WeTube

Shane Felux is an independent filmmaker whose “Star Wars Revelations” was seen by more than 4 million people in its first three months. His next project, “Pitching George Lucas,” reached even more.

But unless you’ve downloaded his online movies – or are part of his fan legion at the comic book convention, Comic-Con – it is likely you’ve never heard of him.

Felux is hoping that could change with “Trenches,” his 10-episode, short-form sci-fi thriller coming to ABC.com and YouTube.

It’s among 20 online programs in development at Disney-ABC Television’s new digital content studio, Stage 9.

“I’d been saying, ‘I’m the little guy just making movies, hoping that the industry raises its head to what the little guy can do and say, “All right, we’ll give the little guy a shot.” ‘ So my shot happened,” says the 36-year-old writer-director, who produces films from the basement of his northern Virginia home.

Such studios as ABC Television, CBS, Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures Television are looking to partner with artists to produce online videos, which are popular with young viewers and men who are abandoning traditional prime-time offerings.

Among the 18-to-34 set, 42 percent watch online videos on a weekly basis, up from 28 percent last year, Leichtman Research Group reported in a study released in February.

Men in that age group account for 40 percent of daily online video viewers, but make up only 17 percent of online subscribers, according to the study.

“The consciousness of video on the Net has elevated pretty dramatically in the last year or so, and the next phase of that is really providing a higher quality video experience for that audience demand,” says Sean Carey, senior vice president of Sony Pictures Television.

Sony launched six comedy originals last month on its online comedy network, CSpot, via Crackle, YouTube, AOL Video and Hulu.

A growing number of independents, such as MyDamnChannel.com, have emerged, with backing from venture companies, to create original online shows. Former TV executives also are launching content sites like Dean Valentine’s Comedy.com, founded by the UPN and Disney Television ex-president.

“I’d always felt, even when I was a part of those companies, that it was just such a crummy way to make entertainment,” says Valentine, a former NBC comedy programmer.

“I’d always likened it to if you were passionate about making the world’s best goat cheese, you’d start a little farm in Vermont; you’d get the best grass and the best goats and make really distinctive goat cheese.

“Then if Kraft came along and said, ‘We’ll buy you out’ … pretty soon what you get is Kraft goat cheese. That, I think, is what happened in the entertainment business. It was just making this kind of stuff that was increasingly unlikely to be compelling.”

So far, traditional media companies have “been really conservative,” says Todd Spangler, tech editor for Multichannel News, a trade magazine.

“They want to make sure that anything they do online isn’t eroding or undercutting what their legacy business is,” Spangler says.

Dennis Miller, general partner in the Boston-based venture group Spark Capital, suggests that the studios will fail online.

“They’re in the business of making $4 million hour(long) series and $3 million comedies,” he says. “No one is highly motivated to be making shows for two thousand bucks for the digital division.”

Advertisers, however, are eager to find partners online with compatible content.

“It’s like in the very early days of television (when) you had shows like ‘Quiz Show’ or ‘Twenty One’ brought to you by Texaco or Geritol,” says Dina Kaplan, co-founder of blip.tv.

“That’s exactly how Web shows right now are being monetized. You have specific shows where you’ll have a sponsor that really wants to reach a specific demographic.”

Unlike television, however, success online is measured more by brand-ability and “buzz” than numbers, Kaplan says.

“A show that gets 100,000 viewers is a show that you’d be proud to take to a sponsor if it reaches (its) niche audience … and the people creating should feel very good about themselves,” she says.

That is, if artists working within the studio structure can get past the growing pains.

“This is the studio system, where they’ve got to approve your casting and approve your crew; the script goes through like 20 revisions, then they’ve got to see the edit and then they’ve got notes,” says “Trenches” creator Felux.

“I have a very grass-roots type of approach and it’s even very different for them.”

Another challenge for programmers will be choosing the best Web shows to adapt to TV.

“It’s not much different, though, in my opinion, from what we all used to do going between film and television and visa versa, or for that matter, adapting a novel … or a comic book into a TV series,” says Mark Stern, the Sci Fi Channel’s executive vice president of original programming.

But when the hotly hyped Web series “quarterlife” fizzled after its first airing on NBC, Stern took notice.

Sci Fi had greenlighted 13 episodes of “Sanctuary,” an hour-long drama starring Amanda Tapping (“Stargate SG-1”) based on the award-winning Web drama that she executive-produced.

“I think the danger that people are making, or are likely to make, is to consider that … you’re watching it on a screen and thinking that the Web is basically the same kind of medium as television. It’s not,” says Stern.

Brian Singleton, creative producer for Attention Span Media, thinks that “more and more online development is going to lend itself to TV development.”

Singleton, creator of the online mockumentary “Dorm Life,” adds: “It is much more inexpensive to develop a story to test on markets and, if it is successful, repackage it for television. It’s important for online content producers to do everything they can early on to leave as many doors open as possible.”

The Beverly Hills Web production company 60 Frames has tapped Tom Fontana (“Homicide: Life on the Streets”) and writers from “The Office” and “South Park” for Web shows.

“We’ve been excited that everybody that we’ve been working with has been able to make that transition,” says CEO Brent Weinstein.

At this point, Felux would simply like to transition from his basement.

“If audiences really like ‘Trenches’ and say, ‘Give us more,’ then ABC or whoever will say, ‘Let’s go for a new series, or a network series or even a possible feature,’ ” he says.

“I don’t hold my breath for any of that type of stuff, but I’m hoping to live the dream.”