The Next Sound You Hear...

An audio technician in New York approached the folks at Blip TV to see if any of their shows could use the help of a pro audio guy in his spare time.

The Blip folks forwarded him to us, as they say, "not because you have such terrible audio that you need a specialized audio guy...but because you have a lot going on in your episodes and I think this guy is looking for more of a challenge."

So the audio guy watched the show and dropped me a line, suggesting that he thinks we have a good thing already, but what we could really use is a better audio mix. He suggested I upload the original files, including audio from each of our sources -- boom mic, camera mic, lapel mic, room mic, etc. -- and let him fiddle with it to improve the mix.

That's when I explained that we don't actually HAVE an audio mix.

We have one microphone. Which I attach to the top of the camera.

Needless to say, we won't be working with a professional audio guy from New York in the immediate future...

Plot vs. Non-Plot

[This blog post turned out to be exceedingly long. Get some coffee.]

Our first season of STBD is a misnomer. It's only five episodes, which amounts to an hour's worth of video.

In actuality, Season One is really one short film script, subdivided into sections by necessity.

Conversely, seasons two, three and four were written on the fly. Real-life variables, including cast availability, forced us to switch things up on the move. This resulted in a fluid yet dramatically awkward approach to storytelling. The actors didn't know how the story was going to end because NONE of us knew if we'd be able to film what we needed to film, or when.

That approach has proven to be unsatisfying all around, so we've tabled it for now, in favor of working within a more tightly-plotted script. We'll still allow for situational improvisation, but we're aiming to tell a more cohesive, coherent story.

In essence, we're returning to the Subdivided Film Script theory.

From One Three Act Structure, Many

Instead of thinking in terms of "seasons," I'm thinking in terms of story arcs. Every character has his or her own trajectory, and some reach new milestones in their personal adventures faster than others. As these stories intertwine, and similarities begin to develop, the bonds of a unified series of plot points eventually coalesces into One Story.

This One Story may take three episodes or ten episodes to tell; it may even take 40. But what it actually IS, when you break it down, is one large script, subdivided by necessity into smaller, bite-sized pieces, which we'll call "episodes."

Sound analytical? It is, in a way, although it's been proven to work for thousands of years. It's the same general three-act structure used since the days of Plato, and which has driven countless works of dramatic and comedic art throughout the centuries.

It also worked pretty well in Season One, so we speak from experience.

In Defense of Plotlessness

Personally, as a writer, I'm perpetually torn between wanting to tell a story that jumps off the page and wanting to tell NO STORY AT ALL, and allowing the minutae of interactions between the characters to draw us incrementally into their world. It's the difference between Casablanca and Seinfeld, although each can incorporate elements of the other.

In a plot, something happens. Characters are affected. A statement is made.

In a non-plot, nothing happens. Characters may or may not be affected. A statement may or may not be made.

Plots are artificial simplifications of life, yet are traditionally emotionally satisfying because they can be processed.

Non-plots are stylized commentaries upon life. They are traditionally unsatisfying emotionally because they are incomplete, yet that is exactly why they hold such appeal to the audiences who appreciate them: they feel more like real life.

The STBD Challenge

Something to Be Desired was always meant to be a commentary upon real life. By that declaration, it's designed to be a non-plot.

And yet, our most successful story arc thus far was our first season, which follows Jack through a series of miniature encounters until he comes to the series' titular conclusion: "Sometimes, real life leaves a little..."

Subsequent seasons have failed to generate the same dramatic buzz, with few exceptions: The Dean and Caroline romance (which has a beginning, middle and end), the mystery of the box Dex gives Dierdre for Christmas (which has a beginning, middle and end)...

See the trend? Our audience -- most audiences -- respond most strongly to plot-driven sections of the story because those include events and realizations that people can react to and form opinions about. This is why, unless a story is defiantly anti-plot (think Russian Ark or most Godard films), even the most plotless of ventures still hangs upon a "hook" or "conceit" of some kind. Even Seinfeld: in every episode, some small interconnection of minor observations or actions compounds to create a final realization, either in a character or in the audience.

The Downside of Plot

Interestingly, "plot" can also be seen as the playground of a) a primitive audience, which needs the security of a beginning / middle / end, as the first audiences of stories presumably did, or b) an American audience. Foreign film fans will notice far less adherence to the rigors of plot in some of the most successful non-American films of all time, which begs the question: are American audiences, and therefore American storytellers, primitive in comparison to audiences of the world?

By and large, the public wants a story it can digest, learn from, agree or disagree with, but primarily it wants a story that exists within processable boundaries. It wants a story where SOMETHING HAPPENS.

That doesn't mean STBD can't wander. It doesn't mean we can't go completely off the beaten path, under the brush, across a river and into the abandoned farmhouse of plotlessness from time to time. Look around: ALL SHOWS DO IT. There's not one successful film or TV show that doesn't include the occasional "character moment," or whatever shorthand you prefer for a scene or sequence that has nothing to do with the plot.

Why not?

Because the public ALSO demands that its stories be about something that happens TO CHARACTERS IT CARES ABOUT. And if all the characters in the story are doing is relating plot-driven information and racing from one location to the next, forever subservient to the dramatic demands of the story, they cease to feel like "people" we can empathize with. They lose their free will, their individuality, their ability for us to relate to them.

IF AN AUDIENCE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT CHARACTERS, IT WON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM.

(This is the primary flaw you'll hear about Isaac Asimov and other "hard" science fiction writers: they're so wrapped up in WHAT'S HAPPENING, they forget to create characters the audience cares about, hoping instead that their abstract concepts -- "this could happen to mankind" -- will be enough to satisfy the dramatic needs of their stories. For the average audience member, trained to empathize with her heroes, it's not.)

