Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and sometimes a hot dog is just a hot dog. But sometimes things aren’t as they seem and stuff gets a little weird. To quote a classic line from the song Cousin Earl by the Dead Milkmen: “Earl turns to me, and he says, ‘Did you ever go [...]
What happens when you take the mockumentary style and workplace camaraderie of The Office and transplant it on a spaceship? It improves, according to Brett Register, creator of the green-screen heavy sci-fi web comedy series, The Crew. “I’m very much under the impression that any story is immediately better if it’s taking place in space, no matter what the circumstance.”
Register originally came to LA to become a television writer. After a strike-shortened stint with Nickelodeon and a couple of creativity-starved years on NBC’s The Biggest Loser, he finally decided he needed an outlet for his ideas. An avid fan of several emerging web series, he was confident in his the ability to produce a quality show for the internet on a shoestring budget. With a cast and crew of talented friends, including DP-Associate producer Timothy Riese and sound man Matthew Warner,
Here’s how to turn any show into an instant comedy sensation: make at least half the characters really dumb, and have them talk into the camera. Presto! Your own version of The Office. This is an especially popular formula in the world of web shows, as evidenced by The Crew, a sci-fi mockumentary that imagines [...]
James Cawley is boldly going where a few others have gone before. The producer of Star Trek: Phase II has teamed with screenwriter/novelist Flint Dille for a Buck Rogers web series and hopes to produce twenty 40-minute web episodes about the space adventurer. (Thanks to TrekMovie.com for the scoop.)
Cawley Entertainment secured the rights to the classic character – created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan – and will focus on how Rogers went from World War I to 25th century Earth using a “retro-contemporary” look and CGI. Dille and Cawley will serve as executive producers of the web series, with Dille also serving as a consultant; the property has been owned by the Dille Syndication Co. since John F. Dille purchased the character for the comic strip in 1929.
Cawley has already cast his Buck Rogers and is going with an actor he’s familiar with: Bobby Rice, who played Peter Kirk in Phase II. Rice will continue filming Phase II in addition to playing Rogers. Cawley does not expect to have any other familiar faces pop up on Buck Rogers.
It’s about the famewhore teen-something/twenty-somethings and the drama that though played for laughs, seems like it’s ripped from life: pierced and inked-up kids with monickers like Hilton Suicide, Sceney and Sceney’s mom, Sceney Momable (who is a cross-dressed Courtney Love lookalike); all of whom are pair-bonded with sex, drugs, accidental pregnancy, violence and a fashionable apathy that’s a little scary when you realize, this is kind of real, and yet, you’re laughing at it. It’s scenester soap opera played for laughs. And it’s good.
So, back to my intro sentence, yes, this is supposed to be about Scene Kid LOVE, a show that needs a little production love to get it over the edge. A show with a writer that clearly understands how to keep it simple, but keep it turning, and like a true soap, jumping the shark at every chance. Which brings me to what I really want to talk about: Stevie Ryan.
Stories of backstage intrigue are as old as the stage itself, as writers have brought them to plays such as Noises Off! and films such as Waiting For Guffman. Now, Emerging Artist Productions brings such a tale to the Web in EXIT Stage Left, a web series that follows the trials and tribulations of an off-Broadway theater troupe attempting to mount a new play while not killing themselves or each other.
The series follows the exploits of the Lowry Theater Company, from director Ronny Simons (Michael Navarra) all the way to stage manager Jill Baynor (Terri J Freedman). All of it is seen, in many ways, through the eyes of Pam William (Katie Kimball), a documentary filmmaking student from NYU, who also maintains a blog at pamwilliamsNYU.blogspot.com.
First it was Moblogic. Now it seems that Wallstrip (Tilzy.TV Page) the original brainchild of CBS’ $4 Million acquisition has been discontinued without ever having turned a profit. It’s said that acquisitions are more often value destroying than creating, and this seems to be a case-in-point. According to TubeMogul, episodes of Wallstrip were seen 100,745 [...]
Those of you who think that your life would be much better with the addition of a few female contract killers must wait no longer: Webby-nominated dark action comedy web series Pink is back in action today with the first episode of its third season, titled “Speed Dating Kills 2.”
If you haven’t watched Pink before, now is as good a time as any to get started – just make sure to start at the beginning. Directed by Blake Calhoun and written by Mike Maden, Pink tells the story of one Natalie “Nate” Cross (Natalie Raitano), a government-employed contract killer and ex-con who still wants to enjoy a normal love life on her days off. The show also stars Matthew Tompkins and Sheree J. Wilson. We last covered Pink during the September 2008 premiere of Season 2, only a few months ago—looks like the recent partnership with Generate has been good for business.
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