Mike Rotman

Production Matters. (Don't look dumb) Jimmy Kimmel Coachella

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:28:00 -0700

The big share today seems to be the Jimmy Kimmel tricking people at Coachella video “Lie Witness News- Coachella 2013”

The hipsters attending are asked about a fake band and we get to see their moronic reaction. But is that really what we are seeing?

Anyone with any sort of production background immediately sees and hears some hints that the trick is on us, not on the people being interviewed.

Jimmy begins by explaining that “We asked them about a bunch of bands whose names we made up.”

We then cut to 2 girls who are asked about “Dr Schlomo and the GI Clinic” The girls nod there heads “They’re amazing”

But what got my attention isn’t their answer- it’s that clearly they are not actually being asked about this band. The interviewers questions are all done in post.

Listen to the interviewer again, it is very clear, she doesn’t sound at all like she is there in the moment.

How can I tell - a few simple ways:

- Her voice is very clear, it doesn’t sound like she is even in the same place.

- Her mic never moves. She could have had a lav on but the sound would still not be that clear. Man on the street is always back and forth mic.

- The way her hand is when she talks doesn’t move. We all move our hands in someway or another. This is oddly static asking questions or not.

- The angle of the camera is the big give away. It’s an odd angle for a man in the street interview and the first thing that struck me. We never see the interviewer and we always have this hand there, that doesn’t really move when the girl talks.

- The people being interviewed never repeat the name of the band.

I would like to give Kimmel’s producers credit for turning the trick on us “Aren’t they dumb” becomes “Aren’t we dumb” when we all realize we were duped- but it doesn’t seem like this is what they were going for based on Jimmy’s intro.

While Coachella has turned from a premiere music festival into a big VIP party for brands, you still should understand, it’s not the people being interviewed that are the dumb ones here.

Now, they certainly could have had to do ADR in post after since she didn’t move her mic and sound wasn’t picking her up- so in that case I’m the dumb one.

Think before you share. Production knowledge will always be your friend. (or something corny like that)

YouTube subscribers don't matter

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:18:00 -0700

Notice anything odd about this photo? Look closely.

The subscriber count is gone. Granted I have not updated to the newest YouTube look of the moment yet, but even there, it’s fairly tiny.

For years we have been told that the only thing that mattered on YouTube was subscriber count. But those who worked closely with YouTube as our primary source of business realized that subscribers over the past year were starting to lose their effectiveness. If we were lucky 10-15% of a sub base actually watched a video.

Tay Zonday had a great article about this recently: http://newmediarockstars.com/2013/02/lies-my-youtube-subscriber-count-told-me-op-ed/ (Lies My YouTube Subscriber Count Told Me (Op-Ed)

I have been wondering out loud and on panels over the past few years, “When will YouTube get rid of subscribers? It’s obvious that YouTube wants to grow, and they need to grow.”

And people thought I was nuts.

Why would they possibly get rid of subscribers that have been the backbone of YouTube since 2006?

Let’s take a very quick look at how I see YouTube. (Your thoughts may vary)

YouTube’s biggest returning fan base seems to be young kids from 8-13 who love and idolize their favorite Youtubers. (Just go to VidCon and you’ll understand) It’s a huge base that gives each YouTube star millions of views per video, sometimes rivaling that of network and cable TV shows.

But, is it a good business model? Will 8yr olds who love Machinima videogame walk thrus or 13 year olds who want to see more Smosh videos use Google TV? Will they buy a product that is advertised on YouTube? Can a product like Lexus successfully advertise to the Top subscribed YouTube channels?

Probably not.

And will the coveted 18-49 yr olds who have money, want to watch vloggers like Jenna Marbles on their 52” TV?

Probably not.

But they will watch high quality long form programming like House of Cards.

And YouTube knows this, and knows they had to do something about it.

First they gave money to celebrities and production companies. The celebs BTW had no idea how to use YouTube or how to make content for $300 a minute- so that essentially failed. (Sorry Shaq)

Then they changed the analytics so it no longer favored some of the top YouTube channels in terms of recommended videos

And then they began purging those YouTube celebrity subscriber bases.

And now this.

Simple little changes this are pointing to a bigger picture.

