paul
Cove Sr. Investigator
Posts: 200
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Post by paul on Oct 27, 2006 19:42:55 GMT -5
I imagine Scott is annoyed (or just laughs) when the "creators" talk about a "new art form." He was doing an interactive IMS 11 years ago, when news stories still had to explain to the audience what the internet was. It was a different world back in 1995 but there were video diaries and this new form of posting of daily diary entries which all came together in that site. The entire genre was nearly obliterated by the dot com bust of the late 1990's but it lives again. And before you ask- I'm not Scott; I'm Paul
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Post by milowent on Oct 27, 2006 19:58:48 GMT -5
welcome paul. === here is what Wikipedia says about "The Spot": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spotexcerpt: The Spot, or thespot.com, was the first episodic fiction web site, and pioneered the underwriting of bandwidth and production costs by offering paid advertising banners on the web pages and product placement within the journal entries. The site was nominated for the one of the original Webby awards, which it won. .... The site was started in June 1995 [THAT IS ANCIENT! Yahoo was readable back then!] by Scott Zakarin, who at the time was an aspiring filmmaker from New York who had been directing television commercials for advertising agency Fattal and Collins. He convinced his employer to back the idea of an interactive fiction site, and the result was the most successful interactive fiction site to date. At its height the site received over 100,000 hits a day, a tremendous response for its time. In the spring of 1996, buoyed by intense media interest in the project, Zakarin sold his interest to minority investors, who sought venture capitalist backing to create an online network called American Cybercast, a spin-off from Fattal & Collins. The Spot continued producing original content through the Summer of 1997, when American Cybercast fell into bankruptcy as the site's drawing power was diluted by a wave of imitators and three parallel "online soaps" (Eon-4, The Pyramid and Quick Fix) introduced by the company to exploit the success of The Spot. The Spot was briefly brought back to life for a relaunch in 2004, but was unsuccessful in attracting advertisers and has since gone dead again. --- more sources are linked by wikipedia
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Post by VanillaFlava on Oct 27, 2006 20:38:04 GMT -5
Yeah well, the whole new art form bit was always way overblown. Internet video diaries and shows have been around pretty much from the beginning. One site, I enjoyed way back in the dark ages of '98 was thesync.com/snack/. Basically a bunch of kids with some funding set up a net TV station that hosted several shows and diaries. For example, this was home to the infamous Jenny Cam show ... the original cam girl. Best of the heap, however, was Terry Crummit's 'Snackboy!', a sort of almost daily snack-size diary, with random musings on life, love and unemployed actors. I was one of the original fans, not only because Terry could have been my twin seperated at birth lookwise, which was spooky (there's a gallery and some posts about that). Anyway, he unfortunately died in a tragic car accident some years ago. The SnackBoy episodes are still very fun to watch! Also from that era would be www.romp.com (now defunct), a Disney exec's son's experiment in online animation serials. The problem with all these sites were that broadband hadn't found widespread penetration, compression was still horrid, bandwidth was ridiculously expensive and there had been no mature advertising market to fund them. Shame, all very talented people. '98 was a pretty exciting year for net video. Unfortunately, all of them much before their time. Today these peeps would be YT gods! The point is, don't entertain the hubris of denying who has gone before, and don't announce the revolution if you're not actually packing some guerilla ideas
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Post by hyemew on Oct 29, 2006 2:49:53 GMT -5
Any connections to any Andreas?
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Post by wednesday on Oct 29, 2006 16:07:19 GMT -5
I hate to bring up NoHoGirls again especially because this thread has gotten into some really interesting and (personally) unknown territory re: IMS's, but...
I just watched 26 out of the 38(?) NoHoGirls vids, and I have to say that I officially say NO to the NoHoGirls. Why? BLUE. Damn, that girl is annoying. I dislike this girl (actress) almost but not quite as much as hyemew dislikes Gemma. Still: The truth is, I think the series has cleaner, more consistant character and story arc than lg15. While I think that lg15's creators were trying to produce something a little more like art and a little less like sweet valley high, they could learn a lot from nhg.
