by Marc Hustvedt on February 12th, 2010
More “For Your Consideration” screenings are popping up as Academy voters are starting to parse through the thousands of web series submissions for the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards. After a well attended Blue Movies and Fall of Kaden screening earlier this month, four independent web series have teamed up for a screening of their own in Hollywood on February 19th at 7:30 PM. Hosted by Safety Geeks SVI creators Dave Beeler and Tom Konkle the night will feature episodes of their VFX-laden romp series along with fellow comedies GOLD, Space Hospital and Life with Kat & McKay.
From the invite page (where anyone can RSVP):
Life is tough for International Academy of Web Television members right now: buried under piles of screening materials, staring out the windows, yearning to be free. We understand, and think you should get out. Stretch your legs. Perhaps wander into Hollywood, to a place where web shows are screening in a lovely environment where you can kick-back and just watch. With drinks. That’s our wish for you.
To that end, you are invited to this special For Your Consideration web series screening event at Cinespace Hollywood, where each featured show will offer a sampling of episodes for your consideration for the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards.
by Jenni Powell on February 12th, 2010
FEARnet continuts to hold its rank at the #1 Internet site for horror and thriller entertainment and news by launching today its new web series Post Mortem With Mick Garvis. On the surface, it’s an interview show featuring some of the biggest names in horror such as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Tobe Hooper, John Landis, just to name a few. But what’s unique about this series is that its host is himself is one of the sci-fi and horror genre’s favorite producers, writers and directors and has created such chilling series as the award-winning anthology Masters of Horror. Tubefilter had a chance to chat with Garvis via e-mail about his experience being a part of FEARnet’s newest screamfest (albeit a conversational one).
by Pam Kulik on February 12th, 2010
Google was on fire this week – the search giant announced two new services and incurring the wrath of yet another country – this time Iran. Not only are they getting into the residential broadband business with an experimental fiber-optic network that would boost Internet speeds by 100%, but they are offering a new social media feature with Google Buzz, which builds community around relationships you have with fellow Gmail users. And Iran, leading up to the government’s annual celebration of their dictatorial revolution, announced this week that it would permanently shut down Gmail access to citizens. Google initially reported a significant drop in traffic in Iran due to increased cyber attacks on its popular Gmail service. [TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal Online]
US TV shows are key to Apple’s iPad entertainment strategy. Taking advantage of the iPad’s luxurious 10 inch screen, Apple is upping the ante on its iTunes TV show downloads business, pushing hard on networks to make their programming available for $1 per episode (half the current price) to coincide with the iPad hitting stores in late March/early April. Programmers are understandably hesitant to reduce prices, but Apple is usually successful at enticing partners to do what they want by flaunting their 120 million active accounts with credit card information – especially valuable for lucrative impulse buy moments. They also floated an all-you-can-view monthly TV show subscription package via iTunes. Sounds like Apple is ready to take on Hulu. [Financial Times]
Bye, Bye Veoh – Online video start-up Veoh, which offers movies, TV shows and user generated content and attracts 28 million viewers per month, burned through $70 million in funding from Intel, Time Warner and Goldman Sachs and filed for bankruptcy yesterday. How did they manage to go belly-up in the middle of an online video entertainment boom? [PC Magazine]
by Marc Hustvedt on February 11th, 2010
Johnny B. Homeless, the festival-darling comedy web series (trailer above) from creator-star Al Thompson may be heading to Atom.com as according to sources close to the deal. After screening to a full house at ITVFest in LA last summer, the series headed to New York where won NYTVF’s People’s Choice Award. [Sources]
Crackle and The American Cinematheque are hosting a screening of the full season of The Bannen Way this Friday in Hollywood, followed by a Q&A with Robert Forster, Michael Ironside, Michael Lerner, Jesse Warren and Mark Gantt to follow. Looks like Goldstar is selling 50% off tickets for $5.50 (normally $11), so save a few bucks while you can. [Goldstar]
Felicia Day is hosting a signing event to kick off the launch of her hit web series The Guild’s new comic from Dark Horse Comics which hits shelves March 24. The cocktail party and comic book signing will be March 26th at 6pm at Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles. [Whedonopolis]
Take180 likes having fun with spoof videos (in between web series releases like I <3 Vampires today). The latest video (below) mixes two things that have proven gold mines of web satirists lately—MTV’s The Jersey Shore and Apple’s new iPad. [Mashable]
Break Media, which owns male-centric video site Break.com and a host of other content hubs like HolyTaco, MadeMan and Chickipedia, has acquired gaming site FileFront today. The move bolsters its foothold with gamers through FileFront’s heavy network of more than 75 game-specific sites. [VentureBeat]
by Jenni Powell on February 11th, 2010
With its obvious parody to the drama behind the Twilight saga (no, I don’t mean the books or movies themselves but to the reality of the fifth book in the Twilight series getting leaked to the internet before its completion…and the drama that ensued), season 1 of I <3 Vampires was pretty much guaranteed a healthy audience and helped garner the online network Take180 more than 40 million video views to date. This week saw the launch of Season 2 of the popular web series.
But it isn’t the subject matter of the show that was its only appeal. Like all Take180 shows, interaction plays a key role and fans are encouraged and even rewarded for their participation.
