LIVE BLOG: How Would You Improve The TSIY-2 "Contest"
During the live chat Greg invited us to share our ideas on how LG15 The Show Is Yours contest could be improved so that it becomes more collaborative in spirit. Leave yours suggestions in a comment below.
Thanks to everyone who contributed and read the live blog. We hope it has been a productive experience. There is now a live blog tag so if you ever need to find it in the future just look in the categories down the right hand menu for "live blog" ~mm
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We realize that we have not yet seen the final product from TSIY-1, but this live blog is more about the contest and its overall impact on the community. Of course we want the best show possible to be the outcome of TSIY-2 so that is also a major factor.
ReplyDeleteGreg suggested that their open structure is the best solution. You may agree with that, or you may have ideas on how it could work better. The goal here is to constructively look at the process by which we arrive at TSIY-2 in a way that best grows a fun community and yet produces the most entertaining show(s) possible.
My major concern is that the "contest" tended to divide rather than build the community. It is true that there was a considerable amount of collaboration within individual shows, but the over all impact was to have a sense of one/two winner(s) and many who "did not win". While it is true that competition does motivate and lead to creativity there can also be negative impacts in terms of the overall morale and continuity of a community. I think some thought could be given to those aspects of the competition.
ReplyDeleteFor example the original fan concept of how lonelygirl15 would/should work would have been to have a core story with which "fan videos" could interact and in some cases become canon. We saw glimpses of that dream coming to fruition but it was never fully realized in the broader sense. I think if the design of TSIY-2 was more geared toward that model it would lead to a more vibrant and perhaps more creative community.
With the current competition structure one thought would be to have two categories.
ReplyDeleteWhile money is not being offered as a prize one category would be eligible for financial backing/sponsorship while the other would be considered "amateur".
This might encourage entries from both ends of the spectrum but still create the feel of a level playing field.
There might also be room for a 3rd category where you could have indie shows (from out of universe) compete for a show slot where the show would be licensed to Eqal, Inc. by the producer with some sort of financial understanding if the show brought in its own funding.
I understand that Greg said he would prefer to restrict it to the "LG15 Universe" but anyone who lives in this community knows that it is way too late for that kind of thinking since a number of excellent indies have already evolved within the community and for the community to thrive those need to be supported at some level. Such indies are already covered by the two tier TOS structure so it would be consistent with Eqal's current policies.
when does season 1 begin? it was supposed to be in february?
ReplyDeleteThe LG15 account JUST logged on 1 min ago for the first time this week. The Last also logged on today. Beyond that, I guess we are waiting on word from the mother ship so we may as well talk about TSIY-2:)
ReplyDeleteIt is possible that the last uploaded a video in private to their account and Eqal Inc. is now previewing it. Just speculation of course.
ReplyDeleteOk now back to TSIY-2.....
They should just give it to that Origins guy, he seems to really want it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, they should hand out the T-shirts to the entrants before they submit their video... preemptive T-shirting is the only way to go.
Whatever happens with the actual show, I think the TSIY idea was quite successful in prompting people to think about and produce pilots, some of which may turn into series.
ReplyDeleteFrom the folks at EQAL, contest aside, I would like to see them further encourage these series by putting a push on getting some better support for user-created shows on the LG15 website. Thumbnails/links from a main page with individual show pages.
While their own show is on hold for sponsors, in the spirit of "building the infrastructure," I think it would be smart to focus on and commit to implementing this better website support for promotion and sharing of UGC projects.
Lest you think that all companies still follow the top down philosophy, take a look at how Starbucks is treating "idea generation' in an age of social computing.
ReplyDeletehttp://mystarbucksidea.force.com/
I actually don't see any flaws with the way it is. I guess you can say it brought a rift in the community with the competition between fellow friends, however, if it wasn't for TSIY-2, I would never be collaborating with the people that I will be collaborating with when Origins makes a come back in TSIY-2. I think as long as people don't fight over the winner, everything is fine
ReplyDeleteSo Alex if you do not win TSIY-2 how will you feel?
ReplyDeleteIt was already stated that there has been collaboration within individual shows and that is not in question. What is being asked here is if there is a more productive result in terms off all the shows and how they might interact with each other.
i think we already saw the seeds of an idea when Jenni suggested she would try and work with other creators if they were interested.
If I don't win TSIY 2, I will go on and try for TSIY-3 and so on and so forth. However, it may just be easier if EQAL goes and just makes a group of shows cannon, then we dont have to wait months for the next round when we'll all just be entering again. But it might just be easier if they just branch out and assign a director/ producer to work with all the fan series and collaborate them all into one
ReplyDeleteI don't think there was anything wrong with the first contest. Maybe they could used all uppercase letters when saying their won't be any money. Might want to underline it also. If possible make the text flash different bright colors. But other than that, I don't think anything needs changing.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be cool if they offered some sorta feedback... just some constructive criticism highlighting what we did well and what we should aim to improve so we can get better each time...
ReplyDeleteI know I at least would definitely appreciate that.
:)
What I think would be awesome would to make it a little more interactive. Instead of just uploading a YouTube video, maybe a (not to sound impossible because nothing ever happens on the website) new section on the LG15 site where the entrees may be posted. Than there can be a better feel to it. The community will have easy access to every single one of the entrant's "channels" where not just a pilot would be posted, but rather three or four videos, character bio's, blogs and other little tastes of the show to give the community and the creators a little bit of a feel as to how the show may be played out. Also, people from the community can post criticism, ratings, pro's and cons, etc. for the content creators so that they may improve so by the time they post a final video to be the proposal for the show, it can live up to the communities criticism. Than maybe towards the end, members can sort their top five pilots to EQAL, that way they can see what show that people would be more likely to watch. I think this would just be an awesome addition to the site in general. I have heard that they already have been working on a section of the website where community shows could essentially have their own part of the lg15 website (but unfortunately, that may probably play out to be like all of the other "possible additions" to the website that we were promised in the past) so I think that they can use that same technology into a more interactive TSIY feel that's more community friendly.
ReplyDeleteThats an interesting point Ben. I know we have a few good critics in the community so maybe someone wants to take a stab at that if the c do not have the time. I know Immo offered some comments on a few of the entries in an earlier post.
ReplyDeleteThats an interesting idea Randy.
ReplyDeleteRandys idea is FANTASTIC. If for TSIY we each got our own little sub division on the site to post character bios and the such...it would work out phenomenal
ReplyDeleteI'm sure if people who entered wanted to continue their production despite not winning the contest, they would be happy to set up sections of the site. Right now, that means a forum to talk about the show (could be used for character bios, plot discussion, feedback, etc.).
ReplyDeleteI was really thrilled to see so many entries for this contest in so many types, from solo blogger to fully fleshed-out stories. Maybe the problem was calling this a contest, but then if it was a "pilot submission" process, it may have been more confusing.
What I would change is to provide some means to encourage the rest of the submitters to continue their own storyline, even if it wasn't adopted as the "canon" and "featured" story. The community response to this was really strong, and I wish more people continued the stories they worked so hard to plan.
I think that is a sentiment many of us share BK and I hope we can do whatever it takes to make that a reality. But the site design needs to give all the shows a larger level of exposure if that is going to become a reality and that is a point that has been made repeatedly since the first talk of a re-design. The original web site design was much much better in this regard and that is a point that has been made over and over but no one at Eqal seems to be listening.
ReplyDelete