Tubefilter News

With the fall of some of the early web content studios like maniaTV, 60Frames and ABC/Disney’s Stage 9, there were some web series projects that went down with their ships that we thought might never see the light of day. Trenches, a sci-fi action series from creator Shane Felux was one such project. Our last check in with Felux was in August of 2008, when Stage 9 had released its pricey comedy series Squeegees to mixed results. A few months later ABC shuttered its nascent digital studio, leaving Trenches in distribution purgatory.

Now the series has found a new home, with Sony Pictures Television licensing the project from ABC to be released starting February 16, 2010 on Crackle. Set in the future on a a distant war torn planet, the story centers around two groups of opposing soldiers fighting against each other only to realize that the real enemy is something else. The 10-episode series, each one being about 5 to 7 minutes, will roll out with three on the first day and then continue steadily through March 5.

Shane Felux still describes himself as “a little indie guy making films in my basement.” He first popped onto the map of online fans—and ABC’s digital execs—with his breakout Star Wars Revelations fan film and follow-up, Pitching Lucas, which in 2006 won both the George Lucas Selects Award and the Audience Choice Award at the Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards at Comic-Con. When ABC execs called him up he ended up pitching what would become Trenches over the phone, using a mocked up web site that he built to walk them through the concept.

Felux, who directed and produced the series which was based on an original story by Felux’s wife Dawn Cowings and Sarah Yaworsky, pitched three different levels of the project to ABC—one being “easy and cheap,” another being “middle hard,” and then an “extremely hard” one. ABC asked for the latter, essentially “calling my bluff,” as Felux recalls. Though he thought it would take about $1 million to pull off that elaborate version, he was given a reported budget of $250,000, similar to what was spent on Squeegees.

This meant “calling in a lot of favors, and paying myself very little,” said Felux who still had to work his 9 to 5 day job while shooting. Still, he was able to assemble a talented ensemble cast that included Mercy Malick, Aaron Mathias, Micci Sampery, Lev Gorn, Hong Chau, Daz Crawford; Kelley Slagle , Scott Nankivel, Tom Reuel, Orlando Williams-De La Rosa, Chaney Tullos and Paul Stober. The shoot was in April of 2007 in Northern Virginia and Maryland and Felux and his crew managed to get through the 56 pages in 14 days, all the while balancing night shoots with his day job.

Want to be in an upcoming Weezer video? Barely Digital’s music parody web series Key of Awesome announced a contest today with Weezer’s River Cuomo (above) scouring the web for the funniest music videos (made for the web) of 2009. There are some pretty lengthy contest rules to look at, but basically they require entrants to actually submit their videos, which should mock or parody a popular music video. So I guess that means The Guild’s “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar” video isn’t eligible, but maybe a parody is?

The Video should not simply reproduce the original video(s) but should mock, comment on, or poke fun at the original music video or videos, including the music video’s subject matter, sound, style, musician(s) or actor(s) depicted therein, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation.

The web series, hosted Mark Douglas, launched this past fall as the latest addition to Next New Networks’ Barely Digital channel, which itself is a spinoff of Barely Political channel which shot to notoriety in 2007-08 with Obama Girl. Already Key of Awesome has racked up over 12 million views, according to NNN, with Barely Digital notching over 250 million on YouTube.

Submissions run for a week on the show’s site, and the winner gets a cameo in an upcoming Weezer video off their new album “Raditude.” Presumably none of Key of Awesome’s parodies are eligible in this contest, like their recent Jersey Shore rip (below) which incidentally made it on to MTV. Other targets : Twilight, Kittens on the Web and Lady Gaga.
The web series, hosted Mark Douglas, launched this past fall as the latest addition to Next New Networks’ Barely Digital channel, which itself is a spinoff of Barely Political channel which shot to notoriety in 2007-08 with Obama Girl. Already Key of Awesome has racked up over 12 million views, according to NNN, with Barely Digital notching over 250 million on YouTube.

Submissions run for a week on the show’s site, and the winner gets a cameo in an upcoming Weezer video off their new album “Raditude.” Presumably none of Key of Awesome’s parodies are eligible in this contest, like their recent Jersey Shore rip (below) which incidentally made it on to MTV. Other targets : Twilight, Kittens on the Web and Lady Gaga.

