Scott Zakarin
Encyclopedia
Scott Zakarin is an American writer
, film producer
and new media
entertainment pioneer.
tests for the Fattal & Collins advertising agency
, Zakarin became fascinated by the Internet
. He spent time in chat rooms and quickly recognized an untapped entertainment platform. In response, he created The Spot
, the first interactive entertainment web series
that combined online diary entries, photos, video, and groundbreaking interactive techniques to create a new storytelling format, Zakarin convinced his employer to back his novel idea, and the site premiered early in June 1995, running through the early summer of 1997. Zakarin was the writer, director, and producer for The Spot, which was the first winner of Infoseek
’s very "Cool Site of the Year" – which became known as the Webby
– for 1995.
The business model
which Zakarin and his team developed for The Spot influenced the Internet dot-com boom that followed. Although it attracted revenue by blue chip sponsors such as K-Swiss
and Toyota, the Internet’s bandwidth lagged behind Zakarin’s innovations, and many of the expectations of those involved in the early days of online entertainment proved to be premature. Zakarin and his creative team left the site about 10 months after its launch due to creative differences. The company which took control of The Spot, American Cybercast, spun off from Fattal & Collins into a separate entity and attracted millions in venture capital, but eventually failed to turn the sizable audience Zakarin and his team built for the series into a reliable advertising revenue stream. American Cybercast went bankrupt at the beginning of 1997, and The Spot site was purchased by others who attempted to operate it on a reduced budget. Eventually, The Spot itself folded, its last original episode going on line at midnight on July 1, 1997.
Zakarin had long since separated himself from any creative involvement with The Spot, although he did attempt to purchase the rights to it at the time of American Cybercast's closure. An attempt at revival of The Spot in 2004–2005 under the owners who did acquire the site's intellectual property seven years earlier also failed. That left the site dormant and offline once again.
Zakarin's later projects under his new company, Lightspeed Media, included a site called GrapeJam.com ‐ the first interactive sit.com that featured live improvisational activities and stream radio broadcasts. In 1997 GrapeJam.com was nominated for the Webby for best comedy web site, People Magazine called Zakarin "King of the sit.com", and he was featured in the book Digital Babylon by John Geirland and Eva Sonesh-Kedar. The following year, the Hollywood Reporter included Zakarin on its annual list "35 under 35".
The corporate offices of Lightspeed Media were in a two-story house in Culver City, California
, not far from the Sony Pictures movie studio. Many media pioneers such as television programmer Brandon Tartikoff
and Spider-Man
creator Stan Lee
visited the house to become involved in creating original web content. It was Tartikoff who convinced Zakarin to let America Online (AOL) purchase Lightspeed Media. Zakarin built and launched Entertainment Asylum for AOL's Greenhouse Networks – an interactive celebrity site with live broadcasts. After the death of Tartikoff, who has acted as Zakarin’s mentor and champion at AOL, the company closed down Entertainment Asylum.
Zakarin then turned back to more traditional media in producing, directing, and representing movies for a company he co-founded called Creative Light Media, which operated from 1998 until 2006, distributing and producing independent films, some of which Zakarin wrote, produced, and directed. It also produced several critically well received documentaries
for theatrical, video and cable release including Mind Meld, featuring William Shatner
and Leonard Nimoy
discussing their Star Trek
characters and experiences, and Comic Book: The Movie
starring Mark Hamill
and featuring cameo appearances by Hugh Hefner
, Kevin Smith
, Matt Groening
, and other pop culture icons and innovators. Comic Book: The Movie won Variety
's 2004 DVD Exclusive Award in the Best Live Action category. Creative Light Media also compiled, and distributed for video and cable, a collection of classic Sid Caesar
comedy programs from material originally produced and broadcast for NBC-TV's Your Show of Shows
in the 1950s. In 2006, Zakarin created and executive produced for the E! Entertainment Network Kill Reality
, a reality TV series featuring reality all-stars as they lived together while filming the horror movie, The Scorned
.
In the latter part of 2006 Zakarin returned to his new media roots with a new company he cofounded named Iron Sink Media, creating movies and Internet shows for the Internet, with projects including Soup of the Day
, The NoHo, HiHo and WeHo Girls, The VanNuys Guys and Shatnervision, which was awarded Best Original Reality Web Series at the first annual Streamy Awards
in 2008.
