Entertainment

My Sneak Peek at the Future of Entertainment

Just got home after screening the first four episodes of Harper’s Globe, the latest project from my friends Miles Becket and Greg Goodfried. Miles & Greg are the notorious creators of LonelyGirl15 and Kate Modern, which for you non-techies out there means essentially that they are Internet Gods whom some consider to be the “founders” of viral video. LonelyGirl15 was one of the first creative series to go viral online, and since its success the guys started Eqal, which I am convinced is the company that will rule Hollywood within a couple of years. The Harper’s project is in conjunction with CBS’s “Harper’s Island,” and is one of the first television projects in which multi-media content was built into the storyline from the start as opposed to being tacked on as an ancillary marketing tactic.

The whole time I was at the screening all I could think was, “I wish I’d had this for ‘Lost.’” Miles & Greg have tapped into the ethos of the SuperFan, and thus the SuperUser. A SuperUser, at the end of the day, is the modern day online equivalent of Tom Cruise at the box office or Gisele on the cover of a magazine. Not quite a celebrity, this person is an active multi-media user with his or her own network who becomes an evangelist for the content that he or she is passionate about.

I started the morning off at the NXTstep conference at the Renaissance Hotel and also bopped into OMMA for a bit. Interestingly, the need to identify multi-media Evangelists was a theme that ran throughout my day. As usual, there were countless gripes about corporate or just generally close-minded suits who don’t “get” what multi-media strategies are about, and many snickers as some panelists cracked jokes in hopes that these power- and purse string-holders would soon either retire or die so the rest of us can do our business!

Jokes and frustration aside, the internet really is about sharing and collaboration, and it was beyond exciting to close things out tonight with such a positive experience. It was amazing to see that even in this troubled economy, with naysayers abound, that brilliant young people with the right vision can still puruse innovation and lead the charge toward creativity. I’ve been to lunch meetings with Miles & Greg over the last two years and heard them passionately espouse their hopes for the future of their company and the way we experience storytelling and entertainment as a culture, and, guys, tonight I have to hand it to you: The dozens of us who trekked through traffic to Cinespace to catch the premiere were privvy to something phenomenal. Your names sound like “Spielberg” and “Howard” to me these days. I feel lucky to see it all unfolding. Go show everybody how it’s done.  Nice work!

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