It’s the New Year and a good time to reassess your digital entertainment viewing options—especially if you’ve recently disconnected your cable box or satellite dish. If you can wait a few months, check out the new Boxee Box by D-Link. At CES this month, we spoke with Avner Ronen, Boxee’s CEO, and Andrew Kippen, VP of Marketing, about the new product, tips for choosing an Internet video streaming box that’s right for you, and other random topics, like the fact that an Australian company refuses to give up the boxee.com domain name!

Rarely does a product that isn’t available win so many awards at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). But this year Boxee managed to pull this off for its highly anticipated Boxee Box, which lets users watch Internet videos (and more) on their TV, is set to debut this Spring for $199 (US). With a sleek design created by Astro Studios, it picked up the Last Gadget Standing Award, as well as recognition from CNET, G4 and LAPTOP magazine, among others. For the past year-and-a-half, the Boxee team has been optimizing their technology for the popular Boxee platform that’s viewed on a computer desktop, as well as for the upcoming Boxee Box to view on a TV, with Blu-ray and other devices on the horizon.

For those of you not familiar with Boxee, it’s a visually attractive (and free) desktop application that you download to your computer. It helps you find and stay up-to-date with many of your favorite Internet-based videos, from Web TV shows to broadcast and cable shows available on the Web, as well as movies and music. (In techie lingo, it searches the Web and aggregates Web video content in one place to make it easier for you to find entertainment content.) Plus, it can add your personal collection of videos and music on your computer to the Boxee menu so you can find all of your digital entertainment – in one location.

With over 300 applications available to access videos, social media, music—and content partners such as TV.com, blip.tv, Revision3, Wired, IGN (for you gamers out there), and others—you’re bound to find something you like. Not all content is not free of charge (for example, you need a Netflix account in order to use the Netflix app), but the convenience of having one place from which to access and manage your ever-expanding universe of online entertainment favorites makes Boxee appealing.
Rarely does a product that isn’t available win so many awards at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). But this year Boxee managed to pull this off for its highly anticipated Boxee Box, which lets users watch Internet videos (and more) on their TV, is set to debut this Spring for $199 (US). With a sleek design created by Astro Studios, it picked up the Last Gadget Standing Award, as well as recognition from CNET, G4 and LAPTOP magazine, among others. For the past year-and-a-half, the Boxee team has been optimizing their technology for the popular Boxee platform that’s viewed on a computer desktop, as well as for the upcoming Boxee Box to view on a TV, with Blu-ray and other devices on the horizon.

For those of you not familiar with Boxee, it’s a visually attractive (and free) desktop application that you download to your computer. It helps you find and stay up-to-date with many of your favorite Internet-based videos, from Web TV shows to broadcast and cable shows available on the Web, as well as movies and music. (In techie lingo, it searches the Web and aggregates Web video content in one place to make it easier for you to find entertainment content.) Plus, it can add your personal collection of videos and music on your computer to the Boxee menu so you can find all of your digital entertainment – in one location.

With over 300 applications available to access videos, social media, music—and content partners such as TV.com, blip.tv, Revision3, Wired, IGN (for you gamers out there), and others—you’re bound to find something you like. Not all content is not free of charge (for example, you need a Netflix account in order to use the Netflix app), but the convenience of having one place from which to access and manage your ever-expanding universe of online entertainment favorites makes Boxee appealing.

Stun Creative released the third episode (above), “Crotch Bomb,” of their animated spoof web series Obamourage today on Atom, commemorating President Obama’s first year in office. The series, created by Brad Roth and Mark Feldstein follows the day-to-day life of President Obama and his cabinet—Rahm, Joe, Hillary, and Bo, the dog—as they all roll, “Obama-style.” [Atom.com]

Crackle’s Woke Up Dead from Electric Farm Entertainment has scored showcase.ca as Canadian online distributor of the comedy web series starring Jon Heder, Krysten Ritter, Josh Gad and Wayne Knight. Woke Up Dead’s 22 episodes will roll out on showcase.ca three times a week starting February 1, 2010 through the end of March. [Channel Canada]

