the same vein as an e-card--which SpiritClips will charge ONLY $2.99 for the privilege of sending to a friend--it really isn't the same thing. Trust someone who has watched a few of its videos and didn't quite find the cockles of his blog-blackened heart warmed much.
(Andrew Wallenstein)