A group of webby luminaries joined writers Charles Leadbetter and Jonathan Lethem on stage at the Tribeca Film Festival for a lively, sparsely attended discussion of the future of cinema called "Cinema 2.0." After what-we-do-and-why intros from Kathleen Grace (the neighborhood serial The Burg, pictured), Jerry Paffendorf (Electric Sheep Company)) and Brent Weinstein, head of the Digital Media Department at United Talent Agency (which reps, among others, Lonelygirl15), the panelists jumped into a discussion of how web entertainment is different.
Most of the talk reverted back to a familiar topic: How do we get paid? Weinstein said that talented people have a way of hooking up with money, Lethem and Leadbetter are doing web-based side-projects that don't interfere with their author gigs, and Grace is running up credit card debt (a liquor company offered to put some banner ads for the site, but she said the click-thru profit wouldn't even pay for a day's worth of hummus to feed the crew). As for Paffendorf, he said he doesn't think much about money. Instead of worrying about ROI (return on investment), his philosophy is to consider the ROA (return on awesome).
