Tubefilter News

If there was any ever doubt that a web series—without any moonlighting Hollywood celebrities or TV network backing—could galvanize throngs of faithful fans into a live rock concert adoration, well, it ended last night at SXSW. Before a sold out crowd of over 2,200 at Stubbs BBQ one of Austin’s legendary outdoor concert stages, Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht took a page out of the rock star playbook at the live Diggnation taping Saturday night.

The spiked hair and fire breathing magic skills of Scam School’s Brian Brushwood primed the crowd, in an opening act that probably could have its own Vegas offshoot some day. Then there was the #OMGConan hoax, an organized prank led by Rev3 co-founder David Prager that generated 426 tweets from the audience blasting out that Conan O’Brien is joining Revision3. This was of course full-circle to the web network’s credulous offer back in January for Conan to have his own Rev3 show.

Oh, and the crowdsurfing. Alex and Kevin floated over the sea of outstretched arms. Even live streaming TWIT.tv’s Leo Laporte joined in on the fun to cheers of “Leo! Leo! Leo!” as he was whisked up while carrying his lighted unipod to stream his ride. Was this the first live streamed crowd surfing shot first person?

In the parlor game of us spectators, one of the questions batted around was just how much PC-maker Alienware paid for the ultimate product integration—swapping out Kevin and Alex’s usual laptops for two of theirs. Best bets from those in the know seemed to say it was at least $50k for the privilege of that placement. Some speculated it was a six figure deal. Either way, not cheap to free known Apple-lover Kevin Rose from his MacBook Pro.

Spotted up in the VIP section were a number of web series vets like Taryn Southern, Tim Street, Brett Register, iJustine, Phil DeFranco, Tony Valenzuela and others—all there to witness first-hand just how big this video space has actually become. It left us all thinking, who needs Conan when you have have these guys?

Think you can rock an improv’d segue from chatting gadget love with Veronica Belmont to online therapy with Lisa Kudrow then over to Tatyana Ali and her Buppies? All this while also keeping Sandeep Parikh from dropping too many on-camera f-bombs? Then there might be a job for you in April. The Streamy Awards have launched a search for an official red carpet host through online casting hub GotCast today. The host will broadcast live from the April 11th Streamy Awards ceremony as stars of all sort arrive for web entertainment’s premiere event.

The nationwide search kicked off today with would-be hosts submitting audition videos on GotCast. Producers will then select the top candidate from the submissions. And yes, only those that submit through GotCast will be eligible to be cast. Think you have what it takes? Better study up on the official 2010 Streamys nominees. And yes, you may be asked to name the entire casts up for ensemble cast. Quick—this married couple are both nominated together in the Best Ensemble Cast—who are they?

“At GotCast, we’re really excited to announce this casting to our community,” said GotCast CEO Alec Shankman. “The Streamy Award Show is an incredible event. We expect that the talent search for a red carpet host will be one of our most popular casting calls this year!”

The Streamy Awards seeks one standout personality to host the official Red Carpet show for the second annual star-studded event honoring excellence in online entertainment. Digitally-savvy charmers with strong knowledge of pop culture, celebrity and online entertainment trends are encouraged to apply.

The ideal candidate will marry the shine of traditional broadcast experience with an easygoing attitude embodying a democratized, creator-controlled entertainment medium. He or she possesses a punchy whit, awesome improv skills, interesting insights for digital creators and a demonstrated interest in the open entertainment ecosystem.

Seeking male or female, all ethnicities who are at least 18 years of age.

GotCast, which launched in 2007 by founder Wil Schroter, runs regular television and online talent casting, placing talent for outlets like Lifetime, E!, G4 TV, ABC’s Wipeout and theStream.tv.

Oh, the anticipation. Next week is a big week for web series fans and creators. After weeks of Academy voting to narrow down the top web series of 2009, the final nominees for the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards will be announced in a live streamed broadcast Monday, March 1, at 9:30 AM (PT) on Streamys.org. The live streamed announcement will feature web personality Shira Lazar from CBS News reading off ten of the main categories. The full list of nominees in all 35 categories will be announced in a press release immediately following.

