The Virgin Joe

 

BLOG #1

 

I've never done a blog.  I'm a blog virgin.  That being said, the idea that I can share my thoughts without censorship or getting some kind of stamp of approval from the Corporations of Public Broadcasting, well, that's right in line with CrushedPlanet's vision.  It's in the moment, personal, emotional --it's kind of exhilarating actually.  I think I will give this a try, so here goes...

 

We are launching CrushedPlanet today, after ten months of faux launches and promised launches--each of which ended up being a heartbreaking crash and burn.  It's been frustrating getting to this point.  But here we are at the finish line of our design and programming phase, which is really just the starting line for getting CrushedPlanet out there.  

 

We started this dream of creating an Internet network almost ten years ago when we launched CrushedPlanet the first time in 1999.  That was when people could only stream itty-bitty postage stamp sized media.  On this go around CrushedPlanet rivals the image quality of any TV.  But we're not obsessed with the tech stuff.  We're all about content. 

 

CrushedPlanet will show the most innovative, provocative and intimate programming on the Internet.  TV was started by Corporations to sell advertising, and they don't want anything too edgy or mentally taxing.  The Corporations would put you to sleep for the programming and then wake you up for the advertising if they could.  And sometimes I think they try to do that.

 

I honestly think that the spectrum of entertainment possibilities offered right now is a sliver of what it can and will be.  We haven't exploited a tenth of what can be done when it comes to content.  CrushedPlanet is going to be about Powerful, Innovative content and --as The Unrestricted Voice-- we are going to help reinvent programming possibilities in this country and hopefully around the world.  (Sorry about using so many capital letters but I feel passionate about this.)

 

The second concept behind CrushedPlanet is to treat producers and artists and filmmakers the way we wish we had had been treated when we were coming up in this business.  Over the last fifteen years artists and producers in Hollywood, in the vast majority of cases, did not get ownership of their ideas.  Instead we had to sign over the ownership of our ideas, and we were offered this mythical back end, always calculated using net receipts rather than gross receipts.

 

At CrushedPlanet, everyone who allows us to distribute their work keeps all the rights to their content and we give them 51% of gross, if their work is exclusive to CrushedPlanet, and 33% of gross if it is given to us on a non-exclusive basis. 

 

And these two concepts --innovative and provocative content, and retaining ownership of all one's rights and getting a very fair percentage of gross receipts-- have already allowed us to sign up some of the most amazing artists from around the world who do absolutely phenomenal work.  I am in awe of the artists that we have signed up for CrushedPlanet, and we are only getting started finding these amazingly creative folks.

 

CrushedPlanet has short and long form films and videos that are honest and intimate, that are surprising and powerful, we have films that break the mold and come at filmmaking from a completely different direction, and we have films and videos and blogs that are such a simple, strong statement that they can astonish you and blow you away.   (Sorry about the run on sentence, I'm getting myself excited here.)

 

The goal with CrushedPlanet, and with this blog, is to reach out to the people who look around and say to themselves:  That's it?  That's all there is?  It seems like Art continues to get squeezed into tiny boxes by a few huge corporations that, as keepers of the gate, are picking out all the content they feel we need to see, or that we supposedly can handle.  We're in a democracy that has freedom of expression but the range of expression is incredibly stifled.  Well, CrushedPlanet is about passion, innovation, creativity, a strong point of view, and a refusal to relent to the pressure of conforming to the mainstream.  We want to showcase art, media and personal expression that is off the charts.  That shouldn't be too hard, right?   I think we have some great examples of that on CrushedPlanet already, and I'll be curious to know what you think.

 

Okay, so that felt pretty good for a first time.  And whoever reads this first blog will always have a special place in my heart.  Hey, I may just like this blogging thing.  Now it's time to towel off and get back to work.  Thanks for checking us out and stay tuned...