Sometimes life catches you by surprise, tosses you around a little bit, and leaves you feeling a little dazed and confused. It’s like being the head coach of the winning football team just moments after the team pours an ice cold cooler of water over your head. At first, the icy chill is a shock, but who cares? You’re still the coach of the winning team. That’s how I feel right now.

It’s been a crazy day and my head is still pounding. After all, I’m now technically unemployed. This morning, I learned my position at Veoh Networks was being eliminated. I would say this came as a complete surprise, but I’m smarter than that. Anyone who’s working in new media knows this is a risky business. New companies are emerging all the time….all claiming to be the best. On their way to the top, these companies are bound to restructure, reorganize and reposition themselves. So, you really can’t fault Veoh. They’re thinking about the overall well-being of their company and their employees, and I respect them for that. In fact, I totally agree with their decision.

The truth is, Viral never quite meshed with Veoh’s overall company objectives. First and foremost, Veoh is a technology company. They are not in the business of creating content and therefore they really don’t have the means to support their own content. If you’re ABC, you would naturally support your own programs like “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” before you support content from other networks. However, Veoh was unable to do this and, as a result, Viral was not the strong marketing tool it was intended to be- regardless of its potential.

Don’t get me wrong. The situation is not all sunshine and rainbows for me. Being “let go” from a company is always a blow to one’s ego. Quite frankly, it sucks- but it was absolutely necessary.

As for the production team and myself, we have grown so much in the last couple years. Josh, Cody, Kevin and Mark- I absolutely could not have does this without all your support. They’re all extremely talented and I’m extremely blessed to call them my friends and my colleagues. I have no doubt we’ll be working together again when the right opportunity presents itself.

We are definitely on the winning team. And we can’t wait for next season….

YouTube is reaching out to filmmakers distributing their films online.

On Wednesday, the video sharing site released a screening room that allows indies to connect with a worldwide audience. Every other Friday, you’ll find four new new films featured.

Here’s what the site looks like….

If you’re a filmmaker or distributor interested in playing in the YouTube Screening Room, please send an email with information about your film to ytscreeningroom@youtube.com.