Tubefilter News

The problem with dance movies isn’t the dancing. Everyone enjoys watching unrealistically attractive teen and twentysomethings manipulate and contort their bodies in unbelievable ways to hip-hop driven beats. And I mean everyone. I’m no anthropologist, but I’d say humans have a universal, positive association with cutting a rug. Dance, after all, is the world’s oldest art form, and after thousands of years of being an integral part of our culture, it’s fun to watch people do it well. YouTube proves my point.

The problem with dance movies is the storyline. The exposition generally sucks. It’s difficult to pay attention to or care about plot developments so hackneyed they’re fodder for a Wayans flick. Watching outsiders or underdogs endure life-changing experiences – the death of a close family member, the attainment of a love interest, a montage – is unbearable when all we want to do is see them step up, bring it on, or stomp the yard.

The solution to dance movies is Jon M. Chu’s The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (aka The LXD). The web series from Agility Studios and the director of Step Up 2: The Streets borrows a few moves from sci-fi television and applies it to the dance genre. The storyline follows “heroes and villains with amazing powers of dance, that band together in rival factions, with an epic back-story and mythology woven around how the various dance styles in the hip-hop world came to be.”

Sounds awesome, right? Paramount Digital Entertainment thinks so, too. The development and distribution subsidiary of Paramount Pictures just closed a deal with Chu and Agility to distribute The LXD.

Australia hasn’t been shy about joining the web series movement over the past year, with several original Aussie-made web series making waves on this side of the world including OzGirl and The 21 Conspiracy. Now a new Sydney-based web production studio has launched, dubbed Pixel8, and it not surprisingly has ties to Nick Carlton’s OzGirl. Its founder James Grant Hay, who also founded branded entertainment shop InShot 2.0, served as the branded integrations producer for the ITVFest-winning series.

Though independent of InShot, which is known for integrating brands into film, TV and web shows, it’s likely the two companies will be working together. “This is a logical step for ourselves and that of our advertising clients, who increasingly have come to expect custom-based branded entertainment solutions from our agency,” said Pixel8’s Grant Hay.

First up for Pixel8 is an interactive thriller web series, BobbyDrexler. “BobbyDrexler is a dark sardonic character driven piece about a career identity thief who preys on the wealthy. Think Kevin Spacey and you have BobbyDrexler,” said Grant Hay. Right now the series is still “in early development for 2010,” according to Pixel8.

Milo Ventimiglia wants to further intellectual debate for the Comic-Con crowd. Back in May, the Heroes’ hotshot told us about teaming up with Agility Studios for the web series Ultradome. The program pits comic and sci-fi fanboys against one another in a virtual octagon, where two individuals debate timeless topics like, “Would Harry Potter or Neo win in a fight?” and “Who’s the cooler vampire? Count Chocula or Lestat?”

It’s basically the same premise as a classic Van Damme flick, re-engineered for the online set. You can imagine Don LaFontaine’s voice explaining: “Two geeks enter. They Debate. One geek leaves.”

Last time we spoke with Ventimiglia, Ultradome was without a release date or distribution partner. Now that’s changed. MSN tell us they recently struck a deal to distribute the series and are shooting for a late-January premiere.

Joe Michaels, Senior Director at MSN Business Development, explained to me why picking up Ultradome made sense:

At 23, Jake Hurwitz is already a web comedy veteran. As one half of College Humor’s long running Jake and Amir series, Hurwitz has found himself at the center of a New York comedy powerhouse and starring himself in a slew of CH originals including Hardly Working and its TV adaptation—MTV’s The CollegeHumor Show.

This summer, he was even tapped to host the second season of MySpace’s game show BFF, which despite some questionable view counts, managed to work out to a pretty nice deal for Hurwitz in his first series outside the vaunted walls of College Humor.

We caught up with the Connecticut native-turned-Brooklyn-local Hurwitz for a little tell all into just what it means to be a successful young comedy writer coming of age on the internet. That, and what to make if this BFF series.

Tubefilter: How do you describe BFF if you’re trying to tell a friend of yours that’s never seen it?

