Tubefilter News

With over 15 million views, season 1 of Married on MySpace is the most watched web series MySpace has ever produced, according to numbers from the company. Endemol USA and MySpace are hoping to match and perhaps even surpass that success by bringing the popular, fan-driven show back for a second season.

The season premiered this week with the unveiling of this seasons couple, Graeham and Dehlia, as they begin their journey to the alter…and they are at the mercy of the viewers to choose every aspect of the ceremony. The audience is currently being asked to vote on the what wedding bands the couple will give each other to express thier lifelong devotion to ech other with (my vote is on the “White Gold Wreath”, it’s stunning!). Future episodes will have audience members choosing the dress, location, planning of the bachelor and bachelorette parties (someone better jump out of a cake, I’m just saying), etc.

With all these decisions needing to be made, the series is bursting at the seems with product placement opportunities. Current sponsors include include Hewlwtt-Packard, JCPenney, the FOX Searchlight film Our Family Wedding,The Knot, and Hearst.

During last night’s Oscar telecast, trailers for a branded reality-based web series following Rocco DiSpirito, Marisa Tomei, and Dan Cortese as they travel through Italy exploring the unique passions of Italian cuisine were nestled between the iPad and Coca-Cola adverts (one of which featured Safety Geeks: SVI’s Tom Konkle). In addition to Dr. Horrible himself opening the show and the LXD teaming up with Debbie Allen for the Best Score performance piece, the web space was fairly well represented.

Sponsored by Italian food product company Bertolli and made specifically to help promote their new line of Italian frozen dinners, Into the Heart of Italy marks the company’s largest marketing investment ever according to an interview with Gaston Vaneri, a marketing director who oversees Unilever’s U.S. frozen foods business (Unilever owns Bertolli). Being described as “Amazing Race meets Top Chef”, the show seeks to promote its product by celebrating a country known for it’s love of all things culinary.

It will be interesting to see if the huge investment in this series; from it being completely produced in Italy, to the use of celebrities, to the chunk of change required to advertise during the Academy Awards; will have a payoff not only in views for the series itself, but the obviously larger goal of driving up sales for Bertolli products. This will be one of keep an eye on, with the first episode of the series launching March 14th.

This week saw the launch of Hulu’s first original web series, If I Can Dream, backed by reality TV’s worldwide top dog, American Idol creator Simon Fuller. His first foray into the web goes way beyond Hulu though, as the series blends several reality formats into a 24/7 experiential internet show combining dozens of live camera feeds, edited episodes and even a public auditioning platform on MySpace. The show follows five young and aspiring talents trying to make it in Hollywood, which on its own isn’t anything novel. Three of them are actors, one a musician and another a model, all starting somewhere near the lower ranks of Hollywood’s slippery talent ladder.

So why is this is big deal for web TV?

Reality’s Cost Paradox

Reality shows swept across television starting in force back in 1999 with the success of the voyeuristic Big Brother and followed soon after by Survivor, The Amazing Race and the launch of reality’s crown jewel, American Idol in 2002. Sure, it was a fresh format—complete with a whole myriad of sub-formats (docu-reality, competitions, hoaxes, makeovers, etc.)—but what really sold it up the network brass was the cost. These things were just plain cheaper than scripted television.

This of course left a whole slew of TV writers and actors left with a dwindling pilot season and fewer time slots open for their scripted stories. Networks have a finite number of hours of programming time every day, and when one show moves into a time slot another moves out. Online however, the time slots aren’t scarce at all. Networks have in effect infinite shelf space for new series, they just need to make the revenues line up with the costs before greenlighting a project.

The irony online, and probably the reason we haven’t seen more reality formats tried as web series, is that compared to most web series, these things aren’t cheap at all. In fact to pull off what are now widely accepted structures for reality series, it takes a considerable amount of footage be shot, countless hours of editing, and most often some sort of controlled environment during the shoot. This costs money.

So to pull off something of this scale for If I Can Dream, it took that magical trinity of Content (Simon Fuller’s show concept), Distribution (Hulu and MySpace) and Brand (Pepsi and Ford) to all come together. This couldn’t happen without all three lined up before even a frame was shot to disk.

Isn’t Reality Already Here?

Some could argue that the ultimate reality format already exists online: the endless sea of home videos uploaded into YouTube every minute. The cost structure of this content is zero. But adding controls and parameters that drive us to tune in weekly or even daily, means actual producing needs to happen. We won’t all aspiring actors trying to make in Hollywood, but we will watch a rigorously vetted crop of ever-so-coiffed dreamers. Sociological issues aside, that’s the state of mainstream American television tastes—traditional or internet.

But capturing mainstream TV viewers, who are now increasingly geared up with high-speed broadband connections, is the ultimate goal for many of the web’s would-be reality show producers. So luring Idol viewers online on a regular basis means delivering a product that fits a standard that for better or worse is what they demand. Mommy XXX on Crackle was close to emulating TV’s reality format as it followed the daily home life of adult film star Demi Delia, as was TheWB.com’s Rich Girl Poor Girl. Neither series however has been renewed as of yet.

