Tubefilter News

From the trailer you get the idea that Tyranny is a distant relative of 70’s American thrillers, where corporations rule the world and your mind. From the three episodes I’ve screened, I was convinced it was another dystopic, post-apocalyptic thriller. Dystopia, I know, but I think timing wise, this is more pre-apocalypse. At any rate this series from creator John Beck Hofman is gripping while still competently executed for its scope.

Hofman plays Daniel McCarthy who in 1999 volunteers for a Berkley Grad student’s experiment that records his every thought and action throughout the day. Shortly thereafter he realizes he has lost memory of the last eight days and can now see the future from 2011 to 2013. And it ain’t pretty. Food shortages, bio-engineered pandemic, and picketers galore…future? Hmm, that sounds awfully similar to a certain planet I know right now. The rest of the cast is impressive, with Bond girl Olga Kurylenko starring alongside Hofman and web series standout Bitsie Tulloch from Quarterlife and lonleygirl15.

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.

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.

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]

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.]

POV
This College Humor series pretty aptly reminds me of college, high school and sort of every waking moment of every major meeting i’ve ever been in. Bravo, good sirs. Tada. College Humor is sort of the Scottie Pippen of bro humor. It’s might not pull Michael Jordan numbers but still deserves to be on the cover of the metaphorical box of Wheaties.

It takes a village. Or in some cases, a whole city. Chattanooga, Tennessee loves to rally to support its own, especially the talented creatives who call it home. Dylan Kussman is one of those that the city wants to keep around, and to keep shooting his works locally. So in what could a model to watch for independent web series creators around the country, Kussman and his team have pulled together their series with help of all kinds from their native city— financial and a whole lot else.

Tonight at a live premiere screening, indie drama, or as they call it, “noir mystery” web series The Steps will debut to a sold-out audience at what they are calling a “Device Party.” Guests are encouraged to bring out their laptops, smartphones and other internet devices to watch and share the show with peers. Sound like a big virtual street team rally. The event will also live stream on UStream tonight starting at 9:00 PM EST (6p PT).

While the specifics of the budget weren’t shared, they did tell us that the series used all local Chattanooga cast and crew was funded by production partners in concert with a financial grant from Create Here, a local program to build Chattanooga’s cultural economy through arts, economic and cultural development initiatives.

The Steps is a noir mystery web series that tells the story of Charlie Madison, a lowlife private investigator from Los Angeles who’s forced to live under an assumed identity in middle America to escape his criminal past. A key player in the blackmailing enterprise of Dante Pelinsano (based on the infamous “P.I. to the Stars” Anthony Pellicano), Charlie has to split town when the Assistant D.A. who put Dante in prison seems to determined to take him down as well. Charlie takes on the name “Ron Harlin” and starts driving east, stopping when he feels he’s gone far enough, which happens to be the midsized city of Chattanooga, TN.

Academy Award winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects)—himself a commented on the independent nature of the project: “It was only a matter of time before someone realized you don’t need anyone’s permission to make a good series. The Steps is the future.”

The marketing and promotion of the event is one of the most ambitious we’ve seen for an independent web series, using a number of traditional entertainment media buys and outlets to make a splash this week. Radio interviews, local TV crews, pre-roll on Hulu videos, even local bus wrap ads are in the mix. Can you name another web series that launched with bus ads?

Space Truffles Enterainment is handling the marketing and sponsor integration for the series. Space Truffles’ Gennefer Snowfield (who has been a guest author on Tubefilter News) shared with us a full run-down of the launch-week marketing plan:

With its obvious parody to the drama behind the Twilight saga (no, I don’t mean the books or movies themselves but to the reality of the fifth book in the Twilight series getting leaked to the internet before its completion…and the drama that ensued), season 1 of I <3 Vampires was pretty much guaranteed a healthy audience and helped garner the online network Take180 more than 40 million video views to date. This week saw the launch of Season 2 of the popular web series.

But it isn’t the subject matter of the show that was its only appeal. Like all Take180 shows, interaction plays a key role and fans are encouraged and even rewarded for their participation.

In fact, fans of the show have been begging for a season 2 almost as soon as the season 1 finale went online. In the hiatus, they were treated to behind-the-scenes videos hosted by Adam Chambers, who plays Wyatt on the show and has proven to be one of the show’s most popular characters. Then, to get even more meta, about a month ago, Wyatt himself began video blogging as a way to cope with having discovered he’d become a vampire hunter at the end of season 1. Fans watched him as he discovered his powers…and as his relationship with his girlfriend, Luci (played by Erin Way), deteriorated.

The first episode of season 2 picks up a year after season 1. Viewers not familiar with the show are greeted with a very extensive “Previously On”, so to make it easier to jump right in. We find that Corbin (played by Cherilyn Wilson), once the self-proclaimed #1 “Confessor” (fans of the Confessions series, the vampire novels of the series), now not only wants to have nothing to do with the fact that the movie based on the second novel has come out but is no longer on speaking terms with her Confessor BFF-for-life, Luci. But when an unexpected visitor shows up, Corbin learns that her fangirl life won’t be that easy to run away from.

Still nothing like the big screen when web series look this good. Seriously, at the risk of selling out my 640 pixel comrades, there is something that happens when you sit back and watch some of these web series we all get excited about in their full uncompressed HD glory. And The Bannen Way, the high octane thrill ride shot on the RED One camera, is well worthy of some cinematic screen time. That and sharing the experience with a few hundred fellow vicarious adrenaline junkies.

This Friday evening Sony’s Crackle is hosting a special LA screening of the complete first season of The Bannen Way at the American Cinemateque’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. It’s the latest in a series of screenings at the Egyptian that show the internet some love, with previous screenings including Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, The Guild, Strike.TV and Funny or Die.

On hand for a Q&A after the screening will be Bannen stars Mark Gantt, Robert Forster, Michael Ironside, Michael Lerner and director Jesse Warren. Also on the program for the night is a sneak preview of Shane Felux’s much-awaited sci-fi drama Trenches, which recently signed on with Crackle for release later this year after hanging out in Stage 9 purgatory.