YouTube is growing up and they need their viewers to grow up as well.

Getting rid of subscribers would level the entire playing field back to square one.

Is this what YouTube is doing?

If it is- how do they get retention? Google event calendar integration? Maybe, top featured channels like a DirecTV and everyone else is just sort of hoping to get shared?

What are your thoughts?

Subscribers, followers and likes- oh my!

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:54:00 -0800

Subscribers, followers and likes- oh my!:

Very interesting article showing true reach to subscriber bases on YouTube.

http://newmediarockstars.com/2013/02/nmr-channelmeter-exclusive-the-top-10-most-subscribed-youtube-channels-actual-reach-percentages/

Many companies, brands and even casting agents now look at social media numbers to make decisions on who to work with. These numbers are fairly easy to “fake”/ buy/ whatever you want to call the unethical practice of pumping up your popularity.

With Streamin’ Garage I myself have fallen into the trap of hiring / working with based on social media numbers. “If we can get them on the show- we’ll get huge numbers on YouTube!” It rarely happens. And all too many times we had on a guest or band with 6 figure followers that didn’t come close to delivering 6 figure video views- or even 6 re-tweets.

How can you tell if numbers are real? Well on Facebook if you see a company or brand has 100,000 “likes” yet when they post they only get a handful of comments, you can bet these likes were bought.

Same goes for Twitter. An easy way to tell, search @(Username) If that user has 100,000 followers yet no one ever tweets back to them- then they may as well have 100 followers.

Why do companies do this? For the same reason record labels focused on 1 hit wonder pop boy bands. It’s a quick hit that makes it look like your company is successful, and look how well it worked for the record companies. (cough)

If all kids there days are winners and get trophies and no one is ever a loser, where will the next...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:19:00 -0800

If all kids there days are winners and get trophies and no one is ever a loser, where will the next generation of comedy writers come from?

You know Romney’s thinking it.. Thanks to Elaine Ewing...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:23:00 -0700

You know Romney’s thinking it.. Thanks to Elaine Ewing for quickly mocking this up for me. :)

I’m always asked how to get the best sound on videos and...

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:33:31 -0700

I’m always asked how to get the best sound on videos and for live streams. Here is a great video we put together on Bammo to answer those questions. Subscribe to youtube.com/bammo for more great production tips and tricks!

I came home and this was on my Facebook page. Turns out,...

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 01:34:57 -0700

I came home and this was on my Facebook page. Turns out, it’s essentially an ad for Subway. I never clicked on a poll or went to Subways page in fact I wasn’t even home. Is this a new way for Facebook to do ads? Companies can post under your name?

Oh and hey Subway, I’m a vegetarian for the past 22 year you morons!

Social Media Fail

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:30:14 -0700

Social Media Fail

Comic-Con 2012: Joss Whedon Starring in Jane Espenson Series 'Husbands' (Exclusive)

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 12:48:22 -0700

Comic-Con 2012: Joss Whedon Starring in Jane Espenson Series 'Husbands' (Exclusive):

Glad I can finally let you all know about this. I am Executive Producing thru my company Streamin’ Garage all the behind the scenes episodes- so was hard not to let people know all about this!

Nathan Fillion and Zachary Levi kiss at Comic Con! Streamin...

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 21:02:00 -0700

Nathan Fillion and Zachary Levi kiss at Comic Con! Streamin Garage (my company) was hired by Break.com to live stream all the panels at Zachary Levi’s (Chuck) NerdHQ. The panel was over- but I kept the live stream going as you can never tell what will happen. And then this! A woman donated $1,000 to kiss Zachary Levi. Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin then ran on stage and proceeded to kiss Zac as well. And it was all streamed live on ustream because I decided to not turn off the NewTek Inc Tricaster til everyone left the stage. Lesson to all you live streamers!

50 years, hell, 10 years from now American’s who didn’t support gay rights will be as...

