Tubefilter News

Sony is proud of its Streamy-winning action hit The Bannen Way, giving it a prime billboard spot on the walls of the Sony lot in Culver City. The billboard (above) is smack in between ones for NBC’s Community and FOX’s Dr. Oz, all of which are produced by Sony Pictures Television. Could this be a sign that Sony execs are getting more bullish on web originals? [Crackle on Facebook]

comScore’s latest online video report is out, and the headline number is 31.2 Billion videos were watched by US internet users in March of 2010. That number is up from 28.1 billion just a month before, which for the number lovers, is an 11% increase. And in another ever increasing statistic, the duration of the average online video watched was 4.3 minutes, again likely due to Hulu’s longer-form TV content. The average Hulu viewer watched 26.7 videos, totaling 2.6 hours of video per viewer, according to the report. [comScore]

GOOD Magazine’s new series Health Myths Debunked takes on pregnancy and some of its more popular myths. You know how some people say expecting mothers shouldn’t eat sushi? That concern has nothing to do with mercury. And it isn’t true anyway. Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz helps GOOD debunk health myths about maternal care. [GOOD]

Seth & Avi Show is back online, after its distributor iKlipz went under throwing into question the future of the buddy comedy series. Co-creator Seth Menachem commented: “And although IKlipz went out of business and Avi and I stopped getting money to shoot our web series, we went ahead and shot an episode without them. Enjoy it. And unlike some other things I’ve made, this one should be pretty unoffensive to all.” The latest episode “Double Date” (below) was shot on the Canon 7D.

When Ninjas Attack is a passably alright show on Hulu, magically. Hulu seems to be doing a strange one-step-forward-two-steps-back thing with their original programming. Hulu could have been a big leader in quality programming and while it holds the licenses for many great TV shows (including but not limited to King Of The Hill, Peep Show, and personal guilty favorite Kitchen Nightmares), it seems to pick style over substance – even with its admittedly trashier shows. Has anybody watched the addicting yet Orwellian If I Can Dream? While you’re free to pick any camera in any room of the house the level of cleanliness in IICD makes it come off truly like a David Lynch movie. There’s little grit in what could be a very entertaining idea. Occasionally you see someone make a sandwich, and while I’m not asking for Celebrity Rehab levels of debauchery and self immolation, it’d be nice to watch the inhabitants arc go from point A to point B.

Which brings me to When Ninjas Attack, which is a farce in the loudest and not necessarily proudest sense of the word. I watched nearly a full season and was bored by the lack of original characters and obvious humor. Nothing clicked. The show seems to pride itself on its premise and its premise alone – because nothing happened. Really. It was like watching a slightly more entertaining fire hydrant. When you’re doing a send-off of ninjas (speaking of which, this has to be the fifth show I’ve watched having to do with ninjas – what’s with the crowding of the joke/genre?) and using the same old techniques and jokes in doing so (which the other four shows have done, too, to equally dubious degree), then what seems to happen is what my 8th grade P.E teacher hammered in so hard back in the day: if you put bullshit in, you’ll get bullshit out. It’s the same tired show I’ve seen time and time before. When Ninjas Attack needs to come up with some fresh ideas, because despite the obviously fun shoot and solid effort by the actors, it doesn’t add up to a quality show.

Justin Timberlake is trying to give Neal Bannen (Mark Gantt) a run for his money as the web’s brooding sports car action hero. Of course with the apparent budget that Audi invested in its upcoming The Next Big Thing web series, it makes Sony’s The Bannen Way seem like a bargain. The 6-episode branded web series created by ad agency Heimat Berlin for Audi premieres online May 5, timed around the US rollout of the new Audi A1.

Pop singer turned actor Timberlake stars as a suit-toting corporate stooge thrown into a crime underworld through stunner Dania Ramirez. Commerical director Henrik Sundgren directed the joy ride, which can’t help but appear like an extended car commercial. There is a story that unfolds, and viewers will no doubt give this one a chance given the Timberlake connection, who’s SNL videos have endeared him YouTube’s fickle faithful. But will they end up buying the A1?

Car makers, particularly the German ones, have been marrying short-form filmmaking and the internet ever since BMW Films’ The Hire back in 2001 tapping well known directors like Guy Ritchie, John Woo and Ang Lee. Back then it was rising British star Clive Owen at the helm of the latest beemer racing around several European cities. The series racked up over 11 million online views—back in 2001 no less—and sales of BMW’s jumped up 12% that year.

Audi itself took a hand from BMW’s playbook with a slick series of its own in 2003 called The Art of the Heist to promote the launch of the A3. The series was part of a broader multiplatform campaign that included an online game that spawned a reported 200,000 fans playing along in a single day.

Interactive studio RedLever launched a branded entertainment campaign this week that merges the Tone body wash brand with the music of Epic Records. The campaign centers around the VideoBox, a vehicle created by RedLever to deliver music content across the web in a unique way.

“We have partnerships with various music labels to provide entertaining music content such as music videos and behind the scenes clips of their favorite artists,” explained Richard Shore, COO of RedLever. “We then work with brands such as Tone skin care to provide them with the opportunity to sponsor the VideoBox in a national campaign that runs over the Joost Video Network.”

“The VideoBox gives brands a unique way to gain visibility that is completely sticky,” Shore continued. “We have found in test markets that the VideoBox gets very high engagement rates and the average consumer views are longer, which obviously elevates the brand awareness. We also work very hard at matching Tone’s brand essence with the type of music content we populate in the VideoBox.”

Film schools have long served as launching pads for film and television careers, and now most major universities offer at least some sort of filmmaking courses, even for those not looking to jump into entertainment. A number of schools have begun looking academically at the impacts of new media on culture and the future of entertainment, but so far the more practical nuts and bolts of web series production and distribution have yet to make it onto into the university course lists.

