Fellow Streamy Nominee, Kristyn Burtt (The Web Files) and I at The Good Knight's Quest Premiere

First off, I want to congratulate all the Streamy Award Nominees. There were a lot of peers and pals that I deeply respect that scored nominations and that is just awesome. There were several I was so thrilled to see that it felt like I was more excited than the nominees themselves.

Anyway it’s just been a crazy week. So crazy that this blog post is coming 3 days after I originally wanted to write it. The good thing with the extra time for this post is that I can reflect more on what the nominations means to the team, the show, and me. I’ll admit, I was nervous as heck going into Monday morning (when they announced the nominations). I had figured that’d we pull in a few nominations and do well, but you never know until it’s official.

I am truly thrilled with our Streamy nominations. What the Streamy Awards means to everyone else is subjective, but to me it means a ton. Last year when we were finishing Compulsions, I set a hard deadline to my team. “This show is coming out in its entirety this year, distribution deal or not!”, and sure enough with grinding hard work, and the promotional support of Dailymotion, it premiered and has been extremely well received. One note to add, as one fellow deeply respected creator pointed out to me on Monday, the nominations (and any possible wins) will also hopefully give us enough recognition to propel us into a Season 2, which is and should be the goal for any Season 1 series.

As for our nominations themselves, it’s awesome that we’re well represented. We’re nominated in what are traditionally referred to as “big categories” (Acting, Writing, Directing, and Overall Drama). But as this is a blog and I feel obligated to be honest, I’ll admit that there was still this bittersweetness to it. Being part of a team, there’s this  disappointment that comes when members of them don’t receive the recognition that you feel they deserve. I really wanted my craft/technical team to pull out a nomination or two, so yes I was sad that they didn’t receive any. But in reflecting on it, I believe that feeling of let down goes for any webseries out there, nominated or not.

I’ve had private conversations with several nominees from other shows who voiced the exact same disappointment that I had. Their show may be represented (and in some cases well represented) yet they are still saddened by being missed in categories which they believed they were a strong contender for. It may seem “greedy” but I assure you it’s not. It’s a feeling of camaraderie that stems from that “family love” mentality you develop when you’re  working in a collaborative process like producing web video. Every web series creator/director/whatever is going to champion the work of every member of their team, it’s just a part of the journey. Thus I really hope my peers that were nominated are truly grateful for the nominations they received, and not worrying about the nominations that they didn’t.

Finally, for my personal nomination in writing, I am of course ecstatic. It’s an honor to be nominated, and it feels good to be up against heavy hitters.  Amongst my fellow nominees are a slew of TV writing credits (Lost, Doctor Who, Torchwood, The L Word) and two big studios (Sony/Crackle and MTV Networks).  As a growing episodic script-writer evolving into short format, I really challenged myself to prove that an intense/gripping/sophisticated drama could be executed as a high quality/episodic web series, thus it’s rewarding to receive a level of recognition like this. At its very base, it is an encouraging piece of validation that pushes my to advance my craft, so I will continue to press more in my work. – In a phrase  - “I must be doing something right.”

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Left to Right: Writer/Creator Bernie Su, Janna Bossier (Justine Davis), and Seth Caskey (Adam Creedy) at the Compulsions Premiere Party

First off I want to say THANK YOU to all of you who are watching the show. It doesn’t matter how good you make the show, if no one watches it, it might as well not exist. I also want to say THANK YOU to my amazing cast and crew (many of which are still putting the final polish on episodes 5-8) for our 2nd week run. I’ve heard a ton of personal praise, and even apparently have a personalized congrats video out there thanks to Sandra Payne and Kristyn Burtt of The Web Files (way to make a writer of such darkness shed a tear).  Anyway, I have to deflect a lot of the praise to my cast and crew, they were all spectacular in their own rights and all put in a ton of quality hard work into this show. With all the praise they deserve as much it as I’ve personally gotten. It’s truly satisfying as a creator to be able to watch the series and really enjoy what is happening on screen and that credit REALLY goes out to My Team.

More after the Jump!

Compulsions skinned and featured on Dailymotion.com's home page.

I’ve been asked “What would be the bench mark of success for this show?”. I don’t think a question like that can be answered, there really isn’t a precedent for a show like ours though I know a 1 million view week one would be completely unrealistic. This is not a show that’s going to bust the play buttons across the web right out of the gate. We have no main stream stars outside of the web space, we have no studio PR/Marketing machine, and we have no brand integration. We are truly an independent “Word of Mouth” show. Yes the Dailymotion support has been remarkable, if not a complete god send. I’ve enjoyed every moment working with them, and would recommend any other creator to definitely consider their resources as a tool cause they are vast and are hungry for quality content. As Aimee Carlson, Director of Programming,  told me at the Premiere Party “It’s easy when it’s good”, and as Liz Miller from Newteevee said, Dailymotion “has thrown the full weight of its site behind driving viewership.” and really we could not be happier. It’s gotten us a lot of press and exposure to a ton of new eyes that normally wouldn’t even see web shows. So the question remains has that made us a success?

As far as numbers go, I figured a 100,000 view total after week 1 would be astounding (note: week 1 technically would not end until this coming Monday so we still have a few days to hit that goal – though unlikely). I do think 50kish (not counting Trailer views) has to be a success for us thus far. In the grand scheme of things 50k is really nothing but you have to keep in mind the context. Again, no huge built in fan base, we’re not a viral video, we aren’t a “sexy” genre (sciFi/comedy). So yeah 50k after 4 days… to me that’s a success (or more like “So Far So Great!”). I’ve been smiling all week (minus the squeamish moments I get when I watch those Mark Sandler/Craig Frank episodes) and as much as we are off the Dailymotion front page for now, we’ll be back next Tuesday when Episode 5 hits and the story switches to Annemarie Pazmino‘s Cassandra Morrissey so keep tuning in.