Tubefilter News

On this week’s episode of The Web.Files host Kristyn Burtt interviews Jace Hall, executive producer of the recently released animated web series, Chadam, as-well-as Blake Calhoun, creator of Exposed. Both series debuted this week on The WB.com. Among other topics, Hall discusses how the series was able to produce high quality animation on a web series budget through use of the Unreal engine originally designed for computer games. Calhoun appeared via Skype in the series first long distance interview, and appropriately enough discussed his experiences working in web series outside of the dreaded LA bubble. The only downside to the interview is that considering she was speaking with the Dallas based Blake Calhoun; I was hoping Kristyn would be wearing a cowboy hat.

Chadam is an animated series set on the hyper-stylized island city Vulture. The titular character is unique in that he has the ability to warp his environment based on his imagination. The series boasts impressive 3D animation and a stellar cast of voice actors that includes Katey Sagal, Carl Weathers, and genre favorite Jeffery Combs.

Devo, the New Wave, post-punk, art rock band with a huge cult following and one mainstream hit, just released their first album in 20 years. Something for Everybody delivers “a dozen festive tracks of danceable synth-rock and robot R&B.” It’s a delight for Devo devotees, an intriguing album for new listeners, and an interesting case study in new media marketing for two reasons:

1) Warner Bros Records, Devo, and Cisco partnered on a “song study” experiment. Much like the Devo “color study,” which was conducted to figure out a new color for the band’s energy dome hats, the song study let adoring fans and learned music critics listen to samples from 16 brand new Devo tracks. The top 12 tracks that emerged from the study now comprise the Something for Everybody album.

2) Earlier this week, Devo livestreamed the entirety of its new album on Ustream, accompanied by a live feed of cats. The numbers aren’t terribly impressive – with minimal publicity, the feed saw a couple thousand concurrent viewers at its peak, and over 11K have tuned into the on-demand recording – but it’s a cute and creative stunt, especially for a major record label like Warner Bros.

When all it takes is 60,000 album sales in a week to put you on top of the Billboard charts, record labels are constantly turning to social media and online video for innovative ways to market their wares. Devo livestreaming cats is a great example of the type of marketing events artists and enlightened labels can create in a post-record-store world. Next time, though, they should probably use puppies.

Turning teen novel series into web series is becoming a regular thing for Alloy Entertainment, and why not, it seems to be working. The latest sendup from bookshelves is The Clique from author Lisi Harrison. This time Alloy has teamed up with Warner Premiere to develop a live-action version of the teen drama for the digital distribution. Warner has tapped FM78.tv to produce the series, the new media savvy production company headed by Justine Bateman, Jill Kushner and Peter Murrieta.

Murrieta, exec producers of Disney Channel’s Wizard of Waverly Place will executive produce the series along with Alloy’s Leslie Morgenstein and Bob Levy, who produced the 2009 DVD movie version of The Clique. Kushner and Bateman will co-write the script which is currently in development.

By my count, there are 12 books in the series, plus another 5 from a “summer” edition. Each of the books sports cutsy movie puns for titles like “Invasion of the Boy Snatchers,” “Sealed with a Diss” and “The Pretty Committee Strikes Back.”

Lets face it. Creating a web series is just as much about casting and writing scripts as it is about building a business. We’ve been scouring the world for an attorney that knows both the entertainment and the startup side of things. We finally found him. In the first installment of his new bi-monthly ‘Ask the New Media Attorney’ column on Tubefilter News, James C. Roberts III of Global Capital Law Group will be answering your questions about the ins and outs of entertainment, startup and intellectual law. So, what are you waiting for, ask away!

Remember: Your mileage may vary, or to put it another way, these answers are not legal advice. How the law applies to you will depend upon the facts of the situation. Talk with a lawyer about those facts. In some cases, talk also with an accountant.

Question: Two of my friends and I have come up with a great idea for a Web TV show. One of those friends now wants to leave and he claims that the show idea is his. Is it?

Answer: The short answer is: Yikes!! And the basic answer is: In the absence of a written agreement clarifying ownership you will spend a lot of time and money in court trying to prove the claims to the rights.