Blue Movies rolled out a slick-looking Streamy Awards “For Your Consideration” site along with a video (below) showcasing the talent behind the indie comedy series like writer-director Scott Brown, and lead actors Jareb Dauplaise, Beck Bennett and Sascha Alexander. [Blue Movies]

Playing Dead a new dark comedy web series directed by Ted Raimi debuted this week, with musical help from horror rocker Curtis RX of Creature Feature on the soundtrack. Two ‘deathisodes’ are now up on the show’s site. See episode 1 below. [FEARnet]

This week I learned a lot about what makes web shows click. I believe that this is destiny, fate, or what have you. I have been sent here to teach you and school you in the ways of web series watching. This week we run the full gammut, from awful racist comedy to stoner sketch comedy to a (surprisingly good) comedy about a group of terrorists.

It appears we’ve come out of the baby-step stages of web shows and now the medium just needs to take the safety wheels off. I’ll be really simple right here. If you’re someone who makes web series, ask yourself these questions:

Who will watch this?
Why will they watch this? Why should I care about your show?
What will bring them back for more?
What is the focus?
Can I send lots of money to Ned so that he will give my show a great review? (answer: yes)
It seems basic, it seems sophomoric, but we’re still in the developing stages of web shows as an artistic medium. Consider me the ‘Rufus’ to your Bill & Ted. I will separate the wheat from the chaff as best I can, but until that point, here’s this weeks contenders.

Mister Chan: Misunderstood Man
This animated show focuses on Mister Chan and his Chinese restaurant and it’s racist and unfunny and two episodes in it’s boring. Sigh. I’m not looking for Citizen Kane here, people, but this just misses the mark entirely. It’s just sort of sad. It’s badly thought out, badly written, and so grossly unfunny it almost conversely becomes funny. Look, its shows like this that make people think webshows are a sub-par medium. People really need to stop making shows like this, because when The Wire of internet shows comes along (and it will) people will put it next to crap like this and as per the law of averages shitty shows like this will bring down the entire medium.

I’m all for bad jokes and vaguely racial humor but this misses the mark so entirely I had to – and I’m not making this up – take a walk around the block just to get back in the mood of watching more web shows.

Intel isn’t just inside our computers these days. They’re in our TVs too. These smart chips power widgets available on Internet-connect HDTVs, and are also in a number of set-top boxes and Blu-ray players that stream Internet content to our TV screens. In fact, Intel’s Digital Home Group has a global team of social scientists who conduct in-depth research in the homes of people around the world to learn how consumers across cultures interact with all types of technology, including their TVs.

Cory Booth, a Human Factors Engineer in Intel’s User Experience Group, explains why Intel cares about our digital entertainment experience and shows off some cool futuristic TV channel changing technology to help make our viewing more engaging.

People want the power of the Internet on their TV – but not necessarily the Internet experience they have now. While consumers are open to the concept of new Internet services and more interactive control, they also tell Intel research teams that they want their TV experience to be uncomplicated and reliable – with no blue screens, driver software or other complications. One of the things consumers like most about TV is that they can just push a button and it works. They also like TV’s flexibility, the way it blends into their lives, and the fact that the TV experience can be shared with others.

Check out more interesting findings about TV viewers they studied in The Changing TV Experience. It’s a must-read for those of you who enjoy following trends in entertainment technology.

Ripped video content online is as old as the technology of streaming video itself. Some would argue it’s what really helped push online video into mainstream. But now that business models are emerging where creators—and the sites that host their content —are making money, it’s more important than ever for content owners to monitor the web for stolen versions and take direct action to get them removed.

Tim Street, creator of the popular “how-to” web series French Maid TV, just recently found that some of the videos (see above) from his series—like the “How to Register a Domain Name” episode—had been ripped, with new title cards added, and then uploaded to ad-supported MTV/Viacom-owned Spike.com without his permission. The offender, a site called TrickLife.com, which claims to be the “#1 How-To Video Site,” added animated title cards and stripped away any references to French Maid TV’s sponsor of the video, GoDaddy.

Through a WHOIS lookup, we found that the TrickLife.com domain is registered to a company in the British Virgin Islands called Greencove Services Ltd., though the hosting of the site is done by Chicago-based ISP Reflected Networks, outlines its non-tolerance for copyright infringement on its servers in its privacy policy. TrickLife also has a Facebook group, which is run by Kyle Waring, a self-described “entertainment publisher for a network of 170 websites,” who’s firm, New York-based Internet Assets Inc. owns the site along several others like online games site Bored.com.

