Tubefilter News

Netflix, which started as a simple “DVD delivery to your home” service and has grown to delivering movies straight to computer and Xbox is now about to tackle the world of web content. And they are doing it with a bang. Literally. To Corey Feldman’s head.

Feldman announced yesterday on his blog that not only will he be reprising his role as Edgar Frog in Lost Boys 3: The Thirst…he’s also going to be starring in Netflix’s first ever web series, Splatter. Not only that, he’s teaming up with legendary directors Joe Dante and Roger Corman to do it.

Says Feldman: “This will mark the 3rd project I have done with Joe (Dante), the first since 1989’s The Burbs. It came as a shock to me when I received a call from Roger Corman’s (Little shop of Horrors, Rock n Roll High School, Pirannah and hundreds more) office telling me that they were producing a new project that Joe would be directing and they both wanted me to head up the cast as the lead character. Now this will prove to be my 4th project together with Roger, previously we have done Rock and Roll High School Forever, Stepmonster, and Born Bad. Apparently this will be Joe’s 7th project with Roger. So the point is we have all worked together individually, but we have never teamed up together.”

It seems like every day a new web series launches, so content creators are continually trying to think of ways to distinguish their content from the rest. And with the one-to-one nature of the web, adding an interactive element seems like a logical step in personalizing the story and bringing the characters to life. So, I was intrigued when I heard about the launch of Chapin Circle, a new female-focused web series centering around the lives of four women living in Midwestern suburbia that boasts what the show’s creator, Michele Palermo, calls a revolutionary patent-pending “Character Selection” option that she touts “might just be the future of Internet TV.” According to Palermo, the Character Selection option is a way for viewers “to tailor their experience to the character they want to watch–without ever losing the scope of the show as a whole.”

Episode 1 was a bit slow moving, and while I often consume long form content online, it felt longer than 10 minutes, taking an interminable amount of time to set up the characters. Sort of a G-rated version of Desperate Housewives meets Lifetime special, it follows four generations of women who are endearing enough, if not somewhat predictable. You’ve got the dramatic, bride-to-be 20-something, Heather (Rachael Sheridan), having relationship issues with her doctor fiancé, the spirited 30-something school teacher, Annie (Lolly Howe), more passionate about her students than her docile husband (who you fellow Gen-Xers will recognize from the original Beverly Hills 90210), the 40-something ex-lawyer, Becca (Palermo), dissatisfied with her appearance and having misgivings about her decision to be a stay-at-home mom and the 50-something outspoken menopausal woman, Susan, juggling a career, a husband who doesn’t notice her anymore and a 16-year old daughter’s teenage angst.

One of the things that initially fascinated me with storytelling on the web was that it had no rules. Who knew a girl talking to a web cam would engage thousands to try to come to her aid? Or that French maids explaining how to change the oil in a car could grow into one of the most successful examples of product integration? As the community of web creators continues to grow and try to find the key to financial success, the internet space has become littered with series with similar formats, plotlines, and integration attempts and the margin for originality has become smaller and harder to find.

HBO, following up on its acclaimed “HBO Voyeur” project, has decided to push that envelope…not only that, it’s attempting to create an entirely new type of envelope. Like a space-age teleporting envelop that doesn’t even need to be pushed…

To become a part of this unique new form of storytelling, start by visiting HBOimagine.com. There you will be introduced to the HBO Cube. According to an HBO press release, “The HBO Cube … offers four different perspectives on the same scene, simultaneously. In telling the same story from four distinct points of view, each side of the cube stands alone as an engaging film, and as one piece of a larger puzzle. As viewers move around the cube, they watch the story unfold from different perspectives, forming different perceptions, and often misperceptions, of the characters and plot. Only by watching the story unfold from multiple sides of the cube can we begin to see the bigger picture.” A giant 4-sided version of The Cube was even on display in New York, DC and Philadelphia, with scenes directed by Noam Murro.

This unfolding story contains two of these “Cubes”, each 2:00 minutes in length. They each play twice successively, and you can rotate the cube to see each angle of the story at your discretion. One cube titled “The Affair” centers around a husband, wife, maid, and a mysterious half-naked man and the other, simply called “Heist” shows the execution of a meticulously organized crime. The cubes are connected by an additional 41 pieces of content that include both short- and long- form video, news stories, images, and audio files. As you navigate the content, a status bar tracks your progress and once every piece of content is unlocked, you are taken to a new page that contains a final video that connects the pieces together in a more traditional, linear fashion.

New York has a lot of scenes. There’s the “Williamsburg hipster” scene, the “Lower East Side hipster” scene and the underrepresented “West Village apartment-sitter’s who’ve fallen in love with much older bankers“ scene (also mostly hipsters). Created by Pistols Kill Ponies for Index Magazine, Delusional Downtown Divas is a web comedy devoted to parodying one [...]

