The 1st Annual Streamy Awards – Web Series’ Coming Out Party

Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, Kodak's CEO and Tabitha (photo by Megan Enloe)

Saturday night, Hollywood and online collided and created a beautiful child in the 1st Annual Streamy Awards. Held at the historic Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles, the awards celebrated some of the top talents in the web series industry (which, I think we can now call it an ‘industry’). With sponsorship from Kodak, episodic, TubeFilter, Tilzy.TV, NewTeeVee, Zune, and DailyMotion the Streamys were a blend of the familiar and the new. The red carpet not only sported flashing cameras and traditional HD video cameras, but also new media news pundits recording on their small flip video cameras or even on the video feature of their digital camera.

The growth of the internet series has been a transition from funny videos of lightsabers, cats and tredmills to a place for serious creative endevors (okay, maybe not always serious). With the influx of traditional Hollywood types (William Shatner, Joss Whedon, Eva Longoria, Lisa Kudrow and others) it seems the world at large is no longer regulating web series to the bottom shelf along with the LOLCats.

Since I’ve always taken New Media seriously it was fun to listen to some of the traditional press on the red carpet marvel at how intense it all was. I heard more than once, “I didn’t realize it was going to be this big.”

So what’s the big deal? Creators, writers and actors all seemed to agree that they enjoyed the format of the web series. Having the creative freedom to do your idea, your way and having the audience judge your worth seemed to be a big draw. No big studio influence changing your vision, no writing other people’s visions and no having to sit through two hours of a crappy movie that your agent said you should do to pay the bills.

The awards themselves showed the spirit of web series. Since they were streamed (live on streamys.org) there were few restrictions on language and content. The spicy and spirited banter of the opening presenters (Felicia Day and Sandeep Parikh) reflected this difference to other Hollywood award shows.

The first winner was William Shatner, whose Shatner Project embraces a new surge of celebrities using social and new media as a way to control the public’s curiosity about their private life and to turn that into a way to promote themselves and their work.

Felicia Day with her Streamy (photo by TheBluBrothers.com and released under Creative Commons)

The bigger winners of the night, the fans. Bet you thought I was going to say Dr. Horrible and the Guild and you’d be half-right. But what those two series have in common is an intense connection with their fan base. And that is where web series really shine. When most viewers watch traditional media they interact on a very basic level with the story, the themes and the actors. Stories, as I’ve said in the past, are our touchstone for humanity. And, in that sense, when we watch the Oscars, the Emmys or another similar awards show we enjoy when stories and story creators (actors, writers, directors, etc) win because the story meant a lot to us.

But, with web series, not only is the opportunity there to fall in love with the story and story creators but be part of the creation. With Season 1 of the Guild it meant fans donated the funding for the series to be made. With Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, Joss Whedon asked fans to be the PR machine to promote, and he credits the fans with making the series so popular. Even further than that both the Guild and Dr. Horrible give fans a chance to create their own content (the Guild regularly showcases fan art and fans volunteered to work on Season 2, Dr. Horrible fans submitted video applications to a contest where winners were showcased on the official DVD). So when those fans watch the Streamys not only do they cheer for the story, but they feel like they are part of why that show is up for the award (and they have a vested interest).

The heart of New Media (and social media) is the collaboration and it was celebrated and honored at the Streamys. If Saturday night was the coming out party, I can’t wait to see where we go from here. I’ll have more audio interviews from the red carpet in the upcoming days.

If you’re interested in creating a killer web series so you can win your very own Streamy next year check out this fantastic video from Benny & Rafi Fine (TheFineBros).

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March 30, 2009 | Filed Under Web Series, events, media

3 Comments

Comments

3 Responses to “The 1st Annual Streamy Awards – Web Series’ Coming Out Party”

Fury of Solace on March 30th, 2009 12:33 pm

Fury of Solace didn’t have enough episodes in 2008 to be eligible for the first annual Streamy Awards, but it will be a different story for year two. Bad things are coming to http://www.furyofsolace.com.

Fury of Solace
Doing evil so you don’t have to
Somewhere in Los Angeles
JossPod » Blog Archive » Let’s Just Call it the Whedonverse Streamy Awards on March 30th, 2009 6:31 pm

[...] the value and importance of the web industry. To hear more of my thoughts about that check out the post I did on Social Media World. Whedon fans will be happy to know not only did Felicia Day, Joss Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, Neil [...]
worldofhiglet on March 30th, 2009 6:37 pm

Great article, as ever, Tabitha. I think we have reached tipping point and web television will expand enormously over the next few years. This is a good and bad thing because, almost inevitably, it will be harder for people to break into once the studios start to put serious money into it. Or maybe that won’t happen and there will always be a way for artists to get their work promoted. We can hope.

And interesting point, Fury…Evil WorldofHiglet’s ELE Application Processing Office did, but no nomination for me. I blame Delicia Fay. But the Horrible Award made up for it!

Season 2 will be airing later in the year – who knows who might be guest starring…..?