Last October I posted my thoughts about the then-new Boing Boing TV web show. At that time the show was only a week or two old, and I was really disappointed in what I was seeing. I admit to having very high expectations because of how much I respect what Boing Boing has meant to Internet culture, and because DECA, the entertainment studio producing the show, is very well-funded.

Since then I've checked in every now and then to see how things were developing and changing. I'll say one thing, it's become far more interesting and has much more of the spirit of the blog now. They seem to have gone to an anthology-style approach, which works for a daily show with such diverse content. The day I'm writing this, they have an animated piece inspired by and created with images from early video games. The second half of the show has a piece of short traditional animation that is random and funny.

What I like even more are the videoblogs inserted with personal commentary. In this one Xeni Jardin gives us a running commentary as we watch a video shot by Sean Bonner of blogging.la documenting the Anonymous vs. Scientology protests in Los Angeles on February 10th. Something about the way the anthology shows are mixed in with news commentary seems much more like the spirit of the ecelctic and terrific blog that built the Boing Boing brand.

There's less original content and more repurposing of material created by others, but it brings attention to lots of talented creators from around the globe. This can feel a little weird with no commentary about the content, though. On EPIC-FU we frequently show 30-45 secs of videos from indie bands in the middle of our show in the Spotlight segment, but it's surrounded with commentary on other things to help balance out the presentation. Doing a daily show is quite a different animal, however, so as long as the entire week isn't like that I can't give them too much shit about it.

On the whole I'm glad to see that the folks at Boing Boing and DECA are not afraid to change the show and their approach to creating it. In my opinion the challenge facing the growth of Boing Boing TV appears to be to figure out a way to brand the show, because as it stands I'd have no idea how to tell someone about it who isn't already familiar with the Boing Boing blog. We have a similar challenge with EPIC-FU -- looking for the best way to communicate a focused brand message while still offering diverse and rich content from the web, which can seem totally random to someone who isn't immersed in it on a daily basis.

If anyone has any thoughts about how you'd describe Boing Boing TV or EPIC-FU in a single sentence, please post them in the comments. It should be something that makes you immediately get a picture of what the show is, who it's for, and why anyone should care about watching it. As Fred Seibert taught us, thinking about how to talk about a show can help focus the actual show content itself.

Attention content creators: watch the video above and sing along!!!

It's pretty rare that a day passes by that I don't feel fortunate about being a content creator for the web at this moment in time. Perhaps at no other time in recent media history have content creators had as much say over what kind of content they can make, where their content goes, and how it gets distributed. And more importantly, we may have never had as much control of our own destinies as we do at this moment.

The future belongs to us if we fight for it!

For years I told Zadi that I would never have a blog because I simply did not have enough to say to make it worthwhile for anyone to read. I tend to be action-oriented as opposed to discussion-oriented, and I never imagined myself as a person who might choose to verbalize (or author, in this case) thoughts that could be better expressed through doing.

Now, though, I think I might have something to add to the discussion. Having worked in online media for the past 10+ years and having been consumed specifically by the world of online video for the past 1-2 years, I feel more strongly than ever that there is not enough discourse happening about content as opposed to technical and philosophical discussions.

That's what this blog will mostly focus upon: writing about how to create good content and what it means to be a writer and a director in film and video. I think I have a lot to say about those things. I look around the vlogosphere and I see so much creativity and energy, yet so little quality, at least in my opinion. I think we're all still figuring out how to make web shows, myself included, and I want to talk about this so we can figure it out together.

It's true that most of us contend with things like day jobs that eat into the time required to fulfill our potential as artists, but that's just tough, isn't it? We still have a responsibility to make the best media we can, and I am consistently disappointed by how little discipline I see out there, even with the shows I regularly watch and enjoy (my own work is included here, by the way).

My first few posts will be about things like dramatic and comedic writing structure, character development, and crispness and timing in editing. These are all things that cost nothing, but add infinite value to the content. I'm not sure many people know how to go about learning structure, or even know that it might be missing from their work.

For me, the promise of online video in 2007 is about taking that step forward into a larger world. Luckily, anyone can comment and tell me where I might be going wrong so that I can make sure my contributions stay on point in the 0-7.