Tubefilter News

LonsTV looked at a little something different this week with Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn, an off-kilter comedy series that debuted last October on YouTube.

The show takes place in the aftermath of subdued, deadpan Malik (Alec Stephens III) and his child-like roommate Rigo’s (Mike Navarro-O’Brien) ill-fated decision to sublet a room in their apartment. Okay, it’s not really a room, it’s more of a bare space in the corner. But that doesn’t stop them from promising the sublet to not one, but two eager professional women, the fastidious and impatient Emily (Isis King) and loopy free spirit Lindsay (Lindsay Hicks).

The six episodes of the show’s first season find Rigo and Malik essentially hanging around the apartment while Emily and Lindsay scheme to get either their worldly possessions or their first and last month’s deposit back.

Though episodes are credited to writer Nick Blake, the dialogue has an improvisational feel to it, with characters chatting casually rather than building towards big plot points or punchlines. Conversations sort of travel around in circles, and a lot of the dialogue has an aimless sort of feel. Major and even minor plot points tend to get repeated a lot.

Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing (though it can be frustrating when you keep getting set up for one-liners only to not hear any). At times, I was reminded of the mumblecore films of directors like Andrew Bujalski, that aim for capturing the rhythms of daily life and idle chit chat rather than weighty themes and high-concept narratives.

With the influx of new web series what seems like every other day, the way to make your series stand out is finding a unique way to convey your story. Aidan 5 from Room 101 Productions has done just that. Produced by Ben Bays and John Jackson, the series is filmed with live actors against a fully hand-drawn, black and white environment. This is just one of several unique aspects of this sci-fi noir series, based on a winner of the 48 Hour Film Project Contest.

Set in a futuristic world (2045) in “New Columbus”, Ohio, where cloning is legal and monitored by the government, Aidan 5 follows a detective, Aidan, who agrees to be cloned four times (the government-dictated limit) as a job requirement. This measure is taken because, as the pilot episode states, “a clone detective can get more done.”. The clones work 24-hours a day and are able to solve more cases. Though, as we learn, illegal cloning is also being used to level the playing field.

Last night the the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department approved the proposed merger with NBC Universal, ending the long review process which started over a year ago.

The FCC voted 4 to 1 in favor of the deal, but has attached several conditions and stipulations to mitigate risks “to the development of innovative online video distribution services.” The Justice Department announced its approval shortly afterward.

FCC Chair Julius Genachowski said in his statement that the conditions “include carefully considered steps to ensure that competition drives innovation in the emerging online video marketplace. One notable condition is that Comcast must give up NBCU’s position on Hulu’s board of directors, though it will retain its economic stake.

Free Press President and CEO Josh Silver made the following statement about the approval’s implications for net neutrality.

Today’s decision by the FCC represents a failure of the agency to live up to its own public interest mandate, as well as Barack Obama’s promise to promote media diversity and prevent excessive media concentration. This deal will give Comcast unprecedented control over both media content and the physical network that delivers it. The FCC has opened Pandora’s Box, and we can soon expect a whole new swarm of mega-mergers that will have dire consequences for media and the Internet.

Such power concentrated in the hands of a single company is deeply troubling. Access to information from a variety of independent sources is essential to an informed citizenry and a functioning democracy. While the FCC has adopted conditions, they are insufficient short-term or voluntary fixes that will fail to prevent permanent harm to competition, consumer choice and the future of the Internet. This deal will drive up cable and Internet costs for subscribers, while further eliminating diverse, independent media content that is already woefully lacking in the commercial media.

The FCC’s senior Democratic commissioner, Michael J. Copps, who cast the only dissenting vote, said in his statement yesterday, “The Comcast-NBCU joint venture opens the door to the cable-ization of the open Internet. The potential for walled gardens, toll booths, content prioritization, access fees to reach end users, and a stake in the heart of independent content production is now very real.”

Check week is a big deal at blip.tv. The online video hosting, advertising, and distribution network splits ad revenue – the tune of $10 to $15 CPMs – 50/50 with content creators who upload their web shows to the blip.tv platform and engage all of blip’s advertising options. Every quarter, the company sends checks to those content creators who’ve accumulated at least $25 (and as much as $143,000) in revenue from the opt-in advertising program over the past three months.

It makes for a lot of checks and a lot of happy web video makers. But what’s better than check week once a quarter? How about check week once a month?

In order to do its part to stimulate online content creation, blip.tv is moving to a monthly payout system. Starting in April, blip will cut checks to web video producers for the money they earned in January. In May they’ll receive checks for February, June for March, and now you get the idea.

“This industry is very young, and not so long ago there were no checks to send independent producers at all,” Eric Mortensen, blip’s Director of Content told me over e-mail. “It’s exciting to now send people real money on a monthly basis, which removes some unpredictability from the production process and buys shows time to grow. We’re trying to make life easier for producers. That’s all there is to it.”

Movies based on video games generally suck. Part of it’s because of the insanely high expectations.

If you put a middle schooler whose eyes are bloodshot and thumbs are calloused from aggregate weeks of trying to perfect Ken’s shoryuken into a theatre where characters he’s spent the better part of his formative years with come to life on screen, he’s going to want the same emotional response from the film he gets from opening a Nintendo 64.

