Tubefilter News

“It was to be the greatest experiment ever attempted…to restore the Egyptian people, power and culture from long ago, but something went terribly wrong. Now female Egyptian clones roam the Earth, the clones lust for control and power threatens to destroy the rest of humanity…but the First One, has set out on her own, to correct a wrong…”

Explaining itself as “an immersible science-fiction web-series” in a press release, Journey is attempting some interesting experiments in indie web series production and distribution. First of all, each episode clocks in at a whopping half hour and is only available by purchase for $1.99 on the show’s website. Second, besides a Facebook fan page and a Facebook fan group page, they have done little to no promotion whatsover for the show (while they did submit a press release to Tubefilter, I actually discovered the show independently, through Facebook).

The creator of Journey, Fred Copeland, speaks energetically about the project. Having conceived of the idea over 20 years ago, you can tell this is a project close to his heart and he will often launch into details of the plot with an intricacy that comes from knowing your material inside and out. His plans for Journey extend far into the future: he hopes to continue the series for at least 5 years. But first things first, Russ Cooty (The Resolve) will be picking up the directing reigns for the show after July of next year.

Copeland’s goals in the web series world extend far beyond the show itself. “Journey is a stepping stone for us”, assures Copeland. His ultimate goal is to build a studio ranch where people can go to shoot productions and work on their projects for little to no cost. He explains that his desire to help stems from knowing what it’s like to be the underdog. He also explained that he learned everything he did by doing and wants to pass that on. Copeland has an architect on board to and projects that it could take 3 – 10 years. “That’s my masterplan,” Copeland stated with a laugh.

“It was to be the greatest experiment ever attempted…to restore the Egyptian people, power and culture from long ago, but something went terribly wrong. Now female Egyptian clones roam the Earth, the clones lust for control and power threatens to destroy the rest of humanity…but the First One, has set out on her own, to correct a wrong…”

Explaining itself as “an immersible science-fiction web-series” in a press release, Journey is attempting some interesting experiments in indie web series production and distribution. First of all, each episode clocks in at a whopping half hour and is only available by purchase for $1.99 on the show’s website. Second, besides a Facebook fan page and a Facebook fan group page, they have done little in terms of traditional PR for the show.

The creator of Journey, Fred Copeland, speaks energetically about the project. Having conceived of the idea over 20 years ago, you can tell this is a project close to his heart and he will often launch into details of the plot with an intricacy that comes from knowing your material inside and out. His plans for Journey extend far into the future: he hopes to continue the series for at least 5 years. But first things first, Russ Cooty (The Resolve) will be picking up the directing reigns for the show after July of next year.

Copeland’s goals in the web series world extend far beyond the show itself. “Journey is a stepping stone for us”, assures Copeland. His ultimate goal is to build a studio ranch where people can go to shoot productions and work on their projects for little to no cost. He explains that his desire to help stems from knowing what it’s like to be the underdog. He also explained that he learned everything he did by doing and wants to pass that on. Copeland has an architect on board to and projects that it could take 3 – 10 years. “That’s my masterplan,” Copeland stated with a laugh.

The problem with doing a show with clones as a concept is that you have multiple characters being played by the same actress. In the case of Journey, that concept gets taken even farther with multiple clones each with several incarnations. Karina Colon, Angelica Montesano and Mabriel Serrano headline the group of remarkably similar looking actors. It takes a bit of extra time to process what is going on and who is who. Some of the sound levels are a bit off as well, with the soundtrack being a bit overpowering at times. Which is a shame because the music crafted for the show itself is quite good at capturing the overall mood and tone of the series.

With less than a month until Sony’s much-anticipated action romp The Bannen Way premieres on Crackle.com, there are two dates you need to remember here: December 15, 2009 and Jan 6, 2010. The latter is of course the official online premiere, and the former is the first time the web community in LA will get to see what all the hype is about as we screen scenes from the series at the Hollywood Web TV Meetup.

Today we have an exclusive behind-the-scenes video (above) from Crackle with Bannen director, and co-creator, Jesse Warren. He talks about pulling off his imposing vision of stunts and action sequences and working with stars like Michael Ironside, Robert Forster, Vanessa Marcil, and of course his co-creator Mark Gantt who stars as Neal Bannen. Warren quips that the series is “like a guy’s wet dream,” full of cars, gambling, girls and assassins (who are also girls).

