YouTube star Lisa Nova sat down with “California Gurls” Katy Perry for an exclusive 30-minute interview that featured questions submitted by text and video form the YouTube community through the newly-launched Moderator tool. Over 20,500 text and video questions like “Did you really kiss a girl?” “Do you ever laugh at the parody videos making fun of you?” “Are you and Russell Brand planning on having kids?” were submitted for which over 401,600 votes were cast.
It is going to be difficult to say anything negative about Simon Tofield‘s animated shorts, Simon’s Cat. For starters, they’re cute and inoffensive sketches about a guy’s cat. Small children will likely watch these and giggle, as will folks who like adorable kitties, as will 71 million viewers on YouTube, as will the entire feline-obsessed internet, except for me. [...]
[This is the latest column from Tubefilter News' resident new media legal expert, James C. Roberts. Last time he tackled reader questions on whether Delaware is the right place to incorporate in new media and online entertainment. This week reader question is about when a producer needs to make sure they have releases signed for a new media project.]
Q: If I shoot video at a retail place of business to create a web commercial for that company can I shoot random customers within the store (not interviewing them) without model releases from them? Where is the line for “reasonable assumption of privacy”?
The line for “reasonable assumption of privacy” is rapidly changing, but with little or no effect on the need for releases. A release of some form or another is pretty much always necessary but it can come in several different “flavors,” depending upon the venue and the state. If you attend a baseball game, you will often find a release printed on the back of the ticket. In some places that release is backed up by notices posted that have similar language, though it is not entirely clear that a notice alone would be sufficient. It does not sound like this retail establishment provides such blanket releases.
Your agreement with the client might already require such releases. It might not be explicit. For example, there might be a representation and warranty that the creator (small “c” for those of you religiously inclined) owns or holds all of the necessary IP rights.
Various privacy rights relevant to your question are based on state, rather than federal, law. California law (including case law) is fairly protective. Earlier this year Corbis got in trouble in California for licensing photographs of identifiable surfers. Apart from legal requirements, releases make sense for the client as well as for the creator. They are the ones with the deep pockets, meaning that they will be a big target for enterprising plaintiffs. So, get the releases.
In terms of new media savvy, The Black Crowes fall somewhere in between the heavy metal litigiousness of Metallica and the alternative, post-record label embrace of Radiohead. Which basically means Steve Gorman, the band’s drummer, has a Q&A blog for fans and a podcast about sports, and the band itself just announced it has a web series that will soon debut.
The Black Crowes will release 20 Years of Tall Tales on August 3. Filmed by John Vanover at Chris Robinson’s home in Los Angeles, the series will detail two decades worth of stories from one of the most successful rock ‘n roll bands of the 90s. New episodes will premier every day throughout the entire month of August.
The web series debut coincides with the release of Croweology, The Black Crowes’ “first-ever double album of all-acoustic material with new arrangements of their best-known songs and deep cuts.” All of which is a delight to anyone who spent a small chunk of his or her middle school experience trying to learn the words to Shake Your Moneky Maker.
It’s become a right of passage for A-listers pitching their latest movies. Ben Stiller, Charlize Theron and Michael Cera have all sat down Between with Zach Galifianakis on his public access set—complete with two faux ferns—for the web’s most awkward interview. It’s the internet’s Colbert Report, a painfully uncomfortable, yet utterly hilarious defaming of top stars through an oddball persona that never breaks character.
The ninth episode (above) of the Streamy Award-winning web series (Best Comedy Web Series and Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series) was just released on Funny or Die. This time it’s Steve Carell up for a little tete-a-tete with his Dinner for Schmucks co-star. Carell is no stranger to characters spewing socially inappropriate comments, and he wastes no time landing the first blow on his opponent.
Online comedy network My Damn Channel has quite the reputation for picking up some of the best web series on the market—not to mention a few shelves worth of awards for it stable of hit series like Wainy Days, You Suck at Photoshop, and Easy to Assemble. But now as the New York-based network celebrates its third birthday, it’s looking ahead.
Today the network unveiled what is clearly its largest new slate of programming to date, with ten new channels (or web series) ranging from small indie comedies to music series and even a pair of custom branded companion web series for TV and Film. The two new branded companion channels, one for Paramount’s upcoming comedy Dinner for Schmucks and another for Adult Swim’s web series-turned-TV show Childrens Hospital, will help pay the bills for the network letting it take some risks on lesser known—but well worth watching—indies like Spook House Dave! and Go Sukashi!.
There’s even a studio-backed web series in the new lineup, SUPEREGO, which comes out of Fox Television Studio’s 15Gigs. And Streamy Award red carpet host Mark Malkoff was tapped for his own channel on the network set to debut later this fall.
Today SFN Group, Inc. (the parent company to Spherion and other professional staffing organizations) announced it has renewed Streamy Award-nominated comedy web series The Temp Life for a fifth season, establishing it as the longest-running brand-sponsored original web series top date. Production will begin this September in New York and is scheduled to premiere sometime in November. The Legend of Neil’s Tony Janning will be joining returning series regulars Wilson Cleveland, Rachel Risen, Mark Jude, Chris Stetson,Thom Woodley, Sandeep Parikh and Taryn Southern along with other guest stars to be announced in coming weeks.
Even the folks at Next New Networks were surprised just how big a hit they had on their hands just 9 months after launching their pop music parody web series The Key of Awesome. The show has now grossed over 150 million views since launching last October, with over 30 Million in just the past month.
Who knew topical pop culture references with heavy teen influences would do well on YouTube?
NNN’s do-it-yourself movie network Indy Mogul decided to get into the game with a new movie parody series Rated Awesome which launched today with an send up trailer of Blade vs. Twilight dubbed “Twilight Breaking Dawn.” The concept: “What if Edward, Jacob, Bella and the rest of “Twilight” nerds had to go up against Blade the most bad ass vampire hunter?”
To be sure, the re-cut/re-imagined movie trailer game is much more saturated online and particularly on YouTube. For over five years How It Should Have Ended, which was eventually picked up by Starz Digital, has been animating alternate parody endings to blockbusters like Twilight, Transformers and Avatar. And plently of YouTube regulars count on spoofing the blockbusters for the bulk of their views.
Indy Mogul’s Erik Beck and Mark Douglas, the same two behind Key of Awesome, are the creative force behind this new series, along with NNN’s Ben Relles. And given their track record on the music side, I wouldn’t bet against this one doing well. Though an argument could be made that the replay value of the catchy and polished music parodies is much greater than that of a fake movie trailer, meaning 30 million views a month might be a little too ambitious.
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