Tubefilter News

There is a certain fascination with watching stars crash to Earth. (See any article on TMZ for reference.) The new web series, Fresh Hell from Star Trek: The Next Generation star Brent Spiner, takes a comedic look at the aftermath of a celebrity’s fall from grace.

Brent Spiner stars as, well, Brent Spiner, the much beloved star of stage, screen, and cinema, who commits an unforgivable faux pas, referred to only as “The Incident,” resulting in the loss of his fame, family, and fortune. Now a social outcast and national laughing stock, Spiner desperately seeks a return to his former glory while adjusting to his new situation. The series also stars web series veteran Kat Steel, who debuts in the second episode as Spiner’s doe-eyed, eager-to-please pornstar neighbor, Dakota.

“Despite her day job, Dakota has a heart of gold and a strong (yet strange) moral compass,” says Steel. “Her bond with Brent is that they are both lost, vulnerable, and need someone in their lives who genuinely care about them.” Clearly, Dakota offers Spiner something that he is lacking. Actually, she was about to offer him something else he had been missing, but he quickly stopped her. In fact, during the course of the second episode, Spiner reluctantly shifts from opportunistic lothario to dutiful mentor and essentially conducts a master acting class within the span of a few minutes.

Meet Valerie Lapomme, a 23 year old woman with bright eyes and a bubbly personality who loves video games, sci-fi, comic books, and obscure pop culture references. She has an overbearing but well-meaning mother, wears her love for Joss Whedon on her sleeve, and filters deeply philosophical questions through an absurdist layer. She has an infectious personality that makes her even more attractive the more time one spends with her.

If she sounds like the perfect girl, well, she was created that way.

Val is the brainchild of two Toronto based entertainment veterans, Stephanie Kaliner and Simon Fraser. The duo conceived of the Sexy Nerd Girl web series after realizing just how invested audiences can become in the lives of their favorite characters. “I know when I watch a lot of programs, I’m in love with the characters. I wish I could talk to them and they could talk back to me,” states Kaliner. Based on YouTube and Facebook comments, the audience does not seem to mind that she is, as the producers describe her, an openly-fictional character. “She’s as real as you want her to be,” states writer-producer-director Mike Fly, which is true; after all, I still believe Bree is real.

In fact, comparisons between Sexy Nerd Girl and lonelygirl15 can easily be made. They each feature attractive fictional female vloggers with a verbose vocabulary, emotional resonance with the audience, and a penchant for leaning into the camera. They both have a lethargic guy pal, in Val’s case his name is actually Guy, who hangs out in the background and is clearly in love with her. Lastly, both series inspired a loyal audience from the start that whole-heartedly bought into the series’ concept.

An exclusive Joss Whedon Tribute music video from the Sexy Nerd Girl just for Tubefilter.

However, the similarities quickly end. For starters, there never was an attempt to convince viewers that Val is anything other than a fictional character. Also, while LG15 morphed into a dark action-mystery series, Sexy Nerd Girl is content with stay sexy and nerdy. “LG15 was a pioneer when it came to using YouTube as a narrative platform,” states Fly, “because of that, no one will ever be able to recreate what they did.” Nevertheless, thanks to the new media boom caused by Facebook and Twitter, Valerie is able to engage her fans socially to a level not possible three years ago.

Devo, the New Wave rock band famous for the 1980 hit single Whip It, has always experimented with new technology in its music. In the 80s, Devo pioneered the music video as a creative medium, and last year the band live streamed its newest album on Ustream accompanied by a live feed of cats. Now Devo has teamed up with Social Animal and music video directors Kii Arens and Jason Trucco to create a 360 degree interactive music video, “What We Do.”

“What We Do” features a circular set divided into eleven tableaux of Devo-inspired characters performing separate activities, which viewers can explore during the song by controlling the camera. Social Animal, whose Like the 360 degree music video for the Black Eyed Peas from Immersive Media, which helped kicked off Will.i.am’s mobile app company, Social Animal integrated “360 Touch Video” elements into the video, allowing viewers to not only create their own experiences with the 360 degree video content, but to mouse over items in the video for an opportunity to purchase Devo merchandise.

“When shooting this video we took into account Devo’s phenomenal reputation and their history of innovation. With the help of the remarkable creatives on the project we were able to build an immersive Devo world for fans to explore,” said Tyler Malin, CEO of Social Animal.

Is this blatant product placement, or is Devo making a statement? Sound off

Maker Studios has been relatively quiet as it ramps up its staff in its new Venice, CA homebase, building out a veritable powerhouse of top YouTube creative talent. Now word comes that the studio has raised around $1.5 million in funding in a round led by Greycroft Partners and GRP partners. Mark Suster, a partner at GRP partners (and host of web show This Week in Venture Capital) is also listed as a Board member in a recent SEC filing for Maker Studios.

The company confirmed the funding round to us, and it’s now already listed as an active part of Greycroft’s investment portfolio, alongside recent investments like Ad.ly, Klout and Vuze. It didn’t confirm the exact size of the round, though in the SEC Form D filing from January, the company stated it plans on raising $1,524,999, with five directors listed including founders Ben Donovan, Lisa Donovan (aka LisaNova), Daniel Zappin, Maker’s quasi-CEO Ezra Cooperstein and Suster.

The studio emerged out of The Station, a cooperative channel of top YouTube creators featuring the likes of ShayCarl, LisaNova, KassemG and others. But after realizing the network effect of coordinating top channels and its power to generate some serious view counts (and revenue through the YouTube partner program), Zappin and the Donovans turned their efforts towards building out a full blown studio of coordinated channels. Now The Station—its 133 million views and over 1 million subscribers—is just one part of studio that represents over 150 channels and generates 325 million monthly views per month.

