Meet Beckinfield, a YouTube Show With 4,000 Actors [PICS]

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Writers outline the plot and email a "town happenings" newsletter to actors each week. Each actor tells a small piece of the story in their video, adding their own flair. Related segments are linked together to create a kind of webisode that will be unique to every viewer depending on which videos they watch.

Beckinfield is a production of online network Theatrics.com. Friday, at Macworld, director Jonathan Frakes (Riker of Star Trek fame) presented the winner of Theatrics' "Ultimate Online Audition Contest," with $10,000 and a vacation to Hollywood, Calif. Entrants selected one of six characters and showcased their acting chops in videos posted to the site.

Billed as "mass participation television," Beckinfield is like a soap opera where anyone can be an actor. Three minute recaps are posted once-per-week on theatrics.com and pick-up where the previous week's plot line left-off.

Here's the confusing part: There is no one weekly episode. Actors submit their videos to the site, ranging from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. In theory, this lets every viewer creates their own experience. A short summary video is posted the following week.

It makes more sense when you consider that Beckinfield was originally created as a tool for actors' character development. Co-creators Bob Gebert and Tracy Evans launched the site at South by Southwest in 2011 -- then soon found out how many non-actors wanted to be part of Beckinfield, Evan said.

There are around 4,000 actors involved with Beckinfield, although most do not get chosen to be in webisode wrap-ups. You can sign up to be a performer anytime. At the moment, the number of viewers is roughly the same as the number of actors.

The question is whether there is a larger audience for do-it-yourself compilations of YouTube videos of varying quality. The movie Life in a Day managed to stitch together a story arc from YouTube videos, drawn from people around the world aiming to document one day on Earth.

Life in a Day, however, was a curated experience. Beckinfield is scattered and difficult to follow. Without a clear plot line and no direct character interaction, it seems unlikely the show will garner a mass audience.

But it does point to a possible future trend -- crowdsourced entertainment. Cable networks have already tuned-in to consumers' eagerness to integrate social media and their favorite TV programs, sometimes known as transmedia.

With the integration of social media and television, Evans says it's possible this will become a niche interest for super-fans who want to act out their favorite characters and create a community who wants to watch the result.

What do you think about crowdsourcing talent for a show? Tell us in the comments.