Plot and STBD

So, you may be asking yourself, how does a series that has largely avoided traditional plot-driven stories intend to change its stripes without alienating its audience?

For one thing, we don't believe our audience is anti-plot. If anything, we feel they appreciate stories that result from -- and help define -- the actions of the characters themselves. As much as they may love Dierdre or Caroline or Leo, characterization doesn't happen in a vacuum; it's built by the characters' actions and reactions to one another.

As artists, we also enjoy knowing that audiences are generating opinions and reactions to our work. If we don't provide them with statements and actions to digest, they don't need to develop opinions about them. Feedback is a two-way street, and we can't expect large, vibrant discussions to be generated by plotless stories.

The cool thing, though, is HOW we intend to incorporate character and plot in the upcoming storylines... and what we feel is a pretty innovative way to include the audience in the process as well.

We'll talk more about that as we near our relaunch on March 26. For now, it's back to the plotting board...

STBD: Out @ The Creative Treehouse

Click to Play

BEHIND THE SCENES: Ann Turiano (Caroline) and Erik Schark (Rich) attend the opening of Creative Treehouse, celebrating their 24 hour creative marathon.

New STBD episodes return March 26!

How Much Is That Website in the Window?

Seth Godin mentioned DNScoop on his blog yesterday. It's a self-contained site-worth appraisal service, which utilizes various criteria -- Alexa ranking, number of inbound links, Google pagerank, and even the age of a site -- to determine that's site's approximate worth.

A quick check of their methodology revealed some amusing facts:

Rocketboom and Ze Frank, two of the heaviest hitters in the new media marketplace, are each worth over $3 MILLION dollars, according to DNScoop.

Meanwhile, Something to Be Desired is worth a paltry $6,000. I have a feeling this has to do with our Alexa ranking bottom through the basement recently... which is interesting, considering our actual daily traffic has been growing over the past few months.

And "stbd.com," which is the URL I'd previously been interested in purchasing as the home for our web series, is worth less than $300 according to DNScoop... which is also interesting, since the gent who owns the URL flatly told me a year ago that he routinely charges in the mid-4 figures for a "standard 4-letter domain name... But since 'stbd' also stands for 'starboard'," as he reminded me, this would presumably push his price even higher.

With sites like DNScoop and Alexa in play, it's impossible for anyone to lie about their numbers anymore. Each of us can independently verify a site's claims about its traffic at the click of a mouse.

But is any of it accurate?

What the Numbers DON'T Tell Us

For the uninitiated AND the veterans, here are five things to consider when surveying web numbers:

1. Alexa only counts traffic generated while using the Alexa toolbar. As most people know, the Alexa toolbar tends to be native only to Internet Explorer, which means it's not accurately counting visits made by users using Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc. By and large, that means MAC surfers aren't being counted at all.

2. Web hosts could game Alexa -- if they wanted to. One of our highest Alexa traffic spikes came not when we launched Season Three of STBD, but in the two weeks before it. That's because we were spending a huge amount of time on the site's back-end, using proprietary web tools to update each page of the site. ALL of that traffic counts as "visits." Were I shady or unwise, I could do the same thing every day to inprove our numbers... except I no longer work on a PC unless necessary, which means I can't influence Alexa.

3. Automated web appraisers don't process intangibles. If I emailed the guy who owns "stbd.com" again and mentioned that his site is really only worth a couple hundred dollars, he'd laugh me out of the room. Why? Because he knows the value of the URL is based upon two additional factors: level of interest and level of potential. DNScoop doesn't know that STBD stands for starboard OR something to be desired, nor does it care. It's only interested in measurables, and there's not much to measure about an unbuilt website.

4. Site awareness exceeds direct traffic. Our STBD videos are hosted via Blip.TV. If anyone goes to Blip and watches our video there, instead of through our homepage, we don't register those numbers. Blip still tells us the video was watched, but that viewer doesn't count as a visitor to our website. Ditto anyone who watches an episode on MySpace, or any other third-party site. Does that mean these people don't know Something to Be Desired exists? Of course not. But Alexa and DNScoop don't know that.

5. ALL web value is subjective. Just as the owner of "stbd.com" believes his site is worth more than $300, I'm sure neither Ze Frank nor Andrew Baron will be selling their sites for $3 million dollars anytime soon. Some people might consider $3 million for those sites insanely overpriced; I suspect both men would consider them undervalued. I'd say the same thing about our site at $6,000.

But then, we're all considering value from the insider's point of view. We "know" what things are worth because we understand their potential WITHIN OUR INDUSTRY. But, like baseball cards, comic books, cars and real estate, EVERYTHING is worth exactly what you can get for it -- and that will ALWAYS be subjective.

Creative Treehouse, and Why I'm Not in Toronto Right Now

PodCamp Toronto kicks off tomorrow morning and I'm not going. This makes me immensely frustrated, not just because Toronto is one of my favorite cities OR because most of my colleagues from the first two east coast PodCamps will be in attendance, BUT because my absence is entirely my own fault.

Due to mismanagement of both time and money, I find myself without enough of either to justify making the trip and leaving my other loose ends dangling for three days. So, I'm buckling down to get work done.

In reality, it makes sense, especially because I'll be out of town for Video on the Net (which I'm speaking at) in March AND PodCamp NYC in April. With so much potential travel on the horizon, and a weekly web series to restart, priorities are a must.

But, unfortunately, I could have prioritized much better about 4 weeks ago and had both the time AND the money to cut free for 3 days now.

(I'll also miss SXSW again this year, which continues to be the annual Event I Keep Meaning To Get To...)

HOWEVER...

