Tubefilter News

If you were closely following Barely Digital’s Key of Awesome contest (as we were) over the past few weeks, then this is new isn’t exactly a surprise. But for those that didn’t, today came official word that “Fast Food Folk Song” (above) by Rhett & Link (Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal) emerged victorious amongst the twelve finalists in the show’s “Contest of Awesome.” What do they win? How about appearing in the next Weezer music video from the band’s new album Raditude.

Rhett & Link have been YouTube standouts for a while, and the North Carolina-based duo have cranked out over 200 videos, many of them music videos. So if Vegas oddsmakers were taking action on this contest, they would have most likely been 2-1 favorites. Their “Fast Food Folk Song” debuted online back in April of last year, and has since breezed passed the 2 million view mark. The real-life musical order at a Taco Bell drive thru, taking a nod to hidden camera fast food ad spots like Sonic’s drive-thru ambushes, the video found what could quite possibly be the best Taco Bell employee ever.

Next New Networks has in fact scored a hit with Key of Awesome, its latest series under the Barely Digital network banner. Launched back in October of last year, the weekly music and pop culture parody web series has already reached the 25 million viewer mark, with an average of 5 million per month. A list of highlight list of episodes worth watching: Lady Gaga, The Dark Knight, Twilight and The Jersey Shore and their latest episode, “Kei$ha Tik Tok.”

Want to be in an upcoming Weezer video? Barely Digital’s music parody web series Key of Awesome announced a contest today with Weezer’s River Cuomo (above) scouring the web for the funniest music videos (made for the web) of 2009. There are some pretty lengthy contest rules to look at, but basically they require entrants to actually submit their videos, which should mock or parody a popular music video. So I guess that means The Guild’s “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar” video isn’t eligible, but maybe a parody is?

The Video should not simply reproduce the original video(s) but should mock, comment on, or poke fun at the original music video or videos, including the music video’s subject matter, sound, style, musician(s) or actor(s) depicted therein, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation.

The web series, hosted Mark Douglas, launched this past fall as the latest addition to Next New Networks’ Barely Digital channel, which itself is a spinoff of Barely Political channel which shot to notoriety in 2007-08 with Obama Girl. Already Key of Awesome has racked up over 12 million views, according to NNN, with Barely Digital notching over 250 million on YouTube.

Submissions run for a week on the show’s site, and the winner gets a cameo in an upcoming Weezer video off their new album “Raditude.” Presumably none of Key of Awesome’s parodies are eligible in this contest, like their recent Jersey Shore rip (below) which incidentally made it on to MTV. Other targets : Twilight, Kittens on the Web and Lady Gaga.
The web series, hosted Mark Douglas, launched this past fall as the latest addition to Next New Networks’ Barely Digital channel, which itself is a spinoff of Barely Political channel which shot to notoriety in 2007-08 with Obama Girl. Already Key of Awesome has racked up over 12 million views, according to NNN, with Barely Digital notching over 250 million on YouTube.

Submissions run for a week on the show’s site, and the winner gets a cameo in an upcoming Weezer video off their new album “Raditude.” Presumably none of Key of Awesome’s parodies are eligible in this contest, like their recent Jersey Shore rip (below) which incidentally made it on to MTV. Other targets : Twilight, Kittens on the Web and Lady Gaga.

For Your Consideration – The Battery’s Down, the musical theater loving web series from New York-based creator Jake Wilson put out today what appears to be the first ever musical For Your Consideration video for The Streamy Awards (above). The riff on “All I Want For Christmas” stars former Wicked star Shoshana Bean and doubles as the show’s holiday release. Wilson and co. have officially raised the bar for FYI campaigns this year. [YouTube]

TheStream.tv raised over $7300 in 24hrs for a charity—The Pablove Foundation—that helps kids with cancer this past weekend during their live on-air #streamathon. Now that’s making good use of live web shows! [theStream.tv]

Dinosaur Diorama made a holiday video of their own, a “special extra-funny” episode of their Greg & Donny series—”Gregeneezer and the Three Monsters” (below). Will Gregeneezer avoid the fate of his old partner, Jacob Donny? [Dinosaur Diorama]

Rodrigo Blaas, a Pixar Studios animator, released his first ever independent short film, Alma, online this week for a limited time. [almasortfilm]

The Bannen Way hasn’t officially launched online yet, but that didn’t stop them from getting it up on Amazon as a pre-order. The action web series will premiere on Crackle on January 6th, and it’s making its Amazon debut January 8th. [Amazon]

Green Screens are everywhere. This ChromaKey video out of Russia mashes up the hundreds of TV shows that use green screen to beef up their environments. [YouTube]

“Don’t let the bright lights and loud sounds fool you. This is fan art, not the work of Joss Whedon.”

Why did Billy Boy want to give Penny keys to a shiny new Australia? What’s the deal with Johnny Snow? Why the heck do people like Captain Hammer so damn much anyway? Answers to all these questions and more are now just a click away.

Shot in several locations around Houston, Texas, Horrible Turn tells the story of Billy Boy before he receives his PhD in Horribleness…you know, high school. It features 12 original songs, a talented cast of young performers, enough insider Whedon jokes to please the brownest of Browncoats and the Guildies.