Creative Light Media received considerable press notice for its online series, Roommates (2007–2008), the first original series produced with MySpace
. Additionally, Zakarin is a writer, director and producer for Upstairs Girls/Downstairs Guys (August 2008 – present), an episodic web video comedy series which as of April 2010 has collected over 75 million views on YouTube
, as cited by TubeMogul
.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
and new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
entertainment pioneer.
Career
In 1995, while directing commercials and early interactive televisionInteractive television
Interactive television describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with television content as they view it.- Definitions :...
tests for the Fattal & Collins advertising agency
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
, Zakarin became fascinated by the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. He spent time in chat rooms and quickly recognized an untapped entertainment platform. In response, he created The Spot
The Spot
The Spot, or thespot.com, was the second episodic online story , after an earlier experiment by AOL's QuantumLink Serial, and pioneered the underwriting of bandwidth and production costs by offering paid advertising banners on the web pages and product placement within the journal entries...
, the first interactive entertainment web series
Web series
A web series is a series of episodes released on the Internet or also by mobile or cellular phone, and part of the newly emerging medium called web television. A single instance of a web series program is called an episode .While the popularity of web series is continuing to rise, the concept...
that combined online diary entries, photos, video, and groundbreaking interactive techniques to create a new storytelling format, Zakarin convinced his employer to back his novel idea, and the site premiered early in June 1995, running through the early summer of 1997. Zakarin was the writer, director, and producer for The Spot, which was the first winner of Infoseek
Infoseek
Infoseek was a popular search engine founded in 1994 by Steve Kirsch.Infoseek was originally operated by the Infoseek Corporation, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Infoseek was bought by The Walt Disney Company in 1998, and the technology was merged with that of the Disney-acquired Starwave...
’s very "Cool Site of the Year" – which became known as the Webby
Webby Awards
A Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
– for 1995.
The business model
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...
which Zakarin and his team developed for The Spot influenced the Internet dot-com boom that followed. Although it attracted revenue by blue chip sponsors such as K-Swiss
K-Swiss
K-Swiss, Inc. is an American footwear company based in Westlake Village, California. The company designs, develops, and markets a range of athletic shoes under the K-Swiss brand.- History :...
and Toyota, the Internet’s bandwidth lagged behind Zakarin’s innovations, and many of the expectations of those involved in the early days of online entertainment proved to be premature. Zakarin and his creative team left the site about 10 months after its launch due to creative differences. The company which took control of The Spot, American Cybercast, spun off from Fattal & Collins into a separate entity and attracted millions in venture capital, but eventually failed to turn the sizable audience Zakarin and his team built for the series into a reliable advertising revenue stream. American Cybercast went bankrupt at the beginning of 1997, and The Spot site was purchased by others who attempted to operate it on a reduced budget. Eventually, The Spot itself folded, its last original episode going on line at midnight on July 1, 1997.
Zakarin had long since separated himself from any creative involvement with The Spot, although he did attempt to purchase the rights to it at the time of American Cybercast's closure. An attempt at revival of The Spot in 2004–2005 under the owners who did acquire the site's intellectual property seven years earlier also failed. That left the site dormant and offline once again.
Zakarin's later projects under his new company, Lightspeed Media, included a site called GrapeJam.com ‐ the first interactive sit.com that featured live improvisational activities and stream radio broadcasts. In 1997 GrapeJam.com was nominated for the Webby for best comedy web site, People Magazine called Zakarin "King of the sit.com", and he was featured in the book Digital Babylon by John Geirland and Eva Sonesh-Kedar. The following year, the Hollywood Reporter included Zakarin on its annual list "35 under 35".
The corporate offices of Lightspeed Media were in a two-story house in Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
, not far from the Sony Pictures movie studio. Many media pioneers such as television programmer Brandon Tartikoff
Brandon Tartikoff
Brandon Tartikoff was a television executive who was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, ALF, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Cheers, Seinfeld, Miami Vice, The Golden Girls, Knight Rider, The A-Team, St...
and Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
creator Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
visited the house to become involved in creating original web content. It was Tartikoff who convinced Zakarin to let America Online (AOL) purchase Lightspeed Media. Zakarin built and launched Entertainment Asylum for AOL's Greenhouse Networks – an interactive celebrity site with live broadcasts. After the death of Tartikoff, who has acted as Zakarin’s mentor and champion at AOL, the company closed down Entertainment Asylum.