I WILL be in attendance at ONE event this weekend, at least -- and it's a local one to boot:

Tonight (Friday, Feb 23), Creative Treehouse launches its kickoff event: a 24-hour art extravaganza! Starting @ 8 PM, artists of all types will begin working on all new, original works... Then tomorrow (Saturday, Feb 24) @ 8 PM, those works go on display -- only 24 hours later!

Come down and see the works in progress! Or come celebrate the space's grand opening! Food and drink will be provided @ the opening, along with music from Jon Miller and Sean Atkins

All art created overnight will be available for purchase. Half the proceeds go to the Treehouse!

WHAT: Creative Treehouse's "Creative Marathon"
WHO: Artists from across Pittsburgh -- and you!
WHERE: 517 Lincoln Avenue, Bellevue, PA 15202 (2nd Floor - rear entrance)
WHEN: Marathon begins @ 8 PM Friday, Opening @ 8 PM Saturday

For more information, visit CreativeTreehousePGH.com or their MySpace!

No Story Without a Spine

I saw Cabaret last night -- the Pittsburgh Public Theater's run ends this weekend, by the way -- and I enjoyed it. My theatre tastes are a bit dodgy, and I'm not always the biggest fan of musicals, but I thought the bulk of the show was well-conceived and well-directed. I even thought some of the minor actors outshone the flashier roles, which is always hard to balance in any show. But, by and large, I felt this version of the play -- although obviously sanitized for the mostly-geriatric Pittsburgh theatregoing crowd -- was true to the play's theme.

Actually, in this case -- as in most successful works -- I could say "themes": lust for life, the frailty of human connection, reluctance to "grow up", the burden of tradition, etc. Despite the play's many criss-crossing storylines, each of them supports one of the themes above, which could all be boiled down to: identity vs. conformity.

STBD Could Use a Little Kit-Kat Klub

FInding a theme for Something to Be Desired has been tricky recently, and is one of the reasons this season's plotlines may seem a bit more scattered than normal. In addition to a lack of scheduling simplicity, there's also been a lack of dramatic focus.

In Season One, everything revolved around Jack Boyd.

In Season Two, everything revolved around WANT FM and Shout! Magazine.

In Season Three, everything revolved around Dean and Caroline's relationship.

In Season Four, everything revolves around... hmm... well, there's the problem.

Marketing Saves the Day

Once upon a time, STBD could be described as "a comedy about a group of DJs at the struggling WANT FM." But that time has passed. In fact, none of the central characters left on the show are DJs by trade, and the station itself has been shut down. This leaves the characters -- and the series' identity -- in flux. What sums us up?

I posed this question to Andrea, our new marketing intern, earlier this week. She agreed, there isn't an easily-digestible "elevator pitch" that allows people to wrap their heads around the concept of the show.

"A comedy about a bunch of people in their twenties and early thirties" is gangly.

"A comedy about a bunch of acquaintances in Pittsburgh" doesn't sound like a hook.

"A comedy about three roommates trying to navigate life after college?" Close, but shades of Three's Company color the verbiage.

How the World Can Change Due to One Little Word

So: what unifying element in the experiences of the central characters ties the series together AND makes for a quick explanation?

I think I found it:

"A comedy about a group of struggling artists in Pittsburgh."

In fact, it's very close to the original summary. The only difference is that the occupations of the central characters have strayed too far from WANT FM to be easily comparable -- except that each of them, in one way or another, is an aspiring artist.

Caroline, Leo and Gloria are writers. Dierdre, Dex and Lloyd are photographers. Rich is an aspiring media mogul. Karl is obviously insane. Add in the few new characters we'll be introducing in the next arc and the through-line becomes even clearer.

Suddenly, I feel like STBD has found its footing once again.

Now all we have to do is follow the path and see where it leads...

(Agree? Disagree? Have a better suggestion? Leave a comment!)

PodCamp is to BootCamp as...

Last night's PodCamp Meet-Up went very well, as far as I could tell. Due to a transportation delay, I wasn't able to get there until just past 7, but we packed a lot of conversation into a relatively short amount of time. It was great to see so many familiar faces, but also great to meet so many new people as well -- Pittsburgh's new media community is definitely growing.

The big topic of discussion was BootCamp, which is what we're calling the one-day immersive introduction to new media that we're planning for April. Since PodCamp is a multi-day event, targeting new media creators of all stripes and levels of expertise, we realized that absolute newcomers might be intimidated, confused or frustrated by the variety of information available. The last thing we want is for a PodCamp attendee to come away feeling like they DIDN'T learn what they intended to. So the best solution seems to be a preamble to the main event, where newcomers can get up to speed on all the basics of blogging, podcasting, social networking and other new media buzzwords and processes.

That way, when you're at PCPGPGH2 in August and you're trying to choose between learning more about Alive in Baghdad or attending a panel on the future of content licensing, you won't have to stop a volunteer and ask them what, exactly, IS a podcast? (Although, if you're still not sure, you certainly can.)

For more details about what you missed, including the first wave of planning for the upcoming BootCamp in April, read the summary at our PodCamp Pittsburgh Forum.

Ask Tim: Valentine's Day Follow-Up!

Missing your regular dose of Tim over this hiatus? So are we!

Fortunately, Tim had time to update us about this year's Valentine's Day escapades on his blog.

Click. Laugh. Weep.

A New Direction

Some of you know that I also keep a personal blog, in addition to the STBD blog.

Lately, I've noticed my thoughts straying further and further from STBD as I write more often about the new media evolution and other off-topic concepts. Meanwhile, my personal blog was primarily devoted to Pittsburgh's cafe scene, on which I hadn't been writing much lately because my lifestyle has somewhat changed.

So, I'm making a big distinction: My personal blog is evolving.

From now on, I'll keep most of my new media and motivational observations there, and I'll keep most of my STBD-specific news and updates here. There will always be overlap, but the lines are more clearly drawn.

