All in all, the NewTeeVee Conference was a lot of fun. I hadn't been to one of these before and it was interesting to put a face to some companies. Half of Silicon Valley seemed to be there for the pure purpose of shmoozing and that was fun to see. It's also surprisingly fun to say the word shmoozing.
We met a lot of people (Dashiell and Justin went with me, while my poor brother slaved away at work.) We met people from Revver, YouTube, Blip.TV, Caachi, Microsoft and like thirty venture capitalists, none of whom even considered giving us any money (come on, venture capitalists!)
One of the cool things was to see where we stood as far as these people were concerned. We've pretty much considered ourselves ninjas to the professional community -- in that, we hide in the shadows and no one can see us coming until we kill them, except we haven't killed anyone, so we're just the shadow-ey type of ninjas that no one knows.
It turns out that we're not ninjas at all.
People actually recognized me. Some were shockingly starstruck and took my picture (no venture capitalists, though. Come on, venture capitalists!) and some went out of their way just to talk to me and tell me how glad they were to see such good content on the internet. A great guy from VideoEgg (the website that did the Motorola deal for The Burg) talked to me for a while and said he watches the show weekly, while the creator of French Maid TV (who looked faintly like a porn producer) gave me a nod and a thumbs up (thanks -- I didn't catch your name, but I loved the shades and you have a fun show. You can produce my porn any time!) So, that was a blast and I felt a little bit like a celebrity, albeit one that doesn't get paid.
The presentations themselves varied from eye-gougingly dull to really interesting. A panel run by the co-creator of Ask a Ninja (whom we met -- nice, witty guy -- if the ninja ever wants to be on Break a Leg, just let us know) was especially entertaining and the President of CBS Interactive, Quincy Smith, was a joy to listen to. In part because he offered really interesting information and also because he spoke faster than a cheetah can run.
We also spoke to Quincy after his presentation and he told us he'd watch the show (we hope you're watching and just loving the hell out of it, Quincy), he's a good guy and ridiculously charming -- I think Dashiell would've gone home with him if Quincy had asked.
The game show at the end was... well, let's say it was rushed. It was a blast to meet all the web celebrities, but the game show felt a little like a last-minute rush to entertain the few people that were left. I think it could've been organized better but I guess there's only so much you can really do with Family Feud.
What was specifically fun about the game was to meet all the people involved. In fact, I'll tell you what I thought of all of them:
Justin Kan, Justin.tv: Great guy, I even got to wear his camera backpack for like 2 minutes while he went to the bathroom. So, you can call me YuriTV from now on. Justin may do a cameo with us sometime soon, too.
Kevin Rose, Diggnation: Didn't get to talk to Kevin too much. I think he spent most of the time wondering who the hell I was. He told me a bit about Digg and his show and then slipped away from me like a wily monkey. But he was a nice guy and maybe one day I'll have a beer with him.
Zadi Diaz, EPIC FU [or the artist formerly known as JetSet]: It felt eerily like I knew Zadi for years. We joked around and she was very friendly. Zadi, we still have to do a cross-over thing between our shows one day, yes? Yes?!
Casey McKinnon, Galacticast: I think I said like three words to Casey. She seems nice. I'll have to watch her show one of these days and we can bond.
Lindsay Campbell, Wallstrip: Lindsay is ridiculously nice. I didn't talk to her much, but she's tremendously likeable and I can see how she makes Wallstrip successful. She oozes charm and mentioned that she watched the show and liked it, so, I'm considering marrying her.
Hayden Black, Goodnight Burbank/Abigail's X-Rated Teen Diary: Hayden's hilarious and a good guy. It was nice to finally meet him. He and I have evil plans to somehow crossover shows as well and I wish him all the luck in the world. Plus, he's British, so, you know, go Hayden.
Veronica Belmont, Mahalo Daily: Neither one of us have seen the other's show, but Veronica reminded me faintly of a strawberry. She was bright, colorful and had a shockingly green root growing out of her head. We both promised to watch one another's shows and shook on it. We shook on it so hard that I almost broke her arm off, which, by the way, is a great way to make a good first impression.
Eddie, Geek TV: Irina couldn't make it, but her partner in crime Eddie did. Funny guy, relaxed and really friendly. I also considered marrying him.
Heather Gold, The Heather Gold Show: Didn't get to talk to Heather much, but she was a good host and definitely funny.
Robert Scoble, Scobleizer: Robert wrote a blog on our show a while back (I think) and he's a great, intelligent guy. I felt a little out of place as everyone seems to know him and screams of, SCOBLE!!! followed him wherever he went. He mentioned us in a blog again, talking about how great it is that we're all producing cheap content on the web...
...which actually brings me to my next point. A lot of people there talked about video blogs and big media sites like MySpace, Facebook, etc. I had trouble finding any creator who had a show quite like ours and no one really mentioned the evolution of internet video, rather talked about how great it was that Joe HalfNakedWebBlogger has such easy access to make his videos.
I wonder where this culture of, "low quality entertainment" came from. Granted, it's interesting what people can do with just a camera and some talent, but does that really mean that we should downplay quality? We do what we can to make Break a Leg look as professional as it can be. I think that in our passion to create content through the internet, people are forgetting how important the actual art of filmmaking is. Sure, it's interesting and crafty to create a story with just a webcam, but it's been overdone to all hell.
Where are the filmmakers? Where is the actual art, and not people talking to their cameras? I'm all for various kinds of entertainment online, but that shouldn't be the main focus. Let's have both and let's stop stressing how great low-cost, low-quality video is. Let's, instead, push for people to keep getting better in their content and their craft. Just because we have an easily accessible place to showcase our talent doesn't mean we should focus on making EVERYTHING cheap, easy and viral. If I wanted that, I'd get syphillis already.
So, the conference was a blast and we met a lot of great people. We'll try and make another one the next time another one comes around. Oh, we also met Chris Albrecht from NewTeeVee (the one who cruelly insulted us by not including us on his internet shows-to-TV list), we kissed and made-up and now Chris is going to write a ten page essay on how amazing the show is. He's also going to do this because when I came out to be introduced for the Family Feud game, the live feed mysteriously died and no one saw me or who I was. So, now Chris feels guilty and he's going to just blow me away with his riveting inside-Break a Leg report.
Right, Chris?
Right.
-Yuri
P.S. Watch the new video on our site and also on YouTube -- it's fun, cheap AND viral (almost like chlamydia!). Make sure to let us know what you think!
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