A 300pp novel can easily become a 200pp novel by printing with smaller type; a 100pp screenplay can potentially become a film of between 60-140 minutes in length; a 200pp stage play could be performed in anything from 30 minutes to four hours. For all these media, the script length is agnostic to the final work.
The great thing about the Internet is - our show is totally modular. Every piece can be popped in and out. They're relatively short pieces. They're not long. And we can say, "here' s one way to market it. Take these pieces out of the show and put them on the Internet." And we're doing dirtier cuts and put those on the Internet. It's a real great way to market the show. This is finally the year a show like this can happen.
I'm lucky in that the media is much more freelancey. So I didn't have that pressure that lots of people have if you jump off the ladder, then you get left behind.
It is more difficult to manipulate with film than, for instance, video. The problem with video is that it gives you a thousand possibilities.
The weakness of cable news is that it chases its audience around. Your audience wants fast-paced, popular news. It needs real news. Cable news changes its stripes based on audience reaction. Viewers are reacting well to breaking news? You probably do more breaking news than you need to. The struggle is building something so that people will come to you, as opposed to constantly changing what you are because you're unsure of where the audience is.
Radio had been very good to me as a car dealer. It's flexible, and it's fast - you can get on the air in an hour and change your message - and compared to other types of media, it's very good value.
With Instapaper, I can take a few months off. I can't stop publishing 'The Magazine' for two months and work on something else.
The beautiful thing about podcasting is it's just talking. It can be funny, or it can be terrifying. It can be sweet. It can be obnoxious. It almost has no definitive form. In that sense it's one of the best ways to explore an idea, and certainly much less limiting than trying to express the same idea in stand up comedy. For some ideas stand up is best, but it's really, really nice to have podcasts as well.
There are absolutely no limits with podcasting because you can do anything you want.
If I find great material, or a great character, or a great director that wants to do something on TV, or whether it's in film, or whatever it is, man - as long as it's good, and on the level, I'm open to it.
You gain and lose different things in different mediums or different sectors of different mediums. There are liberties you get on tiny indie films in terms of not having to be designed toward a marketing demographic.
Broadcasting is plastic; while it can ape the press, it can also emulate the arts.
With less and less television being watched live, consumers are enjoying the freedom to record at home or in the cloud, watch locally or on the go, and binge watch entire series that they never had the time to enjoy.
I love having the ability to do podcasts because of the long format, informality, and the opportunity to decide what is said, how the show is laid out, and who the guests are.
A show could be 10 minutes, seven minutes, 94 minutes. We just need to tell the stories that need to be told.
A lot of media that that I want to consume, I don't want to have to own forever and ever. It's not like real estate.
The only thing that matters to me is getting to the work - getting to do the work. And I don't really care where it is: whether it's on stage or on television or in film.
I believe a person who designs for the sheer passion of creativity can do so across media - it is like any other form of art.