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 23:29:39 -0700

50 years, hell, 10 years from now American’s who didn’t support gay rights will be as embarrassed and shamed as those who didn’t support civil rights in the 60s. The difference- thanks to social media we now have those people’s names! http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/how-could-you-boycott-a-cookie

How to Get Out Of and Deal w/ LA Traffic Ticket

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:55:00 -0700

The Back Story

January of 2011, yes well over a year ago, coming back from Las Vegas NAB at 1am I needed gas. A cop was pulling out of the gas station trying to take a left, I slowed down to let him out. (Being nice doesn’t pay… wait for it…)

After I pumped my gas I took a left out of the gas station just as the cop had done 7 minutes before. Suddenly, lights and a siren.

He busted me for taking a left on a no left turn.

“But.. You.. And.. Left.. And I.. Let you in.. And…”

“Whatever, here is your ticket. Have a nice day!”

A year later I suddenly remembered that ticket and went to the Pasadena Courthouse to pay. “You owe $900.” What?!!

Apparently they had scheduled a court date, never told me, I missed it and thus the extra fine.

I told them I would pay the original fine right then and there. “Nope, your court date is now June 6, 2012” (a year and 1/2 after the original ticket)

So now what you wanted:

TIPS FOR WHEN YOU GET A TICKET:

- Don’t Be Early Seems like you’d want to be early. Not so much. I had an 8:15am appearance, I got there at 7:45. The court doors didn’t open until 8:15 we all filed in- no line, no order. Nothing. From 8:30am- 9:15am they did 3 roll calls. By 9:30am the roll call was closed and no one else was allowed in. So the lesson, get there by 9:00/9:15 you’ll be fine.

- Don’t Dress Nice I wore a suit. I was the only one. Most people had on jeans and a T-Shirt. Surely the judge would kick these people out, teach them a lesson about manners and respect? Nope. In fact, those who were dressed poorly seemed to be able to talk down their fines more. One girl had on running shorts and a t-shirt- she talked her no insurance, no headlight, no registration fine down to $25 and out she went. (And no, the judge was not male)

- Plead “Not Guilty“ This means you’ll have to come back another day- but over and over again cases were dismissed because the police officer did not show up.

So what did I do? I plead “Guilty!” Why? Well, interesting story…

After waiting 3 hours (See: Don’t Be Early) I was all set to take my case to the next level and explain (If the officer actually showed up) how he took the same left, how the car in front of me did a left, how it was 1am in a place I have never been, I never saw the signs.. etc..

Suddenly a well dressed blues player looking 80 year old man stepped up proceeded by a cop who looked familiar. (But I am AWFUL at remembering faces. If I haven’t met you at least 10 times chances are I won’t remember your face.) The cop began explaining the location… Hey this sounds familiar.. He explained it was a gas station… And the defendant made a left and… HEY WAIT- THIS IS THE SAME COP PULLING THE SAME CRAP WITH THIS OLD GUY!!

The defendant explained how he didn’t see the sign, and that it was early morning and no one was on the road…

The judge didn’t care. GUILTY!

I have seen my future, it didn’t look good.

I had to plead guilty, as even if I came back with a great argument, this cop has done this same scam many many times and wins. it wasn’t worth it to spend another morning in court and risk the chance of not being able to go to traffic school and take this ticket off my record.

The fine?

The same I wanted to pay 6 months ago but they wouldn’t let me. $248 + $64 for traffic school.

Why they wouldn’t let me pay when I offered instead of making me waste a morning in court and the tax payers money? Beats me.

And you wonder why our court systems are a mess and California has no money.

So you want to buy Facebook stock?

Thu, 17 May 2012 13:18:00 -0700

Too bad- you can’t. Well, you can- just not on the IPO. Turns out some individual investors could actually buy thru Etrade but needed at least $250k in holdings in their account and at least 1 million in personal worth.

So are you screwed? Well, no. You can still buy tomorrow once it goes public. Is it worth it? YES! Wait.. No! Wait.. Yes…

It all depends what you are looking for and which financial blog you choose to read. All I can do is give you a little but of my history with high flying IPOs and then you can decide for yourself.

My Yahoo day of IPO

In 1996 I got in on day 1 of Yahoo. After it went IPO for I believe $17? (Sorry too lazy too look it up) I got it for $32 that day. 6 months later it was at $19 a share. It hovered in the 20s and 30s for another year or so til it started to hit the $50’s in July of 1997. But July of 1998 it was $160 and by Jan 2000 it was over $400. If I had waited 6 months I could have gotten it for 1/2 price then on the day- but once you have that big of a percentage gain does it really matter?

