For the January edition of the Hollywood Web Television Meetup, we are proud to present a very special evening with popular internet culture show EPIC FU as they launch the new EPIC FU network. Join us as we screen the premiere of one of the web’s most revered and award-winning series, followed by an intimate discussion with its creators—Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf.
Well that was it, the last Hollywood Web TV Meetup of 2009..nay..the last Tubefilter Meetup of the decade! And we’ve come a long way since our first Meetup at Blankspaces back in summer of 2008, when Tubefilter was a fledgling startup trying to bring attention together this active and growing web community.
Since the launch of the 2010 Streamys website yesterday afternoon, we’ve already received thousands and thousands of submissions from around the world. Attendance at the Meetup was fantastic, and over 13,000 viewers tuned into the live stream at Stickam—last night was truly a testament to the fact that this industry and community has really come into its own. And you all are a piece of that, so congratulations.
Tim Street, a longtime supporter of the web series community and Tubefilter (see the blundering guerilla interview of me he took at that first Hollywood Web TV Meetup), gave an inspiring call to action “savor this moment in time” with what’s happening Street also made a call to action for web series creators to join the International Academy of Web Television (the IAWTV), the voting body behind the Streamy Awards which just announced its Board of directors and new Chairman, Michael Wayne of DECA. For those of you interested in shaping the Streamy Awards and the future of web television, please apply to the IAWTV.
Before we kicked off the panel, Tubefilter CEO Brady Brim-DeForest introduced an exclusive preview of Sony Crackle’s upcoming action packed The Bannen Way (sorry live viewers, you had to be at the Meetup to see it!) and then the official trailer, which by all accounts looked phenomenal. Creators Mark Gantt and Jesse Warren truly outdid themselves, and it showed. As Editor-in-Chief Marc Hustvedt asked the crowd during the panel, “can you believe that was a web series?”
Last night the excitement in the air was electrifying at the Red Carpet Opening Night Gala for the 4th Annual Independent Television Festival, festival for independently produced, original and innovative television pilots and web series. ITVFest offers opportunities for web television creators like showcasing their work to a live audience and the chance to pitch development executives that can bring their projects to the next level.
On Monday, August 3 Tubefilter is proudly presenting ITVFest Web Television Day, which features screenings of the Official Web Series Selections from the ITVFest,
I’m usually not one to get sentimental, but I think I cried five times during the Dorm Life: Season 2 Finale which premiered today on Hulu. The Streamy Award nominated web series, which we have also confirmed is also ranked as the most popular web series on Hulu, is a comedic mockumentary following the lives of several college students thrown together on the same dorm floor.
The two-part season finale, which takes place during the last days of school before summer, provides the perfect setting to resolve the rich character development which sets this series apart from the otherwise played-out Office-style format.
Full of mischief, adventures, rivalries and romance, Dorm Life offers and insider’s view of the rocky and often awkward road to adulthood. The ten students of “5 South” span the spectrum of characters—we have the overly excited, fun-loving Steph (Jessie Gaskell), the self-conscious bully RA Marshall (Brian C. Singleton), the frustrated, pretentious artist (Pancho Morris), average-guy Mike (Chris W. Smith)
The Official Selections of the 4th annual Independent Television Festival have been announced, completing the slate of indie web shows joins series OzGirl and Operation Midnight Climax we teased out last week. The ITVFest is a festival for independently produced, original and innovative television pilots and web series which offers a chance for web television creators to showcase their work to a live audience and the chance to pitch development executives that can bring their projects to the next level. All of the selections are independently produced webseries produced completely on spec and available for further development opportunities. The festival takes place in Los Angeles from July 31st to August 6th.
Official 2009 Web Series Selections:
2012
Los Angeles-based producers Jessica Bertulis, Kamali Minter and Helen Truong present this interactive viral and webisode series abouta techno-geek who embarks on a quest to change the future when he intercepts a series of internet transmissions from the future warning the impending apocalypse. The series stars Kevin Held, Jared Asato, Brit Marling, Neal Xingu Rodl, Ron C. Patric.
The Clean-Up Crew
Last summer we discovered this USC film school graduate thesis from writers Tim Dragga & Scott Rickles about the misfit crew at Frank’s Crime Scene Steam-N-Clean and the hilarious and gruesome world of crime scene cleaning, where “death means dollars.” The series stars Dale Midkiff, Richard Riehle, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Tuione, Chrissy Anderson, Travis Willingham, and Jessica McClendon, and is produced by Tim Kolesk and Tarika Khan.
