There’s a fair amount riding on the IAWTV Awards, as the show is not only a potential money-maker for the organization, but the final step in the IAWTV’s separation from the Streamy Awards, the organization that was the IAWTV’s original reason for existence and is now an independent ceremony that will be co-produced by Dick Clark Productions.

But looking at the nominees, one thing stands out — if the goal is to celebrate web originals, then the IAWTV Awards are a step in the right direction. No awards show ever gets it exactly right (especially given how subjective taste can be), but the spread of shows recognized represents a pretty good mix of productions backed by major players and genuinely independent shows.

Looking at the Best Comedy Web Series category, for example, you have the category’s shoe-in nominee, The Guild (Microsoft), as well as Video Game Reunion (Atom/Comedy Central) and Gigi: Almost Pretty (My Damn Channel/BBC Worldwide). But Pretty and The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour are both independently produced and distributed.

And if you look at the Best Drama Web Series category, it’s even better — RCVR is distributed through Machinima, and Pioneer One by Vodo, but both companies are web-native and the other three nominees are completely independent. This means that there are many nominated shows that will genuinely benefit from the greater exposure being offered by being nominated.

The emphasis here is definitely on web series as opposed to the more nebulous and hard-to-define content being produced by YouTube creators (beyond stray nominations for The Phil Defranco Show and the Fine Brothers’ Kids React). And because the eligibility period stretched from January 1, 2010 to October 31, 2011, many of the nominated shows have been dormant for some time — it’s a personal favorite, but it’s been almost a year since the last episode of Fanboy Funhouse was released, and it may not represent the current web video culture as well as another nominee might.

Also, the IAWTV Awards need a better name. Or any name at all, really. The Emmys were named after “the image-orthicon camera tube,” according to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences website — surely there’s an equally obscure web equivalent to that.

Still, as a voting member of the organization, I’m looking forward to making some tough decisions as I fill out my ballot, and watching the live-stream this January. For years, I’ve heard the argument that the web series world may simply be too young for us to start handing out awards, but I’ve decided to be positive about this. After all, as long as the focus stays on the shows and creators, something that inspires people to work harder, make better shows and watch more web content can only be a good thing.

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Pioneer One, The BitTorrent Exclusive TV-Series Continues; the second episode of the crowsourced, made for P2P TV show was released today, with two more to follow in the weeks to come. (TorrentFreak)

PIONEER ONE: New Episodes Teaser from Pioneer One on Vimeo.

In the world of digital content, Pioneer One‘s story is a unique one: The half-hour pilot, created by Josh Bernhard and Bracey Smith, and funded by a Kickstarter campaign, was distributed through VODO and promoted by a conglomerate of P2P services. As of today, the pilot has been viewed over two million times, won “Best Drama” at the New York Television Festival and received over $30,000 in fan donations, which will go towards producing the remaining five episodes of the first season.

The second episode, entitled “The Man from Mars,” is due to be released (again, via BitTorrent) this December, with episodes following on a roughly monthly basis. Originally, the first season was going to be seven episodes, including the pilot, but Bernhard said via GTalk that “We realized that 7 can stand on its own and is an undertaking more massive than the others, so we’re ending on 6.”

“If possible, we might be able to make it more like every couple of weeks,” Bernhard said, “But it honestly depends on the response to the next episode. It’s an interesting beast, because it doesn’t quite play by the rules of a television schedule — I’d love to put out a new ep every week, but then we’d kill our momentum. Right now every episode is sort of its own ‘event,’ and we don’t know the balance between ‘event’ and ‘we just want the next part of the story’.”

PIONEER ONE “Pilot” from Pioneer One on Vimeo.

Pioneer One‘s fan base has been waiting for the next part of the story since June of this year, but has remained active in that time, according to Bernhard, communicating with the creators directly via email with questions and offers to help. Set photos and video blogs from the Pioneer One set offer fans a look at the production in progress. New Facebook fans are added every day.

“In general I think people are proud of the fact that they’re able to support content they like, whether it’s Pioneer One or something else. I think they feel a real connection to the show that you don’t get with traditional media, which is a very one-way relationship,” Bernhard said.

One issue that came up during production was a guild one — Matthew Foster, the original actor to play Dr. Walzer, joined SAG between the production of the pilot and the new episodes, and, as Pioneer One lacked the time or money to become a SAG production, Foster had to move on due to his union affiliation.

“We tried to work with SAG, but there’s a big gap in their coverage for productions of this size,” Bernhard said. “I wasn’t handling the specifics, but there was an issue with the fact that we were presenting ourselves as an on-going series, which seriously complicated matters. There’s not really such a thing as a low-budget, independent TV series, so there aren’t really deals for that.”

Foster’s scenes in the pilot have been reshot with the new actor, and will be included, along with previously deleted scenes, in a revised version to be released before Episode 2.

Pioneer One still needs to raise a little more money in order to complete Season 1, but Bernhard believes that it will come through. “We won’t really know until we see what the response is like to the new episodes, but we’ve gotten further than I realistically thought we would back in June,” he said. “I think we’re going to be able to produce a season of our show based solely on viewer donations, which is amazing.”

But is this model sustainable? Not necessarily. “Moving forward, we’re hoping to find other sources of financing, supplemented by continued viewer support,” Bernhard said. “It worked for this season because of the limited scope of the story. But it gets bigger with every season.”

Even so, a unique show, an engaged fan base, an unconventional financing and distribution system…Pioneer One may not singlehandedly change the face of entertainment. But it is showing what’s possible when you explore other options.

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That, added to the fact that the project has received over $20,000 in donations for future episodes, means that the show will definitely go on. Creator Josh Bernhard told TorrentFreak that the $20,000 will fund a block of three new episodes, which are now currently in pre-production. “We’re still looking for more solid backing toward our ultimate financing goal, but the donation money was absolutely crucial for us to move forward. We have some promising prospects, and we’ll know more on that within a couple of weeks,” he said.

Finding a stable source of income for the project would not only be a validation of Bernhard and co-creator Bracey Smith’s work, but it would show once again that an independent project can rise to success on the strength of its fan base. However, given the immense outpouring of support for the project, I wonder if it would be possible to keep Pioneer One as a purely fan-supported operation.

Certainly, the money wouldn’t be as good as a studio deal — but it would also guarantee that Bernhard and Smith would continue to own their intellectual property and control the project’s future. And there’s a simple way to formalize the process of fan donations — the creation of a subscription system could enable different types of rewards with different levels of financial participation. Subscription models for web series haven’t yet been proven to be sustainable. But this might be the right project to try it.

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