Secondly, I don’t understand why YouTube isn’t used more by both tv and movie people to preview their shows / movies. As I was writing this, I wondered how much of a frenzy it would have caused if the people behind LOST posted, say, the first half of the season’s premiere on YouTube a week before it televised? Granted, they had little clips everywhere before it premiered but I think a big bite of it would have feed the frenzy even more.

Wesley
The Geek Entrepreneur

Chris,
I am thinking that you probably heard that the Pope will be broadcasting on You Tube via the Vatican’s new channel who’s address is http://www.youtube.com/vatican .
I take this as a sign that even those in high places are adapting to their people’s ways. If it’s good for the Pope, then TV and filmmakers should follow their lead and find a way to make the technology work for them.
I have followed Mad Men since it’s premier and thoroughly enjoy the show. I subscribed to TiVo because of this show. I find this show interesting on so many levels. The show depicts my parents generation. A generation some claim is the time to have lived, (the high life, when the living was easy), and I chuckle when I see them drinking and smoking in work, and even the women (pregnant women) smoke and drink in the middle of the afternoon. I think this clip is a significant representation of the whole idea of the show Mad Men, and to what the show it self hopes to achieve with it’s audience.
I think that You Tube is a call to action to TV and filmmakers to step up to the plate and utilize the tools at hand to shake hands with their people and woo them for more.

Secondly, YouTube is fantastic for media producers. You can share bits and pieces that inspire you with people who trust your authority. It’s viral marketing at its best. I know from personal experience that even when I find something I like online and watch it for free on my computer, when it’s something I care about, I also buy the real deal. I do this with music, with tv shows, with movies. I know I’m not the only one. Granted the generation that came after us might not feel the same way and seems to have this sense of entitlement that things ought to be free, period. But ultimately, this sharing of things we’ve seen and like is nothing but good for the creator when credit is given to the source.

Technologies and tools are not inherently “good” or “bad” for anything or anyone. They simply “are”. Is the iPod bad for radio? Radio was terrible as it was and people who enjoyed listening to music never listened to the radio anyway. Radio could have innovated and played DECENT music and had GOOD programming, better than the iPod – but they didn’t. Thus they failed and now everyone is their own DJ.

Mediums that don’t change or evolve doom themselves. The internet was here quite awhile ago. The TV and film people sat in their ivory towers and didn’t bother to think things could change. Meanwhile the world went right along without them.

YouTube could be the best thing to happen to film and TV if they embrace it. It is all so much free PR and promotional content for them. There is some great thinking about this over at Techdirt if you want to read more. Here:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20081230/1936393262.shtml

Plus we can stop it at anytime and discuss what we saw and felt – talk about turning TV into social media!

btw-Mad Men is the best thing on TV. It is a smartly written, well acted show. You will love it!