Tubefilter News

Next New Networks announced today the latest batch of shows to be accepted into their Next New Creators program. Created in 2009, the program is designed to assist independent creators as they create, distribute, promote, package and monetize their web series.

The shows vary widely from girls-to-guys dating advice show The Wing Girls to two cooking shows to be added to the Hungry Nation food network: film and music video director Tamra Davis’ Tamra Davis Cooking Show and Rossella Rago’s Cooking with Nonna. Joining the Barely Political network, which already houses the wildly popular The Key of Awesome, is the animated sketch pop-culture comedy series Landline TV.

Diversity is obviously celebrated by Next New Networks. “In the case of the Tamra Davis Cooking Show, we’re partnering with a top film director who is embracing a new medium,” said Kathleen Grace, vice president of programming at Next New Networks. “As we continue to build momentum with Next New Creators, there’s no doubt that the program will continue to attract more unique perspectives and artists.”

Babelgum has always had a great eye for sci-fi comedy and today they launched into orbit Date a Human to join such popular series as The Crew and Hurtling Through Space at an Alarming Rate on their sci-fi comedy channel. But this one is for the ladies…or at least ladies who would be interested in seeing Charlie O’Connell naked.

Now that I have your attention: Date a Human follows interplanetary cutie Allie through the trials and tribulations of being a single human woman in a world full of single human men who just want her for her ability to repopulate the planet. Her roommate Ruthie, an alien sex kitten (pretty literally), turns her on to the dating site DateaHuman.com where she can try to find a man…er, alien, that loves her, not her eggs.

Directed by Joy Gohring, it is delightful to see a “female” series that still isn’t afraid to bring a little bit of raunchiness to their material (did I mention Charlie O’Donnell naked yet? Oh I did? Well, he’s naked). The lead roles of best friends Allie and Ruthie are cleverly performed by Anne Griffin and Brook Lyons, respectively. With three episodes live and three episodes on the way, I can already tell I hope Allie doesn’t settle down because with 168 hits her first day on DateaHuman.com, there are seasons and seasons of aliens to date.

And despite all the naked Charlie O’Connell mentions: dudes, you’ll like this series too.

Survivor, eat your heart out: Vault 12 takes the concept of a group of people trying to survive in harsh conditions, throws it 40 feet underground and locks the door for an entire year. And Jeff Probst will definitely not be there to take your torch if you don’t make it.

Creator Russ McCullough originally developed the concept as an independent film of 12 people trying to survive the end of the world but right before production, he and his investors decided it would make a better TV reality show. But being disillusioned with the “unreal”ness of reality TV, McCullough decided the internet would give him a lot more freedom to try to make a true reality experience.

Having secured a bunker built during the Cuban Missile Crisis and outfitting it with over a dozen cameras, the next step was to pull together 12 individuals to attempt to survive a nuclear holocaust. According to the website, applications are still being accepted to be the 12th cast member by submitting a 2 minute video giving basic information about yourself (obviously a bevy of psychological and physical tests will follow).

It is every kid’s dream to have the run of things without those pesky adults interfering but what would happen if a group of summer campers woke up to actually find this a reality? This is the premise of the upcoming sci-fi kids adventure series eScape.

But wait, where does the sci-fi come in? Well, on top of all the adults disappearing, the kids also find that they have super powers and unbeknownst to them, they are actually trapped inside of a video game.

It’s no coincidence that the series would appeal to kids: creator Mike Feurstein began the concept of the series as an independent summer video course to give young students experience both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. The show shoots in Albany, N.Y. and stars local actors and school children. The students also work behind the scenes to help produce the series.

Interactive marketing agency Digitas and branded content production company RedLever joined forces to create In the Kitchen. Part reality, part gameshow, the series is hosted by Torie Richie, a San Francisco-based cookbook author, cooking teacher and host of Five-Minute Cooking Show on CBS The Early Show and Ultimate Kitchens on the Food Network.

The show was designed specifically to raise awareness of Jenn-Air’s all-new collection of luxury appliances and does show my appealing to viewers emotions and offering them a chance to influence the outcome of the show. Each episode features someone sharing their story of someone special in their lives they would like to cook a special meal for. They are then given two hours to prepare the meal and present it to Richie for judging in three categories: Technique and Taste, Presentation and Pairings, and Ingenuity. Some examples of some of the heartwarming stories shared in the series are a woman wanting to surprise her 105 year-old grandmother and a man reunited with his brother.

The audience is then asked to vote on their favorite contestant. The winning story will be rewarded with a full Jenn-Air kitchen installed in their home. But the audience has potential for reward as well: once they vote on the show website or by mobile phone, they are entered in a drawing to receive a Jenn-Air beverage center. Other ways the audience can engage with the show (and get themselves entered into the contest) is by texting in for recipes and cooking tips.

