Tubefilter News

In a constant effort to improve the accessibility of Streamy-nominated content to members of not only the voting body of the IAWTV but to the public at large, the International Academy of Web Televison hosted bi-coastal Streamy Awards finalist screenings on March 11th, 2010, with one occurring in New York and the other in Los Angeles (which was also streamed live via Stickam). Each screening included a viewing of finalist nominees of 11 of the overall Streamy Awards categories and a presentation of various New Media professionals and creators.

Held at NYU’s Cantor Film Center and supported by NYU Tisch School of The Arts, The Writers Guild of America East, The Producers Guild New Media Council, and The New York Television Festival, the New York screening included a discussion with MyDamnChannel Founder and CEO Rob Barnett. Barnett presented his experiences in successfully providing popular entertainment content to the web including Wainy Days, The Iceman Commeth, and distributing Easy to Assemble, just to name a few. He revealed that beyond picking out the content to be developed, he takes a very hands off approach to the actually creative process, instead choosing to let the creators of the shows do what they do best: create. The audience of the New York screening, which was open to the public, consisted of a wide range of enthusiastic content creators, IAWTV members, and NYU students.

The Los Angeles screening was presented as a part of the the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) LifeRaft Live Stream series, a professional development program that provides insight into the business of acting through seminars. Following the viewing panel discussion with nominated producers and creators, all of which were part of SAG signatory shows, was presented to an audience of IAWTV and SAG members. Moderated by Drew Baldwin, Co-Founder of Tubefilter, the panelists included Aaliyah Williams and Anastasia Ali (producers, Buppies), Ernest Vecchione (creator, Sex Ed), Sandeep Parikh, (creator /writer/director, The Legend of Neil), and Jonathan Stern (producer, Wainy Days). Panelists shared their insights across a wide array of experiences; from how funding and distribution effect production, to the importance of social media tools such as Twitter; and fielded questions from not only the audience in attendance but from the internet viewers, with the Stickam feed count exceeding 73,000 viewers, with a peak concurrent audience of 3,266 (per Stickam).

Fox’s digital content studio 15Gigs has inked a multi-series online distribution deal with web comedy network My Damn Channel that kicks off with The Iceman Chronicles premiering today. Technically, Iceman had already rolled out YouTube and picked up some strong early reviews.

15Gigs, which came together last summer, has been Fox Television Studios’ (FTVS) measured experiment with short-form original web content. Instead of building out a destination site of its own, it took the strategy of developing series and matching them with appropriate established distribution channels. For the most part this has meant using the 15Gigs YouTube channel as their home base, a key part of their digital playbook.

Teaming up with four year-old My Damn Channel is the next play in that book, aligning themselves with a proven brand that has racked up a string of awards for its selective comedy series like You Suck at Photoshop, Wainy Days, Pilot Season and the more recent addition of Easy to Assemble.

“We’ve been huge fans of My Damn Channel and we couldn’t be more excited to get this partnership going, said Rachel Webber, Director of Digital Strategy and Development at Fox Television Studios about the deal. “It’s an honor to be standing beside the likes of Easy to Assemble, You Suck at Photoshop and Wainy Days, and we’re very happy to be bringing the talent we work with—especially Drama 3/4, creators of Iceman Chronicles—into this mix.”

My Damn Channel’s CEO Rob Barnett also revealed that new series are part of this deal too, writing in a blog post today: “Fox has chosen us as one of their premium distribution partners for original Web series they’ve produced and we plan to start developing and producing original, new series together as well.”

The first 2 episodes of Iceman are now up on My Damn Channel’s site, with new episodes released every Thursday.

Easy to Assemble revealed the winner of the season-long Co-Worker of the Year contest between co-stars Illeana Douglas and Justine Bateman in the debut (above) of the bonus episodes, “Flying Solo”, (aka 3-ep season finale) of the IKEA-backed comedy web series. Guest stars David Henrie, Tim Meadows, Sung Kang and more are all on board this transatlantic disco flight. [My Damn Channel]

Jennie Garth (of the old 90210) stars in a new branded web series, Garden Party, from NBC Digital Studio and Edelman’s MATTER division debuted today on iVillage.com. Garth, now a ‘celeb mom’, “meets with farmers, chefs, moms and kids to find new and exciting ways to get families to love their veggies.” Lead sponsor is Clorox Co.’s Hidden Valley® Ranch Dressing brand. [iVillage]

