In advance of the latest installment of Channel 101: NY Monthly Screening at 92YTribeca on Aug 5, we talked with Channel 101: NY producer Stephen Levinson via email. Channel101 is a monthly screening of five-minute shows who battle it out for the right to be turned into a series. The top five shows become the new “prime time” lineup for the following month; losing shows are banished forever. We asked Stephen about how Channel 101 got it’s start, and their recent decision to also accept 15 second “commercials” for submission. The video above features an exclusive look at a selection of commercials submitted for screening this month. The theme was “Bloomberg for Mayor 2009.” Previous sponsors have been Starbucks and Krasdale, and you can watch those here.

How did Channel 101 come to be, and what role does Channel 101 NY hope to fill in NYC’s digital media world?
Channel101 was originally founded in Los Angeles by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, two aspiring (and now successful) writer/directors, in an attempt to encourage themselves and their friends to create TV shows without having to wait for approval by the networks—and without having to compromise. That doesn’t sound too shocking today, but this was before YouTube, before Funny or Die, before there really was that much video on the internet, and it was a fairly radical idea. At the time, I was making short videos in New York, and there were very few venues where you could find an audience for that kind of thing. Film festivals charged a submission fee, and tended to be a bit pretentious. At Channel101, the goal isn’t to make great art, the goal is to make entertaining shows that make you want to watch another episode. Will Hines and Tony Carnivale brought Channel101 to New York a few years after that, and last year, Will handed it off to me. I moved the show to 92YTribeca, which has been a wonderful venue for us, because the creators and the audience can really stick around and mingle after the show.

The interview continues below:

Now that you have introduced “sponsors” for each show, you are getting two sets of digital media for each screening, --series scripts and commercials. Have you seen submissions tilt towards one or the other? Are people submitting both a commercial and a series video?

We’re definitely getting more submissions now that we’re accepting commercials. A five minute monthly show is a larger time commitment than you might think. Our ads allow people who might not necessarily be able to devote that much time a change to get something in the show, although many people who submit shows also find time to make a commercial as well. We probably have an even number of shows and commercials submitted.

How do you see Channel 101 NY in the future, next year for instance? If Channel 101 NY is a green sprout in NYC’s media landscape, how do you see it blossoming?
We’ve had a lot of great new talent join the Channel101 family this year, and I hope that will continue. There are definitely more options for showing short comedy videos in New York than when we started, but I think our focus on storytelling, characters and community still makes us a very attractive showcase for creators.

And we have two big events on the horizon: Our September screening will be in conjunction with the New York Television Festival, an annual event that shares a lot of the same goals with us (time and place tbd) and then in the winter at 92YTribeca, we’ll have our 2nd annual Channy Awards, a very fun event that recognizes the best of our shows.

[Channel 101: NY Monthly Screening]

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