Without Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog in the running this year—the Joss Whedon (and family) musical took home 7 Streamys last spring—many believe that it’s anyone’s game this year across the award categories. With twelve new categories in the mix this year, including a new one that separates out what are now considered “Companion Web Series” or shows that have spun off of existing TV, film or gaming properties like The Office or Heroes web series. Other new additions include “Best Vlogger,” “Best New Web Series,” “Best Foreign Web Series” and “Best Branded Entertainment Web Series.”

The Streamy Awards ceremony itself is set for April 11, 2010 at the Music Box / Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood. The live internet broadcast of the show will begin at 5:30 PM (PT) with the red carpet pre-show beginning at 4:00 PM (PT).

I grew up knowing the ‘Dear Abby’ phenomena only as an ironic comedy reference. However, when I found that real people wrote in with real problems I was blown away. First of all who writes letters anymore? I think only serial killers and hostage takers, but they don’t even write they just cut out letters from magazines. Next it spoke to a time when people were more eloquent with words and didn’t feel the need to abbreviate ‘OK’ as ‘K’. Lastly, it was damn nice of that Abby to be so helpful. So, I want to pretend to know what that’s like and write a letter to help me understand Twilight With Steve Cooper.

Dear Abby, I was watching episode 7 and it didn’t make any sense. The host, fictionalized Steve Cooper (Jeremy Seglem), is in a chair and then a guy in a bad Renaissance Fair costume (The Earl of Sandwich) comes on. Then they start talking about sandwiches, because I think the guy in the bad Renaissance Fair costume is supposed to be the guy that invented sandwiches.

At one point I even found myself saying, “I’m confused”, out loud. I guess if I were IM’ing with someone about it I would’ve typed ‘C.O.L.’ for ‘confused out loud’.

OK, I get that this is supposed to be mock interview show taking benign issues, such as sandwiches…. I just said ‘sandwiches’ out loud because I got confused again. Anyway, the show takes an issue like sandwiches and tries to be serious about it, hence making it funny. Um…no. The host doesn’t play it straight enough. And the weird Renaissance guy… Um, no. So, I watch other episodes and there are other characters from other historic time periods. And I’m just like, “I get it. Next.” Then I watch another one and I’m like, “Nope.” Even the Koldcast.tv, the network that hosts the series, is confusing. I clicked on the link and it started playing some Dora The Explorer rip off commercial and I was ‘C.O.L.’ once again.

So Abs, can I call you Abs? Any way, if you could help me make sense of this series I would greatly appreciate it. I want to go on the Internet, and at the very least not seek council. I applaud the concept, but I also applaud the concept of Communism, or as Republicans like to call it, Democracy.

There’s a little bit of name collision here—which wouldn’t be a first for web series (see: Roommates and Roommates)—but take note that Revision3’s new live streaming show CO-OP Live is in fact different than theStream.tv’s COIN-OP TV Live. The news here is pretty significant for growing online network Revision3, as it is adding their first ever live streaming web series to its lineup.

The hosted gaming culture show, from the creators of the 10-season stalwart The 1Up Show, kicked off as a standard weekly series back in early March of last year on the network, before Revision3 decided it would be a good test show for the live format. The first live episode of CO-OP Live will premiere today at 4:00 PM (PT), with taped version of the weekly show appearing online the following morning.

“Video games are the ultimate live experience,” said Revision3’s CEO Jim Louderback. “We’re excited to bring the best video game show on the planet, CO-OP, to the world live. I can’t think of a better way to discover the best new games, and to hang out with the coolest gamers on the planet each week!”

The six-man hosting team of Jason Bertrand, Rob Bowen, Matt Chandronait, Ryan O’Donnell, Jay Frechette and Cesar Quintero and have a full explanation of what to expect on their production company blog at Area5.tv:

If you’ve been spending even a little bit of time online this week, you’ve no doubt bumped into the Grammys massive campaign for your attention, centered by what could be the largest social media roll-out ever for a televised awards show. For the 52nd Annual Grammys we’re not just talking about the standard Twitter, Facebook and YouTube approach—they have all those of course—but instead a full-on rethinking of what ’social’ actually means.

