• 
• 
• 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Many people who are looking to break into network television see producing content for the web as a great way to showcase their talent and hopefully earn a slot as a staff writer or even a show runner. Mike Rotman, producer of Internet studio Streamin' Garage, however, has a résumé that reads like a who's who of network television. Starting as an intern on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1993, Rotman went on to work on some of the top shows of late night, including Later with Greg Kinnear and Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, for which he received an Emmy® nomination. Additionally, Rotman wrote an episode of South Park and an entire season of The Simple Life.

Despite being flush with success, Rotman found himself disappointed and frustrated with network television due to its predictability and being overly produced. During this time, Rotman was writing/producing for Kevin Pollak's Chat Show. Rotman soon realized that unless one was sated by cat videos or watching 12-year-olds playing World of Warcraft, the world of streaming video lacked any shows written for a more discriminating audience—one that craves shows that are articulate, intelligent and longer than three minutes.

For instance, one show in the Streamin' Garage lineup, Super Scary Horror Theater, typically runs an hour and often goes up to an hour and a half. The show consists of an old "B" movie horror film and includes sketch comedy in between that's produced by Rotman and crew throughout the course of the film. When watching on demand, the audience either can watch the entire show or simply skip through it and watch the sketch comedy, but there's a full hour and a half of content for the audience.

According to Rotman, there are many younger producers who create shows with the intent of breaking into network television. As he's already coming from the world of network television, how-ever, Rotman's main goal is to produce entertainment without being encumbered by development executives or inflated budgets.

MY OWN PRIVATE STUDIO
Initially, the question for Rotman was how to accomplish his goal. Then he learned about the NewTek TriCaster 300. The TriCaster is an HD, live multi-camera production studio that fits on a table, yet is an all-in-one solution for a three-camera, network-quality shoot, complete with live switching, HD network-style virtual sets, audio mixing, editing and encoding for almost any type of output, including full HD streaming. The TriCaster 300 is so compact and simple to use, it easily can be operated with a small crew and even can be operated by one person. The one deterrent for some may be the initial cost of the TriCaster, which starts at about $10,000.
According to Rotman, when compared to the cost and time involved in postproduction, the TriCaster is the only way to go. "Yes, the TriCaster is expensive," he says, "but in the end there's no postproduction."

For anyone producing projects independently, the single greatest threat to the project is postproduction. It's slow when doing it yourself and expensive when outsourcing.

0 %d Comments