(This also means you may want to bookmark my personal blog, which kicks off today with a new direction and an important question: What drives you?)

******

REMINDER: Last week's PodCamp Pittsburgh Mini-Meet-Up was postponed due to snow. It's actually taking place tonight at 6:30 at Affogato in Bellevue. If you're a podcaster, blogger, photographer, designer or other new media creator -- or fan -- and would like to join the conversation, you're welcome to join us. We'd love to chat with you.

Why Old Media Is Becoming Extinct -- And Why You Might be Next

My best friend hasn't had a raise in 3 years. That's because he works for a TV news station in a small market. He's been laboring under ever-changing workplace conditions, and frequently taking on the responsibilities of others (who have quit or been fired). That's more work for the same amount of money.

Why?

Because the station is trying to cut costs. It already has to overhaul its entire process to become HD compliant by 2009, so additional investments -- like employee morale or new market exploration -- must be postponed.

We talked last night about all the cool things his station COULD be doing, but isn't -- ways in which new media could be utilized to bring in a whole new audience AND make the station more relevant. But, as he explains, the powers that be in his company see the web as the enemy, something that steals the TV news viewers, and they see no reason to invest more money in that losing proposition.

This discussion reminds me of a video I just saw today at New Assignment -- a "MAC vs. PC"-esque debate between two Chicago newspapers that sums up exactly why old media is lumbering toward extinction.

Before you or I get too smug about being ahead of the curve, we should instead stop and ask ourselves the same question: namely, what IS that hot new thing everyone is buzzing about, and how AREN'T we using it?

For example, I don't use Twitter or Groovr. I see no reason to, based upon the way I currently live my life. But then I freeze in my tracks because that's the same kind of statement I would have expected my grandparents to make about email 10 years ago.

With the speed the world changes today, we're all one trend away from becoming our grandparents -- or worse, extinct.

Who Is Your Audience?

Attentive listeners at PodCamp Pittsburgh. Photo by Kimberly Reed.

Chris Brogan asked this question on his blog the other day. While commenting upon it just now, I realized I had a completely different take on the issue:

Everyone is concerned about motivating their audience. Without an active, engaged audience, you're missing the community that powers the engine of whatever it is you're currently doing in your life.

But I think you need to make a key distinction: your (target) audience and your fans are not always the same thing.

Your audience is the people you BELIEVE are hearing your message, the ones you CREATE the message for.

Your fans are the people who RESPOND to your message, who TAKE ACTION based upon what you say or do.

We may think we're creating something that appeals to a certain group of people when, in fact, it appeals to a completely different group for completely different reasons that we never considered.

For example: you might be writing a blog that deals with all the minutae of being a better teacher. But if a lot of your suggestions are rooted in organization aand time management, rather than direct communication and educational theory, don't be surprised if you find your actual "fans" are people from all walks of life who are searching for better productivity tips. Or, conversely, if you do focus on better communication skills, you may find your teaching blog being bookmarked and cited by public speakers, managers and politicians.

Once you really understand who's responding to your message, you can better evaluate whether you're on target with your original goals. Or, if your actual audience differs from your anticipated audience, you can decide whether you need to change your message or embrace your unintended fanbase. Either way, you can't truly be sure you're succeeding in your original plan without being able to accurately assess your audience AND your intentions -- which is one reason we surveyed our audience last week.

As the pipe company who owned the "utube" URL proved when they were slammed with misguided YouTube traffic, it's not who you THINK you're talking to that matters; it's who's actually HEARING you.

The WANT Problem

Longtime viewers remember an age not so long ago -- atcually, just last season -- when Something to Be Desired was still primarily about the DJs who worked at WANT FM. Some of them have asked where the radio station went this season, and why we're spending so much time focused on Vanity Press, Affogato, etc.

The answer is simple: we lost the location.

WANT was always filmed in the WQED radio station in Oakland. Through a stroke of good fortune, they were open to our original need for a location back in 2003 and they allowed us to utilize their facilities, few questions asked, for the next 3 years -- as long as we didn't disrupt anything.

Considering some of the scenes we were able to pull off on their premises -- including Caroline and Dean's love scene in the studio that kicks off Season Three, which was accidentally witnessed in progress by one of the WQED engineers -- we think we made great use of the opportunity without making life difficult for our hosts.

But then, without warning, we were informed one July afternoon that we would need to wrap up our filming and never return to the premises again. We attempted to discern what the problem was, or if there was anything we could do to smooth things over, but the powers-that-be were not interested in negotiation. We needed to leave and that was that.

And so WANT ceased to exist.

Ironically, we'd already begun filming in that direction, with the fictional station in danger of being shut down due to the bank taking it over. Our plan involved Todd rallying the troops and making a valiant stand against inevitability, and wrangling another year of life out of the station until an even bigger problem would have beset them, but that storyline got yanked out from underneath us before the season even aired.

(Incidentally, we never did find out why we were asked to leave. But considering new management was involved, it could have been any number of things which, under previous management, might never have been noticed but which drew attention to us now.

Informally, I suspect it had something to do with one of our actresses accidentally walking into a WQED board meeting while wearing a bustiere, but I suppose we'll never know for sure.)

Life After WQED

So, we did the next best thing we could do: we shifted focus to Vanity Press and Affogato while trying to find a new radio station location for WANT.

When those other leads failed to pan out either, we realized that WANT might never ride again. It seemed a disservice to our longtime fans -- and characters -- to have their unifying location written out so incidentally, so we left ourselves open to an act of serendipity that would enable us to resuscitate the concept in the immediate future.

Enter: Rich's wild idea of taking the station online.

