“The passion for digital storytelling among young students today is there, and growing. As journalists, we should be thrilled not only by that, but also by the fact that children today are embracing primary sources. It’s not enough for them to hear or read about someone doing something. They want to go on YouTube, or Facebook, or the Web, and see it for themselves. They want to see the original video, a copy of the original e-mail, or of the original text message. They’re natural reporters!” —
Kids and digital storytelling: Who will teach them? (via schlomo)
This is a great piece. It describes the natural inclination to tell stories and affinity for technology that we’re trying to foster in some of California’s most under-served student populations at the Media Center for Art, Education, and Technology.
viiv:
I’m amused.
Me too. It’s nice to have real people in the White House.
The “obscure” comic strip from the “early 1960s” that Mad Men is “based on.”
They do sell it pretty well. Three more at Vanity Fair.
Not likely when embedding is disabled.
Collegehumor’s “You Became a Meme”
Weekend farmers market dish:
Iacopi Farms English shelling peas and Achadinha Cheese Company feta with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper.
[video]
Showing my 97-year-old aunt her house on Google Streetview on an iPad.
“Party Down” got canceled yesterday and that’s a huge bummer for me and at least 17 other people.
In July of 2008, I was working on a piece for Tilzy.tv (now Tubefilter) about the economics of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” and I reached out to Rob Thomas, creator and executive producer of the also canceled-too-soon “Veronica Mars” (and subsequently of “Party Down”) for comments. His response wasn’t really relevant to the post I was writing (which I never finished), but it’s interesting, if a little sad, to read now:
As we speak, I’m downloading Dr. Horrible. I’m curious about how it turned out.
I suspect that Joss has the resources to back this sort of venture that I don’t have. I’ll be curious to see whether he’s able to make money doing it.
I did just shoot a self-financed half-hour comedy [Party Down] in my house. I made it for $150,000, but everyone was doing it at “favor rate.” We’ve put together the numbers, and it would cost $500,000 in real wages if it were to go to series. At the $150,000 cost per episode, I might be tempted to make episodes and sell them on iTunes. At a half-million, the risk is too great, and I simply don’t have the resources to be my own studio. (And, incidentally, those figures are with me making zero dollars.)
We have a cable network offer to put ten episodes on the air, though there are a few more hurdles to cross.
Even if 1) Thomas had been able to sustainably produce “Party Down” at $150k/episode and 2) the 74,000 people (according to Nielsen) who watched it on TV, plus another 25,000 (unfounded assumption) Netflix streaming viewers each payed $1.99 for each episode on iTunes… that’s only $199,000 gross. If iTunes takes 30%, now we’re at $139,000…
A Soup ‘R Crackers franchise would be a better investment.
So, lesson learned (again). Next time an awesome show hits the air (or the web for that matter) let’s not wait ‘till it gets canceled to start evangelizing, k?