That never happens because the other part of why moves based on video games generally suck is they’re comprised of half-baked storylines with frustrating expositions and special effects that never match the quality of their video game counterparts.

Web series based on video games, however, tend to be pretty cool. New media content creators retain a certain level of creative control absent from major studio releases, which allows them to take classic gaming characters in new directions.

There Will Be Brawl turned Super Smash Bros. into a noir, hard-boiled detective adventure set in the underbelly of Mushroom Kingdom. Mortal Kombat: Rebirth promises to be the live-action iteration of Mortal Kombat we’ve always wanted – dark and violent with a tasteful balance of mysticism and action that follows a storyline in synch with what we know from the game.

Kevin Tancharoen released MK: Rebirth last year as prologue and proof of concept for the Mortal Kombat motion picture he dreamed of making. He shot the spec with two RED camera over two days for $7,500 and a lot of crew donating their time. The short film was Tancharoen’s pitch to Warner Bros. (who holds the rights to the MK movie franchise), showing the studio he should direct the rumored MK reboot. And it kinda worked.

Warner Bros. isn’t yet developing Tancharoen’s short as a major motion picture, but Warner Premiere is developing it as a web series. Tancharoen, Todd Helbing, and Aaron Helbing are on board to write a 10-episode MK online series, with shooting to begin in February in Vancouver. Featured fighters will include Shang Tsung, Lui Kang, Durak, Sub Zero, Kabal, Kitana/Mileena, Scorpion, and possibly others battling it out in a supernatural death match with all-powerful gods from alternate dimensions.

No word yet on a release date, but if you need an MK fix before the series debuts check out Tancharoen’s short film.

A few months back the story was the Hulu deal, how a brand like Mattel could skip the TV networks all together, backing a half-hour reality show at a fraction of the cost without sacrificing the reach. It was groundbreaking in concept, the first half-hour on Hulu’s still modest list of web-only originals—but inevitably this day would come too. Today the 8-episode series Genuine Ken debuts on Hulu, pulling back the veil to see just pioneering this thing really is.

The setup is, for better or worse, the standard competition reality format, drifting somewhere in between The Apprentice and Project Runway. Its purebred name is Genuine Ken: The Search for the Great American Boyfriend, plucking eight would-be ideal boyfriends against each other in hope of finding the prototypical ‘Genuine Ken.’ In the show’s amusing tongue-cheek fashion, they group are all given pet names vaguely tied to each suitor’s traits: Crooner Ken, Dreamer Ken, Compassionate Ken, All Ameri-Ken?—even Gawker took a shot at the nicknames while handicapping the race.

The anchor of the show is young fashionista Whitney Port, fresh of her residency at MTV on The City and its predecessor, The Hills. If she’s the show’s Heidi Klum, then the ravishing Lauren Mattel’s VP in charge of the Barbie line, is its Nina Garcia.

Yes, that’s right. In case you haven’t seen enough of him, the NBA’s favorite decider is starring in his own web series, The LeBrons, featuring animated version of the characters introduced in the WTF Nike commercials in which LeBron plays four versions of himself, doubling Shaq’s duplication in his recent web series.

The series takes place in James’ hometown of Akron, Ohio and will debut on his website and The LeBrons YouTube channel.

“I’m just really excited about this show,” said James. “It goes back to the four characters who I feel like I am on a day-to-day basis.”

With Kid LeBron, Athlete LeBron, Business LeBron, and Wise (the mentor of the family), James will attempt to portray the many sides of himself. “It’s an exciting time to get this out not only to kids but to everyone. I think everyone is going to have an opportunity to to relate to them,” said James.

Each episode will convey a G.I. Joe or Fat Albert-like message for children—don’t play in abandoned refrigerators, never open doors for strangers—reports the New York Times. Hewlett-Packard and Intel are already branding The LeBrons YouTube page, and a portion of the proceeds from the show will be used to buy their products for Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Currently the series creators, Spring Hill Productions and Believe Entertainment Group (whose founders Dan Goodman and Bill Masterson were behind Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane’s Burger King sponsored Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy), are trying to build a subscriber base on YouTube in anticipation of a spring debut of the 10-episode series.

Diggnation isn’t the only new media entertainment company live streaming an event on YouTube this evening. YouTube will also play host to an event of its own.

The online video destination with over 145 million unique monthly visitors will hold an online meeting led by Phil Farhi, YouTube’s Product Manager. YouTube is calling all of its 15,000+ Partners (and those with aspirations for the Partner Program) to participate in its very first “virtual meetup.” Farhi will answer questions submitted to YouTube’s YouTube Channel by YouTubers, with a focus on such topics as “how to make money on YouTube, advertising options, and some new innovations coming your way soon.”

Tune in to YouTube.com/YouTube at 2PM PST / 5PM EST to catch the discussion, and chime into the conversation by way of Twitter with the hashtag #YTPartner. If you like what you see, be sure to make plans to attend the next live and in-person Tubefilter Hollywood Web TV Meetup.