Tubefilter News

Several weeks ago the Producers Guild of America officially sanctioned the credit “Transmedia Producer”, the first time they had ever added a new credit in the Guild’s history. The move was widely celebrated by the transmedia community but still brought up a great deal of debate, one of the issues being whether this would have more benefit for huge Hollywood-backed brands vs. independent transmedia producers creating original IP.

With the announcement of a partnership between Starlight Runner Entertainment, a leading creator, producer, and consultant on a number of highly successful transmedia franchises, and Curious Pictures, an award-winning diversified production and entertainment company that produces animation, live-action, video games, commercials and digital media content, it seems a step in the right direction for creators hoping to create original worlds. Starlight Runner and Curious Pictures initially will package and produce four transmedia projects with an option to extend the partnership after that. The first two projects starting immediately include the original properties Dinodozers (the story of dinosaurs who are fitted with mechanical construction parts in order to do good deeds) and Shadow Angels (about a teen with mysterious powers and a dark past who is chosen to become the guardian of a civilization of strange beings hidden below the streets of New York City), one from each company’s IP library.

Tubefilter had a chance to talk via e-mail with CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, Jeff Gomez. Gomez was instrumental in getting the Transmedia Producer credit sanctioned and is an extremely vocal supporter and advocate of the transmedia community.

The art of deadpan is a relatively recent one in the historical arc of comedy. Though the straight man has probably been around forever – from the caveman, to vaudeville, to Jack Benny and beyond – the practice of deadpanning to a somewhat complicit audience is more the stuff of more recent times and has found a home on the web. Mitch Magee’s The Indigenous Flowers of Southern California hits a near perfect deadpan pitch with a fusion of parody and sketch delivered with flawless timing. We’re all in on the joke without sacrificing any idols, other than a few comedy tropes.

Alloy Entertainment’s grasp on the reigns of teen entertainment and culture is pretty well established at this point. Producing hit TV dramas Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries and films like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants brings some glamour, but Alloy’s more potent prowess lies in its cross-platform storytelling arsenal. It helps of course when you own some of those platforms.

Storytellers these days often ruminate about blurring the lines between the entertainment platforms of television, film and new media, but few actually have the laboratory to play around with. Alloy’s foundation for all these stories rests in one of the oldest platforms around—print. Its publishing arm boasts over 50 titles that made The New York Times bestsellers list, with book series like Gossip Girl, The Clique, The A-List, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Private, The Luxe and Pretty Little Liars all taking on lives beyond their printed origins.

By most accounts, the 14 million views that Private has racked up so far are considered a success over at Alloy and for the show’s sponsors—Neutrogena and Johnson & Johnson. The teen novel series turned web drama was Alloy’s first major test of taking an audience from print to online series through its own channels. This was a model we’ve been eyeing for some time now as one of the best positioned to sync up the holy trinity of content, brand and distribution all in one place. Private received prime placement on Teen.com the hub of Alloy Media + Marketing’s growing digital network of web sites, which also includes Channel One and gURL.com, together drawing over 50 million unique vistors a month. Apparently, the experiment worked enough to take things up a notch.

With the success of Private along with the earlier LG Mobile sponsored series Haute & Bothered, Alloy sees enough promise to take their online exploits further. The company this week announced a new digital division, going under the name Alloy Entertainment Digital, specifically tasked with creating web originals. Independent filmmaker Tripp Reed has been hired to run the division which will be based in Los Angeles.

Josh Bank, recently promoted from EVP to President (East Coast) of Alloy Entertainment, will oversee Reed and the new digital operation. Bank noted that AED plans to produce 4 to 6 original series per year with brand sponsor backing, similar to Private’s model, along with another 2 to 3 originals that aren’t brand driven. “We want to do some projects that aren’t branded,” said Bank, “where financing comes in different ways.”

Last weekend at the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards Red Carpet at the historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, Streamy nominees, presenters and web personalities alike walked the carpet, giddy with pre-show anticipation.

The carpet, presented by Ikea, was filled with a mix of traditional and new media talent, with appearances by Zoe Bell, Kevin Pollak, Robert Englund, Felicia Day, Zadi Diaz, The Fine Brothers, and so many more.

Some waxed nostalgic. “When we first started, nobody was advertising on the web. Period. End of story,” said creator and host, Alex Albrecht. “And now, I was just in an Ikea [sponsored] bedroom set on the red carpet.”

Others talked about what makes online entertainment so great. “The web gave me a creative freedom that I hadn’t experienced in television in a long time,” said Jaleel White, star of MWG Entertainment’s Road to the Altar.

This biggest addition to this year’s carpet was the presence of YouTube talent. We had to a chance to talk with everyone from LisaNova, and DaveDays, to Phillip DeFranco and Kassem G.

“If I was on a TV show, I wouldn’t be able to talk to [my audience] as easily as I can on YouTube,” said Shane Dawson, who would go on to win the Streamy Award for Best Vlogger. Fellow vlogging nominee Justine Ezarik had this to say about what makes YouTube unique: “You interact with a group of people, and you’re getting a direct response back . . . on TV, there’s a disconnect.” Of course YouTube celebs wouldn’t be much without this year’s Streamys Visionary Award recipient Chad Hurley who we caught up with just before he was whisked away to his seat.