We talked to Waring on the phone, who said that it’s challenging managing 170 sites with a limited staff, many of which have user-submitted content. “We’re cracking down on accepting user submissions,” Waring said, noting that they recently laid off a moderator for TrickLife.com that was responsible for monitoring content submissions for copyright compliance. “We do have a legal department that will handle all DMCA requests,” he added. In terms of revenue, Waring noted that the site “doesn’t really generate a lot of money” and says they are planning on closing down TrickLife in the near future.

For Street, he’s seen his video content reposted before, and while he has some tolerance for embedding his videos on other sites, said that this ripping crossed the line. “I understand that we are all trying to figure out how to make money with online videos but to scrape someone’s content, stick it in your own player and then throw advertising on it is pretty bad,” he said. “I’ve had this happen a few times before and I’ve asked that the perps take down my videos and they have.”

“Most video sharing sites have embeds that you can grab and stick on your site,” added Street. “That’s the way you should be sharing video that has a copyright. Maybe you could even throw in a link as well. Google alerts are a great, free way to see who’s posting your content. Then you can go see if they are using video embeds that you have approved or if they have stolen your content and not giving you any link love.”

See the original video below, which runs pre-roll ads through Blip.tv:
Tim Street, creator of the popular “how-to” web series French Maid TV, just recently found that some of the videos (see above) from his series—”How to Register a Domain Name”—had been ripped, with new title cards added, and then uploaded to ad-supported MTV/Viacom-owned Spike.com without his permission. The offender, a site call TrickLife.com, which claims to be the “#1 How-To Video Site,” added animated title cards and stripped away any references to French Maid TV’s sponsor of the video, GoDaddy.

Through a WHOIS lookup, we found that the TrickLife.com domain is registered to a company in the British Virgin Islands called Greencove Services Ltd., though the hosting of the site is done by Chicago-based ISP Reflected Networks, outlines its non-tolerance for copyright infringement on its servers in its privacy policy. TrickLife also has a Facebook group, which is run by Kyle Waring, a self-described “entertainment publisher for a network of 170 websites,” who’s firm, New York-based Internet Assets Inc. owns the site along several others like online games site Bored.com.

We talked to Waring on the phone, who said that it’s challenging managing 170 sites with a limited staff, many of which have user-submitted content. “We’re cracking down on accepting user submissions,” Waring said, noting that they recently laid off a moderator for TrickLife.com that was responsible for monitoring content submissions for copyright compliance. “We do have a legal department that will handle all DMCA requests,” he added. In terms of revenue, Waring noted that the site “doesn’t really generate a lot of money” and says they are closing down TrickLife.

For Street, he’s seen his video content reposted before, and he has some tolerance for it, but noted that this ripping crossed the line. “I understand that we are all trying to figure out how to make money with online videos but to scrape someone’s content, stick it in your own player and then throw advertising on it is pretty bad,” he said. “I’ve had this happen a few times before and I’ve asked that the perps take down my videos and they have.”

“Most video sharing sites have embeds that you can grab and stick on your site,” added Street. “That’s the way you should be sharing video that has a copyright. Maybe you could even throw in a link as well. Google alerts are a great, free way to see who’s posting your content. Then you can go see if they are using video embeds that you have approved or if they have stolen your content and not giving you any link love.”

See the original video below, which runs pre-roll ads through Blip.tv:
Tim Street, creator of the popular “how-to” web series French Maid TV, just recently found that some of the videos (see above) from his series—”How to Register a Domain Name”—had been ripped, with new title cards added, and then uploaded to ad-supported MTV/Viacom-owned Spike.com without his permission. The offender, a site call TrickLife.com, which claims to be the “#1 How-To Video Site,” added animated title cards and stripped away any references to French Maid TV’s sponsor of the video, GoDaddy.

