by Joshua Cohen on June 13th, 2011
Cracked.com is both an online procrastinator’s nightmare and happy place. Let’s say you’re a new media journalist writing a story about Major League Gaming (this is a random example I obviously came up with out of thin air) and you stumble across this article about the 6 Most Ominous Trends in Video Games while doing your due diligence. Before you know it, you’re a half liter of Mountain Dew deep, 90 minutes past your deadline, totally stoked to know that Uncle Phil voiced Shredder in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, totally scared of adorable grasshopper mice, and totally still going to read those other articles about R-rated scenes in classic kid flicks, inspiring acts of kindness by crime syndicates, and vehicles for the nauseatingly rich.
Once you have your fill of Cracked’s irreverent and surprisingly well researched articles (I say that because of all the heat Demand Media – Cracked.com’s parent company – has taken lately for its approach to article research), you may even hang around the domain to catch a video or two.
The humor website and only lasting iteration of the long since defunct Cracked magazine launched the third season of its Streamy Award-winning original web series Agents of Cracked last week. Here’s a look:
by Joshua Cohen on June 13th, 2011
One of the greatest things about modern video games is they’re fun to watch. It’s always been amusing to see Fred Savage’s younger brother totally pwn some 8-bit side-scroller, but unless you’re in the presence of a true old school Nintendo wizard, it’s not fun to suffer through someone sucking at Mario Bros.
Newer titles and consoles don’t have that problem. No matter how bad someone is at Call of Duty: Black Ops, the graphics and gameplay make it entertaining enough to sit back and enjoy the action until it’s your turn to hold the controller. And if the person who’s killing bad guys or noobs on screen is actually good at what he/she does, it makes the spectating all the better.
Don’t believe me? We’ll I’ve got at least 22.5 million video views that prove my point. That’s how many streams Major League Gaming delivered throughout the weekend of June 3 through June 5 at its Columbus Pro Circuit event. By comparison, the 2011 Superbowl averaged 111 million viewers on Fox and the 2011 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament received an average of 9.1 million daily viewers.
by Drew Baldwin on June 9th, 2011
Tubefilter and two of San Francisco’s leading digital creative agencies—Portal A Interactive (White Collar Brawler) and Seedwell—have teamed up to present Viral Video SF, a mixer and panel discussion in San Francisco à la the Tubefilter Meetups.
The first event, entitled Beyond Keyboard Cats: How Can Brands Leverage Viral Video?, will explore how viral videos can be used for brands, causes, and campaigns.
Our co-hosts will bring an insider perspective on how brands, agencies, and small businesses can leverage viral video for their next marketing campaign.
The event will be streamed live through Tubefilter’s events channel on Stickam.
Panelists:
• George Strompolos, Founder and CEO of Fullscreen
• David Prager, Co-founder of Revision3
• Maggie Finch, Founder and CEO of King of the Web
• Chris Schreiber, Director of Marketing at Sharethrough
• Blake Cahill, Principal/President of Banyan Branch
by Joshua Cohen on June 9th, 2011
Corey Moosa, Neal Dodson, and Zachary Quinto (who’ll you recognize as Spock from the Star Trek reboot) are the three actors and producers behind Before the Door Pictures, a production company responsible for at least two feature films, three television series, a couple comic books, a graphic novel, and a decent amount of experimentation in new media.
Here at the Digitas 2011 NewFront Dodson and Quinto took the main stage to announce they’re taking their new media productions from the level of experimentation to sponsor-supported and professional. The vehicle they’re doing it with is called Last Guy on Earth. It looks good.
Quinto plays a suave, post-college, fratastic, dbag who’s sexually aggressive and living on a post-apocalyptic Earth. As the name would suggest, he’s the last individual on the planet with a Y chromosome. And as the story goes, Quinto’s character is desperately trying to procreate with the last individual on the planet who’s female. The problem is she’s not having it.
Dodson and Quinto say installments of the series will explore the varying and increasingly ridiculous methods of Quinto’s character’s courtship, some of which will be strongly influenced by the audience.
by Joshua Cohen on June 9th, 2011
Isabella Rossellini’s entomological web series depicting hardcore bug on bag and animal action with a Feillini-inspired and DIY aesthetic was a hit for Sundance. Green Porno (which stars Rossellini, who describes and reeanacts medically accurate insect and animal procreation) and it’s follow-up series Seduce Me (which stars Rossellini, who describes and reenacts zoologically accurate insect [...]
by Drew Baldwin on June 9th, 2011
The International Academy of Web Television is announcing today that the inaugural “IAWTV Awards” to be held in Las Vegas at the 2012 International CES.
The Consumer Electronics Show is the largest consumer technology tradeshow, held annually in Las Vegas. “We are launching our Awards during 2012 CES because it is the world’s leading technology and content conference,” said IAWTV Awards Committee Chair Amber J. Lawson. The event will take place on January 12, 2012 as a part of the CES programming.
“To have the show during CES not only allows us celebrate excellence in online video, but also proves that more mainstream audiences recognize the quality and unique content the web television industry provides,” said Paul Kontonis, Chairman of the Board of Directors for IAWTV.
The IAWTV Awards will consist of 33 categories honoring web series and talent, both in-front of the camera and behind the scenes. A full list of categories for the first IAWTV Awards will be avalable at http://iawtv.org/awards/categories/
* Disclosure: Drew Baldwin is the founder of the International Academy of Web Television and former Treasurer and Member of the Board
by Drew Baldwin on June 8th, 2011
Although he’s not spinning straw into gold, online video comedian Shaycarl demonstrates his own Rumpelstiltskin magic when he shovels cow poop into a digester that will be converted into electricity that powers 2,500 homes.
Shaycarl is working with Howcast Media and General Electric to launch Tag Your Green Road Trip, a web series promoting GE’s ongoing ecomagination campaign.
The series premiere coincides with the launch of GE’s “Tag Your Green” interactive map on the ecomagination Facebook page, where users can share their green innovations like converting their cars to bio-diesel fuel and advancements such as LEED certified buildings. In each video Shaycarl travels to locations on the “Tag Your Green” map where he explores local green innovations and investigates the eco-friendly technology around them.
In the first episode of Tag Your Green Road Trip Shaycarl travels to SXSW to check out GE’s Carousolar exhibit—which features an antique carousel powered by solar energy.
Each week features a new city and a new innovation: the California Academy of Science building in San Francisco; the Jenbacher engine, a machine in Madison, WI that converts animal waste into energy; LEDs that last 22 years at GE’s lighting headquarters in Cleveland; the GEnx jet engine in Durham, NC; and a special episode with musician-environmentalist James Blunt in New York.
by Drew Baldwin on June 7th, 2011
In honor of its 100th episode, NBC’s 30 Rock has released an animated online series: Jack Donaghy Executive Superhero.
The series features Jack Donaghy’s alter-ego as a superhero, and one can only imagine how someone like Jack would put his super powers to use—travelling back in time to 1968, for instance, to squirt dish soap over frozen yogurt and serving it to Brian Williams so that thirty years later he won’t take the last cup from the machine in the NBC commissary. That first episode, “Soft Served” actually features Alec Baldwin and Brian Williams doing the voices.
In the second episode, “Iced,” Jack transforms himself into a laser shooting Boston Bruin upon discovering New York Rangers star Sean Avery practicing slapshots on the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center.
And in the most recent episode, “Rockered,” Liz Lemon (voiced by Tina Fey) requests that Jack use his super abilities to fix an “Al Rocker” problem they’ve been having in the writers’ room. No word yet on any additional episodes, but we’d all be grateful to see more of that masked
