Satacracy 88's Andy Dugan:
An Interview with the Producer of the
FIrst Internet Emmy Winner
by
Ryan Graham
Satacracy 88 is the flagship broadband TV show from Andy Dugan's ITSALLINYOURHANDS.TV site, a micro-budget site that creates interactive television series that are voted on at the end of each episode. The votes of the viewers determine how the series will progress, giving a dynamic Choose Your Own Adventure feel to the shows presented there. This past Emmy Award Ceremony marked the introduction of the Broadband Drama Ammy, which Satacracy 88 won.
RG: Congratulations on the Emmy! Was getting an Emmy something that had even vaguely crossed your mind when you started this series? Was it something you had to lobby for, or did they just kind of find you on Google and say, "Hey, these kids are good! Let's give them an Emmy!"
AD: First of all, thanks! And that was a crazy moment in all of our lives. We had submitted Satacracy 88 to a contest on myspace called the MyEmmy contest and won, so they submitted the show to the actual Emmy Awards. It was great, the first ever Broadband Drama Emmy, and perhaps the last, since they have since changed the name.
RG: The production values of the show are excellent. What camera(s) do you use to shoot the series, and what software do you use to edit?
AD: We have shot all of Satacracy 88 using the Panasonic HVX200, as it's a great camera! Also, all the editing has been done in Final Cut Pro.
RG: Is everything shot with just the one camera, or do you have multiple cameras shooting at once to save time?
AD: Everything is on one camera. I can't say we ever had the budget for 2 of them.
RG: Your audio is surpisingly consistent. I think I only noticed one or two points in the entire series where it seemed a little "distant". Do you do a lot of ADR, or is the majority of the audio all done on set?
AD: The majority is all done on set, although we've done ADR a couple times, like in Episode 4 where they are in the club, but other than that, it's all shotgun mic.
RG: The music is also very powerful. How much of that is composed each week, and how much of it is cues that you can use over and over?
AD: All the music is original compositions by Jon Dinerstein, who we believe is the next John Williams.
RG: Now a few questions about the process of delivering the video digitally:
Do you host the videos yourself? If so, is there a reason you do this instead of using YouTube or some similar service?
AD: We have the videos on a lot of sites so that you can view them anywhere, but you can only vote at ITSALLINYOURHANDS.TV. Tubemogul makes it very easy to launch a show on multiple sites, I highly recommend it.
RG: Does it bother you to know that most people are watching your videos in a highly compressed format, resulting in a less-than-ideal viewing experience?
AD: No, because video players do give some awesome quality. Revver doesn't compress down too bad, Veoh also has a great video player, and youtube is fine, although it's a little pixelated. It's just great to be able to go out there and create an audience that wasn't possible 3 years ago.
RG: Do you think that video shot on HD and compressed for web streaming looks better than if it was shot in SD and compressed?
