by Jenni Powell on March 16th, 2010
Tongal jumped on board the MacGruber buzz bus this week at SXSW, launching a video contest for user-generated videos linked to the ROGUE Pictures film based on the popular SNL character “MacGruber.”
A panel of judges will then select five winning pitches that will be announced on tongal.com/macgruber on March 30 to move on to the next phase, which asks participants get to film and submit a 90-second video segment based on the top pitches. There is additional chance for prizes for watching and predicting the five winning video submissions. The grand prize for the top video is a ‘Hometown Screening’ of MacGruber as well as the five winning videos receiving cash prizes.
“We had been talking with Randall (Cox, EVP International Business and Corporate Development of Relativity Media) for a while about how to use Tongal as a social media platform to compliment Rogue releases,” said James DeJulio, co-founder and president of Tongal. “Especially if the campaign would result in user generated content. MacGruber was a perfect fit because of the overall level of awareness and enthusiasm for the character.”
Their latest foray into their unique brand of reward-based user-generated content, announced at SXSW, is a partnership with ROGUE Pictures, specifically, the feature film based on the popular Saturday Night Live character MacGruber. “We had been talking with Randall (Cox, EVP International Business and Corporate Development of Relativity Media) for a while about how to use Tongal as a social media platform to compliment Rogue releases,” said James DeJulio, co-founder and president of Tongal. “Especially if the campaign would result in user generated content. MacGruber was a perfect fit because of the overall level of awareness and enthusiasm for the character.”
by Jenni Powell on March 12th, 2010
Inspired by the Playstation video game of the same name, Infamous shows us a world where everyday people have the regular occurance of having to deal with the fact that they are suddenly shooting lightning out of their body or hearing someone’s thoughts. A world where anyone can suddenly find themselves with superpowers and have the tough decision of whether to use their abilities for either good or evil…or sometimes a little of both. “[Co-creator] Greg [Washington] and I are both avid comic book readers,” said co-creator Joey Barto. “So, the story is kind of an extension of that. We love revenge stories, we love dark stories, we love anti-heroes, and this is a really great story about a very dark, dark anti-hero.”
Created by Barto, Washington, John Chambers, Harvard Taylor, and Travis Barth, produced by Newborn Productions and Cultivate Media Productions and shot locally in Shreveport, Louisiana, the series sets out to prove you can create high-quality, complex, and visually stimulating content outside of the heavilly debated “Los Angeles Bubble”. Said Washington: “We have built a great relationship with two local studios here in Shreveport; Fairfield Studios and Crain Video, that have donated equipment and studio space for the production of Infamous.”
“Shooting in Louisiana, Shreveport in particular, gives us so many incredible options for backgrounds,” continued Washington. “Shreveport has passed for California, New York, New Orleans, Texas, and many other states because of its unique structure and setup. It is the perfect location for a production like ours with a very limited budget. And Southern hospitality has been extended above and beyond.”
by Jenni Powell on March 10th, 2010
“Known as the last great race on the earth, the Iditarod is an 1150-mile sled dog race across the most dangerous and extreme terrain of Alaska. Fifty-eight year old Kathy Frederick is one of the oldest female rookie competitors to ever compete in this treacherous race and I, Leslie Morgan will be documenting her journey.” This is, in a nutshell, the premise for the unique documentary web series 1150 Project created by the one-woman producing dynamo Leslie Morgan. The series is literally unfolding right now, as Leslie follows Kathy currently racing in this year’s Iditarod. Tubefilter talked via e-mail (as she is currently still in Alaska working on the series) with this inspiring creator to get the inside scoop on this truly once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Tubefilter: What was the inspiration behind this project? How did you and Kathy meet?
I have been interested in finding a documentary project about someone living out a dream, Lemonade: The Movie and David Lynch’s The Interview Project inspired this web series. I met Kathy online after a mutual friend told me about her and her website. When I saw she needed a volunteer for three months to help her out managing her household I thought I could help her, but I also wanted to document her journey. I have been interested in producing a web based project for some time and thought rather than taking months to try and make a feature why not try to film and edit in Alaska, posting episodes as I go.
by Ned Hepburn on March 10th, 2010
The latest installment of our weekly web series critic column Pass The Mustard. No sugar coating, no doublespeak, no hand holding. Just brutally honest reactions from one guy: Ned Hepburn. We’ll throw a handful of web series at him each week. Agree, disagree, love him, hate him, but please don’t punch him. Got something clever to say in retort? Leave a comment below. He’ll probably read it and embarrass you later. His opinions are his own, so take them or leave them. See last week’s column here.]
The Annoying Orange
Are you high or 14 years old? Do you live in the suburbs? It’s completely fucking absurd – like, X-Files absurd – that this series has over 20 million hits. That must mean that Satan is on his way. This is the kind of thing that the movie Idiocracy predicted. This is pure, pure unfunny highly concentrated, in droplet form, just purely nonsensical riffing from an Annoying Orange. It’s either high concept art or it’s just plain terrible. It made me want to drink alone on a balcony overlooking the city, listening to sad bastard music, wondering “Is this all there is in life? This?” and then keep drinking scotch. It was F. Scott Fitzgerald levels of ambivalence to humanity after watching this one, folks. This was terrible.
Wiener & Wiener
Do you want to know something? I was at the grocery store and found a thing called a Grapple. It’s an apple that’s been crossbred with a grape. It’s not bad. Anyway, Weiner and Weiner is a lot like the Grapple, because it’s not bad but it’s completely strange and I have no idea what to make of it. It’s good? Bad? I don’t like it? Maybe I do? It doesn’t make any sense except it kind of does? It’s like Urban Outfitters: The Show. Not only do all the actors and actresses look like they work there, but there’s a definite and palpable feeling of the decision to forgo plot for style points.
by Jenni Powell on March 9th, 2010
Included in President Obama’s commencement address at Note Dame University last year was a desire to find ways to communicate about a workable solution to the problem of unintended pregnancies. A Southern California-based independent media company called Yellow Line Studios wanted to help give that desire a voice. And so they created Bump+.
