What’s the best thing about producing on-line video?

A short article (from the Associated Press so it may time out, sorry) Director Thomas finds passion project online leads with:

 Director Betty Thomas neatly sums up the benefits of making a low-budget online series: a lack of high-level meddling.

“There’s no network saying, ‘Oh, Betty, I’m not sure viewers will like that character if she picks that banana up,'” the Emmy-winning actress turned director said. Mention that the character enjoys fruit, she said, and the network comeback may be, “But what does a banana symbolize?”

Of course the downside of producing on-line video is:

The independence Thomas enjoyed making “Audrey” for the WIGS YouTube channel came with its own challenges, including limited resources for the half-dozen episodes that are seven to eight minutes long.

“You get whoever you can force to work for no money,” she said.

Cajoling people into working for nothing isn’t a sustainable business model, but as the online distribution industry matures, more money will become available, as we’ve seen with YouTube, Amazon and Netflix all funding original programming.