Conversation with Raw Digital Chief Creative Officer Johnny Boston

Last week I wrote about NY’s best current asset being online video. Afterwards I had the chance to meet with another video company based in NYC named Raw Digital. They have created shows for television and are now focusing on online video. I sat down with Chief Creative Officer Johnny Boston (love that name) and here are my notes.

Johnny has been in the industry for many years and has produced some of the top music groups music videos. One of his most popular new online efforts with Raw Digital is a video show that is in production called The Revengers which is a group of women who go after everyone who has done them wrong. Check out a sample clip on The Revengers page.

Johnny talked about the importance of creating good content and then interacting with the audience to create something very powerful. But the key is that people want to watch good content.

Raw Digital was staffed about 6-7 months ago and has signed some major deals for distribution including Hearst publications.

One of the discussion points we disagreed on was around monetization. From what I gather, Johnny believes that you must be able to completely monetize (on a large scale) before beginning production of the video show. While I believe having some monetization in place, it’s also important to move forward. Though I understand that creating a video production is different than a blog or Web application.

Lastly, we reviewed another show called One Minute Tricks. I really like this idea and think it has some viral/user generated potential. I have embedded one of the videos below. This could work similar to 5min in that users could upload their own one minute tricks. These tricks are great ice-breakers and conversation starters.

Our hour-long discussion helped me to realize that Johnny really understands the television and video industry and I look forward to watching his shows move into production online.