Tubefilter News

All web series have at least some purpose right? Most however limit their ambitions to entertainment, sometimes just the amusement of its creators. But there’s another whole coterie of series that push a little harder into turning our online distractions into action. These are the shows like Streamy-winner Alive in Bahgdad or GOOD Magazine’s Harmony series that stir up some informed thinking on issues typically glossed over in the daily news blitz.

Damien Somerset is a web video guy with a foot on each side of that line—a former editor of the popular laffer Ask a Ninja series and a stint as a web video consultant for GOOD Magazine. So it’s only fitting that he would cook up a series that weaves the sometimes opposing poles of entertaining and informative into his new green series, Shift Logic.

The show itself newsy, but for the blog set; think a greener version of Rocketboom—single host, simple backdrop, quick cuts, sarcasm—minus the adorable young ingenue. Somerset is the host, writer and producer of the series, this time opting to have himself in front of the camera unlike his previous green web series ZapRoot which stars Jessica Williamson as the bite-size news dishing anchor.

The big difference here is that the content of each episode, those sarcastic nibbles of current enviro-news, are all driven from viewer submissions on the Shift Logic site. A running blog of user-submitted stories is on there with articles pulled from all over the web. Top ones—those that get he most user votes— make it in the eps, with shout-out credit to the submitters.

With such a vast array of genres for the web creator to tackle, it is always refreshing when a creator dives head-first as far away from the box as possible when developing their series. Its the type of risk-taking that is often viewed as essential for hitting the niche markets that can potentially make your series successful.

The upcoming series The Third Age is definitely stylistically very different than almost anything out there right now. Billed as “a magical realist web series, a psychedelic remix of classic mythology, telling the story of ordinary people caught up in an eternal war between gods”, the visuals are heady, the cinematography exploratory, and the performances experimental. For those ready to open their minds and take the time to let it all sink in without the need to be overly critical, this series will be an experience rather then a casual entertainment process.

The story centers around a pharmaceutical developer and a drug dealer, each being sent on a different path due to mysterious circumstances. After having the chance to pre-screen the first seven episodes, the story progresses slowly with a large portion of the story being moved forward by trippy and colorful sequences overlaid with a mind-teasing soundtrack. If you want fast-paced, this won’t be for you. If you want an acid trip in web video form…curl up, turn down the lights, and enjoy.

Describing The Third Age as “changing the parameters of what’s possible in the “webisode” format”, series producer Respect! Films has put some big expectations out there for the series. A lot of that comes from the amount of time and energy has been poured into the show. According to series producer Amber Yoder, “we’ve been in production with The Third Age for quite some time – nearly two years now! But that is largely because our small budget demands it. We shoot on weekends or whenever our actors are available. Scheduling can be a bit tricky, especially when we all have to balance our creative endeavors like The Third Age with paid gigs and day jobs. “

Armed with a coffee cup painted with cherries, fresh-faced Josh Dove sends out a heart-felt vlog to his mom who is in the hospital due to a freak moped accident that left her with a broken hip. He describes his excitement at having met a new friend, a foreign exchange student who mysteriously appears in his room (“it’s how foreign people say hello”). Oh, and he wishes his dad wasn’t dead…but at least he’s found his old video camera.

And within that first thirty-second vlog, you are off and running on the quirky comedy series that is MacAwesome. Created by Graham Bowlin (American Heart) and Waffle Feast Media’s Cameron Strittmatter, the series comes out of North Carolina where the two, along with partners Daniel John Lerch and director Andy Mitchell met while at UNCSA film school. The series thrives on its randomness…a visit to the shows Facebook page greets you with “A comedy web series about the dangers of subsidized healthcare. Just kidding.”

But this description is just as close as any one could give for the series. On the one hand, it’s a coming-of-age tale of a 17 year-old boy attending public school for the first time. On the other, it’s a classic romantic comedy where the underdog is trying to win the girl from the popular guy at school. And then of course, there are the guys running around in speedos and tearing the sleeves off their shirts for fun.

The almost winner of my Coolest Cross-Media Promotion of a Web Series award goes to Dr. Horrible, which just released some sneak peak shots to Splash Page of its upcoming, highly-anticipated, paper and ink comic book. Published by Dark Horse and written by Zack Whedon, the one-shot issue “establishes how a young, impressionable, but brilliant Dr. Horrible was drawn into a world of crime” and recounts the first encounter with his soon-to-be archnemesis, Captain Hammer.

Whedonesque readers know that this isn’t the first Dr. Horrible prequel, nor the first Dr. Horrible comic, nor the first Dr. Horrible comic written by Zack Whedon, nor the first Dr. Horrible comic and Dark Horse collaboration, it’s just the first one you’ll be able to physically hold in your hands. In the past 18 months, Zack Whedon wrote three digital comics for MySpace’s Dark Horse Presents, including Captain Hammer: Be Like Me!, Moist: Humidity Rising, and Penny: Keep Your Head Up (all of which are preludes to the events seen in the Sing-Along Blog).