EPIC FU is back! Their new preview video (below) from creators Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf sets up the return from hiatus tomorrow and the launch of two new original internet culture web series, all under their flagship EPIC FU banner. And their newly renovated site will go live as a daily fresh content hub that will serve as a global online culture blog network. They will also headline the Tubefilter Web TV Meetup tomorrow night in Los Angeles, which will also be lived streamed on Stickam.com and epicfu.com/live for those that can’t make it out. [EPIC FU]

A Good Knight’s Quest won Escapist Magazine’s 2009 Film Festival, and the new web series from The Crew creator Brett Register announced a February 2010 launch of the full series on Escapist’s site. Web series standouts Craig Frank, Paula Rhodes, Douglas Sarine, Charlie Bodin, Cathy Baron and Angie Cole star in this gamer comedy. [Escapist]

Illeana Douglas is flying high lately. The comedy web series in which she both created and stars, Easy to Assemble has been picking up steam this winter. It’s become not just a popular success—over 5 million views so far—but also a business one, with Madison Avenue trade Advertising Age calling it the “most-watched sponsored web show” in a recent in-depth feature in the magazine.

The success hasn’t gone unnoticed by the show’s main sponsor IKEA, which opted to fund an additional four episodes, extending the season beyond its initial ten. The new episodes, which they are calling a miniseries in its own right dubbed “Flying Solo” premieres Jan. 20 on MyDamnChannel.com, and the trailer was just released online (above). In the episodes, viewers will finally find out who won the season’s Co-Worker of the Year contest between Douglas and Justine Bateman.

Michael Kang, who had worked with Illeana before on a film, was asked to direct the four bonus episodes. Young celebs like Disney Channel star David Henrie (Wizards of Waverly Place) and Korean star Sung Kang (Ninja Assassin) were tapped to broaden the show’s appeal.

Doing some embedded journalism, I spent at day on the Easy to Assemble set last month as they were shooting the bonus episodes on a mock airplane set inside a drafty North Hollywood warehouse. I was joined by a few other new media folks, all of us doing some unpaid extra work filling out the few rows of seats behind the main action. And it was there that we really got a sense of the alchemy of improv that happens only when putting talent like SNL vet Tim Meadows together with a young comedian like Henrie and letting them play.

Eric Lange, who plays the jovial IKEA branch manager, seamlessly dropped into a Swedish accent—from his Ohio standard—without missing a breath. And the low frills set—no trailers, and a shared bathroom that eventually gave out by day’s end—gave it a clear sense that the cast and crew were doing this for something other than the paychecks.

Not since the Streamy Awards have we seen this many web series stars in one place. Ok not really, but with the fourth season of The Temp Life, the Spherion-backed comedy about life inside a dreadful NY temp agency kicking off today, the cast is loaded up with notable web series stars.

The casting moves are signs this four-year old web show is growing up with the medium in which it plays. Call it Web TV’s version of keiretsu. Creator Wilson Cleveland, CJP Communications’ Head of Digital Media, built the show back in 2006 for the firm’s client Spherion. Incidentally, Cleveland also stars in the The Temp Life, as Nick “Trouble” Chiapetta, the once-CEO of Commodity Staffing, the shoddy agency. This new season picks up with some major changes once Chiapetta returns to office after a 33-week AWOL.

Notable guest (web) stars:
Thom Woodley — co-creator and star of All’s Faire, The ‘Burg and Vuguru’s The All-for-Nots.
Taryn Southern — creator/star of Private High Musical, and star of Sorority Forever, Woke Up Dead and the recent Wrong Hole video with DJ Lubel
Chris Murray — co-creator/star of Hedge Fund
Rachel Risen — star of The Hayley Project
David Nett — co-creator/star of GOLD
Sandeep Parikh — star of The Guild, creator of The Legend of Neil
Angela Espinosa — co-creator/star of Groupthink
Wendy Rosoff — co-creator/star of Groupthink

Behind the camera, more web series regulars were enlisted. The Hayley Project co-directors Andrew Park and Jato Smith were tapped to shoot the new episodes, with Streamy-nominated Break a Leg creator Yuri Baranovsky writing them alongside Cleveland.

It’s a little more than just stunt casting for some press hits, with the shows themselves actually woven into the storylines. Hedge Fund’s Claude S. Dutchy, LLC hedge fund is the entity that’s taken over Commodity Staffing now, and Murray plays his character from that series. Groupthink’s Espinosa and Rosoff make an appearance as their office comedy’s quirky characters later this season. And Taryn Southern sure didn’t play it safe with a straight cameo, opting instead to go with an anomalously odd character for her guest bit in one of the show’s “online resumes.” (See below)

There’s probably no bigger hot button issue right now in the web series world than view counts. After exposing MySpace’s paid auto-plays (which were being reported as regular views) on their BFF series, we received numerous comments and emails on the subject. Emotions ran high on this as creators with decent views cried foul to cheaters trying to pass off paid impressions as actual intent-driven views. We listened to you and we’re going to be taking a deeper look at the issue on Tubefilter News, including examples of those who are actually getting real viewers without cheating.

