Inaugural NewTeeVee Pier Screenings Recap

Thank you so much to all who turned out for the first NewTeeVee Pier Screenings last night! I’ll recap for those who were not there, though I must admit I didn’t once take out my reporter’s notebook, so this is all from memory.

First, we had an interview with YouTube’s director of content acquisition and strategy, Jordan Hoffner, about episodic web video. Interestingly, Hoffner discussed success in online video as transitioning to a traditional television environment. He also contended the single most important thing for would-be online video stars to be concerned about was intellectual property.

I asked how that meshed with creators giving up some control of their content when they post it to YouTube, and he said that giving up control was a good thing, and perhaps an edge that indie creators have over pro creators might be their willingness to give up control.

Next, we had a discussion with Kevin Rose and David Prager of Revision3, who talked about building up their loyal audience and capitalizing on the power of personality. Rose said it best when he told us the single most important factor for Diggnation’s success in episodic video is beer. Why? It makes everything more relaxed.

Then Metacafe, our sponsor, gave away some cold hard cash to raffle winners to call attention to its Producer Rewards program.

And then we got to the videos! Thanks to the tireless work of GigaOM business manager Joey Wan, we had an absolutely humongous screen, and the videos, to their credit (and also the credit of NewTeeVee swingman Craig Rubens), really made the transition well. Irina Slutsky, Nick Douglas, and Jackson West (at left) gamely cracked up the audience with their commentary. And the ample supply of beer hopefully counteracted some of the FREEZING COLD of a San Francisco night. Next time, heat lamps!

At the end of the night, the audience chose its winners. First prize went to Break a Leg, which had a sizable and rowdy home team crowd, and won the fawning adoration of would-be-Simon-Cowell Nick Douglas (see our previous coverage of the show).

In second place was HolyLandTV, with its citizen journalism from the Middle East. And in third was Can We Do That?, bringing a highly involved fight scene to its regular humor in the episode it chose for submission.

If you have photos or videos or blog posts of the event, please leave us the links in the comments!

Next month’s event is June 19, and the theme is parody. More details next week.

Update: Photos from our official photographer, James Yu, are now up on Flickr. A selection of photos follow:

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