Is the Writer's Strike a Golden Opportunity to create new networks online?

Way back in 1988, the WGA went on strike, and people flocked to cable television in droves. TBS went off the charts with increased viewership, and the strike virtually created the cable television explosion we expereince today.

It seems like a new channel is popping up every month, a network devoted to a niche group (bikini bass fishing, anyone?) and vying for those valuable advertising dollars.

Now, twenty years later, the writers are striking again, asking for a fair share of the potential billions of dollars in revenue in new outlets on the internet, and a bigger slice of the DVD pie. The studios, of course, want to hang onto as much as possible, because the number of duds they produce far outweigh the few homeruns. Besides, writer's lament about being on the bottom of the totem pole, and they get used to the scraps!

Now we have the internet, and webcams, and desktop editing systems, and since I'm a huge fan of low budget film production, I don't see why that same energy couldn't be poured into creating an on-line telvision network or show.

You can explore the internet for shows allready on the net (I almost said air!) with lots of knock off's, knock up's, and very few drag down knock out's. I would imagine producers are scouring youtube and facebook and myspace for interesting, fun little virals that can be turned into something.

I see this as a golden opportunity to create a name for yourself as a low budget internet tv producer. With writer's on strike, programs like THE DAILY SHOW, and other spoofs or late night bits are going black. So if you like politics, or even better, poking fun at politics, and you can turn a phrase (tell a joke) set your camera up in front of a backdrop, get good lighting on both sides of your face and start talking.

Want to create a soap opera drama set in your living room and kitchen? Write fast. Write well. (or not so well, have you ever seen the crap MTV calls THE HILLS?)

How about a cop show? Do it on the mean streets of your home town and get it on the air.

You're going to have to move fast though. Because a thousand other aspring wanna be's are out there with their cameras right now as we speak. And a thousand other writers are looking for ways to bring in money while they pay their bills. So don't wait one more day.

Sit down, write out your 5 page script. Tell the story. Give it an arc. Give it drama. Give it action and passion.

Grab your camera and your best friend and act it out.

Upload it to your computer. Add some music. Edit carefully. Upload to youtube. Send it to your friends in a social network. Tell them to forward it, make it viral.

Repeat it again in a day or two. Try to make the story advance. Build a community quickly. Put adsense on the sides of your site, if you want to try and monetize your visitors.

Repeat.

If you can write 30 3 minute scenes that are all tied together, go shoot some b roll and turn it into a movie. Burn it to DVD. Sell it on createaspace. Ship copies off to agents and producers. Be a little cocky, not too much.

Who knows, you may get a big deal out of it once this strike is over. In the meantime, you're getting tons of experience running a show, writing a show, and producing it. If Hollywood ever does come calling, (and believe me, they are looking, and they write big checks!) you've got something they want.

Proof that you are the real deal.