Tubefilter News

It’s not easy to pull off Guy Ritchie’s signature high energy smash-action British gangster flicks—Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels—with most attempts feeling flimsy in their imitations.

Andy and Chaz Bugger Off to America makes a noble effort on limited resources. The five-episode indie web series is certainly absurd fun, flirting with chaotic in its comedic story of two British gangsters on the run in Los Angeles trying half-wittingly to crack into the film business.

The series has its drawbacks, and its modest production value gets in the way at times—like the awkwardly blurred-out logos of dumpster brands and motel signs. The thought that kept interrupting my viewing: why not just choose shots without logos?

I was about to write this series off, when we had the chance to meet up with creators Darren Darnborough (“Chaz”), Craig Robert Young (“Andy”) and director Richard Keith. We shot a video interview (watch it below) with the three of them, with assistance from actress Cooper Harris, who was on hand at the mixer.

Molly Templeton (aka YouTuber mememolly) hosted the independent and daily internet and pop culture news program Rocketboom since she first took her place in front of the original web series’ iconic world map and behind its news desk back in July 2009.

Now that Templeton has moved onto a gig at My Damn Channel that puts her to work behind the camera instead of in front of it, an obvious question comes to mind: What’s up with Rocketboom? I spoke with the company’s founder/creator/CEO Andrew Baron for the answer.

Like her predecessor Joanne Colan, Templeton’s departure from the perennial online video program was planned. Therefore, Baron and his Rocketboom production crew had time to shoot at least a few dozen installments of the series before she left. If you’re wondering why Templeton’s still hosting new daily episodes of the series, that’s why. Rocketboom.com will populated with fresh content and the host’s chair will be kept warm for whoever the new host will be whenever he or she takes his or her seat.

As to who that he or she might be, Baron would only say, “It’s a secret,” but he did divulge a bit more about the status of his company and its new initiatives. Since the sale of Know Your Meme to Cheezburger Network, Rocketboom has been busy. Very busy. According to Baron the company has already generated over $1 million in revenue this year alone, and that’s not including the aforementioned sale.

Rocketboom has been making money in two ways. 1) Your regular, everyday video sponsorship, especially of slightly more targeted Rocketboom programming, like its New York City-centric fare. And 2) Through client work. “It’s a bit unexpected,” says Baron, “but there’s a growing number of companies, sponsors, and advertisers that want to take advantage of our services and the creative ways we approach online video content.”

VidCon is OVER?! That seems to be the collective response to the endorphin hangover that most of us who attended the three-day (and night) gathering of video fans and makers in Los Angeles this past weekend are feeling this week. Luckily, much of the madness is captured on video and is just now getting uploaded to the official VidCon channel.

Hank and John Green, aka The Vlog Brothers, are the brainchild behind this well-oiled mashup of the YouTube and online video community and fans. As expected three-day convention busted out of the Hyatt in Century City, selling out passes very early on and prompting a move to the much larger Anaheim Convention Center for next year’s Con.

Inspired by the vibrant community of video creators that we write about every day here on Tubefilter, we are trying something new. Our own Tubefilter weekly vlogs on our budding YouTube channel. (Don’t forget to subscribe of course!)

The reason YouTube acquired Next New Networks is because Next New Networks knew YouTube better than YouTube knew itself.

While YouTube was struggling with a way to support and grow the number of YouTube Partners and the quality and viewership of those Partners’ programming, NNN was elevating online video amateurs to the status of professional and, through the process, churning out a not insignificant number of hits. The new media studio’s Next New Creator Program discovered and fostered up and coming YouTube talent, giving them the resources and (more importantly) the knowhow necessary to up their production value and grow their audiences.

The team at NNN (which is comprised of the individuals behind online video hits like Box in a Box, Obama Girl, Indy Mogul, and more) compiled their collective years of online video experience into a kinda classified tome of YouTube tips and tricks. It included best practices for production, how to craft thins like most search engine friendly YouTube descriptions, why cross-promotion and collaboration is so effective, and everything beyond and in between. The tome worked, too. The top two most viewed YouTube videos of 2010 came from Auto-Tune the News and Key of Awesome, both of which were proud recipients of a copy and either taken into or born from Next New Networks initiatives.

So, what exactly is in this 70-some-odd page sorta secret document about all things YouTube? That’s a question only Next New Network creators could answer. Until now.

The team at YouTube Next (which is basically the same team from NNN) officially released the YouTube Creator Playbook to the online video masses. It’s 70 slides of “important tips, best practices, and strategies that helps creators build audiences on YouTube” broken down into three overarching categories, including Programing and Producing, Publishing and Optimization, and Community and Social Media.

