Tubefilter News

A little off topic, but the concept of a whole 90-minute feature of Fred Figglehorn in the works is still sinking in. That, and apparently it was quite the hot topic lately. For those that missed it, we broke the news last month that there is in fact a Fred movie in the works starring none other than Lucas Cruikshank as the titular high-pitched YouTube star.

According to the latest casting notices, Cruikshank is indeed attached, though the rest of the roles appear to be wide open. With shooting beginning November 20, they are looking to lock these up soon. For some reason they are looking for “cameo names only” to play Fred’s father. We’re thinking Jim Carrey.

[FRED'S DAD] Fred’s father, he’s a wildly eccentric character who encourages his son to follow his bliss and go after the girl of his dreams. Seemingly unfazed by his nightmarish marriage to a real mess of a woman, he’s relentlessly upbeat at all times…LEAD (11) Please submit cameo names only.

Technically this one isn’t a full-on web series yet, but it’s too good to pass up. Just in time for the season finale of AMC’s Mad Men this weekend comes a spot-on parody of the hit cable series. Created by the guys (Matt Fisher, Alden Ford and Justin Tyler) at Sidecar Comedy for Atom.com, this four minute wonder dubbed Milk Men takes all the drama, double-crossing and fornication of the 60′s ad agency and takes in into the world of milk delivery.

Oh, and there’s and smoking, lots of smoking—even babies smoking. There’s even the lipstick on a pig ad man orations over the joy that is fresh milk.

We’ve had our eye on the Brooklyn-based Sidecar guys every since NYTVF where they snagged “Best Writing” honors for their pilot Homeschooled (below).

Talk about bad timing. Just as my colleague recently noted the wide open field for fantasy football-themed programming to be explored, a couple of identically-named series have come along to narrow the window considerably. Perhaps for fantasy football addicts, the more content covering their passion the better, but for the rest of us, Rules of The League appears to be an early casualty.

A casualty by whom, you ask? Two words: The League. First, there’s the TV show The League, which recently debuted on FX. It seems that one of the main hurdles for web video to flourish and make it onto a wider [mainstream?] radar is that it keeps up with, if not transcends, some of the latest offerings from corporate entertainment, i.e. The Man. But with programming like The League – whose debut episode I caught a good chunk of over the weekend, and which looks to be kicking some serious ass – that’s going to be a tall order. Meanwhile, on the internet itself, another The League, now six episodes in, also appears to making rather respectable inroads, nicely balancing fandom rituals and vernacular with some of the daily challenges of life.

Thanks to these two entries alone, Rules of the League appears to be, dare I say it, late for the game. Well, for those still on board, here’s the story: Joel Ballard has recently become unemployed from the L.A. Times (ouch, I can relate) and is aiming to make a career of his fantasy football blog, which had gotten him the Times job, and the job, in turn, had kept him from the blog.

One of writer/director Adam Kerpelman’s strengths is his use of cross-platform communication—texts to video, video chatting, onscreen email lists – to nicely illustrate our electro-centric lives.

Indie film and video site iKlipz quietly went under this summer, though one of its original web series commissions has managed to find some daylight on Funny or Die this week. The company folded while the show was in production on future episodes, so as of now Seth & Avi Show is just three episodes.

The bro-comedy is created by writing duo Seth Menachem and Avi Rothman, with each episode the pair playing themselves “Avi is continuously pulling his best friend Seth into sticky situations,” said Menachem when describing the setup. Incidentally, the series itself is a little preview of the pair’s in development series Partners which they recently sold to Starz.

Rothman is a familiar face around here as the star of Atom.com’s underrated gem Modern Day Jesus, which popped out last winter. Word is that they are pitching that series to Comedy Central for a possible half-hour TV pickup. Rothman’s co-creator from Modern Day Jesus, Oren Kaplan, directed the Seth & Avi Show along with Greg Thanos.

Menachem also launched a low-fi blog and interview series, Life Advice from Old People, that picked up some national press attention and even spawned an offshoot blog, Life Advice from Clergy. Somehow not surprisingly there are talks of a book deal in the works.

The Office crew proves they still have their web series juice with their latest online offshoot Subtle Sexuality, which first popped up two weeks ago before premiering October 29. Now the entire three-episode web series is now online including the finale (above), a tribute video “Male Prima Donna” about Kelly Kapoor’s on-again/off-againg boyfriend Ryan. And with musicals so hot right now, it’s not exactly a shocker that they went that route.