Pretty explores the dysfunctional world of child pageants where Michael Champagne, a proud pageant dad, has the single wish to see his 5 year old daughter Annette win the Miss Star Eyes Pageant. The cast of characters are hilariously flawed, the universe they exist in like a trainwreck you can’t take your eyes off of…

…and Annette is played by a 30 plus year old actress, played to naive perfection by Stace McQueen.

Tubefilter spoke with show creator Steve Silverman about what inspired him to make this unique casting decision. “Stace McQueen and I have known each other for almost 20 years,” explained Silverman. “She’s been my muse in several theatre projects and I’ve acted (I use that term lightly) for her in some of her own web stuff. When I first saw Painted Babies-type documentaries, it just popped into my head: I sit in a chair and Stace sits in my lap, I’m her dad and she’s my pageant daughter.”

“I saw it as a stage piece, something we could do as an improv or as a short one-act, cuz that’s where my background lies,” he went on. “Last summer, after watching a few painfully awesome episodes of Toddlers & Tiaras, I thought of that idea again and the idea of a web series popped into my head. As a writer, the reason why Annette is such a fantastic character to write for is that while she IS five years old, she’s PLAYED BY someone who’s got a lifetime of experience to draw from.”

We Are With The Band premiered this past week on KoldCast TV. Reminiscent of the indie version of WB’s Echo Park rock drama Rockville, CA, it centers on Elle and Marci, two “professional hipsters” (Heleya de Barros and Vivian Kerr) trying to navigate the East LA “scene” while modeling their lives off a 24/7 American Apparel ad. [We Are With the Band]

ITV Fest, the Independent Television Festival is heading into its fifth year already and has started its spring fundraising push with a kickoff party and silent auction in Los Angeles slated for April 21. Added bonus: the first 50 people to register will get ITVFest gift bags. [ITVFest Fundraiser]

Revision3’s new series Unboxing Porn sounds dirtier than it is. But to some technophiles there is no greater turn-on than some high-definition tech gear de-robing, otherwise known as unboxing. And what better to launch a new geek web series around than some gratuitous unboxing of Apple’s iPad (see below). [Revision3]

Online filmmaking network Indy Mogul is returning to its California roots—sort of. Its flagship web series, Backyard FX, the do-it-yourself indie filmmakers’ cheat sheet, announced today it has found a new host after an extensive talent search that began in early January to replace its founder and longtime centerpiece Erik Beck. Los Angeles-based filmmaker Zack Finfrock will be taking over for Beck, who will shift his focus to overseeing Indy Mogul as a network.

Web series fans will recognize Finfrock’s work, most notably as part of the Streamy-nominated team that crafted the visual effects for The Crew, along with whipping up storyboard art for The Legend of Neil. Last fall Tubefilter sat down with Finfrock to chat about his own web series pilot, Emerson Wild, a monster laden throwback that stood out for its remarkably striking (and oozing) creatures.

“We were overwhelmed by the strength of the 60+ video submissions that we received when we launched our search for a new host of Backyard FX but Zack was by far our leading choice,” said Beck. “Zack is an established filmmaker in his own right, and we’re thrilled to have him host the show, and bring his vision to the DIY online video community.” A self-professed “longtime fan of Backyard FX,” Finfrock brings his filmmaking and design team at Wayside Creations— Julian Higgins, Kevin Brooks and Vince Talenti—on board for the new iteration of the hit series. His debut on the series will be May 17.

“Erik’s helped to build a unique online community around indie filmmaking and I’m honored to join the team,” added Finfrock. “In my new role as host I plan to stay true to the spirit of the show while bringing my own vision and unique techniques to the projects we do.”

As for those California roots, Beck had initially founded Indy Mogul in April 2007, with Backyard FX as its only series. The show was literally shot in Beck’s backyard in Los Angeles, before moving to New York City later that year. Now some 200 episodes later, the show is the heavyweight in the Indy Mogul lineup, which as a network cranks out over 4 million views per month with over 177,000 YouTube subscribers.

Last week was big news with RayWilliamJohnson passing UniversalMusicGroup. This week is big news because ShaneDawsonTV passed Smosh to move into the number 3 all time most subscribed spot. Smosh has been in the top 100 (and at the top of it) essentially since the beginning of YouTube. In a year and a half Shane has gone from being relatively unknown to 3rd most subscribed of all time. That statistic alone from his illustrious YouTube career demands respect. He is a leader of the new generation of YouTubers having only joined the site in March of 2008. In comparison the only other person to do so well in a short amount of time is RayWilliamJohnson, currently at 5th. Ray began his rise last summer and like Shane joined YouTube in 2008.

While currently Shane has the numbers to pass Fred and claim 2nd, he doesn’t have the numbers to hit number 1. Another small setback in Shane’s story is that his numbers are not as good today as they once were only getting about half the subscribers he would have 6 months ago. If current trends continue RayWilliamJohnson will eventually pass him. That would make Ray the first person to pass Shane since Shane began his magnificent rise.

The one and probable only user whose numbers and success have stayed consistent is Nigahiga, aka Ryan Higa. He’s been getting between 20 and 25 thousand subscribers every week for over a year, at least. What’s more amazing about this number is that you can’t attribute it to him putting out content on a schedule where people know when to expect a video. You also can’t credit the collaboration process, which so many users use to find success, because other than his many videos with Michael Buckley and a special appearance on TheStation you won’t find him in many collabs. The main attribution of his success is the community because as it has grown, he has grown right along with it. The universal accessibility and appreciation of his videos have made him number 1 and it will take a long time before he’s unseated from that position.