Update 4:50 p.m. PDT: To include comment from entertainment industry source on YouTube's DRM issues.
Disney has agreed to post short-form video content on YouTube, a deal that might come as a bit of a disappointment to those who had hoped to watch full-length ESPN sporting events or episodes of ABC's "Gray's Anatomy" on YouTube.
But those people shouldn't lose heart. This could be the start of something bigger.
Disney announced on Monday that it would launch "multiple ad-supported channels featuring short-form content from ESPN and the Disney/ABC Television Group." Under the terms of the deal, Disney can sell its own ads that run with its content if the company chooses. Disney's material will begin showing up at YouTube sometime in April.
PaidContent broke the news. The news blog's Staci Kramer wrote that YouTube and Disney are discussing long-form content but that a deal is not yet done. Hulu, the video portal owned by NBC Universal and News Corp., is trying to secure Disney material.
What's interesting is that it appears YouTube's long-form deal would eliminate Hulu's chances of landing full-length Disney shows, according to PaidContent.
CNET reported late last year that YouTube had shed its image in Hollywood as an enemy to copyright content and was in a position to obtain long-form content. MGM has already begun posting a few feature films on YouTube.
As for the short-form deal with Disney, I'm not sure having ESPN and ABC channels advances the ball much. Many of Disney's competitors already operate YouTube channels. The move appears to be more of a test. YouTube's hopes of becoming more Hulu-esque and becoming a platform for full-length features and TV shows could be threatened if the big film studios and TV networks retreat from the Web. Much has been written lately about whether the major entertainment conglomerates are being pressured by cable companies to cut back the amount of ad-supported content they post online.
The cable companies say this is contributing to the decline of cable subscribers.
Another concern of network and studio suits is whether it's possible to generate a reasonable return from Web ads while managing to avoid overloading viewers with commercials.
Some studios are also concerned about YouTube's ability to protect full-length features from piracy. An entertainment industry source said some studio heads worry that YouTube lacks any copy protections on its video streams. The source said once the DRM issues are solved, YouTube could be "a real competitor for the likes of Hulu."
This post was updated at 5:12 p.m. PST to fix an inconsistency in the spelling of Fede's name and clarify the filmmakers' contributions.
Blake Edwards, director, and Erin Fede, writer and actor, won a trip to the Sundance Film Festival by coming in first place in YouTube's short film contest, Project: Direct.
(Credit: Michelle Meyers/CNET News)PARK CITY, Utah--It could be one of the quickest known ascents to fame for a filmmaking team.
Four months ago, Blake Edwards and Erin Fede met as new cubiclemates at a Charlotte, N.C.-based religious TV network. Today, they're here at the Sundance Film Festival with a short film Edwards directed and Fede wrote and acted in.
They took a different path to Park City than the 96 other filmmakers screening short films at the festival. They got here via YouTube, a site some associate more with crazy cat home videos than the work of future Scorseses.
Edwards and Fede are the winners of YouTube's Project: Direct, a short film competition now in its second year, in which the prize is a trip to Sundance. The contest this year called upon filmmakers to create shorts that in some way incorporate two props that represent the most memorable films in the Sundance Film Festival's 25 years. (Edwards and Fede chose a wedding dress and a soccer ball). The films also had to incorporate the iconic red phone associated with contest sponsor Moviefone.
Project:Direct winners Erin Fede, top center, Blake Edwards, bottom left, and their team of collaborators, aka Edward's housemates.
(Credit: Michelle Meyers/CNET News)A panel of Sundance programmers narrowed down the selection to 10, and then it was up to the YouTube community to choose the winners.
Edwards and Fede's ¡Perfecto! was the grand prize winner, for which they got $2,500 in addition to the five-day stay here. Their film, which is about an international spy who finds love with a down-home country girl, is also screening at an official festival party for short filmmakers.
"It's great access for a filmmaker," said Sara Pollack, YouTube's product marketing manager for film. She added that the overall quality of submissions was better this year than last. Second place and $2,500 went to Ben Goldenberg and Jason Gossbee, of Toronto, for their film White Collar Criminals. Third place and $1,000 went to Avery Auer of Santa Monica, Calif., for her film, Good Deeds and the Damage Done. DVDs of all three films are being distributed to industry executives here.