Which leads is to, do I buy day of or wait? Wisdom says wait 6 months or so til all the excitement dies down. But I doubt I’ll wait. I see this as a very high flying stock despite what the “Experts” think.

Numbers or Trends?

I tend to be a trends guy. When everyone was selling their Apple stock back in 2002 and leaving the company for dead I was buying. I liked their new cute colorful imacs and thought people would buy them.

When people said Google’s and Netflix’s valuations were too high- I was still buying as their stock prices were getting cheaper due to the “experts” telling us the books showed those companies weren’t worth anything.

Well, the customers thought differently. (And yes, I told everyone to sell Netflix before the great CEO meltdown at $300) That was more about the trend of Hulu and Amazon taking them on- can they beat Netflix? No, but if Wall Street thinks someone can- then the stock will go down til stronger heads prevail.

So if you like a product, if you see your friends using it- go with that.

Ok, I was on a tangent- back to Facebook. I plan to buy. Will it go down? Probably? ($27 pops in my head) In 2 years will $90 on Facebook stock seem like a great deal? Yes. Will it seem like a deal in 3 months? Probably not, but why risk it for a few hundred dollars.

Other options

Like the big Tech craze bubble in 99 there are other stocks to buy that will float up with this Facebook stock.

Ones I like right now that will be much cheaper:

ZNGA- $8.27

GRPN- $12.41

YELP - $21.27

But much like Efax stock during the big boom- they can come down quick and hard- so buy and expect to sell in less than a year. Especially Groupon- I don’t trust they’ll ever make money- but the stock will be pushed up simply as a alt. “Social Media” stock.

And remember- I am not an expert. Just some nerd who has been trending stocks and marketing since I was around 5 (I believe I told everyone to buy Conoco back then)

Good luck, we’re all counting on you!

Oh YouTube ads- you really do know me.

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:07:00 -0700

Oh YouTube ads- you really do know me.

Where Should Your Web Series/ Content Live? Interview: Streaming Media

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:58:05 -0700

So you made a web series. Now what? The choices don’t seem like many- “YouTube and then watch it go viral?!” but in fact entertainment is changing. Web series aren’t just for the web anymore. In 1999 when I started to put up web content with “The Oz Witch Project” ( YouTube http://www.youtube.com/mrotman ) the only choice was a postage size QuickTime file that no one could watch- but now your content can and really MUST be able to live on a 52” TV in your living room.

Since our content for Streamin’ Garage was long form when no one was doing long form, we focused on TV box top like Roku.

Here is a great article I was interviewed for from Streaming Media:

http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/Streaming-to-All-Devices-Is-it-Worth-the-Expense-81805.aspx

Bitter sweet opening day of baseball

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 09:49:33 -0700

Opening day, to be cliche, is a time of rebirth- winter makes way to spring- or if you live in LA, freezing winter temperatures of 65 give way to much warmer temps of 70.

Baseball is all about history- not only looking forward but looking back. It is also a game of superstitions. Wear the wrong t-shirt on the wrong day and you can doom your team to 86 years of futility.

Being a Red Sox fan I am as guilty as anyone of having my special opening day routine which involves 2 things. Buying a new Red Sox hat each year. And watching the game with my cat Milo. Last year I doomed the Red Sox by buying a bad hat. And for that I apologize to Red Sox nation. The hat felt right at the time, but from game 1 it was obvious it wasn’t going to work.

That being said, I would do anything for it to be 2011 again and to be buying that same hat. Even though game 1 was a precursor to a very odd up and down season ending in a horrible down, I was able to watch the game with my cat Milo.

For 15 years Milo would watch Red Sox games with me, lovingly sitting on my lap or lying on my stomach until I would disturb his peace by jumping up and screaming at a Red Sox home run or jumping up and screaming during a dumb managerial move. He’d wait til I was done, give me a sneer and all 22 lbs of him would jump back on my stomach.

Milo sadly passed away in June of 2011. The last thing we did together was watch a Red Sox Yankees game on the TV the day before he passed away.