The Northern Hemisphere is a month into Spring and if you live above the Mason-Dixon line, it’s actually starting to maybe feel like it? Tomorrow’s Earth Day, too, so that makes today perfect timing for YouTube to relaunch its Live Green program.

Live Green is “your guide to eco-living.” The YouTube destination aggregates a curated selection of videos from the video sharing site’s “top eco-focused partners” (like Planet Green, Inhabitat, Secret Life of a Bio Nerd, Howcast, Gaiam, and many more) and then divides those videos into four categories for your sustainable edification and entertainment: Home, Food, Beauty, and Granier.

The one category of those four that looks like it doesn’t quite fit belongs to Live Green’s title sponsor, Granier Fructus. L’Oreal’s cosmetics hair care brand is, if you ask people who are eco obsessed, one of the best products in its market in terms of its use of recycled products and biodegradable formula.

So today is April 20, the official day of stoners. In honor of this holiday of cannabis subculture, we wanted to share with you Project 420, an original web series which combines marijuana with a paranoid government conspiracy theory—like we didn’t see that coming.

Unlike other pot-related web series to grace the internet—we’ve seen Showtime’s University of Andy, Weed Shop, and The Clinic—Project 420 doesn’t just focus on the consumption of marijuana, though it contributes its fair share of bong rips and joint rolling. From the series:

In the early 1950′s the CIA gave birth to project MK-ULTRA, a covert program designed to research and develop mind-altering substances. Millions of dollars and two decades later, the Program was purportedly abandoned, stating that ‘the tests made little scientific sense.’ This was a clever cover story. Behind closed doors, in a secret government facility, our tax dollars are still at work….

As narcotic research scientists for the CIA, being a pothead is all part of a day’s work for Lin, Pat, and Miriam. It’s canna-business as usual until their co-worker turns up murdered. Inrigue, espionage, and hilarity lurk around every corner as hapless stoners fall deeper and deeper into a maniacal plot….

Enjoy your hazy holiday. Be safe, and

Apparently Lady Gaga didn’t get Chamillionaire’s memo.

When the Houston Chronicle asked the Houston-born rapper how he felt about Weird Al turning his hit single Ridin’ into an anthem for caucasian Apple users, Renaissance fair fans and editors of Wikipedia, Chamillionaire responded with this: “It’s one thing to go platinum. Where do you go from there? Then Weird Al calls.”

Traditionally, a parody from Weird Al is a status symbol most musicians and pop stars covet, revere, or at least greatly appreciate. Sam Anderson notes in an article for Slate how Michael Jackson donated the parodist “his Bad set for the Fat video, and Nirvana loaned him their janitor.” Thee have been a dozen or so famous cases of conscientious Yankovic rejection, but those instances are few and far between.

You can now, however, add Gaga to the list. Sort of.

Today, Weird Al uploaded his latest single to YouTube. It’s a spoof on Lady Gaga’s Born this Way called Perform this Way that parodies the singer’s “larger-than-life image.” Today, Yankovic also wrote on his blog about why he’s uploading his latest single to YouTube and not releasing it with the rest of his in-the-works-but-almost-done album. The Gaga Saga goes like this:

Online destinations are vying for ad dollars this Upfront season, but they aren’t the only ones courting advertisers with web original programming. BET today announced its new slate of shows for its 2011 Upfront presentation tonight in New York City.

In addition to the Viacom-owned network’s staples – like the Hip Hop Awards and 106 and Park – BET is adding a handful of web sereis to its roster, many of which were created, written by, and star individuals who Tubefilter readers will find familiar. The shows include:

Lenox Avenue – A dramatic web series that tells the story of three male friends in their mid-twenties, who are good dressers and busy navigating the rough terrain of love, relationships and careers. Set in Harlem, this series is produced by Al Thompson’s (Johnny B. Homeless, The Royal Tenenbaums) ValDean Entertainment and features Thompson as Owen and Dorian Missick (Lucky Nember) as Sellars. Michael K. Williams and Jamie Hector from HBO’s hit series The Wire and Vanessa Bell Calloway of The Closer to make guest appearances.

Odessa – A Sci-Fi web series that follows a man and his young daughter, Odessa, who have been on the run for as long as they can remember from the clandestine college university science program that bestowed them with psychokinetic abilities. They must avoid the pursuers at all costs or be hunted down and used as living weapons.
Odessa is also a ValDean Entertainment production featuring Thompson, Skai Jackson (Arthur, Boardwalk Empire) as Odessa, Richard Herd (Star Trek), Fullvio Cecere (Battlestar Galactica), Mark Gantt (The Bannen Way), James DeBello (Cabin Fever), and Clayne Crawford (24). Bryan Rolling is Thompson’s producing partner and George Rivera (Rhyme Animal) is his writing partner on the series, while Angel Acevedo (We Need Girlfriends), Jesse Warren (The Bannen Way), and Alex Albrecht (Diggnation) are on board to direct a few episodes. (I told you there were going to be a lot of names you’d recognize!)

The Come Up – Equal parts drama and comedy, this series follows the lives of seven teens in Washington, D.C. as they actively pursue their dreams to make it as future music executives, doctors, lawyers, and superstar athletes. But first they have to make it through high school. Set at Silver Spring High School and the Duke Ellington School of the Performing Arts, this show is driven by storylines that focus on the cast’s relationships with one other and the dilemmas they face on their path to adulthood.
Asylum – A thriller created by Dan Williams and directed by Scott Brown (Blue Movies) that follows a team of doctors as they diagnose and treat patients at the infamous St. Dympna hospital for the criminally insane. Along the way, we will discover intriguing secrets about the staff and learn more about the asylum’s mysterious past.