The Rise of Web Media
The distribution of media and literature has definitely changed over the course of the years. There have been newspapers, talk radio, magazines, electronic journals, news websites, blogs, e-books, and most recently webisodes, which are short audio or video presentations on an Internet site. Joss Whedon has become an integral part of this new found web media with his brilliant release of Dr. Horrible’s Sing along Blog, which he released in July 2008 during the writers’ strike. While there have been a few other web shows, Dr. Horrible’s is among the widest spread of the bunch, with it’s high quality look, small budget, massive internet following, and big time awards . The production was small, but the aim was immeasurable.
Joss Whedon first had the idea to create Dr. Horrible’s Sing along Blog during the Writer’s Guild of America strike. He wanted to create something inexpensive, while making it look professionally done. Whedon wanted to show that Internet content could take off and be a success without the help of a studio to back the production up. He felt that by doing something like Internet content, it would be more efficient than protesting. He, along with his brother’s and sister in law teamed up to write the concept behind the genius that is Dr. Horrible’s Sing along Blog. They enlisted the help of actors Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, and Neil Patrick Harris to make up the three main characters. Dr. Horrible, played by Neil Patrick Harris, is a wannabe supervillian who is trying to get into the Evil League of Evil. He’s in love with Penny, played by Felicia Day, whose affections are aimed at the corrupt superhero, Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion. The concept was a metaphorical piece about the extreme cataclysm that was affecting the media during the time of the strike, set in a completely unrealistic science fiction world.
Although Dr. Horrible’s Sing along Blog is a comical, fictional piece about a would-be supervillian who is in love with a Human Rights activist and arch rivals with a shady superhero, there is a distinct social commentary found in its satirical humor. Whedon purposefully made this webisode during the writer’s strike, using it as an alternative form of protest to standing outside of Hollywood studios and picketing. The webisode features a reversal of traditional roles between the antagonist and the protagonist, using them as symbols of Whedon’s real life frustrations with the strike. Dr. Horrible, an aspiring villain, would be seen as the antagonist in typical works, whereas Captain Hammer, an archetypal superhero, would be seen as the protagonist. In Dr. Horrible’s Sing along Blog, however, Dr. Horrible is the protagonist while Captain Hammer is the antagonist. Hammer clearly represents the corporate world, because they disguise themselves as being “for the people” when all the while they are only concerned about how their deeds will increase their popularity among society. Dr. Horrible represents the underdog, which is how the writers who were going up against the powerful Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers felt during the writer’s strike. Dr. Horrible must go up against Captain Hammer to take over the world and win the affections of the girl he loves. Even though Captain Hammer was stronger than Dr. Horrible physically, Dr. Horrible knew that he must try to defeat him, which beautifully parallels the struggles of the writers to stand against the far more powerful producers who were impeding their rights. Thus, the creative process began.
Whedon knew that the only way to get the production done in the way that he wanted to was to do it himself without the help of a big studio’s name added to it. Many studio executives didn’t think it would be possible to do during a time when television shows and movies were at a standstill and efforts were focused on protest, not production. It is fair to infer that most studio executives also didn’t think that something could get done successfully without the help of big writers and a team of producers to get the ball rolling. Hollywood executives didn’t know that the internet was slowly becoming this new-fangled outlet for creativity or they would have realized that Whedon’s ideas were those of a complete creative genius. He knew that the idea would be picked up quickly by viewers because he knew how big the world of online media was slowly becoming.
Once the pre-production was under way, the writers’ strike ended and the actors and crew, Joss Whedon, whose show, Dollhouse, was set to air its pilot, had to start working again. The actors and the creators didn’t let this discourage them. They worked on Dr. Horrible between their other jobs and within a span of a six day shoot, production was finished. The production of this project was funded by Whedon, alone, with the cost reaching just about $200,000. The actors weren’t paid in the beginning, a detail that none of them minded, because they knew that they were a part of a bigger concept that could possibly take the Internet world by storm.
