Tubefilter News

Meltdown Comics held the premiere of TV writer and producer Jane Espenson’s latest original web series Husbands last Sunday night as part of the Nerdist Writers Panel series. Audience members were treated to three episodes of the program after a charming, crowd pleasing introduction by Steamy award winning writer/executive producer herself, Jane Espenson (Battlestar Galactica).

The show is a unique take on a familiar premise. A couple wakes up in Las Vegas to discover they’re married and stuck together for the rest of their lives (or until they do something like get a hold of this DIY divorce kit). The twist? They are both men and Nevada just made same-sex marriage legal. Now, famous athlete Brady (Sean Hemeon) and actor Cheeks (Brad “Cheeks” Bell) have to navigate married life with constant interruptions from nosy best friend Haley (Alessandra Torresani).

Husbands is a result of the friendship between Espenson and Cheeks formed after Espenson became a fan of Cheeks’ YouTube channel GoCheeksGo. Espenson reached out, Cheeks responded, the two hit it off, and a decision to produce a web series together soon followed. They reached out to director Jeff Greenstein (Desperate Housewives, Will & Grace) and actress Alessandra Torresani (Caprica) to round out the cast and crew.

“Jane decided she wanted to do this, she wrote the check and we made the show.” Said Greenstein, reflecting on how the series came to be. “We just went out and did it.”

Financed entirely by Espenson, the series was a departure from working on studio financed series and proved a challenging, yet fulfilling experience that taught the seasoned television and web series writer a thing or two. “I learned to see production as an extension of the writing process,” Said Espenson. “Before I always thought that my job was done when the script was done. Changing something on the set or in the editing room, it doesn’t mean I failed to get the scripts right, it just means I’m still writing this project.”

The writing process for Husbands was different than her other series, as it featured no involvement from outside parties. “In a way it’s great to not get notes from the studio or a network on a script,” Espenson said when discussing the difference “The downside of that is if you are watching the scene, if you go “does this scene work?” we don’t have the reassurance of knowing that a million people have looked at it. You have to have the faith of your convictions a little more.”

Since it was unknown territory for Espenson, she contacted friends who had success creating independent web series. “Felicia (Day) gave us advice early on,” Espenson mentioned during the panel. She also went to long time collaborator Joss Whedon for advice, even taking a page from his playbook and casting a familiar actor for a cameo. Husbands will feature an appearance from Captain Hammer himself, Nathan Fillion.

The chemistry between the cast and crew was amazing, evident during the panel and in the show itself. Husbands consists of eleven two-minute episodes that can either be combined into a full-length 22-minute pilot, or watched as standalone installments.

Distributed through Blip.tv, the series premieres Tuesday night and is worth watching. When asked why a viewer should tune in, Espenson simply said, “To laugh. That’s the main reason.”

It’s Monday and our weekly video blog is up and about today. Lots of Polish commenters jumped in to show their love of Poland’s #1 most subscribed YouTuber, Niekryty Krytyk. I don’t speak a lick of Polish, but from what I can tell he runs a pretty slick, well-paced show over there.

Krytyk, who’s name roughly translates to ‘Roofless Critic,’ counts a number of US-based creators like Nostalgia Critic, Angry Video Game Nerd and Ray William Johnson as his influencers. Lately he’s been on a tear in Poland, racking up 129,000 subscribers so far and almost half of them coming in the past three months.

Enough people get their news from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to warrant a few articles about the subject from major world newspapers and university publications and for Daily Show correspondent John Oliver to say, “That cannot be true, but if it is true, this country is in real trouble.”

Regardless of whether or not it is true, those people that watch The Daily Show are certainly less informed than those people that watch The Daily Show and visit IndecisionForever.com to see The Daily Show’s original web series, where “correspondents explain complex political issues somewhat accurately.”

The so far 10-episode series of The Daily Show Correspondents Explain features the program’s familiar faces (like Aasif Mandavi, Jason Jones, John Oliver, Olivia Munn, Samantha Bee, and Wyatt Cenac) applying their customary straightfaced sardonic spin and didactic tone to the explanation of political institutions and ideas (like the White House, Political Scandals, Life After the Presidency, and seven more). The installments are a natural online extension of the cable television action. They’re good, too. But don’t take my word for it. The the voting body of the 2011 Primetime Emmy Awards feels the same way I do.