On one hand, we lose the physicality of the location that made the radio element so convincing. On the other hand, we're now freed to tackle the bigger issue: how we, as people, communicate -- especially when it's semi-anonymous. And, considering traditional media are still reeling from the impact of the internet, it seemed only logical that WANT's next respite might come from a bunch of tubes.

How will this plotline return to the fore? Check back when new episodes resume on March 26 and we'll all find out.

Valentine's Thaw

You may not have noticed, but there's a wicked snowstorm eating most of the eastern half of the United States alive these past couple days. It's mostly passed here in Pittsburgh, even though the forecast includes snow every day this week. But the sun's out, which makes it much easier to celebrate Valentine's Day after chipping your car out of ice for over an hour. (Special thanks to our neighbors for getting us out of our predicament this afternoon.)

On a day of love, joy and candy, it's worth mentioning the obvious flaw in this season of STBD: there's very little love, joy or candy. As many folks both within the cast and beyond have mentioned, far too many of the existing characters are filled with sarcasm and sharp edges. Tim stands out primarily because he's the exact opposite -- innocent and supportive, almost to a fault.

So, on this Valentine's Day during our hiatus, we'll be giving special thought to this puzzling predicament: how do we chip away at the ice around the hearts of the STBD characters?

The Lloyd Problem

Having read through the STBD Fan Survey results, a few interesting points jump out to us. One, which we're pretty proud of, is the continued affection viewers feel for the characters of Jack and Dean, who have left the series but haven't left the minds of the viewers.

One thing the viewers don't always realize -- and may not necessarily care about -- is that Dan Stripp (who plays Jack Boyd) and Shaun Cameron Hall (who plays Dean Dockerty) left STBD due to opportunities and obligations that superseded their connection to the series.

In real life, Dan and his wife had a baby and moved closer to her family, while Shaun decided to explore grad school opportunities in Virginia. Neither of them wanted to leave STBD, necessarily, but they realized their next steps would take them away from Pittsburgh.

This doesn't mean Jack and Dean have ceased to exist. On the contrary, Dean made a cameo appearance in a recent New Year's Eve episode of STBD, and Jack's next visit is always just off the horizon. In fact, their continued commitment to the show, even from afar, speaks volumes about how much they continue to enjoy their STBD experience -- and justifies how much the audience continues to miss them.

Which brings us to The Lloyd Problem.

At the beginning of Season Four, we contacted Hans Rosemond about possibly utilizing his photographic skills to help promote the show. After a brief conversation, he mentioned he'd also acted in the past, and would be interested in auditioning for us.

Long story short, his natural energy was something we realized we needed on the show -- especially since Dean had departed -- and so Hans joined the cast as Lloyd, a role we'd been trying unsuccessfuly to cast for over a year.

Lloyd had an uphill battle to fight in the eyes of the audience. Not only was he "not Dean," he also wasn't a character the audience could easily get a handle on. Depending on whose point of view you sympathized with, he was either a cocky bastard, an object of desire, a manipulator or an innocent man caught between multiple women. As opposed to a Jack or a Dean, Lloyd was a much more complicated "sell" as a leading man.

Still, the audience slowly bought into Lloyd over the first half of this season. His self-deprecating humor and manic energy helped win him fans, even as people continued to wonder what he was really all about.

And then Hans decided to leave Pittsburgh.

It's impossible to blame him, since his choice was the best one he could make for his career. He realized he'd have many more opportunities to succeed as a photographer in Chicago, where he'd attended college, than here in Pittsburgh, where the market and the rates (and the expectations) are significantly lower.

Unfortunately, his decision came in mid-December, and his departure date was just past New Year's. After taking most of the season to establish a tenuous love triangle with Caroline, Liz and Lloyd, we now had only three weeks to write Lloyd out of the series. That's one of the many loose ends we'll be wrapping up after our 6-week hiatus.

So now Lloyd follows Jack and Dean in the tradition of STBD leading men who leave the series prematurely. This leaves a bit of a hole in both the plot and the cast. How will we rebound? Tune back in starting March 26th and see how we adapt...

STBD Hiatus and Fan Survey Results

As you may have noticed, there's no new STBD episode this week. That's because we're on hiatus for the next 6 weeks, to get ahead on production once again.

As I'd mentioned in a few recent posts, creating STBD is a logistical tightrope, and it's only negotiable when we have an archive of footage to edit. Since December, our archive has been depleted, meaning we've been creating episodes on a week-by-week basis. This means we're limited to the availaibility of the actors in question, and if someone's busy for a week, that could delay an entire storyline and leave the audience hanging.

That type of production isn't fair to the audience OR the cast, so we're taking steps to remedy it. While we're on hiatus, we'll also be tinkering with the website and adding a few other bells and whistles. We'll return with all new episodes on March 26, so mark your calendar.

In the meantime, check back to our homepage every Monday for something new to keep you in the STBD mood. For example:

STBD Fan Survey Results

This past week, we issued our first STBD fan survey. The results can be found below, followed by a summary of what we think these numbers mean.

#1: How long have you been watching STBD?

Since Season One: 44%
Since Season Four: 27%
Since Season Three: 19%

#2: Might we ask, how old are you?

18-25: 44%
26-35: 44%
36+: 12%

#3: Where do you live?

57% Currently live in Pittsburgh
30% American who's never lived in Pittsburgh
11% Ex-Pittsburgher now living elsewhere

#4: How did you first hear about STBD?

36% Someone on the show told me about it
26% Other (more below)
23% Stumbled across it by accident

Other responses include:

- A friend told me (4 votes)
- Author Max Barry's website / email (2 votes)
- Through a featured artist (2 votes)
- Local paper / magazine articles (2 votes)
- PUMP, Pittsburgh Dish blog, The Burgh Blog, Pop City, Mentally Incontinent, etc. (1 vote each)
- "searched pittsburgh on youtube trying to footage from after the superbowl last year"

#5 How often do you watch STBD?