Whedon’s plan was to find a spot where the show could be released and he would be able to repay his cast and crew and also earn his money back. Hulu.com, an internet website similar to YouTube was the place. The webisode was released for free online, one act per day, with a promise of an iTunes release date. The first act was released on July 15, 2008 and the other two followed. By July 20, 2008, all the episodes were taken offline, but re-released on July 28, 2008. The following was incredible, with over 2.2 million viewers in the first week. By the time the third act came out, viewers were on the edge of their computer chairs waiting for the iTunes release. On December 19, 2008, the DVD was released entirely on popular shopping site, Amazon.com and became one of the most top selling DVD’s by January 2009.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing along Blog has done pretty well for itself. It has won a People’s Choice Award for “Favorite Online Sensation.” It also won seven awards at the 2009 Streamy Awards, including: Audience Choice Award for Best Web Series, Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series, Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series and Best Original Music. The success of this particular web media has really made waves in terms of the future of entertainment. Felicia Day, who played Penny in the webisode, said in an interview for entertainment weekly, “I think there are a lot of the things that Hollywood doesn’t understand about the Internet. It’s kind of the reverse of mainstream media: You don’t want to aim for everybody. You want to aim for a targeted audience, and then from there, that passionate audience is going to spread the word. It’s a different approach to creating something for the Internet, and clearly, Joss’s got it. Dr. Horrible was all word-of-mouth” (EW.com pg. 6). Actors, producers, writers, and those who viewers were already passionate about the writers’ strike and wanted an outlet to vent their frustrations. The creation of Dr. Horrible was a way for these people to expel their annoyance that they may have had because of the early retirement of their favorite network shows. It was also a way for them to dive into a dream world with a moral foundation. The intent of this creation was not to make a lot of money in a short amount of time, but rather to have it build slowly over time and continue to be relative in the years to come. Viewers have made these dreams of Whedon’s that were once just ideas, come to life.
The circulation of media and literature through Internet content has become a way of life for a lot of people. It’s not to say that print and DVD’s are obsolete, rather, that viewing movies, reading newspaper articles or blogs, and especially dispensing one’s own creative work is more convenient via the internet. The internet has a way of getting large quantities of people involved without ever having to leave ones home, which is appealing to many. By viewing Dr. Horrible at home on some idle Tuesday afternoon, the distribution of Whedon’s project was increasing. The increase was so great that by the early hours of Wednesday morning on July 16, 2008, the hosting site for the show had crashed and people were in frenzy. When the crash hit, the server was averaging 200,000 views per hour. Everyone wanted to watch this incredible surprise of a musical and were very unhappy when its massive popularity made it impossible for them to do so. Eventually, the site was up and running again and all was right in the world of Dr. Horrible fans.
The amount of followers of Internet content is absolutely incredible. Not to mention how many of those who do read all of their literature and media online in an effort to go green. There’s no denying that there is a trend that has been going on for years in the direction of online mediums and that the future for creativity seems to be headed in that direction as well.
The uniqueness behind Dr. Horrible’s stems from the fact that Whedon and his family are the ones who own the complete rights to the webisode and are in complete control of it. Also, supporters of the indie hit are the ones responsible for getting it recognized as they are the people who continue to view it and spread the word about it. Felicia Day spoke in an interview about Dr. Horrible’s distinctiveness, saying “[the] indie spirit that Dr. Horrible had, where people feel like they are participating in its success, is so unique.” In the world of film and music production, oftentimes there are a bunch of people who get paid and who own parts of the project. The appeal of web media is that one person can be solely responsible for his or her own work and also for the amount of attention that it receives. You don’t have to know a big time movie executive or intern in Hollywood for a chance to have web content, it’s accessible for everyone. Dr. Horrible’s Sing along Blog has definitely shown people this fact.
While there is still a home for print journalism, CD’s, DVD’s, and books, there is definitely a new space that has been made for internet content. Any type of news, literature, or media entertainment that one wants to know about or read about is right at their hands, which is a definite advantage. The bargain that one gets with internet content definitely has its appeal, especially with the cost of day to day needs as high as they are now. While the gate was already cracked before Joss Whedon created Dr. Horrible’s Sing along Blog, he opened the door wide and set the standard higher than ever before. The world of web media can only get better from here.