In fact, fans of the show have been begging for a season 2 almost as soon as the season 1 finale went online. In the hiatus, they were treated to behind-the-scenes videos hosted by Adam Chambers, who plays Wyatt on the show and has proven to be one of the show’s most popular characters. Then, to get even more meta, about a month ago, Wyatt himself began video blogging as a way to cope with having discovered he’d become a vampire hunter at the end of season 1. Fans watched him as he discovered his powers…and as his relationship with his girlfriend, Luci (played by Erin Way), deteriorated.
The first episode of season 2 picks up a year after season 1. Viewers not familiar with the show are greeted with a very extensive “Previously On”, so to make it easier to jump right in. We find that Corbin (played by Cherilyn Wilson), once the self-proclaimed #1 “Confessor” (fans of the Confessions series, the vampire novels of the series), now not only wants to have nothing to do with the fact that the movie based on the second novel has come out but is no longer on speaking terms with her Confessor BFF-for-life, Luci. But when an unexpected visitor shows up, Corbin learns that her fangirl life won’t be that easy to run away from.
by Marc Hustvedt on February 10th, 2010
Don’t Move Here, a new web series exploring the Portland music scene debuted online at WK Entertainment, which is Wieden+Kennedy’s new music hub. The episodes are only viewable at the show’s site, but the trailer can be seen above. [Cool Hunting]
Credit reporting agency Experian has launched a new branded entertainment web series The Funny Truth About Credit produced by Edelman PR’s MATTER division and Swift River Productions. The 6-episode series features a number of celebs like Vivica Fox, Michael Madsen, Jon Lovitz and Danny Glover sharing some lessons about personal credit.
Televisual put together a rather comprehensive list of all the gay and lesbian themed web series out there right now. Way more on there than you’d think, with more notable series Anyone But Me, Joni & Susanna, 3Way and Venice lined up with lesser known entrants like In the Moment, Rise of the Seer, Drama Queenz, Jack in a Box and Argentina’s Plan V. [Televisual]
US web viewers watched 33 billion online videos in December 2009, according to the latest report out of comScore. Also notable is the average duration of online video is continuing to move upward, now reaching 4.1 minutes. And YouTube is still king of the video sites, with 134.4 million viewers watching more than 13 billion videos on the site in December. [comScore]
Crackle is hosting a live stream of Wyclef Jean’s Haiti benefit concert from The Canal Room in New York starting tonight at 4:30 PM (PT). The stream is part of their newly launched “Live Sets” series sponsored by Sony Electronics’ make.believe campaign. [Crackle]
by Marc Hustvedt on February 10th, 2010
Stan Lee is taking his comic book icon status to the web, in the form of his first original comic web series Super Seven, which will debut in the fall. The project is a collaboration between Lee’s POW! Entertainment, Archie Comics and branded entertainment studio A Squared Entertainment.
In true multimedia spirit, Super Seven will touch almost all platforms frequented by comic book fans—print, online, on air and retail channels.
It’s the story about seven aliens who find themselves stranded on planet Earth after their spaceship crashes, only to be befriended by none other than Lee himself. Taking them under his care, Lee becomes their leader and enables them to resume their lives as superheroes on earth.
“Nothing is more exciting to me, as a writer, than creating a new type of story or introducing a new theme,” said Lee in the announcement. “Although I’ve briefly appeared in other comics, Super Seven is the first time that I’ll actually be a continuing character in a far-out, original superhero series.”
LA-based A Squared Entertainment which is run by Andy Heyward and Amy Moynihan Heyward, most recently rolled out two web series starring business icons Warren Buffett (Secret Millionaire’s Club), Martha Stewart (Martha and Friends) and supermodel Gisele Bündchen (Gisele & the Green Team)
by Marc Hustvedt on February 10th, 2010
If you were closely following Barely Digital’s Key of Awesome contest (as we were) over the past few weeks, then this is new isn’t exactly a surprise. But for those that didn’t, today came official word that “Fast Food Folk Song” (above) by Rhett & Link (Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal) emerged victorious amongst the twelve finalists in the show’s “Contest of Awesome.” What do they win? How about appearing in the next Weezer music video from the band’s new album Raditude.
Rhett & Link have been YouTube standouts for a while, and the North Carolina-based duo have cranked out over 200 videos, many of them music videos. So if Vegas oddsmakers were taking action on this contest, they would have most likely been 2-1 favorites. Their “Fast Food Folk Song” debuted online back in April of last year, and has since breezed passed the 2 million view mark. The real-life musical order at a Taco Bell drive thru, taking a nod to hidden camera fast food ad spots like Sonic’s drive-thru ambushes, the video found what could quite possibly be the best Taco Bell employee ever.
Next New Networks has in fact scored a hit with Key of Awesome, its latest series under the Barely Digital network banner. Launched back in October of last year, the weekly music and pop culture parody web series has already reached the 25 million viewer mark, with an average of 5 million per month. A list of highlight list of episodes worth watching: Lady Gaga, The Dark Knight, Twilight and The Jersey Shore and their latest episode, “Kei$ha Tik Tok.”