A few days ago, I received a mysterious message from Brian Gramo of theStream.tv saying that this Friday on their popular gaming program The Game Show some big news was going to be announced soon. After the news a few weeks ago that their sponsor Evo Energy Drink had to pull its sponsorship support of the live interactive television station, I was excited to know what the good news could be. So I decided the best way to be in on the action was to head over to theStream.tv station and watch the announcement live.

I was not disappointed. The Game Show opened with a filmed segment of the trio of hosts, Jim Festante, David Guida, and Nikole Zivalich, getting an Xbox friend request from…Revision3. Giddy with excitement, they accept the request to unlock the Synergistic Achievement at which they quipped: “they’ve seen our show, right?”

Apparently, they indeed have because yes, The Game Show will now be hosted on Revision3. What does this mean exactly? Gramo explained some more after the broadcast: “the important thing that people need to realize is that we didn’t just get a bunch of cash from them to pay for the show, there is going to be a special version made for Revision3 but the live version is still our same format, We’re hoping the increased distribution gets us a sponsor and obviously we can make some commission.” The commission comes from fans of The Game Show signing up on Netflix and Gamefly, much like all Revision3 shows.

Meet TheWillofDC, Tubefilter’s newest columnist, who brings his mastery of the inner workings of YouTube’s movers and shakers from his popular YouTube channel to you, our fine readers in a weekly dish every Friday. Will has two weekly web shows—’YouTube News’ and ‘YouTube Winners and Losers’—that appear on his YouTube channel and of course right here on Tubefilter News every Friday. Questions for Will? Leave a comment below.

How Do I Get Big on YouTube?
The first question asked on YouTube by its content creators is, “how do I get big on YouTube?” Apart from time traveling back to 2006-07 and starting your vlogging career then, the universal answer is SLOWLY. Everyone starts out trying to put out the best content they can, networking and collaborating with as many YouTubers (especially big ones) as they can. An eternity of time is spent thinking about the best day/time to upload the video and what category to use in order to minimize the competition with other content creators.

Then one supremely talented musician (PianoChatImprov) comes along (see below), takes the internet’s dirtiest and gluiest pleasure (Chatroulette), makes it family friendly with a viral hit skyrocketing him to within striking distance of the top 100 most subscribed users of all time, all within 1 week. Thus effectively adding a new answer to the ‘how to get big on YouTube’ question: Have a viral hit so powerful that people want to see more of the exact same.

Viral videos are a dime a dozen these days and while each can garner their millions of views, the owner never sees any real channel success in the way of subscribers. CopperCab had an amazing viral hit and he only stands at 60 thousand subscribers even after releasing a handful of other videos. This is because by nature viral videos are videos people want to see once (or a half ton times) but then move on, totally uninterested in what else the user has to offer.

PianoChatImprov has turned the concept of viral videos on its head this week by proving that if a video has enough creative talent and originality the audience which normally moves on to the find the next laughing baby or dancing cat will be hooked into having the patience to wait around for the next release. Chris Crocker accomplished something similar with his “leave Brittany alone” video. Yet unlike PianoChatImprov, Chris had many videos already uploaded before that hit came out and already had decent exposure. Also Wafflepwn could easily be credited with paving the way for pianochatimprov in the way wafflepwn took their immensely successful viral hit which immediately had people wanting to see more and in turn offered it consistently. Although it took wafflepwn much longer to reach the top 100 and subsequently had more than 1 video out when they accomplished it.

Al ThAl Thompson and his production company ValDean Entertainment has enjoyed quite the success with their professional couch surfer comedy series Johnny B Homeless even before it officially launched. After screening at ITVFest and then scoring the People’s Choice Award at the 2009 New York Television Festival, came announcement this week of a long-awaited deal with Atom.com, with the nine-episode first season premiering on the network as well as the option for a season two, currently in development.

I had a chance to sit down and chat with Thompson about how good it feels to have “found a home” for Johnny B Homeless as well as sharing details on what ValDean has planned for 2010, including the drama series Lenox Avenue. Thompson explained that ValDean’s mission is to create entertainment that can translate across mediums. While Johnny B Homeless was developed for the internet, it could easily make the transition onto television, which makes it a natural fit for Atom, with its half hour late-night version of the show on Comedy Central.

Thompson discussed how a big part of ValDean’s vision is to harken back to classic 80s and 90s television showed. Some examples he mentioned were The Fall Guy, Greatest American Hero, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the latter being the inspiration for the intro to Johnny B Homeless composed by Thompson and Joachim Horsley. “These were the shows you begged your parents to let you stay up late for,” said Thompson.