The third annual Streamy Awards are all set to take place February 17, 2013 at the famed Hollywood Palladium. Holding the online video award show at the Hollywood landmark is on every level a symbolic act. The venue held The Grammy Awards for three years in the 70’s and was instrumental in shaping the ceremony’s breakaway success. Dick Clark Productions is hoping it can do the same with the Streamy Awards, making it the biggest and best Streamys yet.
Created in 2008, the Streamy Awards have since brought together some of the most prolific online video creators to celebrate the best in original web video programming. “The mission of the Streamy Awards is to create a platform that is accessible to mainstream audiences and to really give a boost to creators that deserve to be recognized for their excellent work,” Streamys Co-creator Drew Baldwin said.
Starting from left: VP of Digital DCP Ariel Elazar, Streamy Awards Co-founder Drew Baldwin, President of DCP Orly Adelson, Executive VP of DCP Barry Adelman
With over 30 award categories, the third annual Streamy Awards will focus on honoring directors, actors, editors and the whole of online video. Baldwin is hoping that by teaming up with the prestigious Dick Clark Productions, the Streamys will help make online video more accessible than ever. Baldwin explains, “It needs to be recognized as the fourth pillar of entertainment. That is why we are recording it the week before the Oscars, right in the middle of awards season.”
With previous Streamy winners like “The Guild’s” Felicia Day and vlogger Shane Dawson, the bar for nominees is set high. So what does a creator need to win a Streamy? Baldwin explains, “First and foremost, Streamy winners have been risk takers. You instantly differentiate yourself when you take a risk, especially when you are true to your own voice.” Innovation isn’t the only factor though; Baldwin says that creators “need to know how to connect to an audience”.
Besides excellent audience engagement, Streamy winners should also be committed to crafting compelling digital content. Take screenwriter Bernie Su for example; his work with the online series “Compulsions” won him a Best Writing for a Drama Web Series Streamy Award in 2010. “After I won The Streamy in 2010, ‘Compulsions’ was a project we had taken around town, and we were told it was good and well-done but also very dark and hard to sell.” Su went on to explain that even though “Compulsions” was not picked up, shopping a new project around proved to be much easier now that he had a Streamy under his belt. “I thought it was going to be a slow process, but I was wrong” Su explained, “we had meetings and sold the project.”
Everyday, as online video continues to prove that it is a legitimate entertainment medium, events like The Streamy Awards are helping to promote that cause. Baldwin says, “Ultimately, what we are trying to do is blow online video up in a way that it is going to be the dominant medium for communication moving forward.”
[…] Bernie Su, the screenwriting and producing star behind the scenes of “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” is a fantastic person to talk to on the phone, because he sort of takes the question and gives you this mountain of free-form dialogue. Talking to Bernie Su is like talking to a jazz composition — you might get short little blips, or it may come as an opus in the form of a single, hyperkinetic run-on sentence. […]
[…] Bernie Su, the screenwriting and producing star behind the scenes of “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” is a fantastic person to talk to on the phone, because he sort of takes the question and gives you this mountain of free-form dialogue. Talking to Bernie Su is like talking to a jazz composition — you might get short little blips, or it may come as an opus in the form of a single, hyperkinetic run-on sentence. […]