Through a WHOIS lookup, we found that the TrickLife.com domain is registered to a company in the British Virgin Islands called Greencove Services Ltd., though the hosting of the site is done by Chicago-based ISP Reflected Networks, outlines its non-tolerance for copyright infringement on its servers in its privacy policy. TrickLife also has a Facebook group, which is run by Kyle Waring, a self-described “entertainment publisher for a network of 170 websites,” who’s firm, New York-based Internet Assets Inc. owns the site along several others like online games site Bored.com.

We talked to Waring on the phone, who said that it’s challenging managing 170 sites with a limited staff, many of which have user-submitted content. “We’re cracking down on accepting user submissions,” Waring said, noting that they recently laid off a moderator for TrickLife.com that was responsible for monitoring content submissions for copyright compliance. “We do have a legal department that will handle all DMCA requests,” he added. In terms of revenue, Waring noted that the site “doesn’t really generate a lot of money” and says they are closing down TrickLife.
Tim Street, creator of the popular “how-to” web series French Maid TV, just recently found that some of the videos (see above) from his series had been ripped, with new title cards added, and then uploaded to ad-supported MTV/Viacom-owned Spike.com without his permission. The offender, a site call TrickLife.com, which claims to be the “#1 How-To Video Site,” added animated title cards and stripped away any references to French Maid TV’s sponsor of the video, GoDaddy. Through a WHOIS lookup, we found that TrickLife.com domain is registered to a company in the British Virgin Islands called Greencove Services Ltd., though the hosting of the site is done by Chicago-based ISP Reflected Networks, outlines its non-tolerance for copyright infringement on its servers in its privacy policy. TrickLife also has a Facebook group, which is run by Kyle Waring, a self-described “entertainment publisher for a network of 170 websites,” who’s firm, New York-based Internet Assets Inc. owns the site along several others like online games site Bored.com.

We talked to Waring, who said that it’s challenging managing 170 sites with a limited staff, many of which have user-submitted content. “We’re cracking down on accepting user submissions,” Waring said, noting that they recently laid off a moderator for TrickLife.com that was responsible for monitoring content submissions for copyright compliance. “We do have a legal department that will handle all DMCA requests,” he added. In terms of revenue, Waring noted that the site isn’t making that much money and says they are closing down TrickLife.

Web TV network Revision3 issued an open offer letter to NBC’s The Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien to take his show online. After the embattled late night star rejected a proposal from NBC to move the show to another time slot, there are talks of a separation agreement, in the $30-40 million range, letting O’Brien leave the peacock network as Jay Leno prepares to take back over the 11:30 PM time slot. So flush with cash from the settlement, and perhaps in a coup de grâce to NBC, O’Brien could take his popular show to the internet.

Revision3′s VP of Programming and Production Ryan Vance made the open offer, which they say is a serious one, to Conan “Coco” O’Brien today on the company’s blog. The growing online network essentially built itself on high-profile hosts—like Diggnation’s Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht—though O’Brien would clearly be the biggest personality they’ve had yet, and that includes a stint with Gary Vaynerchuk and his Wine Library TV! Vance said they are offering up the “keys to the kingdom” to O’Brien, and also noted that co-host Andy Richter is also invited.

I’m taking this opportunity to officially offer you a brand-new show of your choosing here at Revision3. Rest assured, you’ll be able to bring your set, band and even Andy (especially Andy) with you as you transition to our cutting-edge online TV network. We have room for the Masturbating Bear, FedEx Pope and even Mini Jay Leno here on the internet.

…

I know you’re also weighing countless job offers from extended cable networks and hardcore porn channels. Just know we serve more videos than your average porn site (not true) and have more viewers than your average extended cable network (true).

To sum up, Conan, you have the keys to the kingdom here at Revision3. You want to change our studio around? Done. Want to move any of our existing shows to 10pm Please do. Want to give Andy his own show so he can finally truly control the universe? Done. You name the game, we’ll make it happen.

Other benefits:
- A fantastic creative and supportive working environment
- No network censors
- Top notch adsales team monetizing your show
- Complimentary broadband
- “Competitive” salary (you’re going to have more money than Oprah from NBC, so what do you care?!)
- Managed social media strategy, building a dedicated audience around your show
- Decent benefits

The web has yet to have a ‘late night’ talk show with the caliber of someone like Conan. Several celebs have spun up web chat shows, some of which are holding their own like Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, but others seem to have faded away like Crackle’s Anytime with Bob Kushell.