Probably the most visually compelling is the We’re All Fans site custom built around the theme of this year’s awards. Grammys tapped their agency of record, TBWA\Chiat\Day to craft an immersive hub for user-generated videos, photos and tweets surrounding their favorite artists. You have to head to the site to fully experience it, but you can get the idea in the Beyonce video below, which weaves together fans singing—often in their bedrooms—their best attempts at covering the pop star’s hits. There’s even a real-time visualizer to see which stars are getting the most UGC fan love. (As of now, Lady Gaga is in the lead with 170,976 fan posts with Beyonce close behind at 112,105).

In a possibly insane move—for those that have to staff it—GRAMMY Live! kicks off today at 2:00 PM (PT) with 72 hours of continuous live streaming coverage of the pre-awards hoopla on Grammy.com. For the live stream, the Grammys tapped Ooyala which will deliver the feed to an expected audience of “millions” over the three day period. On camera talent for the marathon of music include a number of video bloggers like CBSNews.com’s Shira Lazar, Drew Hinze from the Recording Academy and HardRockChick.com’s Jamie Harvey. For a complete run-down of the Grammys use of social media this year, check out Mashable’s in-depth look.

The internet has made it clear our future will be filled with angry, amateur YouTube pundits. Technological advancements have given the masses the necessary tools of production and distribution to be get their opinions recorded and broadcast. It’s a beautiful thing, except for all the noise.

So when everyone has a virtual soapbox, how do you stand out from the chatter? The viral successes of sketch comedy and fake news have made it clear that if you want people to listen to your point of view, you have to entertain them while you do it.

Enter That’s Gay, a recurring segment on Current TV’s popular infoMania news show. Propelled by the charisma and sharp wit of host Bryan Safi (who conceived of the segment after being offended by Millionaire Matchmaker and Kathy Griffin), That’s Gay engages contemporary gay issues with refreshing honesty and insight, accompanied by a dose of devastatingly sardonic humor.

Like most infoMania segments, That’s Gay is driven by its host’s commentaries on news and pop culture, employing news footage, television clips, and the occasional skit to examine an issue. Unlike other infoMania segments, That’s Gay loads up on the satire and utilizes a more editorialized style, the bread and butter of which tackles how homosexuality is portrayed by the media. Past segments examined the gimmicky exploitation of lesbianism on soap operas, the lack of positive gay portrayals in film and television, and, most entertainingly, the suddenly widespread use of “no homo” as a disclaimer.

Mr. Safi, a regular at the Los Angeles UCB and a former staff writer at Funny Or Die, is consistently pitch-perfect in his role as host, eschewing easy punchlines or moral heavy-handedness for a frenetic, dexterous delivery. Each episode of That’s Gay delivers three to four minutes of pointed comedic commentary, but it does so without proselytizing or overselling its messages. After all, the show’s repeat viewers almost certainly share its opinions. That’s Gay embraces the choir it preaches to, and, as a result, can translate uncomfortable or sensitive topics into accessible and entertaining commentary.

A Comicbook Orange debuted Season 5 today (season 5!), with none other than Rick Remender getting honors for the first episode back. My how time flies, it was just yesterday that Season 3 pranced across our monitors. This season Orange creators Casey McKinnon (pictured right) and Rudy Jahchan have an excellent line up of guests for this new season, including Zack Whedon, Felicia Day, Brea Grant (Heroes), Bryan Lee O’Malley. [A Comicbook Orange]

Qik, the live online video platform popular amongst iPhone 3GS users, launched a private beta of its new live streaming desktop app, which amongst other things allows for some basci editing of live video streams. So you can finally trim those awkward intros, and get to the good stuff when sharing the video clips. [Qik]

MSN premiered Ultradome this week on its Parallel Universe sci-fi site from creator, and Heroes star, Milo Ventimiglia. Fitting with its geek culture face-offs, episode one (below) delivers a high-tech battle between Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. [Parallel Universe]

Apple unveiled the iPad today, its much anticipated new tablet computer today, which isn’t really news at all unless you were stuck shooting on location in Pyongyang (which has killer tax credits right now). Notably missing from the new device was a camera or any support for Adobe Flash video. So in terms of web video content, it’s not that revolutionary, with Apple still preferring users head to iTunes and YouTube for video viewing. There’s plenty of coverage around the web today, check with All Top for a round up. Also check out Mad TV’s gut-bustingly prescient iPad skit from 2007 (below). [YouTube]