Using the device of a fictional reality show, Bump+ follows the stories of three women, all in their first four weeks of pregnancy, as they weigh the pros and cons of continuing to full term. Denise is almost a child herself, though this is her third pregnancy with signs they were results of domestic abuse, Hailey is a sorority girl who seems to care more about what being on the show can do for her than her pregnancy, and Katie is facing the tough decision of what to tell her husband when he returns from Iraq…because the father isn’t him.
Launching on the eve of the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the show has been releasing 2 episodes a week since February 1st, all the while fostering an open and honest communication with and between its audience. Though the production itself is clearly not trying to present itself as a true documentary, the comments show a sincere desire to communicate with the fictional women involved and in the end, the audience influences the final decisions of the women. Several alternate endings were shot and however the story is lead, the project intends to follow-through with it. One of the women may decide to keep their baby while another opts for abortion…one may choose an entirely different option altogether.
by Marc Hustvedt on March 9th, 2010
Illeana Douglas may be quite the name in web series circles now, especially after landing six Streamy nominations for her popular comedy Easy to Assemble, which just wrapped its second season earlier this year. It even spawned a spinoff series Sparhüsen, which nabbed its own Streamy nod. But aside from those two, the Emmy-nominated TV and film actress has yet to venture into a web series where she isn’t the one calling the shots. Looks like that’s about to change.
Douglas just wrapped shooting a two-episode guest starring arc on Spherion-sponsored office comedy The Temp Life in New York this week, playing cold hearted CEO Eve Randall. Also shooting a guest spot this week is Taryn Southern who brings back her gumpy midwest IT tech Nancy Roder for a few more episodes.
This isn’t the first we’ve written about the casting moves on The Temp Life this season, which have seen notable web series standouts like Sandeep Parikh (The Guild), Thom Woodley (The Burg) and Rachel Risen (The Hayley Project) coming on board to bolster the show’s cred and fanbase. To give an idea of numbers, it took two years for the series to reach 1 million views, while its latest season—its fourth—has just passed 2 million.
The connection between Easy to Assemble isn’t hard to piece together. Temp Life creator Wilson Cleveland—who also plays the former temp agency boss Nick ‘Trouble’ Chiapetta—heads up CJP Digital Media the web arm of Manhattan-based marketing firm CJP Communications. Easy to Assemble teamed up with CJP for its latest season with Cleveland’s team helping score a suite of new distribution deals for the show including The Hotel Network and a lucrative one with My Damn Channel.
by Jenni Powell on March 8th, 2010
This isn’t your average “I ripped Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” off YouTube (rickroll) and then mixed in some clips of Captain Picard saying “make it so” on a loop” mashup. Contagion explores a world in which Jack Bauer is investigating the murder of Bella Swan by Blade while tying to get Mulder and Scully to help him before the Resident Evil zombies attack…but they do, leaving him no choice but to go pick up the Winchester brothers from Supernatural.
And it actually looks really, really good.
Created by Canadian television director and editor Ray Holycross, the series originally began as a way for him to hone his editing skills in his spare time. He had planned to release an episode each week for 2 months, beginning in December. And just in case anyone tries to call foul on the fact that he’s using copywritten material, Holycross makes sure to post information on Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 on the series YouTube account, also stating, “I do NOT make any money on this. Copyright is to the rightful owners, and this was for fun and not to make any money or profit at all.”
Unfortunately, Holycross had to take a hiatus after episode 3. However, to make it up to those chomping at the bit for more, he recently released a teaser trailer (below) for the final three parts of the series, each running 10 minutes, slated to be released at the end of March.
by Marc Hustvedt on March 8th, 2010
The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers lit up the Oscars stage last night (above) on ABC with a medley of all of the Best Original Music nominees. Talk about a killer (and free) promo for their upcoming web series The LXD from director Jon M Chu. Check out Madd Chadd’s legendary robot skills in the UP section of the routine. [YouTube]
The Guild’s creator-star Felicia Day is going to star in a SyFy Channel Saturday Original Movie where she will portray “a werewolf-hunting descendant of Little Red Riding Hood.” “In the action-packed Red, Red (Day) brings her fiancé home, where he meets the family and learns about their business – hunting werewolves.” The movie, set to debut in 2011 on SyFy also stars Kavan Smith (Stargate Atlantis) and Stephen McHattie (Watchmen). [Bloody Disgusting]
DigiVenture is hosting a Women in Digital event tonight in Los Angeles hosted by Joanne Griffith that will feature a panel representing audio, visual and print media professionals, including: Carmen Dixon, former ABC producer and creator of the blog Allaboutrace.com, Zadi Diaz, founder of the web TV series, Epic Fu, and Shani Byard-Ngunjiri, founder of Media Message Ed. The free event will be held at Otis College of Art and Design on Monday March 8th from 7-9pm and parking is free. [DigiVenture.org]
Funny or Die tapped director Ron Howard to rope together the best SNL prexys from the past few decades in a Presidential Reunion video (below) that already broke 2.5 million views on in under a week on site. Darrell Hammond stars as Bill Clinton, Jim Carrey as Reagan, Dan Aykroyd as Dick Cheney, Fred Armisen as Barack Obama, Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford, Dana Carvey as Poppy Bush, Will Ferrell as George W. and Maya Rudolph as Michelle Obama. The video is part 1 of three in the series. [Funny or Die, MainStreetBrigade]
