by Marc Hustvedt on December 4th, 2009
Web series and online video tid-bits worth clicking today:
Compulsions Episode 4 (below) came out today, with After Judgment’s Taryn O’Neill taking a seat in Craig Frank’s empty warehouse of fun. And is it just us, or is Annemarie Pazmino the best looking office IT Tech we’ve ever seen? [Dailymotion]
Private the series is giving away a gaggle of free swag just in time to give to your 13 year-old cousin. T-shirts, novels and a signed posted from the teen queen cast. [Alloy]
Planet Green, Discovery Channel’s offshoot cable network, is launching its own daily web series, Planet 100, which will blaze through the top environmental stories of the day in 100 seconds or less. [C21 Media]
Hidden Valley Ranch is jumping in the branded entertainment scene by sponsoring NBC Universal Digital Studio’s new original web series, Garden Party, which will be getting featured placement on iVillage.com [MediaPost]
GOOD Magazine’s Big Ideas web series on Babelgum has a clever idea from high school student Gustavo Barceloni—The Energym—a human power plant that doubles as a gym. Free gym memberships for some free renewable electricity? Sounds fair to me. [Babelgum]
by Jake Weaver on December 4th, 2009
So there are these three Mexican transvestites, Kay Sedia (Oscar Quintero), Chita Parol (Ray Garcia), and Frieda Laye (Danny Casillas), who work for a private detective agency. They run around in their cha-cha heels solving crimes while taking orders from and reporting to their boss, Chico, who is never seen, only heard. Sounds familiar, right?
The premise of Chico’s Angels is freaking brilliant. Seriously brilliant. I hear about a trio of Latino cross-dressers doing anything and I’m in, be it a train wreck of sexual and cultural ambiguity or a great riff on the magic of Charlie’s Angels. But does Chico’s Angels deliver on the promise of funny and sultry private investigating to a salsa-driven soundtrack? Well, that’s kind of where the rub is for me.
You see Kay, Chita, and Frieda bedazzled in costumes more fitting for South Beach than crime fighting and you think you’re in for an entertainment pinata that’s going to burst with candy coated bits of awesome. But then the jokes are hit and miss, the production value isn’t the greatest, and at most times the pacing is just plain off. The Angels themselves, I like. The characters are solid. The website delves deep into their backgrounds, fleshing out histories and adding clever context. In the videos, the ladies pull off, poke fun at, and celebrate every “Mesican” tranny stereotype under the Southern California sun.
by Marc Hustvedt on December 3rd, 2009
Neil Patrick Harris stars in a CBS-approved mashup video (above) of his best Barney Stinson lines from How I Met Your Mother with holiday classic Frosty the Snowman. “Frosty the Inappropriate Snowman” looks to boost interest in the network’s animated Frosty specials airing later this month. [THRfeed]
SciFinal loves sci-fi web series. The new site aims to be “one-stop shop for independent sci-fi online.” Shows like After Judgment, Zerk’s Log and Fury of Solace can all be found there, and plans for their own original series are underway. [SciFinal]
Retro-futuristic sci-fi soap opera (!) web series Space Hospital, from Second City alums Sigurd Ueland and Robert Poe, launched its second season today, promising “More Robots, More Nurses and a Whole Lot of Lovin’ [emailed release]
Another retrotastic web series Venus Spa, just ended its first season on YouTube, with a four-part finale they are calling the “Venus 4×4.” A second season is prepping for early 2010 shooting. [YouTube]
Tiger Woods heads to Google for help with his recent “transgressions” in a new gem of a screencast video. [Slate V]
Streamy Awards programs make great stocking stuffers and pretty decent bathroom reading. KoldCast TV has limited edition programs for sale from the 1st Annual show. [KoldCast.tv]
Autostraddle needs help naming their new web series starring Nat Garcia. Best options so far from their interns are ”
Veronica Belmont, the darling internet-famo host of TekZilla
by Marc Hustvedt on December 3rd, 2009
Blip.tv has around 38,000 web shows on its site, according to their team, so it’s not every day that they put out a press release when a show signs on with the New York-based video site. But this one today, the news that Gary Vaynerchuk’s Obsessed with Samantha Ettus web talk show has jumped from Viddler over to blip.tv seemed to warrant one.
The 30-minute hosted web series features Ettus, a bestselling author and co-creator of Obsessed TV, interviewing celebrities and other interesting people she finds captivating. She casts a pretty wide net in terms of who she sits down for her one-on-ones with—TV weatherman Al Roker, NY Jets running back Thomas Jones and designer Frederic Fekkai. The format is a bit more high energy and motivational than say Kevin Pollak’s web chat show, which stays more in the comedy world with its guests. Not exactly a surprise with internet’s ‘social media sommelier’ Gary V behind it.
“We’re creating the online version of Charlie Rose, but we realized quickly that a successful web show can’t live as a destination alone; it needs a powerful distribution engine behind it,” said Ettus about the show’s new exclusive home.