30% Every Monday
25% Every week, at some point
19% Every few episodes (backlog buildup)
18% Peek in once in awhile

Other responses include:

- "I use to watch but lost interest after Jack Boyd left and the focus shifted to Caroline, Dean, etc."

#6 HOW do you watch STBD?

73% SomethingToBeDesired.com / .tv
11% iTunes
10% MySpace bulletins

#7 Who are your 4 favorite STBD characters?

Since this type of question can easily become an ego-shattering popularity contest for the folks who live and die by the implications of every vote, we'll spare you the individual voting percentages. Instead, we've divided the characters into 4 "levels" of audience response.

LEVEL ONE

Caroline, Dierdre, Leo - each received at least 60% of the total possible vote

LEVEL TWO

Rich - received 25% of the total possible vote

LEVEL THREE

Chloe, Dex, Liz, Lloyd, Tim, Todd - each received at least 15% of the total possible vote

LEVEL FOUR

The remaining characters each received less than 15% of the total possible vote

Other responses include:

- 8 for Dean
- 8 for Jack
- 2 for Hailey (who was errantly left off the actual ballot)
- 2 for Rob Sharp
- 1 for Alison
- 1 for Jessie
- 1 for Karen
- 1 for the Zombie characters (!)
- "The majority of the new characters are weak, very thin, almost transparent."

#8: Which STBD storyline has been your favorite (so far)?

23% Jack Boyd's visit (Season One)
16% Dean and Caroline's relationship (Season Three)
15% The rise and fall of WANT (All seasons)
14% Caroline / Lloyd / Liz (Season Four)
14% Dierdre / Dex / Liz (Season Four)

Other responses include:

- "Anything to do with rich"
- "Anything to do with tim"
- "Dean's struggle with his sanity and job. Dean added so much more to this show. He completed the circle."

#9 What would you like to see MORE of on STBD?

45% More Pittsburgh locations
33% More sexuality
28% More Pittsburgh issues
26% More music
25% Improved audio

Other responses include:

- Longer episodes (2 votes)
- More character development (2 votes)
- Less / quieter background music (2 votes)
- "Better direction. This show is shot horribly. Terrible edits, terrible shot selection. Two: better color balance, a lot of the time the colors are too rich and faces are washed out."
- "More Tim. While it's not a man-crush or anything, but he's hilariously pathetic in every scene he's in."
- "used to be able to watch it full screen on my puter. I miss that"
- "MORE BRENT"
- "More of that which is to be desired: a GOOD plot. I'm really glad you are doing this survey because I feel like people LIE to you and the cast members every week. I wouldn't watch if I didn't HAVE TO!"

#10: What would you like to see LESS of on STBD?

(Interestingly, this was also the most-skipped question, with over 33% NOT responding)

32% Ditch the recaps at the beginning of the episodes
26% Other
21% Shorten the title sequence

Other responses include:

- "Nothing, like it all" (6 votes)
- "Not safe for work language" (2 votes)
- "Jazz bass loop used throughout season 3 and 4. Time to put it to rest."
- "Non plot driven storylines"
- "Less random cast members. Less melodrama."
- "The less interesting story lines (helps a lot I know!)"
- "Less talking heads. Sometimes the endless conversing does nothing to advance the story! The characters are just there... frail and dainty. Make them more interesting."
- "Tone down the dude who owns the magazine. Too unbelievable."
- "Less fighting over boys. Less TRITE sexual humor. It's agony for intellectual people to watch."

WHAT THIS TELLS US:

1) Most of our audience has watched the entirety of STBD since Season One
2) Most of our audience has come to us through the direct promotional efforts of the cast / crew
3) Every time STBD is mentioned elsewhere, we pick up new fans
4) Our audience is almost entirely within the 18-35 range
5) An overwhelming majority of viewers still watch new episodes directly from our homepage
6) Caroline, Dierdre and Leo continue to be the characters the bulk of the audience associates itself with. This may be because they're also the three longest-running characters on the show, or because most storylines involve them.
7) Very few of the more recently-introduced characters are separating themselves from the pack in the minds of the audience -- especially in comparison to Jack and Dean.
8) The audience wants to see more Pittsburgh -- both locations and issues -- although the audience is predominantly local to begin with. Still, no one said "LESS Pittsburgh"...
9) Everyone has their own opinion about music (more / less) and audio quality, and a lot of that is subjective based upon their own tastes or their individual computer playback.
10) More sexuality? What a shock...

SUMMARY:

In the end, I come away with two impressions and one obvious message from the audience:

A) A LOT of people REALLY LIKE what we've done / are doing.
B) The people who don't like what we're doing REALLY DON'T LIKE it.
C) EVERYONE would like a stronger plot, which would help better define the characters.

To that end, I consider this survey a huge success. Not only did it confirm some suspicions I already had about the show and the way the audience perceives it, but it pointed out a few pros and cons I wouldn't have otherwise taken into consideration.

We'll be using this feedback as a guide to help us shape the next arm of STBD episodes. Didn't register your voice through the poll? Leave a comment, join the forum or email jkownacki at somethingtobedesired dot com. Conversation is a good thing!

Kill Your Televison... or Just Let It Die Naturally...

Word of the new media revolution is spreading.

An STBD mention was brought to our attention in today's column from the Wilton Villager, which serves the town of Wilton, CT. In it, columnist Richard Frisch alerts people to the fact that they can start trading in their terrestrial TV equipment and go strictly computer for their entertainment.

