Tubefilter News

One of Machinima’s most popular web series, and arguably its most philosophical, Arby n’ The Chief is back with its sixth full length season. After racking up over 82 million views on YouTube, this could in fact be the final season of Arby ‘n’ the Chief, and it just might be it’s best yet.

Following a growing trend of longer-form web originals, this season’s Arby episodes are longer, closing in on 20 minutes each, more than double that of its earlier days.

We caught up with Vancouver-based creator Jon Graham for his thoughts on what could be the final season of the Odd Couple saga of Arbiter and his pal Master Chief. He goes by a few names in online circles—Jon CJG and before that Digitalph33r—but the 24 year-old Canadian has been making a name for himself in (digital) Hollywood with a string of online films and series almost exclusively surrounding the world of Xbox’s megahit Halo franchise. Halo’s makers at Bungie software even threw Graham some early access perks, like say an exclusive Recon Armor Permutation, before that was a thing.

You know those New Era commercials with Alec Baldwin and John Krasinski? The ones where they play best frenemies with a healthy amount of fanaticism for their respective favorite MLB teams and the 110-or-so-year rivalry between their respective favorite MLB teams? So good, right?! They’re the kind of commercial that make you want to buy a New Era baseball cap just to support the brand that conceived of and/or paid for such a great marketing campaign. Or the kind of commercials that make you want to tune into whatever the brand that conceived of and/or paid for such a great marketing campaigin is up to next.

That’s part of the reason why I’ll be watching Tattoo Age. The other part is it looks good.

The original web series from New Era Caps and Vice Magazine’s VBS.TV follows the work, party, and at-home lives of at least five prominent tattoo artists and their employees, friends, and peers. NYCers Troy Denning, Dan Santoro, and Mike Rubendall, and Bay Areaers Freddy Corbin and Grime show off their work (which looks amazing, especially Santoro’s Day of the Dead meets Folk Art aesthetic) while talking about their art, history, and subculture.

It looks like an LA Ink with the staged drama and theatrics replaced by legitimate insight into what life is like for a tattoo artist who is not Kat Von D. For a branded entertainment campaign, there’s also limited product placement. Denning, Santoro, Rubendall, Corbin, and Grime’s subjects and coworkers don New Era Caps in on camera portraits and interviews about the artists, but that looks to be the extent of the screen time devoted to the presenting sponsor of the series.

Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to lift off at 11:26AM EST Friday for the last time ever. The STS-135 mission will deliver “supplies, logistics, and spare parts to the International Space Station” before Obama’s new future for NASA takes the American Space Shuttle program in an entirely new direction.

If you want to watch the liftoff, but can’t make it down to Cape Canaveral or didn’t score a ticket to NASA’s Launch Party (Two asides: First, NASA’s Launch Party…LOL! Second, NASA uses Eventbrite) you have a few online streaming options to choose from.

Livestream has live streaming coverage courtesy of Spaceflight Now, “the leading source for space news,” which features a few anchors chitchatting with various NASA employees about their lives and the impending launch in the middle of what looks like a non-alcoholic tailgate party. The crew at Spacevidcast takes the production quality up a notch. Their stream and commentators make the launch look and feel like it’s an official PGA event.

Spacevidcast is one of two live streams of choice of the launch powered by Ustream, but the online live streaming provider’s other channel is the one you want to watch.

Three time Survivor contestant Parvati Shallow, who took home $1,000,000 as the winner of Survivor: Micronesia Fans vs. Favorites, has been tapped to host the third season of CBS interactive series Around the World for Free.

After an appearance on CBS’s The Talk on July 8, Shallow will embark on a 100 day journey across the world, armed with nothing more than a backpack and an AT&T-powered smart phone and tablet.

Shallow will be travelling without any money or pre-arranged transportation and lodging—she’s relying on the kindness of strangers and advice from fans who will interact with her through Twitter and a special interactive map on CBS.com.

According to “Parvati’s Rules of the Road,” only locals can help her get around, and if she gets stuck CBS will only help her out with four overseas flights.

“Adventure and travel have been main priorities in my life since I was a child, and what better way to combine my passions than exploring the world while having no idea what will await each new day?” said Shallow. “I am counting down the minutes until I will be discovering hidden corners of the planet, meeting people from completely different cultures and backgrounds, and experiencing human compassion at its very best. Around the World For Free is a true testament to the generosity and kindness of the human

It’s a frustrating experience anytime YouTube changes the design of its website.

