YouWhat?

So there was an interesting article recently in Wired magazine about the phenomenon of Lonelygirl15 on YouTube, which talks about the popularity of these fake 3 min YouTube spots.

The interesting thing about LG15 is that when the hoopla started last year for a while I watched a few of these and was intrigued about what was going on simply because I thought it WAS real, finding out it was fake, and I lost interest immediately.

The Wired article made me think a little more about this kind of content, why was it interesting when I thought it was real, and not when I knew that it was fake? The bottom line is that there is no real story, the character is really quite one dimensional and amateur, and as dramatic art its a non-starter. When you think something is real that matters somewhat less because you think you are watching real life, whereas when its fake "real drama" you expect and you need more.

There seems to be some belief in the article and among the creators of LG15 that this is where TV is going, the thing about it going down this kind of route is where are the residuals going to be be? Who will watch LG15 in 10 years time, who will buy the DVD's or DRM protected downloads? This kind of crap will affect the broadcast business just like MBA manufactured pop bands are killing the lucrative music back catalog market built on the back of bands like Zeppelin, the Stones and Elvis.