Also, you make a mistake in assuming that we want to “go beyond the web.” We strongly believe that web content is a new medium like television before it, and like cinema before that. If we went back in time to the turn of the 20th century and looked at the nickelodeons and Edison’s shorts of men doing backflips and horses running, it would be similarly easy to write off cinema in favor of the theater.

Does anyone pay attention to the talent on the Edison short films? Or is it just teenage fanboys and people who like to watch EPIC FAIL videos? LOL.

Sorry but a lot of real heavyweight commercial directors aren’t really skillful in anything except communication and selling themselves. Nowadays you actually need to have a multitude of skills to pull stuff off. Directors who direct and edit are a real boon. Because when you really understand editing and directing and how shots come together, you will quickly save a lot of money and time.

Bad directors will blow episodes completely. A second season Walking Dead episode was completely ruined by one director and they had to reshoot stuff and save it in editing. Now if you get a director who actually understands what they are doing (understands compositing and editing) then you will get way far.

There are a lot of stupid places where cash goes because people just aren’t skilled enough in all areas of filmmaking.

FreddieW has actually been making money off of youtube for a long time, this was just their next logical step.

I thought “They” meant this actual team. I didn’t realize they meant “everyone in the world”.

Got it now.

no, I mean combined on their channels. For example Smosh has 2 billion views and Ray william Johnson.
Or look at Shane Dawson. After moving to Los Angeles he moved back to his hometown complaining that the rents in L.A. are to high. Freddy and Brandon shoot with a Red Scarlet and with a Sony F700, if your calculations were true, then they could easily afford a Red Epic…
I know that there are sites that claim that you get for every 1 million hit 3300 dollar but seriously, who knows, maybe they are right maybe wrong. They are multiple sites on the internet that doubt these high numbers.

Also, if you’ve ever directed anything you know how much of a pain it is to go from doing high level creative work, to doing low level compositing etc… not to mention no one should ever edit material they were on set for. So again, to me while these numbers make sense for a one time test, they don’t make sense for a project which allows for you to divide your focus on to new opportunities as well.

I am interested in the viability of this as a business model; but right now I don’t see it. Hard production and post costs are way too high, and frankly, the quality is not that good. Sure this appeals to teenagers etc, but this isn’t Walking Dead or Skyfall level content. And before you say that’s not a fair comparison to make (of course its not), I’m not the one who tried to compare the work favorably to that; they did so in their infographics.

By putting this information out there, however, they’re exerting a negative price influence on budgets and I think its important to figure out exactly who isn’t going to be eating in this new model should studios attempt to adopt it. The way I see this, is a proof that the concept doesn’t really work, so they’re using it as a PR and advertising piece to attempt to monetize themselves through social value / fame, etc… It’s the .com / web 2.0 business model, build something cool in the short term, attempt to create implied value through social network effects, and hope the business model comes together later.

I’m not being critical here. I’m interested to follow their progress. I just don’t see it, and won’t be producing this type of content personally. I can see the numbers for comedy, reality, and live event, but I don’t see it for narrative fiction, particularly fx based narrative fiction. I’m looking for someone to say “hey, no, you’re wrong this is sustainable and here’s why” not just that they do a lot of heavy lifting themselves. That just means they’re willing to work on the cheap. That’s not sustainable in a capitalist world.

Where did you get your numbers from?

Are your crazy??? In what universe is that true? You get roughly 500-1000 $ for every 1 Million views. Imagine if this is true, then the best youtubers with 2 billion hits would have made more then 10 Million dollars.

Some people don’t want to do features. It looks more like they’re trying to go where real money is, television.

I think what these guys have done is nothing short of amazing.

What I REALLY want to comment on is that graph putting VGHS on the same page as THE WALKING DEAD. Kudos to your followship (not even a word) and being able to tap your audience for your budget… VGHS is a far stretch from THE WALKING DEAD and most syndicated narrative shows.

It’s great for web content, right up there with Mortal Kombat and The Halo Series–belonging rightfully on that graph, but there’s a reason why TWD costs what it costs.

Releasing the budget breakdown in this way is a good advertisement, though. Some of the lower tier execs searching for a new cash cow and/or a fresh start will look at it and think dollar signs.

Also, if it sounds like I’m a wee-bit jealous, it’s ’cause I am! =D Beat ya to it.