Some Random Dude

Some Random Dude is a blog by P.J. Onori that covers design & technology in the broadest sense possible.

Posts Tagged ‘media’

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This American Life Coming to Showtime – The Only Real Reason To Own a TV Nowadays

This American LifeMany of you who know me are well aware that my wife and I do not own a TV – nor do we plan to get one in the foreseeable future. However, after hearing the radio show This American Life was coming to Showtime as a TV series, I personally felt the slightest twinge to jump on the boob-tube bandwagon. It is no surprise to me that a channel such as Showtime would create such a series – frankly, anything resembling This American Life would never survive on network or basic cable TV. On a side note, I find it hilariously predictable how much better the website is for the Showtime version of This American Life than its public radio equivalent. To be expected I guess.

My wife and I have been long-time fans of this show and wish it the fullest of success on TV. Honestly, I could just as easily see folks swarming to it as I could see people not getting it and quickly moving on. Being so far detached from the culture of television at this point, I am not sure if I understand the medium enough anymore to be able to make a valid prediction. Still, I cannot express how happy I am to see a TV network willing to take a chance on something well worth it. As Ira Glass has made very clear, the radio show is not going away – the two will exist together. My hope is that some of the progressive methods that public radio and This American Life have instituted – free podcasts, audio downloads of programs, etc. – will be brought into the Showtime program as well. I know that one person cannot change a whole industry, and a very established industry at that. Still, my hope is that a little bit of public radio will rub off on this one show. Perhaps TV execs will then notice that fans react well to the attitude public radio fosters – you know, putting the priority of distributing the medium to the wide audience possible over pulling in the highest profit. I guess we will see…

Creative Payment Model For Indie Film – Big Media Could Learn a Lesson

Things like this get me really excited…

Very few of us enjoy the close-boxed mentality of big media. The whole mindset essentially flies right in the face of how the web works and continues to ignore how society interacts with media. I just ran across an example of how media 2.0 and the internet’s open model has seemed to influence an independent film titled Revoloution.

The premise is quite simple – moviegoers can watch the movie for free and then decide how much they wish to pay after they have finished watching it. We all have gone to movies and have felt quite robbed from the experience. Many people do not frequent theaters as often because it is not worth the gamble to spend a sizable chunk of change on something they may not like. Big-business media will almost assuredly never sign onto something like this for various reasons – one being that their product is, well, bad. Hollywood is already losing money, this would just speed up the process. Nonetheless, this model could be a much more beneficial model for aspiring filmmakers to garner an audience and begin to create buzz on a particular piece of work.

I could see a more hybridized version of this type of payment where less is paid up front and a ‘tip’ is requested after the movie is over. If I only had to pay $4 to $5 to get into a movie, I might just start going to movies again. Additionally, if the movie is decent, I definitely would provide a tip. Of course this model is more risky than the pay-up-front model, but with declining ticket sales, they may want to consider taking a few risks and getting creative. One thing I do know, hiking up the price of tickets is not going to work.

For more details on this experiment, watch the video below:

Much of the media online is free without even the slightest hint of payment. Even for the lucky (and talented) individuals publishing high-quality work exclusively on the web, compensation still is a challenge. However, people are making it and some are doing quite well for themselves. With the rise in popularity of web media with its low overhead and much less profit, big business is going to need to rethink payment models and the content they are willing to spend millions on to produce. (Many) people know crap when they see it – sadly, the majority of all media (internet or not) falls into that category. However, on the web, I do not have to pay $15 or sit through 20 minutes of commercials to see it.

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Daily Delicious – Design Like You Give a Damn

Yes, many of us know the phrase “Design Like You Give a Damn” from the book published by Architecture for Humanity. Well, the radio program To The Best of Our Knowledge just had an amazing program on this very subject. As you can expect, the founder of Architecture for Humanity was featured in it. The program went into many different examples of how design can help solve many of the global problems we face while improving the overall quality of life for the inhabitants of this world. The entire hour was quite inspiring and well worth the listen, no matter your walk of life.

The topic of how design can make the world a better place is definitely not new – however, more people seem to actually be interested nowadays. For most of its existence, design has been grossly misunderstood. With our generation receiving the torch (whether voluntary or not) from the “Me Generation”, I find it highly hopeful and motivating that topics such as these are gaining more interest.

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