For the most part, the web thrives on niche, and dozen of reality or docu-reality web series have found small but meaningful audiences. In Their Boots followed Iraq war veterans and their stories from the battle zones, and David Lynch’s Interview Project sat down to tell the real stories of the American Heartland. Online travel series like The Gap Year or InTransit have filled that raw experiential travel stories that TV seems to miss. It’s not that the web is dearth of reality storytelling, it’s that it’s short on TV’s idea of reality formats.

On December 3rd, 2009, Samsung launched the Mobile Explorers Contest, in which they asked teams of two to create a short video submission that demonstrated why they would be good Mobile Explorers at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. What exactly is a Mobile Explorer? Well, the ten finalists selected (five teams of two) were sent to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games whey they are currently bringing the Olympic experience to the web through videos, blog posts and mobile updates.

For 20 days, they will have firsthand access at the Olympic Winter Games as well as compete in challenges such as visiting Vancouver sites, collecting fan stories and discovering the Olympic spirit. Fans will vote for their favorite Mobile Explorer team on Samsung’s Facebook page and the winning team will win a Samsung product and cash prize package and a blogging gig on Samsung.com.

“Samsung recognizes the value of social media and the immense power behind direct interaction with consumers – communicating, listening and engaging,” states Jose Cardona, corporate communications manager at Samsung Electronics America. “We regularly connect with people online via Twitter (@SamsungTweets), Facebook, YouTube, Flikr and our own Samsung USA Newsroom, which is an online clearinghouse of company and product news and information. Our Samsung Mobile Explorer program is yet another example of our efforts to connect directly with consumers.”

In fact, the Samsung Mobile Explorer program extends beyond the U.S. “Samsung Mobile Explorers is a global initiative for us, with participants from the United States, Russia, China, Korea and Canada,” explained Cardona. “The program is a way for us to further our support for the Olympic Movement, giving behind-the-scenes access to everyday people – our Mobile Explorers and all of the fans that are following their journeys in Vancouver.”

Back in December Hulu, along with Clear Channel, MySpace, Ford and Pepsi all signed on as sponsors and production partners for If I Can Dream, a new online docusoap Web series by reality programming mastermind Simon Fuller (American Idol). TheWrap (along with Tubefilter) covered the deal announcement, but overall, it didn’t generate much in the way of media or Web series industry buzz. But it’s time to take a closer look.

Last week’s article by Stuart Elliott of the NY Times (the advertising industry’s most influential reporter), profiled Pepsi’s new Pepsi Refresh Project campaign and mentioned the Web series production deal as the first original content deal for Hulu—calling attention to it one more time, but to a very wide and influential audience of top media and ad agency execs who are still cautiously dipping their toes into the branded entertainment space with their clients.

I’m sure fellow industry watchers are wondering, is Hulu seriously planning to enter the race to produce quality original Web series and if so, how would it impact a market that already includes producers such as Michael Eisner’s Vuguru, Sony’s Crackle, Dailymotion, Babelgum, Next New Networks, DECA and a slew of talented independents breaking new ground?

Going Where The Money Is

Branded underwriting and product placement is all the digital entertainment community talks about today (even as much as the storyline), and for good reason. They need to cover production costs and don’t have revenue assurances such as a subscription model (like cable) or pre-existing licensed distribution deals lined up in advance (like films and broadcast) that will cover costs and procure a modest profit. This upfront cash flow need is the perfect moment for a brand to have a significant (though let’s hope not oppressive) presence within the story as well as association with a certain series. The brand appeal factors include story genre, talent, and demographic reach, as well as ongoing social media engagement to build new customer relationships and retain existing ones.

With a reported 44 million users (and growing) Hulu is still dramatically smaller than YouTube’s reported 330 million users, but offers high quality curated content versus YouTube’s mix of licensed content from CBS for full shows (and official movie and TV show clips and trailers), plus a lot of mediocre user generated content not worth advertising against. Hulu’s audience is drawn to the site for recognizable entertainment franchises, but also offers a Web Originals channel with shows from a variety of independent and larger Hollywood production companies. (No doubt their future original shows will appear on this channel as well.)

“Hulu’s mission is to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium video content when, where and how they want it. As we pursue this mission, we aspire to create a service that users, advertisers, and content owners unabashedly love.”

Wedding Central, a 24/7 destination for wedding-themed programming, is taking the leap into original web programming with the premiere of Bridal Breakdown, a show that pranks brides right before their wedding day by making them think they are a part of a NYC-based documentary on weddings…and then use their crew of actors to make the brides-to-be think their wedding dreams are about to be left at the aisle.