StoryCorps is a independent non-profit organization founded in 2003 with a mission to “provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.” Over 30,000 interviews from 60,000 participants have been collected by way of fixed and mobile story recording booths and later preserved for posterity and study by future oral historians at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Of those 30,000 interviews, a choice few get animated. For the 10th anniversary of 9/11, StoryCorps selected three poignant stories to bring to commiserable cartoon life.

There’s the story of Jon Vigiano Sr., a retired New York City firefighter whose two sons followed him into service and whose two sons both were killed on September 11, 2001 after responding to a call from the World Trade Center. And the one about Richie Pecorell and Karen Juday, who were engaged when Juday, who worked as an administrative assistant at the WTC, died in the terrorist attacks. And the one about Michael Trinidad, who “called his ex-wife, Monique Ferrer, from the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower to say goodbye.”

Earlier this year there was Felicia Day appearing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, not to promote her recent movie (Red) or increasingly frequent TV appearances, but for her Dragon Age series. Now tonight on ABC, YouTube’s hottest action directors Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch are sitting down on the couch with Jimmy Kimmel.

Folks, online video stars have arrived.

For those who long ditched their TV Guides, the show airs tonight on ABC at 12AM on the east coast, 11PM central, then again at 12AM on the west coast. Broadway and Glee guest star Kristin Chenoweth joins them on the show tonight. So tune in web video fans, this is a big deal.

Images in flip books and stop motion animation flicker in front of the eye. When done well they create mysterious moments of whimsy that more sleek and perfectly formatted techniques cannot capture. So what happens when a group of photographers with a a penchant for old-school cameras and celluloid get together to create a community around their their art? If they have a talented editor with an eye for movement, they can create magic.

Dedicated to the world of analogue photography, lomography enthusiasts can be found all over the world. Their golden rules include: take your camera everywhere you go, use it anytime day or night, try to shoot from the hip, don’t think, be fast, and to not worry about any golden rules.

When it comes to group projects, lomographers are a crafty crew. Every Lomography gallery houses a giant tiled collage of lomo images and other exhibits that fill the space with something fun to see at every turn. Check the website of any lomography store and find a calendar of activities: lomowalks, analogue printmaking, parties, and photos safaris. But aybe no other format celebrates lomography with more enthusiasm than when a group of photographers set out to shoot a LomoMatrix video. The combinations of analogue images combined with stop motion turns these photo stunts into mesmerizingly fun moving pictures.

Lindsay Hutchens, manager of the Los Angeles Lomography Gallery, describe the process of creating a LomoMatrix, “The photographers sit in a circle. People take turns going into the center of the circle to make movement that everyone captures from different angles. The photos are then scanned and animated with iMovie or Final Cut. Each video has a choppy, flip book style.” Hutchens adds, “LomoMatrix videos are a fun interactive community activity. We hope to do one soon in Los Angeles.”

Modern Warfare fans having fun at this past weekend’s Call of Duty XP event got an extra perk when publisher Activision revealed new kick-ass web content during a panel presentation. Titled Find Makarov: Operation Kingfish, the film is hyper violent action fest that bridges the plots of Modern Warfare & Modern Warfare 2. Featuring characters [...]

Halloween can be hard, I know. You don’t want to end up standing in line outside a Ricky’s, staring at physically improbable models of comic book-level disproportions waiting to purchase whatever leftover Scream mask is still on the shelves because you waited too long to figure out your costume. You also want to make sure you top that getup you wore a couple years ago when complete strangers wanted to take your picture and you won the holiday.

That’s why you should really just order the Codex from The Guild costume from HalloweenCostumes.com today.

Yeah, that’s right. Everyone’s favorite avatar from one of the internet’s most favorite original web series has her own eight-piece costume that you can own on backorder starting October 1st for the low price of $49.99. (This could be you!)

I caught up with The Guild creator and Codex’s real life counterpart, Felicia Day to find out how the costume came to be.

Tubefilter: How’d a Codex costume end up at HalloweenConstumes.com?
Felicia Day: We solicited help for The Guild Season 5 cosplayers over our Twitter and Facebook, and one of the employees over at Halloweencostumes.com was a fan and saw the posts. She arranged to loan us a TON of stuff to use in the season, which really saved us SO much when we were trying to pull off a real-looking convention on a web budget.

About a month ago they approached us about making the costume, and it felt like a perfect fit.

TF: Will you be dressing up as Codex for Hallowen?
FD: Not sure if I’ll be cosplaying Codex…seems a bit self-aggrandizing. Since we have so many great costumes leftover from the season,I might snag Tink’s Robin Hood. I loved that one.