Tubefilter News

On the heaviest day of Comic-Con, one might think that having a major off-site event, to be held in the midst of some heavy hitting panels, might not be the strongest plan ever conceived. Showing up early to the event at the Bristol Hotel, I watched as some of the finishing touches were applied to the set-up. This was not the last-minute, throw-something-together-in-four-days event from this past April. Nor was it the end-all, be-all of panels.

This was simply the next logical step for the web series industry, in a long road to having an entire section of the convention marked out for us.

Run by Jenni Powell, Taryn O’Neill and Stephanie Thorpe, Celebrate the Web 2 came together with a different tone from the previous outing. Where the original event did so out of a need to heal some wounds, this time around the tone was stronger: “We’re here to stay, so strap in.”

With sponsors like blip.tv, The Flick Cast, Fig St. Marketing and, of course, us, the show was ready for a serious outing, and by the time it started, we had a packed house. Despite the multitude of events, panels, and simply the exhausting Bataan Death March of the convention floor, hundreds showed up and sectioned off a large chunk of Comic-Con time to be apart of this event. Rolling out the premiere of new trailers at the onset, we got a sneak peek of some web series that’re in various stages of completion and sales.

Here are the quick hits of some of the trailers that caught my eye:

Apocalypse Wow, starring Craig Frank — well, if you’ve got Craig Frank starring in a web series, congrats, you’re in an exlusive group of everyone — and Melanie Merkosky (lonelgirl15, Continuum, Harper’s Globe), kicked it off. A very comedic approach to the end of the world, the potential for this one is high. The talent’s right, and the moments shown brought plenty of laughs.
Fury of Solace: Some interesting superhero work going on. I wrote in my notes, “I’m hoping it’s more Fight Club than Watchmen,” but that pretty much applies to just about everything ever. Doing superhero work on the web – even the non-powered, Kick Ass kind – is always a risky proposition, but a successful execution will pay off in spades.
Asylum: The bar for slower-paced and thought-provoking shows on the web has been raised to a high level with Anyone But Me (are you ready for the Web-A-Thon? You can spare a buck.). While the two shows don’t have anything in common, that level of competence and confident execution is rapidly becoming a pre-requisite for a legitimate outing.
We Break Hearts: Craig Frank (see?), Maxwell Glick (who’s also everywhere), and Jessica Rose head up the cast for Brett Register’s first completely dramatic project. It’s definitely trying to increase the temperature (and Jessica Rose is already hot, as suns are hot) around here.

This time things got bigger. No longer holed up in a dreadfully undersized Room 5AB, after two years of snaking multi-hour lines of devoted fans, Comic-Con knew it was time to upgrade this fan-powered web series to a ballroom—a big one. The 1600-plus that packed into the Indigo Ballroom at the San Diego Hilton were ready to once again be surprised by creator Felicia Day and the team behind the two and half year-old web series The Guild.

The tricky part? Last year’s bar was set high—very high, with a flurry of surprise announcements including Wil Wheaton’s addition to the cast, a Guild comic book series and the now legendary music video “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?”

With two episodes of the new season already live online before this year’s Con, the smart money was on something big coming up in the next few episodes. Would we see it here? First up was a first look at episode three, due out next week. It beamed in crisp HD—director Sean Becker said they switched over the Canon 5D this season—over the 5 mega screens throughout the ballroom. Laughs were frequent, and the crowd cheered on the opening credits. But surprises? Not yet.

Producer Kim Evey and director Sean Becker thanked everyone who helped make the show a success, most notably the fans that continue to discover and support the series, along with Microsoft for supporting the show and then “leaving us alone” to make how they see fit. Then came the cast, led by Felicia, all sporting custom made squid hats—just like Clara’s Season 4 fashion statement—which add to the popular Guild merchandising arm. (They are available at Josh Freeman’s ObeyMyBrain.com)

Felicia’s voice was slightly raspy, clearly wearing the signs of three days of autograph signing and appearances. This year it seems there were more hands to shake, more DVDs to sign, even some fans’ body parts to sign. She intros Scott Alley from Dark Horse comics to present the first piece of news—that the Guild comic will continue with a series of five one-shots over the next year, starting with one on Vork (Jeff Lewis), which Lewis will co-write with Day.

Chase Jarvis is an acclaimed commercial photographer. He’s taken pictures for household brand names like Volvo, Nike, Apple, Microsoft, Jeep, and Red Bull, among many others. His work has long been the subject of many magazine advertisements, but in September 2009, Jarvis developed a new kind of notoritiety outside of the ad world. That’s when he published The Best Camera is the One that’s With You, a collection of images from a year in Jarvis’ life, all shot with his iPhone.

Now some ad men are taking Jarvis’ work to the next level. BBH Labs – a “global innovation unit” that’s part of the renowned Bartle Bogle Hegarty advertising agency – just launched The iOScars. It’s an online award that celebrates democratized honoring and honors the best films shot and edited with the iPhone 4.

The idea evolved from Twitter banter between BBH New York Digital Creative Director, Seth Weisfeld and BBH Executive Director of Innovation, Ben Malbon. Entries must be all original work, completely shot and edited on the iPhone 4. While BBH cannot immediately verify that submissions were created with the sole use of Apple’s latest cellular device, they claim to have special powers that can be evoked if need be.