Also up now is a fully loaded site around the all-girl pop group formed by Kelley (Mindy Kaling) and Erin (Ellie Kemper). The band satisfies at least two of nutcase Kelly’s obsessions—pop celebrities and Ryan (B.J. Novak). And Andy (Ed Helms) gets to rock some more of his Cornell acapella skills.

And just like any good web series music video—The Guild’s megapop “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar” and Sparhüsen’s “Apples & Fish”—you can actually buy the video and track on iTunes. That part may be real but I think the tour dates might be suspect. Though if someone has bootlegs from the Finn McCool’s Open Mic in Scranton last night, please send it over.

Just for you fine Tubefilter readers, we have the limited edition Subtle Sexuality “World Tour” T-Shirt and CD to give away (see photo). Sure, it’s not the best thing we’ve given away but it’s also not the worst.

Here’s how it works: Just like the autographed Wes Craven DVD box set we gave away for the Fear Clinic launch, which went to @HorrorQueen13, we’re going to take all the names of people who tweet a link to this story on Twitter by Sunday night at 11:59 PM and put them in a random drawing hosted by Random.org. Winners will be announced on site next week.

We often lament about how web series rarely master the art of building buzz before its launch. Maybe it’s because web series marketing is sadly an afterthought on many of the lower budget projects. Some series are masters of the black art of buzz building—like say, The Guild and their 4 surprises at Comic-Con.

So when the PR folks behind MWG Entertainment’s Camera Obscura started their buzz campaign for the upcoming horror series, we took notice and went along for the ride. And we weren’t the only ones, major horror blogs DreadCentral, Fangoria, Monstorous and FEARnet all played along too, posting clips and exclusive photos in what appeared to be one of the freakiest looking online series to date.

The reported October 12th launch date turned into “late October” and then nothing. The show’s web site now lists a “coming fall 2009″ slug below the trailer.

While MWG, the same web studio behind My Two Fans and Road to the Altar, refused to comment on this specifically, we are told that they are “working towards a distribution deal” for the series.

Alternate Universe seems like a not-so-subtle attempt for Bourdain to reaffirm his crazy, hip, bad-ass image while pushing it to new limits. The marketing materials and the trailer bill the show as an invitation inside Tony’s head to see “his twisted imagination, mocking himself and others along the way,” the animation style screams Adult Swim, and the “I’m a rebel because I call out other chefs on their $@#%” motif runs rampant (at least in the preview). Mix all that together and the series is just a newfangled attempt for Bourdain to get in with the in-crowd. To me, it smells too contrived.

On the other hand, the fact that Bourdain has played host to two popular shows on cable television (A Cook’s Tour by Food Network and the aforementioned No Reservations on the Travel Channel) says that my tastes are in the minority. Come 2010, there will plenty of people who are going to eat this series up.

Break Media rolled out its latest branded original web series today, Social Sportz Net, with Southern Comfort signing on for the party. The whiskey maker—technically its a whiskey flavored liqueur—has been one of the most bullish in the digital space lately since announcing this summer it was moving its entire $10 million advertising budget online.

While the show’s branded page is pretty sparse and could use some design help, the show itself is a passable sendup of EPSN’s Sportscenter, with a running ticker of frat scores of beer pong and kick ball rolling by. It’s not quite the pitch-perfect lampoon of 24-hour cable news that is the Onion News Network, but SSN has some laughable moments.

It follows two twentysomething males—smack dab in the middle of Break’s heavily male 18-34 demo—competing in an eight episode arc to throw the most “killer house party.” Southern Comfort gets worked in of course, with different drink mixes written into each party episode—Halloween, Mardi Gras, Superbowl, etc. Though sadly the timid laws regulating spirits (booze) advertising means they couldn’t squeeze real comedy juice of house parties—no drunks, drink pounding or even a comedic puke here and there.

At its core the series is branded entertainment, the latest in a string of originals out of Break, who’s six-person Creative Lab has turned out over 80 brand-backed videos this year for over 25 clients. We talked to Jonathan Small, Head of Break’s Creative Lab and Editorial, who oversees the company’s original content properties.