Modified so as not to double post: I did say no, but then said yes late at night...and I'm glad I did. Either Adam is a freaking genius "I'm human...when I go to the grocery store, the door opens for me." or Eddie is incredibly scary and stupid. Either way, gimme a series of only Eddie, or only Adam. I don't care which. I suppose I may have to watch from now on.
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Post by drquest on Oct 30, 2006 13:29:47 GMT -5
OK Eddie must die he had the nerve to post a video called I Love Baseball but NOT the Cardinals I almost flaged the thing. How dare he speak against The Cardinals. If your reading this Eddie it's on now
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Post by Terryfic on Oct 30, 2006 13:43:59 GMT -5
We have a whole board about NoHoGirls now.. so feel free to venture outside of this one thread
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Post by noasinger on Oct 30, 2006 15:05:33 GMT -5
Okay, now I have to finally confess that I used to follow The Spot. Aiee, I was young(er) and foolish(er) in those days!
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Joss
Cove Investigator+
I'm bad.. And I like it! It's so fun!
Posts: 189
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Post by Joss on Oct 30, 2006 15:08:14 GMT -5
Shame on you! ;D
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paul
Cove Sr. Investigator
Posts: 200
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Post by paul on Oct 30, 2006 19:26:09 GMT -5
There's nothing wrong with being a Spotfan...
-Paul
P.S. Thanks for the welcome. I asked a friend of mine to join the forum and join in the discussion as well. His name is Scott.
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scottz
Anchor Cove New Resident
Posts: 11
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Post by scottz on Oct 30, 2006 19:34:26 GMT -5
I was VERY proud of TheSpot. It was earlier interactive storytelling and the audience wasn't as Jaded. Still I believe that when the current audience gets past the whole real vs fake thing, that they are going to get into the uniquely empowered virtues of this pioneering entertainment format we are all involved in. The fun has just begun!
For more on me i'm on myspace.com/scottzak
I really appreciate this message board and hope I am welcome to interact with you in the future.
yours, Scott Zakarin
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Post by drquest on Oct 30, 2006 19:50:50 GMT -5
Hey Scott, your not only welcome on the fourm but join us in the chat room some time
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Smashing
Very Very Sr. Cove Sleuther
All you need is love...and high speed internet.
Posts: 454
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Post by Smashing on Oct 30, 2006 21:46:32 GMT -5
Glad to see you here, Scott. I certainly welcome you. I hope you aren't too pissed at me for outing you as being behind the NoHoGirls. My thinking was that by confirming that it wasn't real, it would take away the need for so many people to comment "FAKE!" and as you say move past the whole real vs. fake thing. We had just been through the "unveiling" of lonelygirl15 and her creators, which only increased her popularity, so I figured it wouldn't hurt. But maybe what I did was not so much wrong as discourteous? if you feel I was a party pooper or a killjoy for not keeping the secret, I can see that. Anyway, I think you could especially add to the discussion about not only the NoHos, but in the other threads about the business side of an internet miniseries. Thanks for joining!
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Post by milowent on Oct 30, 2006 22:03:37 GMT -5
Welcome Scott! Awesome to see you here! You are of course welcome to participate, lurk, etc., as you see fit. We hope you participate. Still I believe that when the current audience gets past the whole real vs fake thing, that they are going to get into the uniquely empowered virtues of this pioneering entertainment format we are all involved in. The fun has just begun! Agree. A sizeable portion of the YouTube community appears to have a bizarre reaction to fictional content right now - that only random vbloggers and coke&mentos type videos belong or something. And Colbert report is ok, too, i guess. It reminds me of the DIY (do it yourself) reaction of punk to early 70s rock, but there is no reason that the current DIY attitude should be so limited to not include fictional work.
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scottz
Anchor Cove New Resident
Posts: 11
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Post by scottz on Oct 30, 2006 22:13:06 GMT -5
I loved your piece. I don't care if people think its real and I looked foward to it coming out organically. And it did, with your lovely piece. I also love that you connect it to Soup of the day.
So thanks. You have a fan in me. Make more vids.
yours, ScottZ
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