The Bannen Way is a slick, sexy, action-packed series about Neal Bannen, a charming con-man with a police chief for a father, a mob boss for an uncle, and a weakness for fine women, who wants to turn his life around and leave the criminal lifestyle for the straight and narrow. But after gambling away the funds he had earmarked to pay off his final debt Bannen must accept one more job working for his uncle, Mr. B and retrieve a mysterious black box.

Tiki Bar TV is back from hiatus and out with a new episode today (above) featuring The Guild’s Sandeep Parikh (aka Zaboo) as “The Commodore.” And just in time for the holidays (but not in time for out Holiday Gift Guide) the consummate merchandisers are out with a new line of t-shirts, many of which look like “Tiki Bart V.” [Tiki Bar TV]

Compulsions concluded its eight episode first season today with the release of Episode 8 “Promise Kept” today on Dailymotion. The dark thriller cruised past 118,000 views so far during its exclusive run on the video site, averaging around 14k per episode. Creator Bernie Su and the cast and crew were live last night on A Fangirl’s Guide with host Cricket Lee. [Compulsions]

SyFy Network may have ripped off the web series ClipCritics from creator Chad Sahley with its new series Outer Space Astronauts. The whole thing reminds Nalts, and us, of The Fine Brothers and the case of the eyebrow-raising coincidence that was LOST Untangled. [Will Video For Food]

London-based CAKE Entertainment has entered into a co-production deal for 52-episode short-form 3-D interactive adventure web series, If I Was…., created by young animator Junior Jesman, who was discovered by CAKE on Dailymotion. [WorldScreen.com]

Life in the 35th century doesn’t have to be dystopic. Well, then again, perhaps some amount of dystopia by then is inevitable. The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D., a new IFC animated series from Dash Shaw (no relation and based on his upcoming graphic novel) comes with its share of alienation and androids. Yet our view into Shaw’s future world is pleasantly intimate, and even subject to hints of romance.

The artful animation is the key. Mixing hand-painted cells with occasional light touches of CG, Unclothed Man conjures and then assimilates references ranging from Charles Burns’ comics, to Bill Plympton’s hand-drawn animation, to the painterly aesthetic of the late video artist Jeremy Blake.

On the story side, our protagonist Rebel X-6 is part of an anti-android organization that goes undercover to inhabit roles typically given to droids. His assignment, of all things, is to be a drawing class model. People still draw in the 35th century? Well, yes and no. The students/drawers use devices that give them the ability to draw with their eyes. The lines are produced by paths the eyes take through the scope of an appropriately futuristic drafting tool (which all is sort of similar to a device we currently have in the 21st century). Rebel X-6 fools the art teacher, who assumes he’s a model droid when he’s in fact a human subterfuge.

You know AFI, aka A Fire Inside, the goth-punk rock band probably most known for its 2006 hit ‘Miss Murder’. Thursday the band launched its first web series, In Tranmission, a making-of documentary for the band eighth studio album, Crash Love. The weekly series is an exclusive on music social media network Buzznet.

It’s not quite Wilco’s I Am Trying to Break Your Heart—the true benchmark of rock album chronicling. And unless you’re already a fan of AFI, it’s not likely you’ll be checking back weekly on this one. The opening episodes drag on with talking head shots of the band members—Adam Carson, Jade Puget, Hunter Burgan, and Davey Havok—explaining why “Torch Song” was picked to open the album. Though touted as “a rare and comprehensive look at the inner workings of a band that is normally shrouded in mystery,” it’s strikingly without any actual music in the two 5-minute episodes so far.

Everybody has at least one web series junkie on their holiday shopping list. And they are a special lot. They like to watch video—and make video—anywhere, any time and on any device. So we put together Tubefilter’s Web TV Junkie’s Holiday Gift Guide. No sponsored entries here, just a list of what we want most this holiday season (though in full disclosure, Kodak is a Streamy Awards sponsor). And since the Boxee Box doesn’t hit shelves till January, it didn’t make the list for this Holiday season. With tomorrow the first day of Hanukkah, it’s time to start shopping!

