Posted in
Press,
Writers Strike with tags
Articles,
Viral Videos,
Writers Strike on 12/18/2007 11:20:00 AM by Rob Barnett
Think we're going to be on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Spoke to Melissa Block who reached out to hear more about our little shop of DAMN. Airdate & time - the mystical "to be announced."
Posted in
My Damn Channel,
Writers Strike on 11/30/2007 8:23:00 AM by Rob Barnett
Old media may be starting to fall in love with the bad boys. They've definitely gotten all hot and bothered.
Ever since the strike began, the collective power created by fans of video sites like this are captivating editors to get to the bottom of our business models and find out how and why major Hollywood talent is setting up a new rebel base here in dot-commie land.
I landed in LA late yesterday and learned that a conversation I had with Gary Gentile at the Associated Press about the writers' strike was picked up by over 100 media outlets including Yahoo!, MSN, MSNBC, ABC, Forbes, CBS News, and the Washington Post.
Our recent viral videos racked up millions of views in a matter of days. Advertisers like Lincoln/Mercury and Universal Pictures just bought a ticket on the My Damn Channel bus and this little anti-media machine is picking up speed.
If artists don't win more respect and revenues inside this strike zone, then old media is going to wind up looking like Bruce Willis at the end of "The Sixth Sense."
Here's Gary's piece.
Posted in
Hollywood,
My Damn Channel,
Writers Strike on 11/16/2007 2:08:00 PM by Rob Barnett
My Damn Channel is getting a heap of new attention, phone calls, offers and rapid traffic increases in the wake of the writers' strike. If we weren't completely spiritually aligned with the writers and dedicated to giving them the best deals in the business - we'd feel guilty. Bad fortune cookies cracking open all over old Hollywood Boulevard mean 'good times' for all the cowboyz and cowgirlz out here in VIRTUALWOOD.
We've been sleepless for the past 108 days that our site has been up LIVE - creating new channels and videos for mass distribution: backing professional writers, actors, musicians, comics, directors, and producers who still work in the old system but can taste and smell the new world dawning. Our co-cons are too talented to ever quit creating. We set them a new thanksgiving table with a feast of web freedoms. No turkeys in our oven - they're still alive out there - gobbling about how they're not really losing audience to the web and how business is better than ever. Ya think?
Hundreds of former co-cons have hit the beach over the last few years...especially in TV + radio. Old Hollywood is becoming layoff-land.
Our new media speedboats are outrunning the old battleships. Our generals have no fear. The best new media companies are run in ripped jeans, blaring loud music in offices that look like a cross between our college dorms and the OLD mtv.
The best part about not having a boss in a suit is that you don't have to second guess yourself. You can go back to making art the way you did before you thought your whole life depended on the outcome. (It actually does - but the wheels are about to fall off this posting - right?)
It always boils down to Freedom vs. Fear. Dylan's best interview - given in 1984 at about 4 o'clock in the morning - offered the best advice any creator can lend another:
(Paraphrasing) "......whenever you want to do anything in your life - don't ask advice - if you do - you'll either end up not doing it - or doing it wrong - but if you know what you want to do - and you do it - you'll be successful - no matter what."
We took a My Damn Channel camera out on the picket lines yesterday......we'll share some more strike energy later. It smells like Thanksgiving.