The part about changing the world is an overstatement. We want to change the world. We think that there are things that need changing, that we could influence. But so far we haven't made much progress in changing shit. We've just spent money we didn't have in pursuit of some Don Quixote type dream.
But the other part is true, we are regular guys. Although we've been making documentary films for twenty years, we get no ownership of the productions we work on for the networks, so we've got very little money to invest in something huge like this.
The thing is, there's a gold rush mentality to stake a claim on the Internet and every media company, as well as other delusional schmoes like myself, are rushing in to grab a spot and throw up a site. And we're all being followed in by the people that want to sell the gold rush types their supplies-- design and programming and viral marketing and SEO and advice-- at hugely inflated prices.
Many of the gold rush folks rushing into the Internet, like the media conglomerates and VC financed companies, can afford a fancy site designed by the companies waiting on the sidelines to charge an arm and a leg. Those other guys getting their pockets picked, unlike ourselves, arrived with bulging pockets. When you arrive in this Internet world you are surrounded by people that KNOW THE INTERNET. We're all told that we need Internet guides, because only the guides know this strange uncharted landscape out there on the Internet and without them we'll all be KILLED, financially speaking. Those bulging pockets folks can't afford to be killed. So they sign up the best and brightest, and often the most expensive of the guides.
We at CrushedPlanet were, and are, stupid enough to think that we can go out there with only our small rag-tag band of dreamers. Everyday someone, even well meaning and knowledgeable folks who have our best interests at heart, tells us to spend more money and make our site better before going out into the big, scary Internet world. But it cost ten grand to sneeze in the Internet world, and twenty grand to pick your nose, and I no longer trust the guys offering Kleenex.
Strangely, having spent a lot of money-- at least a lot of money to us-- and barely gotten up and running, we still think that we can change the world. And the way we plan to do that is by creating a new language of what streaming media is all about. I can't exactly tell you the alphabet of this new language, because it's so new. And I can't even speak the language yet myself, I'm sorry to say. But I know when people are speaking it, and I can understand it when I hear it. And I get sort of sick to my stomach when I don't hear it for a while.
Our feeling here at CrushedPlanet is this--the world of streaming media is made up of three endless streams. There is TV (or TV style programming which is now just migrating over to the Internet), there is user-generated media, and there is Porn.
TV is, with notable exceptions, banal. It is a medium invented by corporate advertisers to sell you stuff. And that's what it remains, for the most part, an advertisement delivery device. Studies have shown that watching television induces low alpha waves in the human brain. Alpha waves are brainwaves between 8 to 12 HZ. and are commonly associated with relaxed meditative states as well as brain states associated with suggestibility. Television style programming provides a great way to zone out in a stressful world. But television style programming is familiar rather than challenging, predictable rather than surprising, and so that leaves a lot of potential to expand on.
And then there are user-generated sites. There's some interesting stuff on those sites, but it takes a ton of time to look through the enormity of stuff to find a gem. Those user-generated sites are like driving a car on the freeway of life. You look out the window and see an accident, or some scenery, or a girl in the next car with a nose ring. And each visual you come upon can hold your attention for a moment, and there's enough stuff to stare at for a lifetime, and for the most part there's no point of view, other than your head which swivels on your neck.
And then there is porn. Porn is also quite banal, even if it does serve a vital function-- giving men a short-term alternative to looking for real partners who might be hurt when they can't fulfill the expectations of true intimacy. But porn, like TV, is made to put you in a half conscious state where you will spend your money, among other vital fluids.
We at CrushedPlanet are working to create an alternative to
the endless stream of mindless crap.
We are looking for, and we are
finding, work that is powerful, innovative, authentic, provocative, and
surprising. We are not finding it
easily, it is not falling into our lap, but we're discovering artists and
producers that are laboring on the fringes of our product-pumping media world
to make strong-point-of-view, personal films that pulse with fresh energy and
unique perspectives. So even
though we're struggling, and we're frustrated, we are continuing on. We are tilting at windmills, we are limping
a bit from the journey, we are an unlikely band of dreamers and whores, but we
are on a mission here and we must continue.
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