I’m one of the “weirdos” that yesterday streamed live the International Academy of Web Television Awards ceremony, held at Las Vegas CES 2012. If you don’t know them, they’re kind of the Oscars of web entertainment.
As the official IAWTV website states, the winners “were chosen by majority vote of the active voting membership of the IAWTV from nominees who topped more than 350 officially submitted web series”. Supposedly to represent the best out there.
But if the inclusion in the CES event is, in itself, a kind of statement of the growing importance that web tv and webseries are assuming among the entertainment universe, the gala didn’t do anything to show that this industry is somewhere out of it’s adolescence.
The show was boring, fast but without rhythm, with some technical flaws that appeared a little “unprofessional” (mainly I refer to the direction and camera work of the live streaming, but also to some troubles with the show itself) and the hosts seemed at most like teenagers trying to make fun at a party.
Don’t get me wrong: IAWTV Awards essentially are a private public party among friends in a sense. There’s nothing too formal, the community members know each other, they sincerely clap each other and they have fun together. And that is, in itself, totally fine. But if you’re aiming to build a formal event meant to help to get this industry more recognized and accepted by the “old world”, maybe that’s not the best approach. Because you’re stressing the exact opposite: that you’re still a niche field, that loosely celebrates itself in a closed room while most of the other people don’t even know or care.
About the awards. I can’t claim to know all the nominees (I will make amends during next months) so I will stick only to prices gone to series I’ve seen.
I was surprised by all the awards gone to Shira Lazar’s show, What’s Trending. But after all, I follow it and I didn’t know anything about the others; there could be a reason. BTW, she was stunning in that dress (even on a pc screen); I can only imagine how difficult should have been to keep eye contact, if face to face.
I totally cheered for Jeff Lewis winning the best performance in comedy. I love the guy; he’s just one of the best. And the show is one of the most original and genial web comedies I’ve seen. Too bad the show didn’t win in direction category, as well [see below].
Great to see that Tony V brought home something, even if editing is not by any means the only great quality of BlackBoxTv.
I was disappointed by all the awards gone to Felicia Day & co. Of course, I love her, and I love The Guild (not Dragon Age redemption, though); and when I say it, I really mean it. But she’s already the queen of web entertainment; I would have preferred a more “political” attitude from the voters and the decision to leave space and visibility to other great creators that are not so famous and that worked their asses to get their shows done. That’s what awards are about, after all. These are not Oscars, you may say. True. But the exclusion of Hollywood series from the nominees is in itself a clear political statement… so, why not going further in that direction?
I was veeeery disappointed by Aidan 5 not getting anything, despite many nominations. Maybe too “artsy” for their tastes? Maybe too different from the “standards” (supposed that they exist) of the web series? If there was a series that deserved recognition, that was the one.
I got a little pissed by Bernie Su. It happens each time I see his face and his hipster glasses. Because all I think about is that Compulsions is stuck to the first season, maybe forever.
I was not surprised at all by Blip being the best platform.
As I said, I didn’t like the pace of the show. Ok, you’re the new generation, you do it yourself, you like it quick and clan. But, again, these people put life, energy, money, time, craft into their job (and you know it, because you’re among them). And most of the time, they’re behind the camera. So: give them some minute to say something comfortably, for frak’s sake.
Besides, the contrast between the speed of the speeches and the one of the hosts (sometimes it seemed like if they were going out of the room and back each time) was almost inducing carPCsickness. Not very good for the overall quality of the gala.
Turning Mill 
Very interesting. For the most part it went off well, but you make some very good points.
Thankyou! Said by you, it’s an honor 🙂
The nomination process felt very “Good Ole Boys Club” in the fact that you had to pay an entry fee to be nominated. I believe $95 for every category entered for non-IAW members and $45 if you were a member of their organization. Many web series that could of won it all were not even nominated because the choose not to go through the nomination process.
I saw a couple posts from nominees (before they were announced) on Facebook saying things that felt like they knew they were nominated even though they revealed the winners live like the Academy Awards. I do not want to claim there is a conspiracy, but I do feel there were some fishy or political things going on.
I did not watch the streaming show. I felt like I knew the outcome before it even aired. Something did not feel right.
Since this was the first major industry award show, (to stream live as the Indie Soap Awards are yet to go live,) since the 2010 Streamys the expectations were very low on my part. My only real hope going in was the douchbaggery that dominated the 2010 show would be completely cut out. On that front I came away somewhat satisfied.
The winners were all LA and they sent a clear message to the rest of the world, if you aren’t in NYC or LA, don’t bother submitting because you will NOT get a sniff. I think we ALL saw the results coming long before they happened.
As for the show itself, the presentation was pretty good, the set didn’t suck and the technical glitches, (except for the sound which was a mess the whole night,) were kept to a minimum. My issue was the 2 sketches, the RayWilliamJohnson hit piece was done in horrible taste and was clearly a big middle finger to Youtube. It wasn’t funny and it didn’t look like it was intended to be. The ‘Thunder’ sketch was horrible period. The nomination videos were for the most part very good, (especially the Ninja!)
On stage who thought bringing Kevin Pollack back from the 2010 Streamys was a good idea? The word ‘douchebag’ doesn’t even begin to describe his antics at the end of the show. If Security had dragged him off the stage EVERYONE would have cheered, he was that bad.
Overall I give it a 5 out of 10 which is a HUGE upgrade from the 0 the 2010 Streamys got.
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