The Spot
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For other uses of the term spot, see Spot (disambiguation page).
The Spot, or thespot.com, was the first episodic fiction web site, 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 site was nominated for the one of the original Webby awards, which it won.
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[edit] Overview
It was likened to "Melrose Place-on-the-Web" [1] and featured a rotating cast of attractive actors playing trendy and hip twenty somethings who rented rooms in a fabled southern California beach house called “The Spot”, in Santa Monica, California.
The characters, called Spotmates, would keep near-daily online diaries (similar to what were later termed blogs), respond to emails and post images of their current activities. In addition the site boasted short multimedia movies, as well as photos relating to the diary entries. The fanbase on the site, which called themselves 'Spotfans', interacted on a daily basis with the Spotmates and each other, discussing the newsworthy events.
The Spot engaged the audience by allowing them to become part of the storyline and change how characters responded to the in-story situations. Viewers were encouraged to post on the message boards (the 'Spotboard'), send e-mail to the various characters offering them insight, advice and even arguments to their posted life dilemmas and dramas based on loosely orchestrated story arcs and different character viewpoints of the same storyline. The audience opinion was used by the writers to affect storyline directions, allowing the writing staff a manuveurability not possible in traditional media outlets.
[edit] History
The site was started in June 1995 by Scott Zakarin, who at the time was an aspiring filmmaker from New York who had been directing television commercials for advertising agency Fattal and Collins. He convinced his employer to back the idea of an interactive fiction site, and the result was the most successful interactive fiction site to date. According to Zakarin, at its height the site received over 100,000 hits a day, a tremendous response for its time.[citation needed]
In the spring of 1996, buoyed by intense media interest in the project, Zakarin sold his interest to minority investors, who sought venture capitalist backing to create an online network called American Cybercast, a spin-off from Fattal & Collins.
The Spot continued producing original content through the Summer of 1997, when American Cybercast fell into bankruptcy as the site's drawing power was diluted by a wave of imitators and three parallel "online soaps" (Eon-4, The Pyramid and Quick Fix) introduced by the company to exploit the success of The Spot.
The Spot was briefly brought back to life for a relaunch in 2004, but was unsuccessful in attracting advertisers and has since gone dead again.
[edit] Characters
The characters were chiefly "played" by models, with their diaries written by Zakarin, his assistant Laurie (Shiers) Plaksin, staff writer Dennis Dortch, and staff writer/ombudsman Jeff Gouda.
- Tara Hartwick - Laurie Plaksin
- Michelle - Kristen Herold
- Jeff Benton - Tim Abell
- Lon Oliver - Armando Valdes-Kennedy
- Carrie Seaver - Kristin Dolan
- Chase, Becker - Jeff Gouda
[edit] External links
- TheSpot.com
- Elgonquin, current home of the community "Spot fans"
- Extra TV Clipfrom August 1995 about "The Spot"
[edit] Further reading
- Digital Babylon: Hollywood, Indiewood and Dogme 95, Shari Roman (Lone Eagle Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1580650368)
[edit] References
- The Spot's stain spreads, CNET News (January 14, 1997)
- Death marks The Spot, CNET News (July 1, 1997)
