The secret to their success? Treat the Internet run like a TV or movie release, which often loses money on its on-screen debut but can make healthy profits when issued on DVD or Blu-ray and later sold for reruns on cable or overseas.
With that in mind, major movie studios are now getting behind such productions, giving them a lift in budgets and quality - a far cry from the shaky camerawork and dubious special effects prevalent when Web video became a new phenomenon a few years ago.
Sony picked up the project in April and gave it a budget of around $1 million. That’s nowhere near the $30 million-plus budgets of many Hollywood movies, but more than the producers were told they could sell it for. Websites typically pay up to $5,000 for a short clip of original video; with 16 episodes, other websites might have paid around $100,000 for “The Bannen Way.’’
“This money buys more lights and more production value,’’ said Gantt, 40.
Warren appeared to bask in the fullness of his crew: “We can afford extras rather than having our friends come in.’’
One quirk of the Web is that each episode must have a cliffhanger to keep online viewers coming back. In one scene, the audience learns for the first time that Neal Bannen, the title character, had been working for his uncle, a mob boss. Bannen’s father is the chief of police, and viewers realize the son is about to be entangled in a cops-and-robbers struggle between father and uncle.
“It moves pretty well,’’ Warren says, snapping his fingers. “We had breaks that would naturally lend itself to the Web.’’
Sony Pictures Television hopes the release will gain buzz and a few advertising dollars when it begins to debut in increments in January on the Sony-owned Crackle.com, a site targeted at males ages 18-34. Then, it will stop running for free online and get repackaged for sale to TV outlets, on iTunes and elsewhere.
