Channel 101


Channel 101 is a non-profit monthly short film festival in Los Angeles, which also has a sister festival in New York City, Channel 101 NY. Channel 101 is a creation of Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab in which participants submit a short film in the format of a pilot under five minutes in length. The event is structured such that a panel of previously successful submitters choose what pilots are shown, and a live audience at The Downtown Independent decides which pilots continue as a series for the next screening in much the same way TV programs are rated and managed. According to the Channel 101 website, "Channel 101 is a chance to sit in the worn-out chair of the fat network exec, drunk on the blood of lowly artists whose right to exist is given in exchange for their ability to nourish...You run the network. You pick the programming."

Concept

Roughly once a month, a screening for Channel 101 occurs at the Downtown Independent theater in Los Angeles, with ten shorts being screened. At the screening, the audience votes on which pilots they would like to see return. The top five shows are entered into the "prime time" slots on the Channel 101 website, and get to make a follow-up episode for the next screening. This process continues with new "episodes" being shown at each screening until one fails to make the top five, at which point the series is "cancelled." Some successful shows also can choose to be cancelled voluntarily by running over five minutes,, disqualifying the show from continuing and leaving one last un-voted episode. Shows that fail to make the prime time spot are known as "failed pilots." An added benefit of having a prime time series is that prime time directors are part of the panel that decides which five new pilots will be shown alongside the five established shows from the previous screening. Shows that fail to make the screenings are known as "rejected pilots." Each calendar year of the festival is referred to as a "season," comprising 10 screenings, due to there being no December screening, plus month break "to allow the creators to rest" between spring/summer and the November screening, which is the yearly awards show. The Channy Awards have been held 8 times as of 2012.
Other rules have been tried out, most notably the "Chauncey", wherein a director could overrule the voting panel and force their pilot to be screened, but the audience had the option of stopping the film at any time. Introduced in October 2003, it was done away with in November 2005 due to the popularity of the festival making it difficult for the honor system to be viable. Only one Chauncey ever made prime time.
The name "Channel 101" does not imply a school or a classroom: in fact, Channel 101 derives its name from the prevailing Hollywood method of numbering a TV show's seasons and episodes. Since it is a festival for pilots, all of the screenings start off as episode "101" of their series.

History

The idea for Channel 101 began in 2001, when Schrab invited several friends over for a screening of , but challenged them to bring a short film predicting what would happen in the movie. In 2002, three more short film challenges were issued, but the group of viewers outgrew Schrab's living room. Instead, the screening was moved to the backroom of an LA nightclub. Additionally, friends of friends of the filmmakers were beginning to ask what this "festival" was called and how they could enter. In 2003, Schrab and Harmon named their creation the Super Midnight Movie Show and decided on a monthly screening and a five-minute format. However, they quickly realized that once the show started growing, it would only be a matter of time before a large number of low-quality submissions were entered, and filmmakers would need to be turned away for time constraints. They decided to adopt a TV network-like ratings model where the audience votes on which films they like, and popular filmmakers were allowed to screen more films accordingly. In 2004, a pilot for a reality show about Channel 101 and its filmmakers was shopped to FX Networks, but was eventually passed on. A sketch comedy show based on the format of Channel 101 and executive-produced by Harmon and Schrab aired on VH1. The show was called Acceptable.TV and it began airing 23 March 2007.
The success of Channel 101 led to a sister film festival in New York, Channel 101: NY.

Notable shows