Roku HD-XR Player

Now that Roku rolled out its Channel Store, the floodgates of web series goodness have opened up on this set-top box —Blip.tv, Revision3 and more look even better on the HD flat screens. With no TiVo-style subscription fees to worry about, once you have a Roku box you can tap thousands of original web TV shows right into your big screens, in HD, for free. And even though they make a $79 standard def box, if you’re going to get one of these go for the king daddy of the group. The HD-XR comes with Wireless-N dual-band, designed for next generation high-speed networks, which is twice as fast as regular Wi-Fi. The company’s even offering a 30-day money back guarantee on the off chance you can’t handle this much streaming goodness.

$129.99

[Ed: This marks the debut of our new weekly web series reviews column Pass The Mustard. No sugar coating, no doublespeak, no hand holding. Just brutally honest reactions from one guy: Ned Hepburn. We'll throw a handful of web series at him each week. Agree, disagree, love him, hate him, but please don't punch him. Got something clever to say in retort? Leave a comment below. He'll probably read it and embarrass you later.]

Hey good lookin’. Thanks for showing up. I’m glad someone answered the craigslist ad. Do you want a glass of water? No? Ok, a little about myself. My name’s Ned. I write here and there and there. And you, quiet guy? Nothing? Alright, then let’s begin.

The Lake

Oh, boy. Maybe I just don’t like teen dramas. Maybe I just don’t like the WB. Maybe this whole thing feels like a WB teen drama that I can’t turn off. Man, when is there going to be a decent drama on the internet? This was a one way ticket to Yawnsville despite the actors best efforts. Ever run into an ex girlfriend at a coffee shop? That’s how they talk in this thing. There’s this one girl that talks only in mumbles. All these corporate web shows seem to think you can get by looking hyper glossy without any plot. It’s a shame, because the actors seem to be acting their actory hearts out yet I’m not invested in any of the characters. Not to get all “One Time I Read Robert Evans’ Biography” on you, but one time I read Robert Evans’ biography and he says “if its not on the page it’s not on the screen”. And this is just another prime example of that.

Sex Ed

I like it! This wants to be a hybrid between The O.C. and Porky’s 1,2, and 3. This sort of thing would tooootally fly on FOX or Showtime, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but yet there’s something so ridiculously “Los Angeles” about it that I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s cheesy as all hell, but at least it seems to know that. Much more than I can say for the vast majority of web shows that seem to think they’re doing some Michael Mann ‘visual jazz’ kind of thing. These guys at least know their demographic. If they relied a little less on the cheese and a little more of the snark I could actually see this being pretty mainstream successful…

Web series and web video bits worth clicking today:

Paramount Digital Entertainment’s debut web series drama Circle of Ei8ht released the season finale today (above) on MySpace. The studio hasn’t been shy about promoting the series using TV ad spots and even massive billboards to drive viewers online. [MySpace, DreadCentral]

Compulsions has broken the 100k views mark in just its second week of its exclusive run on web video site Dailymotion (which is promoting the series heavily, and yes, even on Tubefilter). Episode 6 “Ripen” debuted today with the final two of the season bowing this week. [Dailymotion]

YouTube announced today at Le Web Conference in Paris that it’s lauching an international sports channel with more than 2000 licensed sports videos called “Sports Hub.” To promote it and other licensed TV content, YouTube launched its first traditional press and outdoor ad campaign in the UK with the slogan: “YouTube’s got TV”. [Telegraph]

Felicia Day, creator-star of hit World of Warcraft inspired web series The Guild will be presenting at Spike TV’s Video Game Awards this Saturday night at 8PM ET on Spike. [Spike TV]

The Future of Dating? CBS web series The Tomorrow Show with Mo Rocca sent its correspondent Shira Lazar to explore one of her favorite topics—dating. [CBSnews.com]

A Comicbook Orange dropped its own season finale (below) today, wrapping up their fourth season from creator-host Casey McKinnon and Rudy Jahchan. The finale spotlights Brian Wood, creator of some of the best women characters in comics. There’s also a well placed Star Wars reference at the end. Our clearly biased favorite episode of the season is Jane Espenson talking Streamy. [A Comicbook Orange]