Says Frisch:

"My recent research indicates that the traditional, major players, the U.S. over-the-air networks are behind the times when it comes to Internet television. You can bypass them for almost everything. Network television viewers are decreasing because there are so many entertainment alternatives."

Those of us who make this media for a living (and I use that term loosely at this point) have known about this for years now. But seeing these kinds of reports popping up in increasingly smaller newspapers, which traditionally target a non-early adopter audience, says something about the speed at which this medium is changing.

It also reminds me that you don't need to live in a major metropolis to connect with the medium -- either as a viewer or a creator. Perhaps the age of social networking and user-generated content will be seen as something even bigger when gazed upon by history: the tipping point in which geography ceased to be a limiting factor for the cultural evolution of the species.

Stylistic Differences

When the original trailers for Sin City came out, I was optimistic. Despite the fact that Robert Rodriguez was in charge -- a man I've always considered to be more stylistically gifted than narratively adept -- I had a feeling he could make magic here. After all, he had strong source material, an attention to detail and some of the most visually striking images in the history of cinema going for him.

I was even willing to give him a pass on casting Jessica Alba.

But, as it turns out, that film as much the same as most of Rodriguez's work: visually stimulating but mentally unengaging. Aside from the story of Marv, expertly played Mickey Rourke, I didn't care a whit for the rest of the film from a crowd-pleasing standpoint. There's more to hooking an audience than simple camera tricks and flash.

So why am I so excited about 300?

Like Sin City, it's based upon a Frank Miller graphic novel, and it looks to be filmed in a similar greenscreen-only style. And the director, Zack Snyder, was also responsible for the recent Dawn of the Dead remake, which I found ultimately disappointing despite its strong cast and pedigree.

But watching the trailers, I can't help but get fired up, and from a place more primal than that which was tingling after seeing the Sin City trailers. As interested as I am in seeing the camera tricks and flash, these seem built around a story I can rally my other senses to as well.

Perhaps it's the theme of survival, or the denial of defeat. Perhaps the visuals are the perfect blend of Sin City and Lord of the Rings. Or perhaps I just admire a badass anti-hero who's justified.

Regardless, I know 300 has my engine running, and my engine runs on something deeper than style.

STBD Fan Survey

Hey folks: if you watch STBD, please take a moment and fill out this 10 question survey to help us better understand our audience AND influence the future of the show!

The more we know about you, and what YOU want, the better we can entertain you!

(And, if you DON'T currently watch STBD, why not start now?)

The Lost Art of Learning

I was reading in Business 2.0 about Jeff Hawkins, the gent who created the Palm Pilot and the Treo. His driving passion is apparently neuroscience, and his team is currently at work on an application called Numenta, which is basically a computer that's programmed to learn like a human.

Then, somewhere down the article, the author mentions that humans don't yet know exactly how the brain works, but if they did...

And then I realized: when did we, as a society, become so quick to proclaim that we DO know everything?

I think back to my gradeschool and high school textbooks, especially in science and social studies, which I now realize, only a decade or two later, were mostly hogwash or propaganda. Not only is the Civil War (and every other aspect of history) much more complex than most schools ever let on, but now we know basic fundamentals of science -- like Pluto being a planet -- are wrong.

And yet, to watch most TV commercials, read most books, see most films, you'd think we were living in the age of complete knowledge. I'm sure this has always been the case for humanity -- to act as though it knows absolutely everything about its world -- which explains the initial treatment of "heretics" like Galileo and the idealogical wars between Socrates and the sophists.

But to admit that we don't know how something works -- that's kind of a sobering statement, in the midst of all this knowledge, no?

It got me thinking... what else do we not know? And why not?

Somewhere along the way, the art of learning became passe and was replaced by the artlessness of knowing. Knowledge is useless in a vacuum, which means we, as a society, should be forever pushing forward to better understand ourselves and our surroundings, so that we may always be improving as both individuals AND a society. And yet, how many people are scorned or ridiculed for attempting to learn more about that which we, as a society, admit we know very little?

It's almost like a generalized conservative mentality, which mandates that we NOT ask questions or seek to know things beyond our immediate reach, has pervaded the status quo and caused us to see curiosity or individuality as a weakness and an idiosyncracy to be expunged, rather than a possible avenue to enlightenment which should be supported and celebrated.

Heady thoughts, I know, and not at all what you or I might expect to consider when reading a copy of Business 2.0... And it has nothing specifically to do with our web series... I'm just wondering...

Chris Brogan Understands Meteorology

On Monday, my brakes failed. Fortunately, I noticed this within a few blocks of my apartment and was able to apply all of my pressure to steer the car to a stop along the curb.

After checking online and with a few mechanic friends, the consensus seemed to be that brake fluid doesn't normally freeze below -70 degrees. I feared the worst: that I'd have to pay through the nose to repair some obscure portion of my brake system.

However, brake fluid CAN freeze if it's old / low and water gets into the line / reservoir. So, after I waited for the temperature to rise above 0 degrees, I warmed the car up for a few minutes. That was enough to unobstruct the line and enable me to drive to Jiffy Lube, where I had most of my fluids flushed / replaced.

Total cost? $284, and I didn't even touch the fuel line.

Meanwhile, Network2's Chris Brogan calls me yesterday from Los Angeles, where he's traveling on business. He was wistful because the last time he was there, I was with him, climbing trees on Rodeo Drive at 3 AM. So he sends me the above photo of him sporting his STBD shirt and blazer in Beverly Hills.

I checked the weather in the USA Today. At the same time that we're enjoying sub-zero temperatures here in Pittsburgh, it's hovering around 80 in LA. Clearly, Chris Brogan knows a lot of things that I don't. One of them involves hopping a plane to warmer climes come winter.

Speaking of which, I noticed a gaggle of robins at the side of the road yesterday. Perhaps Chris Brogan should give them a call, too.

