Streamys: Just another Award Show
Ever since Adam Curry encouraged his listeners of the DSC to think for themselves I’ve certainly done so. In one episode he also mentioned how award shows are just self-gratifying events which focus more on what people are wearing and their speeches than the art they create.
Think what you want about Adam Curry, but he has molded many aspects of my life in to what they are today.
In my teenage years I recall watching award shows, enjoying the opening comedic act, and then just waiting for the host of the show to do funny stuff. Oscars… Emmys… whichever one is the funny one. Sad thing is, after the opening sketch, the host almost gets no air time. Oh, and the red carpet part is about just as long as the show.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for congratulating people for amazing work, and I don’t discourage those that aren’t my style. That said, if a movie has 5 Golden Globe nominees/winners in it, then it’s not going to entice me more than a film with completely unknown actors.
In fact, tonight I went to see “Date Night” starring Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, and others. I have no idea if any of them have been nominated or won any awards (I’m sure they have), but I knew it would be good from what I’ve seen of their previous work, and I was correct; loved it!
If you’re unaware of The Streamy Awards, then here’s Wikipedia’s definition:
The Streamy Awards, popularly known as the Streamys, are presented annually by the International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) to recognize excellence in the arts and science of web television production, including directing, acting, producing, and writing.
In other words, it’s the award show that recognises web video content. These would be shows like GeekBrief TV, Tiki Bar TV, Diggnation, and The Guild. Individual vloggers such as Justine Ezarik, Clintus McGintus, and Rachel Mayo also create video content, and are eligible for a Streamy Award.
There’s is a plethora of superb free content on the web. Much of it never gets the recognition it deserves. ‘Recognition?’, you say. ‘Such as an award?’, you say. No. Such as being able to have a conversation about said shows to my non-geeky friends without having to describe the show/scenario to them.
The reason people create stuff on the web is because there’s no rules. You don’t have to be approved by a higher authority, and you have an audience larger than any television/radio network, anywhere. This means content on the Internet is different.
Mainstream media wants in because they know that’s the only way they will survive, but they also want to hold on to their content rather than set it free. Hulu — case and point; it can’t be viewed anywhere outside the United States; hence, it’s not set free.
Of course, web media wants more eyeballs and thus they’d like to be in the mainstream. Thus, everything is merging together. I guess I don’t mind that, but it’s beginning to get difficult to differentiate the difference between something created by mainstream media and something created by a kid in his garage. Is that a bad thing? You decide.
In my opinion, the Streamys are no different to any mainstream award show: red carpet, funny jibber-jabber, a live feed on the Internet, a whole bunch of people staring at a stage for several hours, some awards handed out, and an after party.
By all means, I’m not saying the before and after events wouldn’t be fun to attend — but you know I’d rather go play in a children’s playground than go to a club and allow my ears to bleed while I lose my voice.
Due to a Twitter conversation I had with the giddy The JLynn Johnston last night, I want to make it clear that I’m not being negative towards the Streamys; I dislike award shows in general.
Now, as I said earlier in this post, tonight I opted to go out, pay money (Rachel’s parents kindly paid for me), and see the movie “Date Night”. I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I rarely go out to see movies at a cinema, so this is kind of a big deal. On the way home from the cinema I was reading through my Twitter feed and discovered a surprising amount of negative tweets about the Streamys. I did not expect any negativity because I knew people were excited about the event in the lead up to it.
Don’t take my word for it; I’ll post some of the tweets I saw from the people/friend that I follow, below:
As you can see from this teeny tiny demographic, there seemed to be quite a few issues, and it seems that they (the Streamys producers/directors) may have seen the overall vibe online and tried to spice things up a little with some naked guys. :\
In summary, I’m glad a few people could enjoy themselves for a couple of hours. I’m happy for those that won something, but I’m also happy for those that didn’t because that ones that didn’t are just as important.
For one, Justine will always be giddy to me. I don’t care how many news programs she’s on, or awards she receives, or how many views her videos get; she’ll always be real — even if her videos are characters.
The same goes for ALL of you; I will never care how many followers or views you have. As long as you enjoy what you’re doing, then I will be happy to support you.
Don’t worry about what others think. You are you, and you don’t need some piece of metal (read: an award) to define who you are.
Be giddy and enjoy your life the way you want to.
Update (12 April, 2010, @0532hrs CDT): The Streamys’ website has to be one of the best designed websites I’ve ever seen. So clean! That said, it has been about 7 hours since all the winners of Streamy awards have been announced, and they have yet to be posted on the website. If I find out that person whose job it was to update such information attended an after party rather than update the site, then I’m going to be very cross. Just so you know, he/she could have been updating the winners on the site as it was happening, and still attended after parties. Grr.
Note: I don’t care to know whom the winners are. I was just browsing the Streamys site and noticed that the 2010 winners are missing.
