Archive for October, 2008

Friday Rewind: Tubefilter News of the Week – October 31, 2008

This week was scary fun. We got into the Halloween spirit early, even taking the Tuesday Picks in a early-Halloween direction. Then Strike.TV launched with guns blazing bringing some scare from Tom Holland’s 5 or Die series along with nine others to chew on this weekend in case you haven’t already. Take180 rolled out its new dark supernatural conspiracy thriller In2ition, after swapping out one of their lead actresses after a contract dispute. And MSN and Endemol UK teamed up to bring out its big-time interactive sci-fi thriller series Kirill.

* Wes Craven Takes Over YouTube for Halloween!
* ‘Kirill’ Is Here: MSN and Endemol’s Brit Sci-Fi Series Launches
* Our ‘In2ition’ Tells Us Something’s Different With Take180’s New Series
* Strike.TV Launches, Writers Strut Their Wares
* ‘Jesus People’ Make Leap of Faith from Web to Big Screen

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‘Sorority Forever’ Finale Arrives as Ladies Hit Global Scene

The final episode (above – warning: contains spoilers if you’re not caught up!) of Sorority Forever came out today at TheWB.com and MySpaceTV, closing this chapter of the 40-episode college sorority thriller. The Big Fantastic/McG-produced series, chock full of web stars — Jessica Rose (lonelygirl15), Taryn Southern (Private High Musical) and Mikaela Hoover (Sam Has 7 Friends) — had the web media hype-machine in full force this summer, us included, before its Labor Day debut.

The first major scripted series out of Warner Bros.’ new digital portal TheWB.com, Sorority Forever has lived up to its end of the bargain in terms of viewership. Distribution partner MySpaceTV, who had a exclusive 48-hour window for new episodes, certainly delivered. They accounted for over 4 Million views for the series so far. TheWB.com hasn’t yet released viewership numbers for those shown on its own site, but it’s expected that they are at least over 1 million for the series.

Internationally, the series is distributed by Warner Bros. International Television Distribution (WBITD) who has landed a couple of choice placements for its teen hit including Bebo in the U.K. and MSN in Canada and even Korean video portal GOM TV.

We had a chance to talk with Sorority Forever star Taryn Southern, who plays Taryn in the series, about the whole experience and what’s next for the ladies of Phi Kappa Alpha.

“It’s been so exciting to see the evolution of the audience in response to the series,” Southern tells us. “As the mystery unfolded and characters were given a chance to develop, the audience became more and more invested in trying to determine the fate of the girls and the heart of the mystery. The message boards are filled with people playing detective – from analyzing pictures in the girl’s rooms to reading our character’s MySpace pages and finding hidden metaverse blogs, the audience really got into it! That’s what’s so exciting about online series – the interactive elements of storytelling.”

And what about rumors of SF Season 2 in the works?

“I haven’t heard any ‘official’ rumors yet. If a rumor wills a sequel into existence, then yes! I’m starting the rumor now. Ha-ha! We all had so much fun working on this together and grew very close. It was very much like a film set in that way, and I know we would all go back to work on a second season in a heartbeat.”

For more of Taryn check out her original comedy web series Private High Musical, which she created and stars in. She’s also keeping up with her political sing-along “Hot 4 Hill” video series with the latest installment hitting YouTube last week.

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Last Minute Halloween Costume Ideas

In the comments of Tilzy.TV, LOL Cat Reblogger Brad O’Farrell and I came up with the hands-down winner for best costume of Halloween 2008. You can have it, because I’m going to reprise my Casey Jones and Brad is going as Ashely Todd.
If the below is done well and you can document it, I guarantee [...]

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Felicia Day’s ‘The Guild’ Stays Indie, Season 2 Drops November 25th

For all you Felicia Day fans, a full new season of The Guild is coming November 25th, and this time in high definition. Web star and famed new media producer, Miss Felicia Day has turned down numerous offers for sponsorship deals for the series. She dropped by Revision 3’s Internet Superstars (above) last week to update Martin Sargent on the future of the series, and life as a gamer.

Of the choice to stay indie, Felicia says, “I didn’t want to give up the rights to my show. A lot of people wanted to buy my show, and fund it, but even with a good budget, you are not making a lot of money as a producer. And for me, I wanted to have the right partner help with the distribution and take it to a new level, but also retain the rights to what I created. I think as a web producer you want to break that Hollywood rule that as a writer you have to sign away that copyright, and then the studio owns it.”