Winners of The iOScars will be chosen by public voting at TheiOScars.com.

Launching a web series about comic books the very same day of nerd-pop’s annual right of passage Comic-Con does, is a bold move. This is after all when all of the major pillars of entertainment descend upon San Diego to woo the 140,000 bleary-eyed geek skeptics with their latest comic, sci-fi or frankly, even questionably geeky wares. It’s sensory overload for pop culture’s early adopters, and standing out here often means global celebs and huge billboards.

(If you’re already there or heading to San Diego make sure to check out our Web Series Guide to Comic-Con 2010)

But for First Edition, they learned a thing or two about web series and Comic-Con from the show it admits was a heavy inspiration—Comic-Con favorite The Guild. It may not have its own panel, and surprise music video to unveil, but it knows that launching a show about a ragtag group of comic book creators means heading to Mecca.

It’s hard not to notice the similarities to four year-old heavyweight The Guild—First Edition centers around an adorable but quirky young female lead (America Young) trying to pull together a team of variously skilled crew of comic book creators in hopes of winning over her comic-loving crush. She even posts Codex-style video blogs to thread the storylines from her apartment.

For creators Sam Weller and Canyon Prince, this isn’t their first foray into the hard road of indie web series. You might recall the eccentric comedy series The Romantic Foibles of Esteban from last summer. This time they are going all out.

It’s a common thing to happen—a critically acclaimed show, beloved by most if not all who watch it, struggling to find the means to continue. In the early days of indie favorite The Guild, funding came out through donations for each subsequent episode.

With social networking and web video making the world a much smaller place to be in these days, it’s certainly easier to connect with fans in order to keep a show alive. Executive Producers Susan Miller and Tina Cesa Ward are hoping that remains the case with Anyone But Me, winner of a People’s Silver Telly Award and a Streamy Award. After two privately funded seasons, the show now needs its fans to keep it going.

Enter the Anyone But Me Web-A-Thon. Running in three parts from July 27th through 29th, the show is going to host an all-out funding drive for season three of the show to become a reality. Hosted by Lisa Bernhard, who reported on entertainment for Fox News and was Deputy Editor at TV Guide, amongst producing her non-profit work, the show will feature brand new videos such as “The Women of ABM,” and an “ABM Walking Tour,” along with “revealing” interviews with actors themselves.

Everyone knows YouTube and its affiliated Google sites are top of the pops in terms of video views. comScore indicates in June 2010 Google captured 144.5 million unique viewers. Hulu’s view counts tick in at roughly 16% of those numbers for a total of 24 million.

According to comScore’s new Video Metrix 2.0 – a measurement service which, in addition to a number of other analytic “enhancements,” has the ability to differentiate between video ads and video content – last month online video viewers watched over 566 million video ads on Hulu. Tremor Media Network came in a close second at 523 million, while Google sites clocked in at just over 200 million, 35% of Hulu’s total.

So, what kind of monthly ad revenue can the online video publisher with the most video ad views generate? Let’s find out!

Take the total number of monthly video ad views on Hulu (566,162,000 in June according to comScore), multiply that by the going rate for ads on Hulu (estimated to be a $35+ CPM), and you come up with $19,815,670 in revenue for the month of June.

Now, you may be thinking what I’m thinking: “There’s no way that $19.8 million number is even close to being accurate. A simple multiplication problem can’t possibly come close to estimating the monthly revenue of a complicated joint venture between three Fortune 100 companies.” But our simple multiplication problem might not be too far off.

Hulu recently announced its revenues could reach as much as $250 million in 2010. If you take our $19.8 million in revenue for the month of June an multiply that by 12 months, you get $237.7 million in annual revenue. Our simple multiplication problem isn’t too far off from Hulu’s own projections.

This Monday Mindshare Entertainment, the media agency of American Family Insurance, kicked off the second phase of its branded entertainment campagin with the launch of the second season of In Gayle We Trust, NBC Digital’s original scripted comedy series about a relatable American Family Insurance Agent Gayle (played by Elisa Donovan) and her personal relationships with the community members of fictional Maple Grove.

By now, if you follow even passively the world of web series, you know well who Mark Gantt and Jesse Warren are. They were the two aspiring creators that defied the odds, making just a trailer to pitch their action drama—The Bannen Way—to anyone who would fund it, ultimately landing a deal with Sony Pictures Television for release on its online network Crackle. To be sure, it was one heck of a slick looking trailer, and there’s something to be said about having Neal Bannen (Gantt) himself making the pitch.

Today as the DVD of the complete first season of the Streamy-winning series, cut together as a 94-minute full-length feature movie, hits the shelves, the story has come full circle. Like most of the high-profile Crackle series, the web was a stop along the way of a project’s malleable journey through multiple platforms and content windows. Earlier this summer HBO Canada picked up Bannen for a feature-length run.

For many shoppers perusing the aisles of Target and Walmart, or Blockbuster, or browsing Amazon or Netflix, this might be the first time they’ve heard of Bannen and company. It has a handful of actors aside from Gantt who are fairly well known outside of web circles, like Robert Forster, Vanessa Marcil, Autumn Reeser, Michael Ironside and Michael Lerner.