Say hi to Reddit, the budding Netflix wannabe
Reddit just joined the original-video scene. With its very first series of documentary cut-offs debuting Wednesday, Reddit wants to raise the profile of its brightest communities and appeal to more outsiders.
Digital Media
An gig of Reddit’s “Cyborg Nation” profiles touch-sensitive prosthetic forearms, which are real-life versions of the one made for Luke Skywalker in “Comeback of the Jedi.”
A cuddlier, friendlier Reddit is taking a page out of the Netflix script.
Reddit, the social news site that bills itself as “the front page of the Internet,” on Wednesday debuted its very first free-standing movie series, a collection of documentary cut-offs about the intersection of humanity and machine called “Cyborg Nation.” The idea was championed by Reddit co-founder and Chairman Alexis Ohanian, who turned to a science and tech community on Reddit as a think tank to sculpt it.
“The hundreds of thousands of communities of Reddit generate more original ideas in one day than the world’s best newsroom could produce in a lifetime,” Ohanian said to mark the series premiere.
Over the past six months, a petite movie team at Reddit has been turning the site into the next tech property to dangle its hopes on original movie. Reddit wants the sleek clips to highlight the expertise in its forums and win it more mainstream appeal. If you’ve never visited Reddit before, or if you ran the other way in confusion, its movies may make its forums approachable for the very first time.
More two hundred million people already make up Reddit’s communities, known as subreddits, which obsess over far-flung topics such as solving crime, comparing fountain pens and debating politics. That’s about eight times the number of people who tune into Hulu, based on a explore of the streaming site’s total audience by traffic tracker ComScore.
The movie effort is also an olive branch to Reddit’s populace, still smarting from a summer of conflict . Many groups revolted this summer when executives cracked down on controversial behavior like harassment and fired a well-liked employee who bridged the gap inbetween Reddit’s leaders and its volunteer moderators.
A collaborative relationship with Reddit users is half the objective of the movie programming, said Michael Pope, Reddit’s creative projects manager. With the movies, “we’re eyeing the value in our community and propping it up more,” he said.
The other aim is to make Reddit’s communities known to a broader audience, he said. To do that for “Cyborg Nation,” Reddit joined compels with Conde Nast Entertainment, the digital movie arm of the magazine publishing giant that wields Wired and Vogue. Conde Nast helped mold the storytelling and wrote the check. The series will play on Wired’s site, channels and apps, in addition to Reddit’s page and YouTube channel. “Cyborg Nation” will also run on Conde Nast’s syndication network, which includes Yahoo, AOL and MSN, and on its The Scene app for devices like Apple TV and Roku.
That could raise Reddit’s exposure to the masses.
However, original movie doesn’t always work. Amazon, for example, primarily intended to build the “movie studio of the future” by letting anybody upload scripts so talent could rise to the top, according to a two thousand eleven promo movie by head Roy Price. Amazon Studios later realized it needed industry pros to make series with less trial-and-error.
Even well-known content fails. Last month, Yahoo diminished its estimate of how much its original content is worth by $42 million. Programs like its revival of the former NBC showcase “Community” just weren’t going to make as much money as hoped, the company said.
Reddit is avoiding some of the pitfalls that trapped Amazon and Yahoo. It’s working with professionals at the outset and keeping a concentrate on subjects that are much cheaper to shoot. But Reddit is also playing it cool as it reaches for its movie goals.
“Cyborg Nation” was shaped by guidance from members of a subreddit called r/futurology and shot by outside production company Acres with input from Ohanian and Pope. But Reddit and r/futurology’s involvement is apparent only if viewers click on a credits link. For both, that’s a hat peak rather than outright promotion.
Still, the company has other opportunities. “Cyborg Nation” builds on a latest string of recorded “Ask Me Anything” movie interviews with celebrities. The company is making another series, called “Formative,” in collaboration with Google and the r/entrepreneur subreddit. Pope said its presence in the “Formative” movies may differ because Reddit is spearheading the series from commence to finish.