Imaginary Bitches
Andrew Miller’s inventive comedy starring Eden Riegel about a single woman who deals with the lonely reality that all her friends are busy with serious relationships by creating imaginary friends—who unfortunately turn out to be total bitches caught our eye a year ago as it emerged from the 100-day WGA Strike. The series also stars Elizabeth Hendrickson, Brooke Nevin, Connie Fletcher Staton, Jessalyn Gilsig, Greg Rikaart, Chandra West, Michael Traynor, James Kee, Aaron Staton, Brittany Ishibashi, Sam Page, Billy Aaron Brown, and Charlie Koznick, is written by Andrew Miller with Nichole Millard and Kathryn Price, and produced by Seth Adam Cohen and Judson Morgan.
Johnny B Homeless
New York-based producer-actor Al Thompson presents the story of a professional couch surfer (in fact not homeless but rather just constantly stays away from home to give his girlfriend some space) who has the uncanny ability to help those he comes in contact with and whose couch he crashes on. The series, produced by Kahler R. Hart, Jennifer Westin, and Geoffrey Quan, also stars Kenan Thompson and Kevin Christy, is written by Sherman Payne and Christian Magalhaes and directed by Greg Stees and David Spates.
The Lone Wolf
We traced this web series from Johnny Borda as it launched out of Los Angeles’ Channel 101 community into a Clearwire deal this past October. The comedy series follows a Hollywood stuntman who loses his memory when the perfect stunt goes wrong and who must embark on a tireless quest through the great Los Angeles area in search for his own identity. The series stars Matt Peters, Bennie Arthur, and Chad Fogland, is directed by Oren Kaplan.
Operation Midnight Climax
This stylized drama from producers Ramesh Thadani, Juan Reynoso, Zach Jordan and Glenn Sauber explores the CIA LSD experiments conducted in San Francisco brothels during the 1950s. The series stars Meredith Salenger, Todd Cahoon, Quinton Flynn and Stephanie Lemelin. Read our recent coverage for more details.
OzGirl
We’ve had our eye on now nineteen year-old Aussie director Nicholas Carlton since the debut of Austrailia’s first lonelygirl-esque social web show back in November. The series stars Sophie Tilson, Shanrah Wakefield and Richard Askin and is executive produced by Darryl Carlton. Catch our recent coverage about OzGirl’s DVD launch.
Psycho Bob
The AV Club’s Andrew Cochrane has developed an experimental “Sunday comic strip” storytelling technique for this series about the adventures of a psychopath named Bob. The series stars Sean Bury, Marie Lively, Nick Clark, Jesse Jones, Nick Armstrong, Evan Gaustad, Douglas Sarine, Mary Pat Farrell, James Applebury, Mark Rogers, Matt Wyatt, Phil King, Kevin Ford, Jillian Batherson, and is produced by Craig Bauer.
What a busy beginning to the summer! May and June were filled with web television events: Shira Lazar’s GeekOut! ‘09, the Independent Television Festival Launch Party, launch parties for new web series The Gloomers, Road to the Altar, and The Day Player, new Web TV Meetups in New York, and of course Tubefilter’s monthly downtown New Media Vault events.
We heard a lot of feedback since our last Hollywood Web TV Meetup in April at Avalon Hollywood, and we are thrilled to announce Tubefilter’s July Web Television Meetup at Busby’s East in Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile is going to be our best one yet! Web television juggernauts Alex Albrecht and Hayden Black will be sharing with us their secrets to becoming the “undisputed sexiest men in web television,” and offer some sneak peeks of their upcoming projects. This is truly the meetup you do not want to miss!
Sandeep Parikh and Felicia Day introduced the opening montage “2008 Year in Web Television” at Saturday night’s 1st Annual Streamy Awards, streamed live from a packed house at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles. Outlining the explosive evolution of web television over the past years, Felicia noted, “this isn’t just television on your computer, these are shows that shine brightest in this new era of entertainment. We communicate pathos, joy, and sorrow, often in under five minutes. Before we start the awards, we’re going to take a look back at what happened in web television in 2008.”
Hey Web Television Fans! This week is a big week for web television. We have a lot of exciting events coming up to help raise awareness of this rapidly growing entertainment space—and to have some fun while we’re at it.
The Streamy Awards on Saturday
Tubefilter is Co-Hosting the first ever awards show honoring excellence in web television—The 1st Annual Streamy Awards, which will be streamed live on March 28, 2009 from the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles.
Do you want to go to the Streamy Awards? You can request tickets here.
Audience Choice Award Voting
Make sure to vote daily for your favorite web series for the Audience Choice Award, whose winner will be revealed at the conclusion of the live Streamy Awards Ceremony.
