Recently I was approached to bring my skills as an Immersive Video Journalist to a series related to the ocean realm being pitched to Chinese National TV. It would entail working in a Solo VJ manner - one presenter, one producer and myself shooting all content both above and underwater.

Maintaining contact with the producer, he recently confided that his contacts in China responded with lukewarm enthusiasm. Not being one to stand by the sidelines and hope the traditional means of creating and broadcasting content was the only way, I made a detailed concept pitch to the producer and presenter:

“What about direct Internet broadcasting with paid ad spots in each episode?

Concept: Each episode is produced, edited and then broadcast via the net with a few 10 - 20 second paid ad spots interspersed that would help underwrite the cost of producing each episode. Since the internet provides a virtually unlimited audience, the primary form of promoting the series would be via discussion forums and press releases. In addition, this removes any need to acquire video gear to meet restrictive broadcast standards - I have two 3 chip SD cameras and a housing as well as HID lighting that could be utilized in shooting each episode. I can edit as well as encode for the internet. Then there is the ability to utilize viral video marketing by uploading teaser trailers to YouTube, Google Video and other video sharing sites that would promote the full series. In addition, make full DVD’s sans commercials available for sale to also help offset the cost of production.

Why go this route: Read this NY Times article about the potential here. In addition, David Dunkley-Gyimah, a colleague and internet mentor of mine who is a major proponent of the Solo VJ/Internet broadcast paradigm has several blog postings regarding this movement. Read his profile from Apples website here

Some of his blog postings:

1. HD Podcast TV
2. Brightcove personal Videojournalism films
3. Future of TV - how to siphon off TV - tip 101
4. The secret of TV-Net success. What the TV agents say

There are other postings, but I think you’ll get a sense of where he sees this heading. He is one of the biggest advocates for the move to the internet and his credentials speak about what he sees happening with content on the internet.

In addition, what about making the series available for download from iTunes? This would be another revenue stream as well as outlet.“Many of the traditional detractors would snidely comment that this is a fantasy and that the only way to properly produce a series like this is to go through traditional media outlets. I disagree and maybe its the fact that I look at things from a bleeding edge perspective - but why can’t this be done? What if it is a fear of this hasn’t been done like this before and so we have no way of determining its potential for success?

This is understandable but it brings with it the potential of BEING successful based upon its distribution concept.

I’m going to continue looking at this model, and seeking advice from those who think outside the box and at some point will crack through the barriers of traditional convention and then the way we look at content distribution will be altered.