We didn’t intend for it to work out this way, but this week was all about the ladies in web TV. Or maybe its just CBS that has a thing for them. Either way, this week saw news that Shira Lazar had signed on with CBSNews.com to be a regular correspondent on Mo Rocca’s Tomorrow Show along with her own video rich blog on site. Then came the release of two new CBS Interactive web series, TV in a Flash with former Wallstrip host Julie Alexandria and Sports in a Flash with Lauren Shahedi, The two series will live on CBS-owned sites TV.com and CBSSports.com. And rounding out the ladies theme, with Breast Cancer Awareness month upon us, web star Taryn Southern rallied some celeb friends together to make a series of click-worthy Save a Tit videos which debuted this week.

Our own Adam Wright wrapped up his coverage of NYTVF earlier this week with some reflections on the very real intersection of independent television and web TV. As panelist and Easy to Assemble creator Illeana Douglas put it, “A year ago people came to me and were like ‘what are you doing’ … we’re at the tipping point where people are saying ‘Now, I get it.’”

And in case you weren’t glued to the commercial break after The City on MTV, the network bowed its Valemont web series from the creators of Gemini Division and Afterworld. The first two episodes are now online:

Weed Shop has all the ingredients for a great web series– a subculture-filled world of a medical marijuana shop in Los Angeles, a catchy theme song, a fun, animated web site, and free give-aways to viewers. Yet, the show still feels very much like a work in progress which also makes it surprisingly lovable.

While the web series world is becoming a competitive breeding ground for possible TV and film deals (note, another web series about a medical marijuana shop entitled The Clinic is still in the works) it also still remains a great place to experiment. Let’s face it, CBS, or any of the big three networks aren’t likely to jump on a show set in a tenuous world of borderline legal drug dealing (that’s what cable, and the Internet are for)!

Although, a development exec probably would enjoy a chuckle when listening to Weed Shop’s Executive Producer Michael Perri tell the story of the show’s development.

“The road to Weed Shop started like many ideas,” says Perri. “Over too much beer and Jaeger Shots… All over town, we noticed that more and more medical marijuana shops were popping up. What goes on inside there we thought to ourselves at 3am at a friend’s house? The number of shops in SoCal has tripled to 600 hundred shops in the past 3 years alone. So, we said let’s create a workplace comedy pilot and maybe film some webisodes.”

Perri’s partner Rock Shaink started penning the script, and as Perri puts it, “Cheers in a Weed Shop was born.”

Some more CBS web series news today, this time out of CBS Interactive which is bowing two new original series for TV.com and CBSSports.com. Former Wallstrip host Julie Alexandria is coming back to the web as host of TV in a Flash , a new primetime TV recap series that will live on TV.com starting today.

The two-minute recap series is weekly, so it’s less about hitting the details of last night’s shows instead bouncing on the top hits of the week. With a Sportscenter-style sidebar ticker of what she’s covering, it’s easy to keep up despite fast talking Alexandria as she rolls through speedcaps of House, NCIS, Modern Family and others. Still the two minutes seem rushed, more suited for on-the-go mobile content than a late 2009 weekly web series.

That could be something to do with lead sponsor AT&T, which developed the series alongside CBS Interactive through its ad agency Mediaedge:cia. For now the series will live on TV.com with new episodes every Tuesday. And unfortunately, episodes of the show are not embeddable despite pre-roll ads and watermarked AT&T branding that would come along with the videos. No word yet of any plans for mobile distribution though we wouldn’t be surprised to see that coming.

When Alyson Hannigan, Emily Deschanel, Kat McPhee, Minka Kelly and Jaime King get together to star in a video entitled “The Booby Scare,” you may get visions of pillow fights and wardrobe malfunctions running through your head. And while this might be what inspires you to click on “The Booby Scare”, I implore you to continue watching even after you realize that (almost) all the ladies’ tops are going to stay on.

Because “The Booby Scare” has something very, very important to say that effects all of us. It is actually the first video in the Save a Tit campaign created by Webutante Taryn Southern and Sin City actress Jaime King. Launched in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the campaign will consist of 6 celebrity-driven videos released each month on Funny or Die, YouTube, Veoh, and a variety of other viral platforms and sponsored by Her Energy that is designed to promote breast cancer awareness, early detection, and support for breast cancer research.

I corresponded with Taryn Southern on how this remarkable campaign came about. “Our producer, David Bernad, really deserves the credit for that”, said Southern. “Emily, Alyson, Minka, and Kat are all active in charity work and breast cancer awareness was a particularly important cause to each of them, so they were really excited about being involved. I also want to add that having Steve Carr (director of Mall Cop, Dr. Doolittle 2, Daddy Day Care and a bunch of other great comedies), come in and guest direct the episode was awesome.”

“I just can’t believe that we were lucky to have Steve and the girls all available on the same day!”, she went on to say. “Alyson had just had a baby, and Emily had to be on set of Bones the next morning at 5am. Talk about dedicated! We all had a great time.”