The news surrounding Digg founder Kevin Rose and the future of the popular tech culture web series Diggnation that he co-hosts, continues this week as details have emerged about his next web series. After rumors first hit the web last week that Rose was leaving Diggnation, presumably immediately, those were quickly quelled by Rose and Revision3, the network that owns the series. Instead, the 5-year old Diggnation would continue new episodes until the end of this year.

Now comes the news on TechCrunch that Rose’s new web series will be called ffoward (yes, with two f’s), and be a “weekly live streaming tech/geek culture show.” Not too much different sounding than Diggnation, except for the live streaming part, as most of that show’s episodes are pre-recorded.

Right now just a splash page is up on the show’s web site, which grabs an email address for those looking to stay updated on its launch. There’s also a Twitter account (@ffoward) which appears to be one of Rose’s accounts posting occasional links since late 2008.

With theStream.tv shoring back it’s lineup of shows due to budgetary constraints, my consumption of livestreaming shows had taken a nosedive. But I’m still completely delighted by the freeform style of the livestreamed internet talk show format. Especially when the hosts and guests look like they are having a blast and I can type “LOL” to my hearts content in a chatroom with my fellow viewers. Luckily, The Strange Dave Show is becoming one of those shows for me.

Based out of the Shovio Studios on the West Side of Manhattan in New York and hosted by Dave “Strange Dave” Rosenburg, who is actually a practicing attorney specializing in both criminal and civil matters during the day who was performing comedy and with bands at night. The show came to be after Rosenburg was interviewed on “The Jill Morrison Show” on 90.1 FM (WUSB) on Long Island, and subsequently received several requests to start doing his own weekly radio program. The show now airs on Shovio.com every Tuesday from 9 – 10 PM EST as well as being broadcast on 14 terrestrial radio stations in syndication across the United States.

Strange Dave and his cohost April Brucker (a.k.a. The Superfox Of Comedy) use their quick-wit and boisterous personalities to keep the show moving with comedy bits including pranking Craigslist stalkers, inviting guests to dress Dave in drag (he has very delicate features), and inviting viewers from home to call in and participate.

Ok. This looks really fun. Have you ever played the game where you go around in a circle and tell a piece of a story, continuously from person to person, to form a larger, weirder story? Well, fans of the NBC comedy The Office will be able to do just that.

Episode 610, “Murder,” which was broadcast earlier this year, has been diced into 86 mini-segments about 10 seconds each. Fans are encouraged to create and submit their own re-imagined version of these segments that will be stitched together to form a full ‘fanisode.’

Although each segment is accompanied by the aired clip and the corresponding section from the shooting script, participants are encouraged to submit innovative re-creations with live action, animation, claymation or “any other creative media.”

What do you do when the government distributes a live, 24/7 video of your SNAFU, the most popular Twitter account with your company’s name satirizes your every misstep, and your message is getting out of control? Apparently, you ask people to be your friend on YouTube.

Beginning late last week, a number of lower-third advertisements on YouTube videos popped up with “Friend BP on YouTube” displayed. Clicking on the ad takes you to BP’s official YouTube page, where you can watch well-produced vidoes featuring BP CEO, Tony Hayward discuss the companies cleanup efforts and interviews with local officials and workers helping with the disaster. And while this message from Howard has over 300,000 views, the “Friend BP” campaign seems to be having marginal effects.

BP’s YouTube page currently has over 2,700 subscribers, is the 39 most subscribed to channel this month, the top most subscribed to Sponsor channel this month, and the fourth most subscribed to Reporter channel this month. Decent numbers, but nothing fantastic. It’s also interesting to note that BP created its YouTube page on May 18, 2010, almost a full month after the spill began.

I know Friendster, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media communities have completely changed the meaning of friend, but it’s still probably not the smartest term to invoke when you’re a global energy company making billions in profit from natural resources and responsible for one of the greatest environmental disasters of this generation. Next time you want people to check out your message, BP, just use the term subscribe.