All In the Family

In episode 4-20, Rich gets a surprise visit from his brother on New Year's Day.

Fun fact: Steven, the brother, was played by Andrew Schark, who is the real life brother of Erik Schark, who plays Rich.

See what we did there?

Erik has a background onstage in NYC. Andrew has career working in Hollywood. Clearly, creative outlets run deep in this family...

STBD Season Four: Episode 20 "Love Prong"

Click to Play

Caroline and Leo hatch a plan, while Hailey hatches something else. (8:45)

Theme by ZOX

Cloning Would Greatly Improve My Social Life

We had an STBD shoot scheduled for yesterday evening -- one of the rare recent cases where I've actually been able to plan ahead by more than a few days -- when we discovered there was an Animal Friends benefit at the Firehouse Lounge at the same time.

I'm not much of a cocktail partier, but Animal Friends is a good cause. Plus, they evidently had some of the animals live at the event, and nothing voluntarily breaks my heart more than seeing potential pets granted their few moments of freedom before returning to their shelters -- unless someone adopts them on the spot. Alas, due to filming obligations, I couldn't go.

This is one of many such instances that happen when you live in a city that has a lot more going on than you might realize, but you can hardly ever attend anything because you're either filming or editing.

I know what you're thinking: why not film AT the events? And that would be a step in the right direction, despite the challenges of live location shoots. But carting around equipment and shot lists at a live event isn't exactly my idea of "socializing," either...

Once I get my time management issues under control, maybe I can work on teleportation.

The Value of Local Connections

As a web video series, you'd think most of our business would be conducted online. But as a Pittsburgh-based web series, there's an extra wrinkle in that plan: we're a local production with a global audience. Unlike many web properties, we make noise about where we're from and try to promote our city when we get a chance.

That means we have an odd task: how do we maximize our local connections in a way that benefits our global audience, and vice versa?

Selling adspace to local customers is tricky because, unless a client has the ability to field orders online, there's a chance that the bulk of the traffic they receive might be from individuals who can't physically engage their store / product / service.

Meanwhile, including hyperlocal elements in our show (local personalities, social issues, regional slang, etc.) might dissuade some of our non-local audience from continuing to watch if they no longer feel they can identify with the story.

So, in no particular order, here are:

Five Ways STBD Is Maximizing Their Local Pittsburgh Connection

1. Local press love an unusual story.

As more and more casual web users become familiar with web video, the concept that it could be produced in their own backyards -- and, in our case, literally is -- becomes newsworthy. Thus, our recent local love from major Pittsburgh publications like the Post-Gazette.

2. Fellow Web Media Creators Develop a Community.

PodCamp Pittsburgh was eye-opening for a lot of people -- including us, the co-organizers. Once we realized just how many people in Pittsburgh are already blogging or producing podcasts, the next question was, "How can we all work together?"

Since November, we've been developing relationships with designers, artists, journalists and businesspeople from all walks of life -- whom we met at PodCamp. These relationships are already bearing fruit, as connections lead to other connections.

For example, fellow 'burgher Jim Shireman, of the sports uber-blog Sportsocracy, recently began including an STBD banner on his site. Thanks to him, hundreds of sports fans who might not otherwise have heard of STBD will now be exposed to our unique brand of... well, whatever it is we do...

3. Giving Hope to the Hopeless -- aka the Local Twentysomethings.

Pittsburgh has long suffered from an inferiority complex, by which the young people in this town define it as a great place to escape from. Artists and other outside-the-box professionals count the days (and the pennies) until they can "make a break" for a larger city -- perhaps not realizing that a larger city inherently includes more competition. As hard as it may be to "make it" anywhere, it stands to reason that your odds of "making it" in a city where millions of other like-minded people are after the same thing are a bit imbalanced.

Interestingly, some of the most frequent kudos we've received since starting STBD have come from local young people -- frok their teens through their thirties -- who say, "It's so great to see something cool in Pittsburgh!" It's not that Pittsburgh isn't cool; it's just that Pittsburgh has a way of not believing itself to be cool. So when something new and obviously in-tune with the wave of the future (like a web video series) pops up under its nose, a lot of people who "get it" get inspired by its mere existence.

Which brings us to...

4. Local Talent Is Less Hard to Find.

Trust us, creating a venture of this size with a budget of zero doesn't exactly lead to the city's stage and screen stars banging down our door. But the local actors and aspiring filmmakers who pick up on what we're doing, and see the level of quality we're able to achieve amid such restrictions (and yes, sometimes "qualiy" deserves to be in quotes), consider STBD to be a great resource for creativity and collaboration.

Sure, they'll get paid more onstage, but their prospective audience online is much larger. And, we offer valuable on-camera experience, which can be hard to come by. But the number one reason actors who join us tend to stick around is because they enjoy the cameraderie and ownership that a guerrilla group of nomadic filmmakers allows them to have over their character and the series itself.

Larger budgets mean more restrictions and higher expectations. But when showing up to film on a weekly basis amounts to a lot of improvising and creating on the fly, it results in a kind of artistic reward that's not easily duplicated elsewhere.

5. Expatriate Pittsburghers Seek Us Out.

Actually, they don't know they're seeking us specifically. But Pittsburgh is the kind of town that its expatriates eventually realize they're proud to be from -- the history, the tradition, the Steelers -- and they start looking for news and reminders of their hometown online.

Then they find us.

Second only to the "cool in Pittsburgh" comment above is the amount of feedback we get from people who thank us for giving them a visual reminder of the city they (sometimes only now) realize they love and miss. If shots of Primanti Brothers, Mount Washington and legions of pigeons help soothe the homesick heart of a Texas or Washington transplant, so much the better.