Zakarin then turned back to more traditional media in producing, directing, and representing movies for a company he co-founded called Creative Light Media, which operated from 1998 until 2006, distributing and producing independent films, some of which Zakarin wrote, produced, and directed. It also produced several critically well received documentaries
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
for theatrical, video and cable release including Mind Meld, featuring William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
and Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
discussing their Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
characters and experiences, and Comic Book: The Movie
Comic Book: The Movie
Comic Book: The Movie is a 2004 direct-to-DVD mockumentary directed by and starring Mark Hamill who is best known for his role as Luke Skywalker, the main character in the original trilogy of Star Wars feature films...
starring Mark Hamill
Mark Hamill
Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...
and featuring cameo appearances by Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
, Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
, Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
, and other pop culture icons and innovators. Comic Book: The Movie won Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
's 2004 DVD Exclusive Award in the Best Live Action category. Creative Light Media also compiled, and distributed for video and cable, a collection of classic Sid Caesar
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.- Early life :Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York,...
comedy programs from material originally produced and broadcast for NBC-TV's Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows
Your Show of Shows is a live 90-minute variety show that appeared weekly in the United States on NBC , from February 25, 1950, until June 5, 1954, featuring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca....
in the 1950s. In 2006, Zakarin created and executive produced for the E! Entertainment Network Kill Reality
Kill Reality
Kill Reality is a 2005 series which ran on E! Entertainment television about the all-stars of reality television making a horror movie called The Scorned. During the filming of the movie the cast lived together in a house that quickly turned into the real house of horrors...
, a reality TV series featuring reality all-stars as they lived together while filming the horror movie, The Scorned
The Scorned
The Scorned is a 2005 horror movie. It was the first movie cast entirely with the people from previous reality television series. The movie was filmed during the E! behind-the-scenes reality show Kill Reality....
.
In the latter part of 2006 Zakarin returned to his new media roots with a new company he cofounded named Iron Sink Media, creating movies and Internet shows for the Internet, with projects including Soup of the Day
Soup of the Day
Soup of the Day was a loosely scripted 2006 web series about a man dating three women at the same time. It consisted of 19 self-contained episodes, and was later released on DVD as a full-length movie.- Background :...
, The NoHo, HiHo and WeHo Girls, The VanNuys Guys and Shatnervision, which was awarded Best Original Reality Web Series at the first annual Streamy Awards
Streamy Awards
The Streamy Awards, popularly known as the Streamys, are presented annually by the International Academy of Web Television to recognize excellence in the arts and science of web television production, including directing, acting, producing, and writing. The formal ceremony at which the awards are...
in 2008.
Creative Light Media received considerable press notice for its online series, Roommates (2007–2008), the first original series produced with MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
. Additionally, Zakarin is a writer, director and producer for Upstairs Girls/Downstairs Guys (August 2008 – present), an episodic web video comedy series which as of April 2010 has collected over 75 million views on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, as cited by TubeMogul
TubeMogul
TubeMogul is a technology service used by marketing agencies and brands to buy video advertising across multiple inventory sources. The company uses real-time bidding to acquire media from biddable marketplaces of inventory like Google’s AdExchange, LiveRail, SpotxChange, Adap.TV, Brightroll BRX,...
.
Awards and honors
- 2008: Streamy AwardsStreamy AwardsThe Streamy Awards, popularly known as the Streamys, are presented annually by the International Academy of Web Television to recognize excellence in the arts and science of web television production, including directing, acting, producing, and writing. The formal ceremony at which the awards are...
– Best Original Reality Web Series – Shatnervision – winner - 2004: VarietyVariety (magazine)Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, DVD Exclusive Award, Best Live Action –Comic Book: The Movie – winner - 1997: Webby AwardsWebby AwardsA Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
, Best Comedy Website – Grapejam.com – nominated - 1995: Cool Site of the YearWebby AwardsA Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
(the Webby) – The Spot" – winner
External links
- Whoosh.org interview with Zakarin in 2003.
- Scott Zakarin at Spoke.com