Full disclosure: I may be a little TOO excited about this series. Being a lady on the “always a bridesmaid, never a bride (and okay with that)” path, I think I may take a little too much sadistic joy out of watching how women handle obstacles purposefully thrown into the path of them achieving “the happiest day of their life”. Not ever planning on having one of your own, it’s easy to sit back and watch the trainwreck with glee.

But beyond my personal beliefs on the institute of marriage, I do believe that the core of this series has its heart in the right place. Beyond all the stress of picking out the perfect dress/venue/flowers/cake/ring/napkins/etc/etc/etc, a wedding day is supposed to be FUN. As one of the bridesmaids responsible for the prank in the first episode states, “She is a total Bridezilla. Maybe now she can just tone it down a little bit. Hopefully. After she kills me.”

On a technical note, the series isn’t very easy to find on the Wedding Central website. You will first have to click the “Videos” tab at the top of the site, which takes you to the websites “Featured Videos”. On the right side of the video player is a tab labeled “Bridal Breakdowns”, which will take you to the series.

Escape. The web isn’t clamoring with that many series that truly rip us out of our office chairs. Often we’re given mere momentary amusement. But I’m talking about the ones that suck us through our laptop screens and into a world so refreshingly different yet intimately familiar we actually feel transported.

Everyone has something that gives them this kind of escape. For me, it’s a show that propels me into the land of ski tracks in fresh powder, vertical drops and climbing 5.10’s. Pure adrenaline daydreaming. Luckily, I may have just found my new episodic winter escape.

Fitz Cahall is a natural storyteller, crafting 20 episodes of an NPR-worthy podcast of outdoor adventures called The Dirtbag Diaries. His real life human tales of triumph are This American Life for REI junkies. But now, Cahall is taking the leap into web series, with the upcoming premiere of The Season later this month. It’s 22 episodes of outdoor goodness, all shot in HD, following the unique stories of five individual dreamers from the Pacific Northwest. Guys like Paul Kuthe, a kayaker who overcame a difficult past and rock climber Matt Maddaloni who invented a new camera rigging system for filming climbs.

“The idea, or maybe the question, behind the series is this,” wrote Cahall in a recent blog post about the series. “Could we take compelling stories from our community, combine it with tightly crafted footage and create small installments that reveal a bigger story?”

Cahall and his producing partner Bryan Smith of Reel Water Productions managed to score high-end outdoor clothing line Arc’teryx along with microbrewer New Belgium Brewery to sponsor the series.

Ok, the headline we actually borrowed from the show’s own logline, which sums it up pretty well—”It’s like an all-you-can-eat Corvette buffet!” Vette Garage, a new indie reality web series obsessed with everything Corvette, and the people that make them even faster than they already are.

The series is niche, sure, and so are the companies it features, like Utah-based performance parts maker Pfadt Race Engineering which makes custom mods for racers and Corvette junkies looking to soup up their rides. The first three episodes of Vette Garage, which premiered in late November, center around the Pfadt team as they prep for the annual SEMA Show.

Shot in HD, the images are crisp, professionally cut and skillfully mixed so we pick up the office chatter and phone calls we’d expect from modern docu-reality format. “You eliminate the need for a lot of that negative camber, because those bushings deflect so much you lose a full degree of camber just in bushing deflection,” says Pfadt’s CEO and chief engineer Aaron Pfadt on the phone with a vendor. Bushing deflection? Yes, this series doesn’t dumb it down for the layman. You instead have to come up to its level if you’re going to keep up. And for most self respecting Corvette lovers, that’s inevitably the appeal.

It’s a low budget shoot nonetheless, and funding for each 10-minute episode was cobbled together by the show’s creator Patrick Gamm and his producer Daniel Bowler. Still they manage to deliver a compelling behind-the-scenes look at “famous (and not-yet-famous) Corvette shops, customizers, race teams, restorers, tuners, manufacturers, and rising stars in the Corvette world,” as Gramm puts it.

“We are documenting their reality and telling their story. And, when the cameras roll, whatever happens, happens.” Gramm adds, “A lot of companies are doing some pretty cool and amazing things for the Corvette world, but few would ever know if it weren’t for us filming it.”

For distribution, Gramm and his team went pretty wide, hitting most of the major web video sites like YouTube, blip.tv and Dailymotion. There’s also a few niche greasemonkey sites they went out to like Streetfire.Net and Cardomain. And taking a nod from other niche web series, it’s cozied up to fan forums like DigitalCorvettes, where Vette-heads have been chatting up each of the three episodes out so far. They’ve even cut in a brief 30-second ad spot in the middle of the episodes.

Back in the early days of online network Next New Networks, Gramm actually had a similar series with NNN called Vette Dogs that ran for 18 episodes back in 2006-2007. The series was a little rougher, and seemed to spend more time inside the cars than the reality show format of Vette Garage. Gramm also had a follow-up web series, sticking to what he knows, Vette Girl: An American Adventure in 2008 that is planning a return in 2010.