Naturally, the show will spilt ad revenues made on the show 50/50 with blip.tv. Speaking of ad revenues, blip.tv hasn’t been shy about the fact they have had a terrific fourth quarter in terms of ad sales, stating a recent blog post:
by Marc Hustvedt on December 2nd, 2009
Wowzas. We’ve been hot on Jon M. Chu’s upcoming dance-laden web series The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers for a while now, but this is getting to a new level. The group appeared tonight on FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance, and blew away the competition. These guys are AMAZING. Seriously, watch the clip above from the show. (right now)
We’re starting to think this could be the first truly international blockbuster web series. And now that Paramount Digital has jumped on board with Agility Studios for a major online distribution push, it just might get there.
No Special effects. No Wires. Real People, Real powers.
We call this project THE LXD.
“The LXD allows us to evolve how we tell stories using dance while creating a platform for the best dancers in the world to do what they do best,” said Jon M. Chu. “For the past year, my team and I have been locked in a room secretly building a project that combines music, dance, story telling, sport and interactive media.”
The dance segment above was choreographed by Harry Shum, Christopher Scott, and Galen Hooks, all of whom are members of The LXD.
by Marc Hustvedt on December 2nd, 2009
YouTube planning a live streaming push? In a recent interview with YouTube’s Hunter Walk, he confidently hinted that “There is really no particular technology challenge to us delivering any type of video.” Speculation is still abound as to whether they’ll tee off against (or just buy one of) the upstart live portals like UStream, Justin.tv, Livestream or Stickam. [NewTeeVee]
Web Series Pin-Up Calendar? Sure, why not. If you’ve got it flaunt it. Indie comedy series Safety Geeks: SVI launched their very own cal with cast member and former Playboy Playmate Brittney Powell. We’ll have to make room in the office for this one right next to our Tiki Bar TV pin-up cal from Lala (yes, we really have one). [Amazon]
Break.com is offering up some holiday cash ($600) for successfully pie-ing your Aunt Rita in the face. The site is offering the cash, as they often do, for entries into the “Holiday Fails” contest making it to the homepage. [Break.com]
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century still gets sci-fi junkies going. The teaser trailer (below) to the upcoming web series, which is really just a fancy looking spaceship flying by, hit the internets today. The project was first announced back in January, and has taken its time so far. [Sci-Fi Block]
John Hodgman talks Apple’s Tablet PC on Diggnation today (bel0w). Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht interviewed Hodgman, (you know the “PC” from Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads) and Albrecht quipped that he “was shocked at how cheap the price point is going to be.” As expected the Apple blogs are going nuts about this.
by Marc Hustvedt on December 2nd, 2009
It’s funny how The Bannen Way has come full circle, so to speak. The long-awaited action series after all started its buzz-filled journey from spec indie to Sony-backed studio project with just a flashy trailer over a year ago. Of course the full series wasn’t actually shot back then, so the release of the actual HD trailer on Crackle.com this week is getting quite a stir going.
As Streamy-winning Pink director Blake Calhoun joked today on Twitter, “I didn’t realize Guy Ritchie was now directing web series ;)”
For LA-based folks, or those heading to the city, they will get an exclusive first hand look at the new series with never-before-seen footage. That, and we have The Bannen Way creators Jesse Warren and Mark Gantt (who also stars as con-man Neal Bannen) dishing on what “Going Pro” really means. Also speaking is the man who signs the deals over at Crackle, Sony SVP Eric Berger. RSVP for Tubefilter’s Hollywood Web TV Meetup early, since this one is sure to sell out again.
by Marc Hustvedt on December 2nd, 2009
Revision3 continued is aggressive addition of shows today with the re-launch of LandlineTV, bringing the popular YouTube partners over to its online network. The Brooklyn-based sketch comedy series was one of YouTube’s higher quality productions, often hitting topical subjects live blockbusters, TV shows, and sports with their signature satire. The group’s most popular video—Transformers 2: CGI Megan Fox Even Hotter This Time—racked up over 5.3 million views on YouTube earlier this summer.
Paul Briganti, Saj Pothiawala and Jared Neumark make up the core group of LandlineTV, all of which were able to quit their various day jobs to work on the show full time. A few months back the group was creating comedy ads for Regus shared office space that ended up shown in the back seat TV screens of NYC taxicabs and local movie theaters. Luckily enough, a Rev3 intern spotted one of those Regus ads and share them with the office, which led to them signing on with the SF-based network.
For cast, the group has tapped the deep pool of comedy talent from New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) classes. Their latest spoof, a look at Avatar director James Cameron’s crack-like addiction to special effects (above) features—Tim Martin, Charlie Todd, Michael Dubin, Jonathan Fernandez, Jill Donnelly, Jared Neumark, Ben Rodgers and Mike Antonucci.
Like most Revision3 series, new episodes will be out every week. Though it is an exclusive deal with the network, they are still using LandlineTV’s established YouTube channel to push out new episodes, all of which will carry Revision3′s sponsor messaging with them. For now it looks like Revision3 sponsor Gamefly is the chosen one for the first run.
