Countdown to Showbizzle: The View from the Bunker

Starting next Monday, selected bloggers, media critics, potential sponsors, assorted friends and active members from what remains of our original social network will be invited to evaluate our new and improved website at showbizzle.com ahead of the pack.A week later, showbizzle goes live and open it up to the pack, who we define as anyone with a computer looking for a little fun. For the next 23 weeks, the pack can watch 30 different actors, performing 141 original monologues, either as a serialized weekly show that averages 15 minutes a pop, or as a series of “single” two minute videos that can be found on our characters’ landing page, about what they are doing to try to jumpstart their careers in Hollywood.

During those first 23 weeks anyone from the pack has the option to become a member of our community — which will give them the chance to actually get $$ to perform original material on our Digital Showcase.

During those 23 weeks chances are I will be where I am right now - in my bunker. Ha. No, seriously, my home office where much of showbizzle was originally hatched has become my bunker. Not that I’m complaining. It’s very nice bunker with a bathroom, and a treadmill, and a comfy couch, and an old TV. And since I often refer to myself as a “refugee from mainstream media” whenever I meet someone new at a digi conference, I think wartime imagery is apt.

See, back in the good old days before anyone thought to call “mainstream media” mainstream media,  back when I was just a show runner running shows, all I had to do was make sure that the show worked, was brought in on a budget, and that my executives felt satisfied or, at least, felt included in the creative process. Hardly a moment was spent thinking about what marketing mavens and the rest of the suits working with a corporate sales team were actually doing to fill their days. But after spending close to 18 months trying to get showbizzle off the ground, I know exactly what they do. They go to war - just like I seem to be doing these days now that I have become a full service “content publisher”.

Unfortunately, the digital entertainment war zone does not appear to adhere to any standards set by the Geneva Convention because torture seems to be permitted. Maybe even encouraged. How do I know this? Well, because I deal with a lot of foot soldiers and a few self-appointed generals, and trust me, all the landmines that existed over on the mainstream - the dashed expectations, the unreturned phone calls, the misrepresentations - take on a whole new dimension once you factor in flakey and attention deficit - not to mention a nasty and indiscriminate economy.

The digital battlefield took on a new casualty this week - Quarterlife, a content based social network built around an original “digital” series created and produced by Marshal Herskovitz of Bedford Falls  (”thirtysomething”) for NBC, sent out a letter to its community asking for donations to keep it afloat. Wonder what Marshall’s bunker looks like over there in Brentwood? Bet it has a flat screen.