Milo was my best friend, he saw me thru many lonely days…er months… fine… YEARS of being alone and single in LA and thru many crappy baseball seasons. When the summer gave way to fall and fall gave way to a winter, Milo was still there lying on top of me, keeping me warm til spring came around again til I jumped up off the couch to cheer on a Red Sox home run.

So while I celebrate the arrival of spring and another season of Red Sox baseball- it isn’t quite the same this year.

Milo opening day 2011

It’s been awhile since I posted! Check out our new show...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 23:05:00 -0700

It’s been awhile since I posted! Check out our new show from my live streaming studio, Streamin’ Garage called, “Stupid For Game of Thrones.” We do a fan round table call in each week that will include writers from the HBO show! Hosted by Bobjenz and Sarah Penna!

Netflix is no Apple. More like New Coke

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:35:00 -0700

Back in the mid 80s when none of you were born, Coca-Cola decided to change their formula and call it “New Coke” Why? No one is really sure. It ended up being a compete disaster and opened the door for Pepsi to gain market share.Take any marketing 101 class and the first chapter is all about New Coke.

Flash forward a few decades, Reed Hastings the CEO of Netflix, who apparently has never taken a marketing class has just announced that they are essentially splitting up their company. The DVD by mail will now be known as Qwikster. Thus 14 million Netflix subscribers go away like that.

This comes after 2 days of Netflix stock being brutally beaten after the number of subscribers was down by 1 million after a price increase.

The answer to lower subscribers- concentrate on the future of streaming and cut the DVD business loose. This strategy makes some sense as DVD’s numbers will continue to go down- as we have discussed on Stupid For Movies for 2 years now. But long term- it’s an odd fix. You now take all of those DVD subscribers- who at some point would become Netflix subscribers with one click of a button and you essentially lose them.

As anyone who uses the internet knows- you do things that are easy. Itunes works as it’s simple- sign up once- and then click to buy and it all integrates with other Apple products. Frendster lost to Myspace as Myspace left you logged in while Friendster made you log in every time. Dumb little things like that matter on the web.

Netflix and Qwikster will have 2 separate billing systems. They will not integrate into each other thus when someone wants to go to just streaming- the consumer would have to set up an entirely new account in Netflix. But then why not simply go to Amazon? Or Blockbuster even.

Did I also mention they don’t integrate. All your ratings you set up on your Netflix account? All the recommendations? Poof. Gone.

Netflix has opened a door that was never open before. They owned the movie rental business based on their little red envelope with the words “Netflix” on it. IN the past few years, many have tried to beat Netflix but all have failed. Blockbuster decalred bankruptcy, Walmart tried streaming, even Amazon hasn’t made much headway. Netflix had a brand recognition that companies dream of. When you wanted to rent- you simply joined Netflix. And then this.

At least give this a fighting chance and call it “New Netflix”

- Disclaimer: Mike Rotman has owned Netflix stock since 2002 when it was $5. He was too dumb to sell it at $300.

Our Kickstarter campaign: Save indy 1950s TV of the future.

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:21:00 -0700

I have started a Kickstarter campaign for Streamin’ Garage.

For those who don’t know what I do- a very quick history.

I produced, wrote, directed TV comedy for 17 years. Great shows like Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Then reality TV came. I couldn’t stand making people look like fools. So I left, started my own live streaming network, sort of a playground for creative.

Since January 2010 when I opened the doors to Streamin’ Garage we have done over 150 hours of programming. We started off with 12 viewers on our first show Stupid For Movies and now have over 4.1 million live views. 30,000 subscribers on Roku and now a featured network on itunes!

But, we did it all for free. No one got a dime- and I invested all my money into making this. And now I eat ramen noodles 2 times a day (I cna’t afford to eat it 3 times a day)

So we now look to you, the fans to continue this next evolution of TV. Live. Intractive. With the fans calling the shots.

Check it out on our Kickstarter page and come join us for LIVE Karaoke tonight!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/820453960/streamin-garage-new-season-of-web-tv-shows?ref=live

What do I do late at night after a table read of our new live...

Thu, 12 May 2011 02:11:00 -0700

What do I do late at night after a table read of our new live show: Super Scary Horror Theater?