Known for being completely devoted to the show’s fans (Felicia mails out most of the show’s purchased DVDs herself) the entire cast of the show recently dropped by Blizzcon to show a preview of the first episode.

After making the decision to go forward with no sponsor, Felicia posted this on her blog: “Mantra: Don’t wait for other people to make things happen.” So The Guild forged on buoyed by a large amount of volunteer fans who helped to get the show done.

When we last left Codex, Bladezz, Tinkerballa, Vork, Zaboo, and Clara, they’d just battled and conquered the worthy opponent of Zaboo’s mother, only to leave Codex realizing she now may still have a warlock sleeping on her couch. Find out how these gamers will continue to forge a real-life bond with each other, while continuing to battle evil in the cyber world when the second season drops November 20th.

Of the choice to stay indie, Felicia says, “I didn’t want to give up the rights to my show. A lot of people wanted to buy my show, and fund it, but even with a good budget, you are not making a lot of money as a producer. And for me, I wanted to have the right partner help with the distribution and take it to a new level, but also retain the rights to what I created. I think as a web producer you want to break that Hollywood rule that as a writer you have to sign away that copyright, and then the studio owns it.”

Felicia DayNone as completely devoted to the show’s fans (Felicia mails out most of the show’s purchased DVDs herself) the entire cast of the show recently dropped by Blizzcon to show a preview of the first episode.

After making the decision to go forward with no sponsor, Felicia posted this on her blog: “Mantra: Don’t wait for other people to make things happen.” So The Guild forged on buoyed by a large amount of volunteer fans who helped to get the show done.

When we last left Codex, Bladezz, Tinkerballa, Vork, Zaboo, and Clara, they’d just battled and conquered the worthy opponent of Zaboo’s mother, only to leave Codex realizing she now may still have a warlock sleeping on her couch. Find out how these gamers will continue to forge a real-life bond with each other, while continuing to battle evil in the cyber world when the second season drops November 20th.

Of the choice to stay indie, Felicia says, “I didn’t want to give up the rights to my show. A lot of people wanted to buy my show, and fund it, but even with a good budget, you are not making a lot of money as a producer. And for me, I wanted to have the right partner help with the distribution and take it to a new level, but also retain the rights to what I created. I think as a web producer you want to break that Hollywood rule that as a writer you have to sign away that copyright, and then the studio owns it.”

None as completely devoted to the show’s fans (it’s rumored Felicia mails out most of the show’s purchased DVDs herself) the entire cast of the show recently dropped by Blizzcon to show a preview of the first episode.

After making the decision to go forward with no sponsor, Felicia posted this on her blog: “Mantra: Don’t wait for other people to make things happen.” So The Guild forged on buyoed by a large amount of volunteer fans who helped to get the show done.

When we last left Codex, Bladezz, Tinkerballa, Vork, Zaboo, and Clara, they’d just battled and conquered the worthy opponent of Zaboo’s mother, only to leave Codex realizing she now may still have a warlock sleeping on her couch. Find out how these gamers will continue to forge a real-life bond with each other, while continuing to battle evil in the cyber world when the second season drops November 20th.

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Dane Cook in You Suck at Photoshop Finale?!

Donnie Hoyle must’ve read some Thich Nhat Hanh.
In the You Suck at Photoshop season finale, the chronically depressed Grand Master of Image Altering interrupts his regularly scheduled tutorial for much needed self-reflection. Like a mini clip show, he inventories his frustration fueled accomplishments from the previous two seasons (modified pictures that figuratively rectified the problems [...]

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Sexy Spooky Web Treats For Your Halloween

It’s almost obligatory today to take a look at some of the spookiest and ghoulish in web series in honor of the freakiest of all the holidays to get you in the Halloween spirit. If you live in Los Angeles, sexy is usually the de facto adjective before your costume title. (See “Sexy Witch,” “Sexy Nurse.”) Have no fear, web series creators are in on the trend, so enjoy these delectable sexy-scary delights.

Whatever Hollywood in ‘Trick or Treating for Beer’

When the girls from Whatever Hollywood get some sweet Oktoberfest costumes from a fan in Germany, they make sure to put them to good use.