Panelists on the gabby digital media conference circuit love to spew phrases like ‘go to where your audience is’, and even we have written on the benefits of finding your audience. There aren’t however many examples to point to of those who have actually done that effectively. The Guild still stands as one of the best at connecting with a thriving World of Warcraft fanbase, though even its success with that group wasn’t accidental. Creator Felicia Day is well known for her tireless commitment to outreach and connecting with new fans of the show.

When IKEA-backed Easy to Assemble launched its sophomore season a few weeks back, along with its closely-tied spin-off Sparhüsen, it came with a red carpet premiere well-attended by the show’s recognizable cast. But early fanfare can fade, and the proof of actual success is, as they say, in the pudding. In this case, that means how many people are actually watching the show.

Easy to Assemble often gets lumped in with pure branded entertainment fare, with most people thinking it came straight off a whiteboard at IKEA’s ad agency. But the series is actually entirely independently owned by its creator-star, Illeana Douglas. Douglas in fact first rolled the concept of celebrities working retail with her Illeanarama: Supermarket of the Stars web series on YouTube back in late 2006. Douglas then pitched the scripted series in early 2008 to IKEA, who loved the idea of having Douglas and her offbeat friends—Justine Bateman, Tom Arnold, Ed Begley Jr., Jane Lynch, Jeff Goldblum, Kevin Pollak—working at the company’s Burbank store.

After some modest success of the first season, IKEA agreed to sponsor a second season, this time with an increased production budget and the addition of new cast members like Cheri Oteri, Tim Meadows and Ricki Lake. Then came news of a secret spin-off show about a fictional Swedish rock band named Sparhüsen, and the casting of film star Keanu Reeves. For the new season, Douglas teamed up with Wilson Cleveland at CJP Digital to help with marketing and distribution of the shows, whom she had met prepping for the OnFrontsNYC event in June.

I’ve been to a ton of panels on the Future of Web Series Production, but most of them take place at conferences like Digital Hollywood, which are dedicated to new media. On Sunday, October 11th, independent film organization Film Independent (FIND) got into the act at the FIND Filmmaker Forum with a panel entitled “Going Online: New Stories for New Media.”

In the midst of a weekend filled with sessions covering the art and business of indie film, the panel gave the producers, writers and directors in attendance a look into the possibilities the smallest screen has to offer. The session was specifically focused on creating content for the web, as opposed to using the web as a means of distribution for feature films. Producer Ami Armstrong (Mr. Nice) moderated, and panelists included Jonathan Stern (Producer, Centrifugal Films), David Worthen (Sr. Vice President, Fox Digital Studio), Scott Sanders (Director, Black Dynamite) and Mike Farah (Producer, Funny or Die).

Armstrong kicked off the session with the question, “Who’s actually watching all these videos online?” The general consensus was that while so far the young male demo has dominated, there is an emerging female audience for web content. Panelists cited breakout shows In the Motherhood, an MSN online original that was picked up for broadcast television by ABC, and Lisa Kudrow’s Web Therapy.

Stern, producer of Wainy Days, Children’s Hospital and Hot Sluts, says that he is starting to put together a few shows created by women over 30. “It’s almost easier to get a female-driven show going right now,” says Stern, “because the sponsors are looking for it. The Axe’s of the world already have a foothold in that space.”

Anyone else notice that there seem to be a lot more deals going on this month? We’re not calling this economy out of the crapper just yet, but Q4 has brought with it some nice reasons for optimism.

Kodak backed its first original web series (other than the Streamy Awards..), Woke Up Dead, which premiered this week on Crackle.com. The Jon Heder led zombie comedy is worth your time watching the first 5 episodes this weekend.

Netflix decided it has the distribution network and, why not start making its own web series too—signing 80’s film star Corey Feldman on for its first horror series, Splatter. Then Wednesday came the news that Babelgum snatched up sci-fi comedy The Crew for a second season, after previously being on online network KoldCast TV.

Illeana Douglas’ IKEA-backed indie web series, Easy to Assemble, kicked off its second season on Wednesday with a star-studded premiere that mixed web and traditional stars in a 500-strong launch party. Even Keanu Reeves was on hand, helping promote the show’s spinoff series Sparhüsen. Reeves said he is on board for more episodes which are planned to start shooting next month.