Tubefilter News

Michael Krivicka is a 34-year-old partner at Manhattan-based creative ad agency, Thinkmodo. His claims to online video fame are this WE tv original series, in which he seeks advice on how to make the perfect marriage proposal, and this sexy viral video about a fake iPhone application that turns the device into a 21st century version of X-ray specs. He’s also bald. And he wants celebrities to follow him on Twitter.

Taking a page out of the Weiden + Kennedy handbook on how to attract the attention of famous personalities via the use of YouTube and the internet’s most popular microblogging service, Krivicka is creating personalized messages for members of the internet elite. Why? Because he wants them to follow him on Twitter.

Here’s how it works. Krivicka targets an individual with a household name (so far his targets includes Jimmy Fallon, Ashton Kutcher, Alyssa Milano, Ellen DeGeneres, and David Pogue). He creates a distinct URL for said individual (like ashtonkutcheryoushouldtotallyfollowmeontwitter.com or alyssamilanopleasefollowmeontwitter.com) which he populates with video appeals (like this one for Jimmy Fallon or this one for David Pogue). If a celebrity actually ends up following Krivicka, he or she is the subject of yet another distinct URL (like ellendegeneresthanksforfollowingmeontwitter.com) and a video thank you (like this one for Ellen). Wash, rinse, repeat.

It’s a genius iteration on the Isaiah Mustafa Old Spice campaign executed in a way that makes you wish it was executed better. The videos look nice and I know tyopgraphy is all the rage right now, but it’s apparent that Krvickas doesn’t have a team of creatives behind him. The jokes are flat and their central points clumsily conveyed. Still, the videos get the job done.

Krivicka told the New York Post he’s doing it all “for kicks,” but press in the New York Post and CNET surely don’t hurt the business and reputation of his creative shop.

Brandon Ray, the creator behind the popular interactive animated web series Paper People Jokes, where viewers send in their favorite jokes to be animated with construction-paper cut-outs, announced the development of a new sister series Paper Cut highlighting the worst jokes sent in by viewers. The Paper Cut website features two well-shot promos mixing live action with Ray’s trademark animation.

This past weekend (before 8:25 pm Saturday evening, if the comments on their Facebook page are accurate), Atom’s newest original series, Quitters, hit 100,000 views since the first episode premiered July 16. That’s no small feat in the increasingly crowded web series world, so I decided to check out the three episodes they have available for myself to see what makes the show tick.

First off, the show is produced by Jamie Bullock of No Mimes Media. They are primarily known for their ARGs, but No Mimes seems to have a great handle on how to market their content on the web to not just create awareness, but actually bring the eyeballs to where they need them. One thing that has to help with that is the appearance of Jane Seymour as a regular. The show’s Facebook page is full of links to interviews that Jane has done where she mentions Quitters in venues as disparate as Dennis Miller Radio and NBC New York. It certain doesn’t hurt to have a name who’s willing to shill for you, and a ridiculously small amount of reading reveals why she’s doing it — her husband, James Keach, is executive producing, and her daughter is one of the writer-stars, Katie Flynn.

We’ve been following this whole “Who’s Next?” campaign that Kia Soul is running on YouTube, and today the final eight contestants were announced officially kicking of the web series that will determine which one will be the next YouTube vlog star. —SMOSH,ShayCarl, and LisaNova were hired to fire up the YouTube faithful, and with over 3000 entries on the contest it’s already generated a healthy amount of earned media.

But the real question is, does this series actually have the ju-ju to be the Idol of YouTube? Will one of these actually break out to be one of those famed six-figure earning YouTubers? Possible, but you tell us.

Ain’t It Cool News leaked the highly anticipated Zombie Roadkill trailer (check it out) featuring Academy-Award nominated actor Thomas Hayden Church (Spider-Man 3, Sideways, Wings).

Zombie Roadkill co-stars Church as a “tough as nails” Park Ranger that teams up with an unsuspecting teenager played by David Dorfman (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Ring) to escape, according to the FEARnet press release, “a cursed stretch of highway that resurrects roadkill in the form flesh eating zombie animals.”

This is the latest column from Tubefilter News’ resident new media legal expert, James C. Roberts. Last time he tackled reader questions on how to interpret the ever-resent Letter of Intent (LOI) in new media and online entertainment. This week’s reader question is all about what rights content creators have when they upload their videos to various websites.

Q: If I post a video on a website do I lose ownership?

A: The short answer is that it will depend upon the Terms of Use (TOU) for the site. (Sometimes it is called Terms of Service—TOS—or End User License Agreement—EULA.) Read them with care. The general answer is that most TOUs preserve your “ownership” but grant the website certain rights for display and, sometimes, ambiguous rights s to creating derivatives. That can be messy.

But funny you should ask. I recently received an email from Godaddy (a website registrar) announcing changes to their TOU. I thought it would be useful to look at some
of the TOU provisions on this topic.

What caught my attention in the GoDaddy.com email was what seemed to be an assurance as to your ownership of posted content. Specifically:

Jerry Springer’s latest iteration of voyeuristic, tabloid television comes in the form of GSN’s Baggage.

On the dating show, the former mayor of Cincinnati and host of his eponymous syndicated talk show guides a bachelor or bachelorette through a series of revelations about three prospective dates. The catch? The prospective dates have baggage. Literally. They each tote three suitcases along with them, and each suitcase contains a secret. The bigger the suitcase, the bigger the secret. It’s pretty okay as far as bad television goes, though watching really just makes you nostalgic for dating shows from the format’s Golden Age in the early 2000s, when Blind Date and The Fifth Wheel ruled the ratings.

While Springer will never top Roger Lodge in my book, Baggage isn’t doing too shabby. GSN recently debuted the series’ second season and signed svelte Hollywood blogger, Perez Hilton for a short-form web series as a companion to the cable TV show. Dubbed Perez Hilton’s Baggage Report, the series will consist of eight weekly segments “highlighting some of the best and worst baggage featured in season two” of the program.

Hilton is reported to provide “commentary on the contestants and their baggage in his own special way,” but if you’re hoping that means snark written in white sharpie across the screen, you’re in for a disappointment. Baggage Report is a mediocre clip show a best, that once again leaves you longing for the witty, pop-up stylings from the Golden Age of dating shows.

YouTube since its beginnings have had the “Most Viewed” and “Most Subscribed” lists, which still make up part of my daily spots to check. Today though YouTube has rolled out a cleaner interface called YouTube Charts, with a more
elegant chart style to actually see which videos are tops on the site today (or this week, month, etc.)

What did we learn from today’s top videos? Well Phil DeFranco, aka sxephil’s rant on Tila Tequila is neck and neck with Fred’s teaser clip from his upcoming movie—Fred: The Movie. The top video? Well, it’s not in English—Serra Come Todo Mundo – Serra Comedor (Original)—meaning a language filer is definitely a must-add here to make this really useful.