• by Ross Fadner , June 19, 2012

Actor Julia Stiles, who stars in the new YouTube channel series “Blue,” says there are tradeoffs in working on an online video series. For example, directors and producers give their teams “creative freedom,” but the reality is that online video doesn’t pay.

In an interview with Reuters’ Lucas Shaw, Stiles says: "The downside of Web content -- scripted Web content -- is that there is no money involved. No one is earning a living. The upside is there is a lot of creative freedom."

But that’s okay, she adds, because Web series are short, so shooting an entire series can take just a couple of weeks. 

“Blue” is the story of a part-time working mom (Stiles) who is also a part-time escort trying to make ends meet. The series, which was written by Rodrigo Garcia, debuted on “Wigs,” YouTube’s original content channel aimed at women, last week.

Stiles notes that the revenue model still needs to be sorted out. “The people at the top have to find a way to share wealth. Nobody knows where the ad revenue is going,” she says. “Once we figure out where that's going, we can spread it around with the crew. The pitfall of that is the more money involved, the less freedom you have.”

Nevertheless, “these things have a way of righting themselves," she says. "There are so many ads on the Internet now you actually can't watch anything without watching an ad. People will get sick of that. They'll make you subscribe to skip all the ads. I just show up and say my lines."