Meme-o-who - Steve Woolf (JETSET, Smashface, Pixelodeon)

WHO IS STEVE WOOLF?  Principle of Smashface Productions and a veteran in the vlogosphere Steve works with Zadi Diaz (aka) on JETSET (a weekly young adult skewed, pop culture web show that features viral videos, interesting topics for debate and other items relevant to the audience.  The show recently won a Webby and a Vloggie.  Most recently he organized the incredibly successful Pixelodeon.  He is currently working on RSSNews (NSFWWH!).  He aims to build Smashface into "a production company with properties spanning all forms of media."  He's well on his way. [Photo from Flickr Album]

SNAPSHOT:  Big in Germany, most people view over three pages per visit, UVMP fluctuates but steady otherwise, Alexa rank 185, most refferers through Yahoo/AltaVista etc.
[Compete, Alexa, IceRocket and MarketLeap]

WISE WORDS: "Stagnation is the enemy online." and "Comments are not community."

*** Full transcript after the jump...

PA: Why did you start JETSET?

SW: After I spent several years as a screenwriter and Zadi spent several as a documentary filmmaker, we realized that having the Internet at our disposal to create and distribute a show that anyone can watch at any time allowed us to leapfrog over all the b.s. of mainstream media.  It was an opportunity to build something over which we have total creative and business control.

PA: Cool. Why do you think JETSET is so successful?

SW: I think the main thing is that we stuck with it even when no one was watching.  We were also never afraid to change things and move in new directions.  Stagnation is the enemy online.  We built an audience over a long period of time, unlike a lot of shows that come out of the gate and seem to get a lot of attention.  Perseverance and risk-taking is paying off.

PA:  There was a segment on the show about broadcasting live.  Will that happen?

SW: Yes.  Our audience is helping us develop a live show with their ideas.  At first we will probably only do it sporadically as a way to connect directly with our audience, but we are definitely looking forward to the first live show in the next few weeks.  The companies that enable live broadcasting to be so pervasive now will continue to work out the bugs, and as they do we will increase the amount of live broadcasting we will do.

PA: Let's talk about Mix (community aspect of JETSET).  It's pretty unique right? The people on it are ded-i-cated.  Did it just happen that way or did you have to cultivate interest etc?

SW: We were lucky that the core group of 100-150 who signed on in the first week or so was a really involved, active group.  It was incredible watching everything form there.  At first we were convinced that we would have to really shepherd the community and keep them motivated, but it turned out that the best thing was to just stay out of the way and let things take a shape of their own.

PA: Does it take a lot of upkeep?

SW: We were recently extremely busy organizing Pixelodeon.  During that time, I think about a week passed without us checking in and seeing what was going on.  When we did sit down and go back on MIX we were half expecting things to have become stagnant, but amazingly it was just as vibrant as ever.  That pretty much confirmed for us that MIX would be able to continue on and grow no matter what.

PA: What are your numbers like?

SW: Every day new members keep trickling in.  The next challenge will be to make sure that as we hit the 500 and 1000 member marks that we can keep the same intimate feeling of community that exists there now.

PA: Old media.  Any interest in crossing over?

SW: At this point I tend to think of it all as just "media."  We were asked to develop a television show last fall, but things didn't work out during the contract stage.  We would definitely do it, I mean why not?  As long as we are able to maintain creative direction and we don't just pump out the same old crap we've seen on television our entire lives it can be just a creatively fulfilling.

PA: Most people reading this won't know about Pixelodeon (awesome by the way!).  Can you explain what it was?

SW: Pixelodeon is an annual screening festival for online video that was founded and organized by myself, Zadi Diaz, Jay Dedman, and Ryanne Hodson.  Irina Slutsky also helped us organize and raise money from our sponsors.  The first ever Pixelodeon took place at AFI (American Film Institute) here in Los Angeles June 9-10.  It was a pretty amazing weekend with over 300 video screened and four keynote speaker sessions with guys like Kent Nichols and Doug Sarine from Ask a Ninja, Fred Seibert from Frederator Studios and Next New Networks, Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab from Channel 101 and the Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central, and Jon Phillips from Creative Commons.  We had hundreds of people show up, some of them from across the globe.  Late this week or early next we'll be rolling out videos from all the keynotes, as well as feeds from all the screening sessions.  This way anyone who couldn't make it can see everything that was shown that weekend. [Pixelodeon]

PA: I liked how everyone was so open to new ideas etc - what was the feedback like?

SW: Looking back at it now, I'm floored how everything came together so well.  One of those magic weekends.  We had old school videobloggers hanging out with some of the stars of YouTube, and down the hall I watched executives from TV networks shooting the breeze with the founders of Blogger and Wordpress.  It was an incredible, incredible mix of people.

PA: On to the future!  Get your crystal ball out - where do you see yourself in five years?

SW: Hopefully in five years time Smashface Productions will be an established production company with numerous successful shows.  I see myself doing what I do now with great partners and working on a much grander scale.  One of our main goals is to not just to create mainstream shows or niche online shows, but to break new ground. 

PA: And where do you see vlogging?

SW: Wow, so much has changed in the past year alone that it's hard to envision five years from now.  As the technology becomes cheaper and more accessible, I think we will see tons of content creators discover the power of online video.  In five years I would hope that we would have the same sense of community, but I would expect that the pool of talent will be much larger and the issues we've dealt with in the past 2-3 years (feeds, enclosures, comments, encoding, copyright, etc.) will be things of the past.  It will be all about the content, not about the technical issues that constrain us today.  Let's just hope the Internet stays neutral, otherwise I have a much bleaker outlook than that.  :(

PA: What's next for you?

SW: We have one project in the works that will hopefully redefine immersive entertainment, and I would hope that in five years that show will still be going and will be looked upon as a watershed event in the merger of entertainment, gaming, and new media innovation.

*** Need more Steve?  Blog, JETSET, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter  (Amanda Congdon's Interview is great too).

PA: What's next for Jetset?

SW: We're going to expand the programming we're doing each week with JETSET.  We are planning on rolling out a second day soon, and hopefully a third not too long after that.  We are also going to launch a new website that fully integrates the show with MIX, our community site. [Mix]