The 24-page hard copy comic will set you back $3.50 (which is what comic books cost these days) and hits the shelves on November 18. Stop into your friendly neighborhood Dark Hourse retailer or pre-order yours here.

Comedy Central’s Atom.com isn’t the cable network’s only source for web series to snatch up, as this week it announced it was calling up one of The Onion’s hit online shows, Onion Sports Network for a test run. And east coast hipster favorite The Burg returned to the internet this week with its first full-length episode since 2007(!). Indie web shop Dinosaur Diorama is also busy cranking out more All’s Faire, which prances out 15 new episodes later this month.

Bro-tastic Break.com had its own sports web series debut this week with Social Sportz Net, with lead sponsor Southern Comfort on board. And speaking of guys, the issue of male circumcision is apparently a landmine for new parents, and DECA’s new Parents Ask series entered the game this week adding fuel to the fire.

Yesterday came another update on the Fred web-series-turned-movie, with more casting notices coming out. Speculation over which “cameo name” actor will play the high-pitched star’s fictional dad is brewing. (Our bet is now on Jon Cryer after hearing Jim Carrey is previously booked.)

From the moment table-top RPG comedy series GOLD launched, we knew they were sitting on the ultimate interactive merch play—its own custom tabletop game, perhaps even the very same game that its heroes play throughout the series. We already thought their t-shirts were cool, but this is the release we’ve been waiting on.

This week they released the GOLD Character Card Game (CCG), a relatively easy to pick up team battle style card game for two to four players.

“Initially there was some talk about a standalone ‘Goblins & Gold’ RPG,” wrote creator David Nett, “but since there are already so many tremendous old and new-school RPG systems out there that we love to play, and since we’re novices at game design, we quickly discarded that idea.”

The indie series continues to push forward after wrapping its praised first season. Following the mantra that you can’t stop seeking out new fans, the creators made the rounds of the RPG world hitting up GenCon Indy, where they picked up some attention. More recently, they headed to Manhattan as an official selection at the New York Television Festival (NYTVF) in September.

It can clearly be argued that this world is not left wanting for more vampire love stories. I don’t know if all of this modern day blood lust and sexual ambiguity got started with Anne Rice or not but it certainly didn’t end there. The past few years especially have brought us an increased amount of vampire laced content. I’m specifically thinking of HBO’s successful, blood slurping and breast exposing True Blood, the Swedish coming of age vamp flick Let the Right One In (which is great by the way if you aren’t afraid of subtitles, mediocre English dubbing, or Sweden), and of course the ever hyped chick lit Twilight movie based on the bestselling novel (although admittedly I haven’t familiarized myself with that last one – some kind of self preserving aversion to all things Mormon prevents me from going there). So do we need another vampire romance story? Yes, we do, because this one is a little different – in a good way.

Dead and Lonely, hosted on IFC.com, is a five part web series written, produced, and directed by cult indie horror filmmaker Ti West who brought us The Roost, Trigger Man, and The House of the Devil. The series revolves around two people looking for love on the oh so popular online dating site DATEorDIE.net. Out of curiosity I entered the URL for dateordie.net and was pleasantly surprised to be taken to an actual web site, albeit a fictitious one with some pretty clever and well done videos showing online singles’ (read losers) desperate pleas for a date – nice touch.

But back to our story. Our hero Justin, played by Justin Rice, is an unkempt, perpetually bed headed and overly sensitive guy who recently broke up with his girlfriend and is testing the waters of online dating. On the other side of his screen we meet Lee (isn’t that a guy’s name?), played by Paige Stark, who along with being shown in various states of undress (yay for us viewers cuz she’s not bad looking) also happens to have some unusually long and razor sharp bicuspids and can fly (if you’re slow here…um…she’s the vampire).

Irreverent, sports-related comedy programs don’t exist, at least not on television. While series like Fox’s Best Damn Sports Show Period or ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption can definitely be comical, they make quips about and poke fun at the wide world of sports with a measured amount of deference. The shows operate under the assumption that the subject is significant, that sports – and the people that play, coach, and watch them – are important.

Yes, you could try point to something like the Sklar Brothers’ defunct Cheap Seats as an exception, but nothing shows professional athletics less respect than the Onion Sports Network. It’s just the kind of program that television could use to bring some balance to the medium’s for-the-love-of-the-game love fest. That’s why I’m all jazz hands over the recent announcement from Comedy Central. The cable network has ordered a pilot from popular satirical newspaper The Onion for a 30-minute, scripted comedy series based on its sports section.

The press release promises the series, “will take on the whole universe of modern sports – teams, players, leagues, sycophantic fans, ridiculous products and over-hyped sports coverage – with an eye towards appealing to sports fanatics and more casual fans, as well as long-time followers of The Onion and The Onion News Network.” And Onion Sports Network director Will Graham warns you to, “Get ready for the most intense sports coverage humanity has yet witnessed.” I’d like to say the show’s going to be awesome, but Casey Stengel once told me “never make predictions, especially about the future,” and Chris reminds me about the profoundly not good The Onion movie.