After months of campaigning and hundreds of tweets, the Streamys
nominees were finally
announced. Predictably, heavy hitters like Dr. Horrible, The Guild, and Legend of Neil swept the nominations. Kudos to them. They’ve had great years, great shows and they deserve the recognition (isn’t that the point?). While it’s no surprise that there are those who have thier criticisms, I’m surprised by just how venemous the
backlash has been.
When the Streamys were first announced, I had planned on writing a post asking for more transparency. Rick Rey beat me to the punch, so I moved on. Over the following months I avidly followed the evolution of the event. We saw the release of the IAWTV’s names*, the process under which a show could be nominated, the opportunity to buy tickets to the afterparty and finally the nominees. We’ve learned alot about what the process in that time.
Over on Tubefilter some
40+ comments have been placed in attack and defense of the Streamys. What I find astounding, is how quickly people associate success with eliteism. According to some, if a show isn’t recognized for a Streamy, it has nothing to do with their fanbase, popularity or… quality, but some incestuous conspiracy ? Really? It’s becuase the IAWTV is starstruck? By that girl in the F@#$ING SEARS COMMERCIALS? REALLY?
Look, Felicia is great, and even I can be faulted for being
overly zealous about her popularity. But seriously folks, she makes her show in her house. She casts her friends. She calls in favors and borrows cameras. The budget on a single network pilot would fund her
entire series a few times over. That’s true for almost every show on that list. So let’s not confuse our jealousy over someone eles’s success with conspiracy. The vast majority of those shows have the same meager resources as everyone else. They’re popular and well publicized because they’re good. And that’s the same reason the IAWTV voted for them**.
I’ve had the chance to sit down and talk face to face with the people responsible for creating the Streamys. They’re ironing kinks, they’re workng thier asses off, and they’re learning as they go. Not unlike making a web show, these people are underfunded and under pressure to deliver a show that lives up to a precedent set by people with drastically more resources. Could you create an awards show from scratch? I know I couldn’t. Constructive cricism is important, guys, but let’s remember that these are the same people helping to make you the next Felicia Day. If you’ve got a problem, act like an adult, would you?
* Full disclosure, I was elected a member of the IAWTV. I suspect that my association with Strike.Tv and knowledge of the new media space (as evidenced by among other things, this blog) made me a candidate.
** and before you take personal offense, I should remind you that I work for Strike.Tv and also create a few shows myself. Strike.Tv got only two nominations, out of an entire network of established, professional writers. Not only was I dissapointed for my network, but my own shows as well. If my marketing were stronger, our presence would be more obvious, then maybe we would have had a better shot. Such is the internet.
Great post. I agree with most of your points. There is too much criticism going around and imo, they’ve done a great job pulling this together. The people who were elected to the academy are the pioneers of the industry so it makes sense that they also are nominated for their works. As one of the other posters mentioned in that thread, a lot of those guys used to be the “little guys” who happened to become successful through hard work, etc.
Well written, Matt. I was disappointed my own series, Speedie Date, didn’t get any nominations. I have my issues with the nominations process, but I know that the Streamy organizers’ hearts are in the right places, and that whatever shortcomings there were with the nominations process were just that — kinks to be worked out in subsequent years. I haven’t been following the blowback on Tubefilter, but I am glad that the Streamys exist and that volunteers are putting hard work into making them happen.
I kind of feel like Web awards are sort of counterintuitive to the idea of the internet. If the internet and it’s user driven content exist for the people and by the people, why create an arbitrary authority to decide who’s the best? It feels like the aping of an industry the internet kind of exists to undermine. I dont know.
Well said, Matt. I look forward to meeting you at the Streamys. And I will now cyber stalk you…
Thanks for an excellent piece. I hadn’t realised there was such a controversy. I’ve been watching the developments in the industry for some time and when the Streamys were announced I could only imagine it was a good thing. This industry is all about people doing things for themselves – getting it done even when they have no funding, or the best cameras, or the killer location etc.
There is no magic funding, no well-worn routes to success – everything is trail and error and lashings of hard work. That’s the exciting bit, the nail-biting part, and maybe the reason why the nay-sayers have to be negative. Yes, many of the people know each other, work together on projects. And yes, there were inevitably great shows that didn’t get any nominations. That doesn’t mean there’s a conspiracy or hidden agenda. It just means that there is a finite list. Personally I think that the Streamys will grow to be the Oscars for web tv and that will be a good thing.
And Strike TV is a powerhouse of talent – next year I’m sure it will be very well represented.
Great article, Matt.
I don’t know why so many people expected these to be perfect right off the bat. We should all know there’s no such thing as a perfect first draft that’s everything to everyone.
Kudos to Tubefilter, Tilzy, and NewTeeVee for taking the initiative and pulling this off. It was not an easy task. This is the first year – rather than harp on what they didn’t do right, give them credit for having the balls and the drive to do it at all.
If there’s an aspect that someone thinks could be handled better, letting the IAWTV know in a constructive manner is a far more effective way of handling the situation.
-Jeff Koenig
CEO, Broadcast Assassin
As long as there is the Internet there will be drama. It’s the nature of the beast. Unlike any movie/TV show there is the community aspect of the Internet and there will be drama. Sometimes I hate it, but its who we (the Internet community) are.
I had some complaints about the Streamys, but didn’t jump into the feeding frenzy. Me and some friends discussed the matter (calmly & reasonably, strange for the Internet I know) over at Anchor Cove. Some truly excellent shows were recognized. Some over the top, in my opinion sub-par, shows also got recognized. From here the academy has a chance to prove their salt in choosing the winners. I have very clear & distinct favorites among the nominees (and among those who weren’t nominated).
Of course their are going to be problems. The whole industry is going to experience some growing pains and everything is still in a state of flux. Some of my problems, like the lack of International members on the “International” committee I’ve pointed out and I hope to see change in the future. Overall I respect what the Streamys are trying to do, and think many of the nominees (Felicia being one of them, because she’s just a sweetheart) deserve on the accolades they have and will receive.