Edwards and Fede, who both aspire to a career in film, are here along with their team of "collaborators," (aka Edward's talented housemates, who road-tripped in from Charlotte) and are excited for the chance to network with industry leaders.
Edwards said his attitude toward being here is similar to his attitude toward making the film to begin with. "We were given an opportunity and we can either do as little or as much with it as possible," he said. Making the most of opportunities as become a sort of mantra for the group, he added.
Fede actually came in second place last year with a Project:Direct film she wrote and acted in called Gone in a Flash. So when she heard about this year's contest, Fede, who works as a graphic designer, immediately went to Edwards, a video producer, to seek his partnership.
"We did it, from conception to submission, in one month," Edwards said. They tipped the hat to their collaborators and Fede appreciated Edwards' quizzing the main actors about their characters so that they would come off clearer and more developed.
"It really pushed us to understand our characters further," said Fede, who started fooling around with her dad's Beta camera at age 8.
One of the goals of the contest, Pollack said, is to discover hidden talent. And last year it succeeded in doing just that, she said. The daughter of last year's Brazilian winner, who starred in her mom's short, is now starring in one of the biggest Brazilian soap operas, Pollack said. Maybe we'll see Erin on Young and the Restless, Pollack said.
The following are the three winning shorts:
PARK CITY, Utah--Sure, you can venture out to this snowy resort town, pay for overpriced housing, squeeze into crowded shuttle buses, deal with lots of Hollywood attitude (these, of course, the glass-half-full observations), or you can do a little Sundancing from the comfort of your own home.
With access to Apple's iTunes, you get a little taste of the Sundance Film Festival's indie works by downloading up to 10 short films for free during the 10 days of the festival, which means you have until January 25.
Main Street in Park City, Utah, before the Sundance Film Festival crowds came out in full force.
(Credit: Michelle Meyers)Sundance got a record 5,600 submissions this year for its shorts program, from which 96 were chosen to screen either in one of six shorts programs or before a related feature-length film. That was a 10 percent rise in submissions from the prior year, which assures some tough competition.
"Mittens off, badges on, this year marks one of the finest selections of shorts at the Festival that we've ever had," programmer Todd Luoto said in an article on festival Web site.
The shorts made available on iTunes, with distribution and encoding services by Shorts International, were chosen "as a sampling of the festival's unique shorts filmmakers' voices," Luoto added. "Some are funny; some are sad. Some are serious. Some are just plain crazy and need no classification, and some couldn't be classified if we tried--just the way we like it."
From the comfort of my warm hotel room, I've only downloaded two of the 10 so far, Acting for the Camera and From Burger it Came. But in doing so, I can already affirm Luoto's statement about the range, with a gentle warning that they are not the kind of films you'll see in mainstream movie houses.
Here are the shorts available on iTunes (under Movies, click on the Shorts genre) and their descriptions provided by Sundance:
Acting for the Camera--An acting class. Today's scene: the orgasm from When Harry Met Sally.
Countertransference-- A comedy about an awkward woman with assertiveness problems who seeks the questionable help of a therapist.
HUG--Drew is a musician with a contract ready to sign. When Asa, his friend and manager, realizes Drew is off his meds the across-town drive to sign the contract becomes significantly more complicated.
Field Notes From Dimension X: Oasis--Captain Fred T. Rogard muses in isolation on planet Oasis.
From Burger It Came--An animated film that recounts early 1980s-era Cold War fears of a young boy in middle America. Using a variety of techniques, the visual narrative is colorfully assembled over semi-documentary audio conversations between a grown adult recounting his fears and his mother's memory of the time and her own concerns.
I Live In The Woods--A Woodsman's fast-paced journey, fueled by happiness, slaughter, and a confrontation with America's God.
Instead of Abracadabra--Tomas is a little bit too old to still be living with his parents, but his dream of becoming a magician leaves him with no other option.
James--A young man grapples with the impulses and thoughts about being gay.
Magnetic Movie--Natural magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries, as scientists from NASA's space sciences laboratory excitedly describe their discoveries.
This Way Up--Laying the dead to rest has never been so much trouble.
A still from the animated short film From Burger It Came, one of 10 Sundance Film Festival shorts available for free download on iTunes through January 25.
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