The video sharing destination is kinda like a remote control for the internet. A remote control that 147-or-so million people in the US are very comfortable using. It can be confusing when the design or layout of that remote control changes. It’s like going over to a friend’s house, turning on the television, and having to watch Melissa and Joey because that’s what’s on and you don’t know how to change the channel to your new favorite show Franklin and Bash or use the channel guide because when you press “Channel Up” the input switches from the cable box – which is not the same cable box you own and not provided by the same cable company that provides your cable – to the PS3.

With all that in mind, my initial reaction to YouTube’s new TestTube experimental layout codenamed Cosmic Panda is I like it not. Everything’s changed! But after watching a few dozen videos, I must say the Panda makes for a much more pleasant viewing experience.

First, YouTube’s changed the background color on its videos from white to black. Second, you can watch the video on that new black background in one of four different sizing options by clicking on the four different rectangles located below the video and to the far right.

Third is the part that seems a little out of whack that I wish YouTube would standardize but can’t probably because the site’s database is structured in a particular format that it needs certain types of videos to behave certain ways in certain situations. YouTube treats the videos in playlists differently than videos you just happen upon. It displays them differently, too.

Susan Lucci may still be able to keep her day job.

The female actor who’s played Erica Kane on the ABC soap opera All My Children for the past 31(!) years and counting looked as if she would need a new gig come September 23, 2011. That’s the date ABC set as the final episode of the daytime television staple. The broadcast network announced in April it would cancel the show along with One Life to Live due to sluggish ratings and the thought from ABC execs that new The View-esque programs could fare better in their time slots.

But now it looks like Kane her fellow residents of Pine Valley, Pennsylvania and the denizens of Llanview, PA will live and die and come back to life again off of TV and on the web. Claire Atkinson at the New York Post reports ABC has sold the online rights to All My Children and One Life to Live as part of a deal with management and entertainment company Prospect Park.

The series will reportedly live on a “TV-focused” online network, which Prospect Park principals are currently raising cash to crate.

The new original web series is called Screw*d and is seeking “one tool-clueless person” to subject to “a series of intense, even high-risk tool and survival challenges” in order to transform him or her into “the ultimate handyman.”

The challengers will be able to consult the world of internet DIY as they complete tasks at a 10-week boot camp. The winner will receive a $50,000 stipend and room and board in Chicago, IL. Submissions opened June 2 and will close today on June 7. Over 300 hopeful contestants have submitted two-minute videos touting their unhandiness so far. The top 5 “Mopst Screw*d” candidates will be selected by the online masses and put to the test. The exploits of those wannabe handymen and handywomen will be documented, edited, and uploaded to the internet in a dozen-or-so three to four-minute installments. The public will then again vote for “The Screw*d One,” who Craftsman will reveal on August 8 and congratulate with some new tools and a check.

Ryan Ostrom, Divisional Vice President for Digital Marketing for the Craftsman, Kenmore and Diehard brands at Sears, told the New York Times that the challenges would be “uncommon to the everyday tool experience.”

Premium online video streaming destination Hulu is on the auction block and the potential object of acquisition for many a global media, technology, and entertainment companies. It’s also the object of attention for many new Hulu Plus subscribers.

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar announced in a blog post today subscribers to the $7.99 monthly service (that gives users access to more programming than your regular average Hulu and the ability to watch that programming in HD and on more devices than your computer) are up for the month of June. Way up, in fact, bringing the total number of Hulu Plus paying members to 875,000.

Originally Kilar expected to Hulu Plus to become a member of the One Million Subscribers Club by the end of the year, but with month-over-month increase on the rise, he’s upped his estimated date to the end of summer. The increase in the rate of subscriber acquisition is because of a few recent changes with Hulu and the way people consume the type of programming Hulu distributes:

Hulu Plus is now available on a ton of devices. Kilar notes in the last three months alone the service has been made accessible by way of Xbox 360 and Kinect, select Android smart phones, Tivo Premiere DVRs, and select Samsung Blu-Ray players. That puts the total number of devices on which subscribers can watch Hulu Plus at upwards of 100 million.

Hulu Plus has increased the size of its content library. The service now has over 15,000 total hours of content across 28,000 episodes, 2,180 TV series, 25,000 clips, and 1,450 movies.

Online video prime time is now prime time. More individuals are watching more full-length movies and TV programs on the internet every day, which gives Hulu Plus and increasingly larger audience from which to acquire subscribers.