by Marc Hustvedt on August 25th, 2009
If you were online at all last week, it’s hard to make the case you weren’t reminded of something happening on the 25th. The incessantly catchy music video, “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar,” turned out to be the most successful (and viral) promo for a web series we’ve seen to date. The four-minute dance pop fantasy was not only a swift monetary success, but ignited a growing fanbase around the launch of the hit web series’ third season.
Today the much-anticipated Season 3 of The Guild kicks off exclusively on XBox Live, before rolling out to the rest of Microsoft’s three-pronged network—MSN, XBox Live and Zune on September 1. While the phased rollout may frustrate some fans who aren’t XBox owners, it comes with the territory of exclusive online distribution deals like this one, which pay an upfront premium to the creators for the right to a release window on its platform.
As announced back at Comic-Con last month, the season significantly steps up the production elements and the cast, most notably adding a rival guild into the mix headed up by new cast member, Wil Wheaton. Codex (Felicia Day) and her Knights of Good gang—Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh), Bladezz (Vincent Caso), Vork (Jeff Lewis), Tink (Amy Okuda) and Clara (Robin Thorsen) are all back for the new season and must put their past inter-guild squabbles behind them.
While for now you’ll have to head to XBox Live to watch the new season online, there was also news that The Guild team has reached a deal with retail DVD distributor Newvideo to release seasons 1 and 2 of the series in the US and Canada.
by Michael Joshua Rowin on August 24th, 2009
If you’re looking for a venue for stories from, studies on, and analysis of the Middle East outside coverage by the mainstream media you’ll find a treasure trove of alternative journalism from Alternate Focus. Founded by a Jews, Muslim and Christian, the San Diego-based documentary producer, broadcaster, and distribution company focuses on telling the truth [...]
by Marc Hustvedt on August 24th, 2009
Online musicals are all the rage, and we probably have the Whedon clan to thank for that. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog gets a lot of credit for pushing web video forward, and you can’t help but notice its inspiration in The Legend of Neil’s new season with the release of Episode 3 (above) today on Atom.com. (Warning, the video is potentially NSFW, well, depending on where you work.)
Neil creators Sandeep Parikh and Tony Janning, who stars as Neil in the series, gave a preview of the episode last month at a live screening. In what be the raunchiest appearance on screen to date by Felicia Day (The Guild, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog), Day returns as the fairy finding herself is a spot of trouble with Ganon (Scott Chernoff).
And as if it needed more of a Whedon/Dr. Horrible connection, we learned that Maurissa Tancharoen sings the voice of Zelda in the episode as actor Angie Hill lip syncs. From what we can tell, the composers Nigel Cordeiro and Robert Harrington, have no relations to the Wheodon clan.
by Gennefer Snowfield on August 24th, 2009
We love our buzz words in the digital world. There was ‘social media’ and ‘microblogging’ and ‘user generated content’ and ‘engagement’ and ‘web 2.0′ (which paved way to the 2.0 suffix attached to everything) and ‘the cloud’… and now there’s ‘branded entertainment.’
The thing is, branded entertainment is nothing new. Over 50 years ago, those crafty soap companies figured out that to get in front of women to peddle their household products, they’d need to wrap their advertising around some meaningful content. And so was born the soap opera.
To help crystallize this concept, we reached out to three pioneers who are helping to shape branded experiences that are as entertaining as they are effective. The four of us will give you our definitions of the various forms of branded entertainment in a roundtable discussion, along with our visions for the future of the space.
Roundtable Participants:
Justine Bateman – Partner, FM78.tv
Tim Jones – COO, Animax Entertainment
Gennefer Snowfield – CEO, Space Truffles Entertainment
Warren Tomlin – President, Fuel Industries
by Jenni Powell on August 24th, 2009
Much has already been written about the groundbreaking deal between Microsoft, Xbox, and The Guild. But another strong relationship exists between the MMO-centered web series and a gaming-related company. Last weekend that company, Blizzard Entertainment, hosted BlizzCon—a convention held in Anaheim, California, that is a feast of all things World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, and a multitude of other Blizzard creations.
The incredibly warm-welcome is unique in the fact that The Guild was the only web series represented at the Con. It’s no secret that the plotline of The Guild centers around an online game that is eerily similar to World of Warcraft but it is never actually called that, being only referred to affectionately as “The Game”. Says Sandeep Parkih (Zaboo on The Guild, creator of The Legend of Neil), “our show is not even necessarily about World of Warcraft specifically and yet Blizzard let us come here and represent ourselves because, well, the president (Michael Morhaime) really loves our show and they see a ton of overlap in our fan bases… So it’s pretty cool of Blizzard to support web content and the creation of independent web content. That’s pretty amazing. Hats off to Blizzard for that.”
“BlizzCon is kind of a closed ecosystem,” says series-creator Felicia Day. “It’s Blizzard only and the fact that they are fans of our show has meant a lot for us… as well as allowing us to have this booth space and having a cool banner and being able to meet the fans one on one all day, every day. It’s really gratifying. And it’s a huge corporation but their fans care about Warcraft and the games they play and it translates to our show… We are just lucky to have this fan base.”
Vincent Caso (Bladezz on The Guild) had this to say about the differences between attending BlizzCon and ComicCon, “It’s definitely on a smaller scale than ComicCon but we still have a massive turnout because it’s a big concentration of our fans. I just feel that Blizzcon feels homier, it feels more close-knit, more comfy because it’s Blizzard. We know everyone here pretty much, we know a ton of the staff…and that just makes it a ton more fun. And we get to play all these awesome games. Personally, I have been a fan of Blizzard for years. Not to say ComicCon is not fun but this is a whole other scene.”
by Marc Hustvedt on August 21st, 2009
Admit it, you’ve been humming singing this number all week. It’s hard to talk web series news of the week without first acknowledging the breakout success of The Guild’s first official music video, “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar.” The video leaped to the #1 sales spot on both iTunes and Amazon and breezed past the 1 million view mark (now just shy of 2 million). Even the Wall St. Journal (the print edition) covered the video. The web series even vaulted its own hashtag (#datemyavatar) to the top of the Twitter trending topics. Season 3 of The Guild launches next Tuesday (the 25th) so expect another flurry of Twitter mojo. We’ll also have coverage of the Guild camp’s trip to BlizzCon.
Looking ahead to next week we’re also in for more musical treats featuring the lovely Felicia Day as Episode 3 of The Legend of Neil drops its own musical, a nine-minute raunch-filled spectacle on Atom.com.
by Marc Hustvedt on August 21st, 2009
YouTube is as good a place as any to test a comedy concept, particularly a potentially controversial single-person vlog rant. Shelby’s Rant is the latest from filmmaker-comedian Matt Koval. To kick it off, a sassy vlogger Shelby (Makinna Ridgway) vents her pent-up frustrations with 1980′s “classic” nostalgia movies. Specifically, she’s hones in on The Goonies for being terribly overrated though admitting she has never seen it. (Say wha?) The whole rant in fact is based on a MadAtoms blog post written by Becky Bain.
The pilot (above) for the series was produced by MadAtoms and USR Content for Fox Digital Studios. Originally aligned with now defunct Fox Atomic, MadAtoms.com is a comedy and culture site that has been the launch pad for a number of web series projects including S.W.I.P.E. and the upcoming Josh Gad comedy, Rent Control.
by Devon Grandy on August 21st, 2009
Many, if not most viewers seeing Meet the Mayfarers for the first time will probably immediately think of The Office. This really isn’t that surprising. The style of NBC’s flagship show – which seems to have become the prototype for uncomfortable humor – easily lends itself to mimicry, especially online. Still, despite the familiarity of [...]