Readers are given explicit and precise instructions on how and why to implement a variety of techniques into and about their videos. Time Cost and expected Impact on audience are estimated for each action, making this one of the most well-thought, thorough, and user-friendly tutorials this reporter has seen on anything, let alone YouTube strategy.

Car manufacturers and dealerships love federal holidays. Toyota and Presidents Day is no exception. The Japanese motor corporation aired the following television spot promoting their holiday sales event back in February 2011.

Do those dead president heads on the dancing tuxedo bodies against an old timey theater backdrop look familiar? Aaron Simpson at Cold Hard Flash certainly thinks so. So do the lawyers of a 12-year-old digital entertainment studio famous for putting goofy looking visages of famous individuals on top of uncharacteristically coordinated physiques.

JibJab issued an official complaint for damages to the California California District Courts in March. The complaint claims:

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. “…intentionally, knowingly and wilfully copied the JibJab Works in order to personally benefit from the widespread customer recognition and acceptance of said works and to capitalize upon the market created by these works.”
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. made “unauthorized use of the JibJab Logo in interstate commerce and advertising…”
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.’s “use of the JibJab Logo in its commercials is likely to confuse, mislead, or deceive consumers, the public, and trade as to the origin, source, sponsorship, or affiliation of said products, and is intended, and is likely to cause such parties to believe in error that [Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.]’s products have been authorized, sponsored, approved, endorsed or licensed by JibJab…”
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. “intended to capitalize on [JiBJab]’s goodwill associated therewith for [its] own pecuniary gain.”

The New York Television Festival will commence its seventh year of “constructing a new and innovative path of program development” (one that gives talented content creators the ability to bypass Hollywood studio bureaucracy and present their work directly to entertainment industry decision makers in one weekend of events) this Fall.

On September 19 through 24, NYTVF will takeover a handful of screening rooms and event spaces around Manhattan to host industry panels and conversations, throw a few parties, and showcase the 48 original television pilots that were selected as Official Selections of this year’s Independent Festival Competition.

Three of the 48 pilots will become recipients of development deal thanks to specific Independent Pilot Competition awards sponsored by individual networks. Those awards include IFC Out of the Box Award, MTV’s Voice and Vision Award (given to an outstanding comedic writer and animator, with each artists receiving a development deal), and The FX There is No Box Comedy Award. The winners will be presented at the NYTVF Awards Show on Saturday, September 24.

So, who are the contenders? A healthy mix of Hollywood and new media talent, many of which you’ll recognize from coverage over here on Tubefilter. Some standout web series favorites from the press release include:

Talent is a scarce resource. My Damn Channel wants to find more of it. The new media studio (which just celebrated its fourth birthday!) and internet destination for original alt-comedy web series hits like You Suck at Photoshop, David Wain’s Wainy Days, and Josh Gad’s Gigi today announced the creation of a new division with the explicit intent to find individuals with mad online video skills. That new division is called Talent and Audience Development. My Damn Channel also today announced who will head said new division. The Director’s name is Molly Templeton, but you may know her as mememolly.

Templeton has exactly the kind of online video experience and internet cred My Damn Channel Founcer/CEO Rob Barnett was looking for in someone charged with acquiring fresh online video creators and enlarging the audiences for their productions.

Templeton started uploading videos to YouTube way back in 2006. Since then, she’s garnered over 51 million views across 74 videos and acquired some 127,000+ subscribers. Not so bad! Especially considering she hasn’t uploaded a single piece of content to her channel on the world’s largest video sharing site since September 7, 2010. But it’s not like Templeton has been neglecting the medium. Since July 6, 2009, she’s hosted the perennial daily video news show Rocketboom, where Templeton’s covered internet, pop and tech culture with aplomb.

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Templeton’s hire as the shiny new Director of Talent and Audience Development of My Damn Channel comes a year after the company officially raised its latest $4.4 million round of funding and four months after My Damn Channel’s partnership with Subway, University of Southern California and IFC for the Subway Fresh Artists Filmmakers contest and subsequent winning web series.

I caught up with Barnett and Templeton to ask them how the new division and the new gig came to be and what kind of content we can expect Molly to bring into the MyDamnChannel.com family.

Tubefilter: Is My Damn Channel going to pursue the type of representation, distribution, or advertising deals we’ve seen from new media companies like Revision3, blip.tv, and The Collective? Or will you be looking to find talent and then develop shows internally?

Rob Barnett: For four years, we’ve had a prime focus bringing major talent in-house to produce and distribute great original content. With the success of Daily Grace and more new talent we’ve developed, the time was right to add someone with Molly’s experience and sensibility to our management team. Molly will give more new talent a chance to get prime placement on www.MyDamnChannel.com and throughout our distribution network.