Jake Hurwitz: I guess I’d describe it as it’s kinda just a game show where you test how well you know your best friend by answering questions about each other. It’s not like the dating game but I think I would just I would say it’s the dating game for friends.

While sharp writing and clever story structure are often the hallmarks of good comedy, one can’t overlook the impact of a fantastic comic performance. Is Caddyshack remembered for its plot? No, it’s become beloved because of the standout comic acting of Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight. Same goes for The Honeymooners or Married With Children, both standard family scenarios elevated by standout performances from Jackie Gleason and Ed O’Neill, respectively. Not to elevate it to the same status as these classics, but this is what I thought of when watching Atom’s new White Gorilla series.

White Gorilla is an original web series executive produced by comedy vet Jim Biederman (The Whitest Kids U Know, Michael & Michael Have Issues) and Chris Gillen < http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0318825>. It all begins when normal average everyman Steve (Trevor Dellecave) receives a mysterious wooden crate from Africa that contains a talking White Gorilla (Bert Kreischer) who invites himself to move in. In a somewhat by-the-numbers “fish out of water” scenario, White Gorilla doesn’t understand much about life in 21st century America. He talks about porn at the dinner table. He pees in the sink. He doesn’t understand what a hooker is even after he’s hired two of them.

In it’s continued support of Electric Farm’s mysterious university romp Valemont, MTV will be airing an hour long “Extended Edition” of the ½ hour special they featured on the network several weeks ago this Saturday night as part of their Thanksgiving marathon programming. The new cut will catch viewers up to around episode 20 in the storyline and is designed to expose the show to a wider audience in a push to convince viewers to watch the final 15 episodes (plus two alternative endings), which are only available online.

Wow. Central Division is one intense cop drama. The four episode first season will cost you ten minutes of your life in viewing time, but a lot more than that in reflection. I’ve never seen so many twists and turns in such a short span of time with no more than two characters and a body.

The minimalist cast consists of Brian Silverman as Det. Alan Edwards and Clay Wilcox as Det. Frank Hodge. You’ve seen both of these guys on a smattering of tv shows from Life and Cold Case for Silverman’s part to Criminal Minds and Heroes on the Wilcox side of things. Though usually bit players in these shows, these two guys are displaying some serious acting chops here.

Of course they seem to be in capable hands with the series creator-writer-director Aleem Hossain, who helmed the the sci-fi web series It Ends Today and the Comic-con official select short, Pinkerton. Hossain has obviously learned from his experience with small-filmmaking, by keeping this show in one easy location: a parking garage, his cast very small, and his writing tight and thrilling. Adding to this solid planning, is great cinematography by Julie Kirkwood that’s both unobtrusive and edgy.

My number one favorite YouTube channel in the category of “Governments, Heads of State, and Leaders from Around the World” belongs to her majesty, the Queen of England. But she wins purely based on entertainment factor. The Royal Channel is a veritable repository of Anglo pomp and circumstance, showcasing dated acts of decorum and vestiges from an era when the British Empire saw no sunsets. Videos like Swan Upping are stodgy, silly, and fascinating.

But if information and insight are my metrics instead of watchability, I hope to soon say my favorite political leader’s YouTube channel belongs to the Iraqis. Earlier today Google and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the launch of a dedicated YouTube channel for the Iraqi government. In the words of the Prime Minister:

“In the interest of enabling the Iraqi government and the National Media Center to use technology and advanced methods of communications and to present our message to other peoples, and in particular with the Iraqi people at home and abroad, the National Media Center has created the Iraqi channel on YouTube, a new and advanced method of communication.”

Google CEO Eric Schmidt applauds the Iraqi government’s efforts in a video shot while he visited the country to meet with government officials. Schmidt stresses the importance of “transparency” and “openness” and notes how YouTube can be an effective tool when nation-building. It’s a great sentiment and I hope news organizations keep the Iraqi powers-that-be honest. I’m unclear about the genesis of Orwell’s Eurasia, but I’m sure a devastated, war-torn infrastructure and a device for efficient, mass communications were involved.