In Los Angeles, two new Web TV education programs have launched this month looking to fill that gap —and at a fraction of a film school tuition. NewMedialocity and Web TV Workshop both offer four-week intro courses for creative types looking to learn how to get an original web series project off the ground. Both take the approach of teaching through experienced guest teachers—those brave souls who for better or worse have learned some of the internet’s unique lessons and opportunities over the past few years.

Web TV Workshop, founded by Damian Pelliccione and Diahnna Nicole Baxter, bills its flagship offering as a “crash course” in Web TV, covering everything from script development, production, distribution and marketing. Pelliccione has produced a range of web series projects of his own including Cartera and Taylor Negron’s comedy The Foreclosure, while Baxter produced and starred in the Emmy-winning sci-fi thriller Satacracy 88.

Students for these courses are coming from all sides of experience, some the eager young internet users looking to add some production skills to their list, and some on the other end of the spectrum. “We’re also getting a lot of professionals in TV and film that are interested in learning more about social media and web production,” said Baxter about Web TV Workshop’s enrollment. “A lot of people know how to shoot, they just don’t know how to monetize it.”

While it’s not likely anyone has the magical crash course answer to the monetization question, it does help to have some guest teachers that have successfully shaken the money trees themselves. Streamy-winners Mark Gantt and Jesse Warren, creators of The Bannen Way, are part of the program’s “Pro Panel” sessions, along with Steven J. Wolfe of Sneak Preview Entertainment, Bernie Su (Compulsions) and Elizabeth Flack (WGA) amongst others. For those outside of LA, Pelliccione added that the course itself will be available on DVD and the pro panels will be streamed free online through MingleMediaTV and Stickam.

Brian Rodda and Matthew Arevalo founded NewMedialocity as a “new media academy,” a nod to their goal of forming long term relationship with their students. “Our focus is education, said Arevalo, “and we’re trying to have a home and place for our students to come back to.” He noted that their monthly screening mixers, the first of which will feature 1150Project creator Leslie Morgan, aim to be a regular opportunity for sharing their work.

Where I see this school fitting in,” said Rodda, who was part of the found team of WGA writer-backed Strike.TV, “is that it’s taking that younger generation that understand the technical side, but not necessarily the professional storytelling skills.” The first week of the intro course will focus on storytelling and creative development, with following weeks hitting production, post-production and eventually sponsorship and social media marketing. Future course offerings are expected to go into more detail in each of those areas, with the current one being what they call their “101 course.”

“Not every single stoyteller needs to be a technical guru,” added Arevalo, a bit of technical guru himself, “but you need to have a certain amount of technical and social media savvy to tell your story online.”

NewMedialocity’s speaker roster shares a number of the same names as Web TV Workshop, with Gantt, Warren, Su and Flack all appearing on both. Tubefilter News’ Jenni Powell will be speaking at NewMedialocity as well as Derek Housman (This Week In producer), Sandra Payne (The Web.Files producer), Matt Enlow (Atom.com), Dana Block (mPRm) and Liz Miller (NewTeeVee).

It’s always a risk when you take on a subject as sensitive as religion. Especially when you are tackling it in a comedy. It’s an extremely fine line and it’s difficult to navigate. It helps if you create your own religion called Badasstianity (or Awesomism, depending on who is talking) that believes the afterlife is “The Magic Kingdom mixed with The Playboy Mansion mixed with Candyland mixed with Six Flags with a hint of Thunderdome from Mad Max”. Who wouldn’t sign up for that? Marty and Doug’s New Religion is a six-part web series that explores what happens when two slackers decide to form a religion for their own selfish purposes, piss off Jesus and the church across the street, and ultimately realize how much power can corrupt.

The Webventures of Justin & Alden officially launched today on My Damn Channel, YouTube and a slew of other places. The Trident Layers-sponsored series follows two hapless would-be web stars seeking their shot at internet stardom. See our more extended preview of the series from last week. [My Damn Channel]

Steen House Entertainment will launch Series II of Animus Cross from tomorrow, which last season our reviewer called “the web series world’s first historical thriller.” Creator A.L. Steen Steen commented: “Ever since the first series, ‘Hell Runs This Way,’ closed in 2009 fans have been clamoring for more – now that post-production is finished, we can finally bring them back to 1860’s Idaho and show them what’s been menacing this small frontier settlement.” [Animus Cross]

How it Should Have Ended hits Iron Man! The Streamy-winning animated series took on its latest alternate ending of a blockbuster movie, imagining Tony Stark [How it Should Have Ended]

Comedy has 5 golden rules. Set in stone. Don’t bother googling them. It’s a secret. The only people who know all five are myself, Jay Leno (obvs), and Sting. But even if you are observing all 5 of the totally-not-made-up rules it’s not a guarantee of success. Because comedy only works when it works. When it doesn’t, it does not. Understood?

What I’m saying is, the old axiom that comedy is harder than drama is true because laughter is a crapshoot. How else do you explain Richard Belzer and Anthony Anderson in the Law & Order franchise? Sometimes the joke just does not go over, even one as well-crafted as comedy rule three: “Pies, pies, pies…”

Take Premarital Six … PLEASE! <—See what I did there? Premarital Six is a web series, written and directed by Tom W. Metz III, about a bachelor party gone awry. Six friends meet for a night of debauchery, and wind up separated from the party, only to be reunited in jail. Each episode is the story of how the attendees came to be under arrest.

The episodes are exercises in absurdity, almost improv inspired. There is a distinct air of “Yes, And?”. The principle that dictates actors accept the logic of the given premise, without question. Done well, it can lead to inspired comedy. In Six it mostly leads to characters humanizing inanimate objects.