Easy Bake Lovin’s Happy Halloween

Piper has an empty womb, and a bowl full of caramel corn. She’s just waiting for you to knock on her door.

Italian Spiderman

Everything is usually sexier in Italian, even if it happens to be a slightly overweight guy in a lame Spiderman costume. He does, however fight evil crocodiles, and bed hot, Italian women, all to a super smooth soundtrack.

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'Joe and Kate' Explores Oh-So-Awkward Cohabitation

The Theater of Uncomfortable is explored with Strike TV’s Joe and Kate. Directed by Ryan Suffern (Warthog) and written and performed by Joe Kelly (How I Met Your Mother) and Kate Purdy (Cold Case, Mad TV), Joe and Kate perfectly captures those oh-so-awkward couple moments between dating and marriage.
Take a look at the following exchange, promoted by [...]

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Wes Craven Takes Over YouTube for Halloween!

Wes Craven has taken over YouTube. The legendary director of such films as A Nightmare on Elm Street, the Scream trilogy and Red Eye has control of the YouTube front page for Halloween as well as the Google homepage logo doodle, which is a holiday tradition going back to the early days (1999). The tradition of taking over YouTube on Halloween is a newer one which started last year when Halloween director and rocker Rob Zombie had the reigns.

We had a chance to ask Wes what he thought of the explosive growth in web video content. “I’m all for human expression, no matter how or where,” he told us. Clearly, he likes some of what he’s seeing out there. He had a chance to pick his Halloween favorites from the vast YouTube library and feature them on the front page as well as his own official channel.

We took a look at his picks and he’s chosen a mix of web series and one-off videos ranging from dark and scary to absurdly awesome. Here’s the run-down: (web series are in italics)

* “The Hand” — (spoof film trailer from Studio8 based on The Eye.)
* “Scary Video” — (a young Wes Craven?)
* Trick or Vote — (even monsters can help get out the vote.)
* “Scream Bunnies” — (30-second recap of Scream with bunnies!)
* The 21 Conspiracy — (Aussie thriller web series, see Tubefilter’s coverage.)
* 2009: A True Story — (dark look at the near future, see Tubefilter’s coverage.)
* Breach — (part of Fewdio’s horror series, see Tubefilter’s coverage.)
* Luke 11:17 — (see Tubefilter’s coverage.)
* “Day With the Devil” — (stop-motion animation meets hip hop in hell!)
* “Black String Theory” — (visually stunning short film.)
* “Hallowindow” — (blows outdoor Xmas decorations away. See this years window.)
* “The Butcher and the Wolf” — (green screen fun in Madrid from the Portable Film Festival.)
* “Patton Oswalt – Halloween” — (the voice of Ratatouille muses on Halloween)

We had a chance to ask Wes what he thought of the explosive growth in web video content. “I’m all for human expression, no matter how or where,” he told us. Clearly, he likes some of what he’s seeing out there. He had a chance to pick his favorites from the vast YouTube library and feature them on the front page as well as his own branded channel.

We took a look at his picks and he’s chosen a mix of web series and one-off videos ranging from dark and scary to absurdly awesome. Here’s the run-down: (web series are in italics)

* “The Hand” — (spoof film trailer from Studio8 based on The Eye.)
* “Scary Video” — (a young Wes Craven?)
* Trick or Vote — (even monsters can help get out the vote.)
* “Scream Bunnies” — (30-second recap of Scream with bunnies!)
* The 21 Conspiracy — (Aussie thriller web series, see Tubefilter’s coverage.)
* 2009: A True Story — (dark look at the near future, see Tubefilter’s coverage.)
* Breach — (part of Fewdio’s horror series, see Tubefilter’s coverage.)
* Luke 11:17 — (see Tubefilter’s coverage.)
* “Day With the Devil” — (stop-motion animation meets hip hop in hell!)
* “Black String Theory” — (visually stunning short film.)
* “Hallowindow“ — (blows outdoor Xmas decorations away. See this years window.)
* “The Butcher and the Wolf“ — (green screen fun in Madrid from the Portable Film Festival.)
* “Patton Oswalt – Halloween“ — (the voice of Ratatouille muses on Halloween)

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The 2nd Annual Streamy Awards

IAFT

Mobilize and Monetize Video with EQ Network

Fix It In Post



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