City Scaping The Future
Jenkinson excitedly talks about the upcoming 'version two' of the UrbanEntertainment site. "It will definitely incorporate much more community and much more opportunity for feedback and, even to some extent, interaction with the more popular characters," he says. He believes audience response is increasingly vital to their operations not only because of its helpful direction for the shows' creators, but it gives the company valuable data with which to arm themselves when they go out pitching their shows for offline possibilities to the television and feature studios. What sets UrbanEntertainment apart from so many of the struggling destination venues is that -- because of their offline sales and distribution of films -- they have had a solid revenue stream from day one. As their online offerings expand, however, Jenkinson is naturally looking closely at developing all other revenue potential including syndicating their series as re-purposed programming (e.g. for interstitials), rich media advertising, sponsorships and product placement opportunities. Additionally, the company is involved in several proof-of-concept structures where they will be providing content to emerging technological platforms -- thereby positioning themselves and creating the relationships that will ensure them an early place in tomorrow's entertainment environments.

Urban's Cisco and Ripple deliver film reviews with flavor. © Urban Entertainment.

The important consideration in building a new online forum, Jenkinson thinks, is in how to approach both long and short term assessments. "Every decision becomes that much more complicated because you're dealing with rapid obsolescence and opportunities you'll have to forego if you're already locked into something else." He concludes that, "The biggest challenge that faces all of us is the ability to maintain flexibility and scaleability while at the same time putting into place things that make for a viable and long-lasting enterprise." New challenges notwithstanding, Jenkinson is having a great deal of fun working within the new freedoms of Net production. "Here, we make things and immediately get feedback and so the process feels so much more productive than anything that I'm accustomed to. It's very exciting to get up in the morning knowing that I'm going to achieve something today. It'll either be great or it'll be bad," he laughs, "but at least I'll know it very soon!"

Devoted viewers can now be heard offline mimicking the signature closing for each Cisco and Ripple movie review, where the duo asks the audience: "Who can you trust?" In rolling out its daring, energetic and innovative programming, the brothers' very own Netcaster, UrbanEntertainment, is assuredly answering the call.

Lee Dannacher, currently based in New York, is a supervising producer and sound track director of over 350 half-hours of television animated series, along with numerous home video and film productions.