Scener Chrome extension lets you record commentary on Netflix shows

Scener

• Scener is a new Chrome extension that lets you make
  your own picture-in-picture commentary videos for TV shows and
  films on streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.
• Scener’s founders were inspired by services like Twitch
  and YouTube, and the lack of a communal experience when
  binge-watching shows on Netflix.
• Scener plans to expand to different streaming services
  using Chrome’s API.

If you’ve ever wanted to make your own version of “Mystery
Science Theater 3000” — the iconic show that laid an audio track
of ruthless ribbing over bad sci-fi films — there’s a new Chrome
extension that makes it easy to do that (and more).

On Wednesday, an extension called Scener launched on Chrome.
Scener lets you create picture-in-picture commentary videos that
are synchronized to TV shows and films on streaming platforms.
At launch, the extension works with Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube,
but the company is looking to add others like HBO Now.

Prior to launch, Scener cofounders Daniel Strickland and Joe
Braidwood shared a demo of the platform with Business Insider,
and walked us through its origins. The pair said the idea came
from two big sources of inspiration: the success of platforms
like gaming-focused Twitch and YouTube in spurring commentary
videos, and the disconnect the founders felt from other viewers
in the age of Netflix binge-watching. In our on-demand TV
universe, we don’t really get experiences like the fun Twitter
chatter around a major live sporting event, or even an award
show, Braidwood said.

The concept of Scener is easy enough to grasp: You use your
webcam to film a PiP track that’s synced to the timeline of the
movie or show. There are nifty features like being able to pause
the source video but continue recording your video (if you want
to get lots of information in before a big scene), and the
ability for people to leave text comments that display on a
sidebar next to the video (similar to SoundCloud’s commenting
platform).

But the main question you probably have is how the Scener team
was able to build this without massive copyright infringement. To
view any Scener video, you have to be logged into whatever
service it was recorded on top of, be it Netflix or Hulu. But
once that’s done, Scener’s tech layers on top of the Chrome API.
That means that Netflix can’t suddenly pull support one day if it
decides to build its own tool like this, the founders
said.  

To help seed the service at launch, Scener worked with 200
creators to have 600 reaction videos ready to go. The founders
mentioned Filup Molina, a
YouTuber whose New Rockstars channel has over 1.5 million
followers, who did videos for Scener where he “unpacks fan
theories behind Breaking Bad.” But the Scener videos aren’t all
about fan theories. They can run the gamut, from people screaming
along to horror films, to comedy, to special-effects experts
weighing in on how your favorite scenes were created. Whether
they find an audience will be the key.

In the demo, the interface was slick, but the success of Scener
will hinge on whether it can attract creators to actually make
videos for it, and whether they can bring fans in. One big
question on that front is money. Scener can’t layer advertising
on top of a platform like Netflix, but the founders mentioned
other monetization avenues like tip jars for creators, and
potential marketing contracts with movie and TV studios.

The founders are also looking to add more features, they said.
For instance, they said that they had done prototypes of more
than one webcam participating in a commentary video at once, and
having the service work on smartphones as well as Chrome.

If you want to check out the first iteration, and poke around
with the discovery tools, head over to the Scener website. You
don’t have to create an account to browse.