Yesterday, Michael Sean Wright posted perhaps the most scathing review of the Streamys online broadcast of any I’ve seen, and I’ve been watching the wreckage from that trainwreck picked apart by the blogosphere and twittersphere since it happened. Today, the chairman of the board essentially told all those who’d listen that the producers of the show would never work in this town again:

It is with deep regret that I write this letter to you this evening. Last night was supposed to be a celebration of excellence in the digital entertainment community – another big step forward for all of us and our industry. Instead, our industry was reduced to a series of tasteless and crude “bits”. Last night in the end was a step backwards for all of us. As the Chair of the Board of the Directors of the IAWTV, I apologize for last night’s show. While the IAWTV does not have direct oversight of the content of the Streamy Awards, it should and will moving forward.

Like you we watched the show with great embarrassment as our industry was ridiculed and debased. With due respect to the talented winners of the Streamy Awards last night, you and the digital entertainment community deserve much better. To that end, the IAWTV will ensure that moving forward every event we are affiliated with lives up to our ideals. If the Streamy Awards take place next year, we will approve the show’s producers, vision, practices and its content in advance. We have all worked hard to bring our industry to where it is today. Egregious mistakes were made last night.

In general, online production is the final resting place for auteurism in filmmaking, and it was likely with that in mind that full creative control was handed over to the producers of the Streamys.

There’s a number differences between the Streamys and your typical online production.  In general, your typical online film only has to satisfy the demands of one or two headline sponsors. Major online video events typically have at least half a dozen sponsors (as did our coverage from Austin this year), and the list of sponsors for the Streamys was miles long (and rumored to be mid-six digits deep in dollars).

That’s a lot of sponsors to make sure are kept happy, and art by committee is generally what’s required for that sort of thing.

This was also a live production. I still haven’t seen a conclusive and double-confirmed list of who was involved with the production of this thing, but the names I have heard who had involvement in general don’t do live events.  After having done four years worth of live online video events, I can attest to the fact that in the most controlled of circumstances, there are a gazillion things that can go wrong.  If you don’t plan for them (and you never do, your first time), things will crater quick and ugly.