Satire by Email
Last spring, I spoke with Larry Lessig about some of my work in scalable video production for community groups (see Massive Video Production Debut) with ExecProducer. His interest was in using the technique, not just for Berkeley alumni (Massive Video Production (MVP), Berkeley physics, and all that ) or business and marketing video (like MinutePitch), but for mass political communications movements. I hadn't really thought about it, but I knew it could be done.
Turns out he was quite forward thinking about this. According to the San Francisco Chronicle today, "Interest groups, outspent nearly 16-1 and aiming to defeat the corporate-backed measure, e-mailed a cartoon mocking Proposition 64 to more than 200,000 Californians on Wednesday, hoping they'll forward it to others and create an online stir".
Problem is - if you don't have the infrastructure end-to-end for production / email / deployment, the support on this will kill you. And people focussed on message don't have time to learn everything about production and Internet streaming media. No cost to email doesn't mean no cost to make sure people get your message. It's more than just trying to email someone an ad and hope for the best. So how do you do on budget and make sure it's good end-to-end?
We do instant production in realtime from raw video to finished ready for Internet and TV, tunable to specific audiences (narrowcast for more effect). We do it for Internet flash, QT, real, ... you name it. And many different types of emails per customer desire. When the production is approved, it automatically is sent in email with a select email list - again, target and focus. And it is supported - gotta know browsers, players, ideosyncracies - again, too techie for people focussed on message. Finally, it is uploaded / deployed on the political website simultaneously if desired for viewing.
The trend is here, as Dr. Lessig predicted. The question is, can they do it again and again. Because people start to listen only after you've been talking to them a while - not just a one-shot ad. And that costs real money.