Oh yeah, and it’s completely fan created.

Tubefilter had a chance to catch up with Chance McClain who directed, co-wrote, and co-produced this intrepid not-actually-canon-but-darn-good prequel. “We had a vision and fought to bring it to light at any cost,” said McClain. “401K’s were cashed in, tax refunds were used, and we inched across the finish line … The crew size varied. Some of the shoots were just me with Joey (Wright) or Kevin (Ryan) on camera. We would set the lights and start shooting. Other days we would have 10 or more people working crew. We would have a boom operator and three people setting lights, a hair dresser, make-up…like a real movie set!”

Joss Whedon and his creative team has always been encouraging of fan generated content, having run a contest to include video applications to the Evil League of Evil on the Dr. Horrible DVD. One of these entries grew to become the transmedia web series Fury of Solace.

A web series spoofing a comic based on a web series… that has to be a first. A Comicbook Orange, the popular series for all things comics, released its latest episode today reviewing the new Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog comic form Dark Horse which hit stores today. Host Casey McKinnon crafted a special musical number (why not) to kick off the episode before giving a mixed “3 orange” review of the Dr. H origin story.

The full color 40-page comic, written by Joss Whedon’s brother Zack, is what comic junkies call a one-shot (in japan it’s yomikiri 読み切り), not too unlike the live action series itself which has been teasing fans with talk of a sequel for over a year.

In this One-Shot Wonder, Zack Whedon and artist Joelle Jones (Token) establish how a young, impressionable, but brilliant Dr. Horrible was drawn into a world of crime. Readers are reacquainted with the charming, brawny, crime-fighting superhero extraordinaire Captain Hammer when Dr. Horrible crosses paths with his greatest enemy in an all-out showdown of immeasurable proportions. Special guest appearances include Dr. Horrible’s love interest, Penny; his sidekick, Moist; and a meter man.

It started in July of 2003. Star Wars Gangsta Rap hit AtomFilms.com (now just Atom) and captured over 4 millions views for the animated rap parody of the George Lucas masterpiece. It was arguably the most popular of the site’s annual Star Wars Fan Film Challenge, a yearly contest (since 2002) sanctioned by Lucasfilm. Gangsta Rap creators at flash animation Bent TV Productions—Jason Brannon, Chris Crawford and Thomas Lee—followed it up in 2004 with Star Wars Gangsta Rap: Special Edition.

Now 10 million views and what seems like an online eternity later, MCs Vader, Skywalker, Palpatine and Trooper are back for the latest episode Star Wars Gangsta Rap: Chronicles. Not surprisingly, it’s the first finalist announced for Atom’s 2010 Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge.

Even with the dearth of the Death Star flow, the Ottawa-based Bent TV guys have been busy these past few years, getting hired on by Weird Al for his “I’ll Sue Ya” video and even by 20th Century Fox to promote an X-Men DVD release with X-Men Gangsta Rap.

Next New Networks’ Barely Digital channel, the 11-month old offshoot of its Obama Girl led Barely Political, has launched a new musical series Key of Awesome this month. The musical lampooning series has already belted out four episodes bashing everything from celebrities crying to Twilight hating vampires. There’s even two “making of” videos that are pretty spoofy themselves.

The new series is a slight turn from Barely Digital’s first scripted comedy Tech Know, which took a behind the scenes look at a fictional tech gadget review show. Think an internet spin on The Larry Sanders Show or Goodnight Burbank for the techie set. Tech Know has been on hiatus since mid-August and no word yet on its return.

Key of Awesome is a return to what put the Barely Political crew on the map in the first place–internet topical music vids with viral breakout potential. And using their highly subscribed Barely Political YouTube channel is key to sparking that viral mojo. The Twilight episode above had already raked in over 270,000 views on YouTube alone in just a week since launching.

Most episodes star Barely Digital writer Mark Douglas and are helmed by Tom Small.

The almost winner of my Coolest Cross-Media Promotion of a Web Series award goes to Dr. Horrible, which just released some sneak peak shots to Splash Page of its upcoming, highly-anticipated, paper and ink comic book. Published by Dark Horse and written by Zack Whedon, the one-shot issue “establishes how a young, impressionable, but brilliant Dr. Horrible was drawn into a world of crime” and recounts the first encounter with his soon-to-be archnemesis, Captain Hammer.

Whedonesque readers know that this isn’t the first Dr. Horrible prequel, nor the first Dr. Horrible comic, nor the first Dr. Horrible comic written by Zack Whedon, nor the first Dr. Horrible comic and Dark Horse collaboration, it’s just the first one you’ll be able to physically hold in your hands. In the past 18 months, Zack Whedon wrote three digital comics for MySpace’s Dark Horse Presents, including Captain Hammer: Be Like Me!, Moist: Humidity Rising, and Penny: Keep Your Head Up (all of which are preludes to the events seen in the Sing-Along Blog).

The 24-page hard copy comic will set you back $3.50 (which is what comic books cost these days) and hits the shelves on November 18. Stop into your friendly neighborhood Dark Hourse retailer or pre-order yours here.