by Marc Hustvedt on January 29th, 2010
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.
by Ana Hurka-Robles on January 11th, 2010
There are plenty of head-slappingly dumb characters in movieland; the Ditz, the Jock, the Stoner. But the one moron to rule them all may be the Horror Movie Protagonist.
Few other characters inspire as much vocal disapproval as a soon-to-be-victim who accepts rides from creepy truckers and runs up the stairs to escape a killer instead of out the door. But the stress of being pursued by a murderer in a Halloween mask might impair your judgement, too. That’s why we have the educational web series, How To Survive A Horror Movie.
Produced for CBS Interactive, all 18 installments of How to Survive a Horror Movie are presented as mini-training films, complete with a 1950s-style announcer. Each contains a lesson on how to escape scenarios common to the horror genre. Or not.
While the show works best when picking apart genre cliches, such as killer dolls and haunted houses, several episodes are just parodies on specific movies, like The Sixth Sense (”How to Tell If You’ve Been Dead Since the Beginning of the Movie”) and Children of the Corn (”What To Do If Your Corn Has Children In It”).
Perhaps the most notable thing about this 2007 series is that it was written and co-directed by Seth Grahame-Smith, who authored the book of the same name. Grahame-Smith later wrote the smash-hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a synthesis of classic regency literature and the late 21st century zombie craze. It became a New York Times Bestseller and is currently being developed into a feature by none other than Natalie Portman.
by Marc Hustvedt on December 9th, 2009
Web series and web video bits worth clicking today:
Paramount Digital Entertainment’s debut web series drama Circle of Ei8ht released the season finale today (above) on MySpace. The studio hasn’t been shy about promoting the series using TV ad spots and even massive billboards to drive viewers online. [MySpace, DreadCentral]
Compulsions has broken the 100k views mark in just its second week of its exclusive run on web video site Dailymotion (which is promoting the series heavily, and yes, even on Tubefilter). Episode 6 “Ripen” debuted today with the final two of the season bowing this week. [Dailymotion]
YouTube announced today at Le Web Conference in Paris that it’s lauching an international sports channel with more than 2000 licensed sports videos called “Sports Hub.” To promote it and other licensed TV content, YouTube launched its first traditional press and outdoor ad campaign in the UK with the slogan: “YouTube’s got TV”. [Telegraph]
Felicia Day, creator-star of hit World of Warcraft inspired web series The Guild will be presenting at Spike TV’s Video Game Awards this Saturday night at 8PM ET on Spike. [Spike TV]
The Future of Dating? CBS web series The Tomorrow Show with Mo Rocca sent its correspondent Shira Lazar to explore one of her favorite topics—dating. [CBSnews.com]
A Comicbook Orange dropped its own season finale (below) today, wrapping up their fourth season from creator-host Casey McKinnon and Rudy Jahchan. The finale spotlights Brian Wood, creator of some of the best women characters in comics. There’s also a well placed Star Wars reference at the end. Our clearly biased favorite episode of the season is Jane Espenson talking Streamy. [A Comicbook Orange]
by Julie Wolfson on November 13th, 2009
Imagine yourself on a reality competition show. When you get cast, you see yourself winning challenges and coming home with the prize money, but the ‘reality’ of the situation is that there is only one winning person or team. The rest of the competitors are shed each week. From Survivor to Project Runway reality competition shows have one thing in common, voted off contestants can’t go home. Networks go to great lengths to protect the integrity and outcome of the game. Show results are guarded with confidentiality contracts. It’s true, who would watch a competition show, if they already knew who won.
So what happens to the cast offs? On Project Runway Kit Scarbo make it past the half way mark before her avant-garde dress sent her packing. She told Tubefilter she spent the rest of the competition sequestered in an apartment in a nearby building with the other designers.
This season on Amazing Race, racers have found themselves at the top of giant water slides and skiing indoors in Dubai. Jessica Stout and Garrett Paul came into the race ready to tackle all of these challenges. After surviving a license plate search, booking a flight to Tokyo, eating sake bomb on a Japanese game show, and digging in the mud in Vietnam, they had some back luck. Jessica was set up for the challenge to heard a giant pen of ducks, but the animals proved to be to unpredictable and uncooperative. When they arrived last at the next stop, they were eliminated. It was a blow for this team of seasoned world travelers. Stout, a travel writer and Paul, an engineer, were shocked to be out so early. Next stop for them was Elimination Station.
by Marc Hustvedt on October 1st, 2009
Some more CBS web series news today, this time out of CBS Interactive which is bowing two new original series for TV.com and CBSSports.com. Former Wallstrip host Julie Alexandria is coming back to the web as host of TV in a Flash , a new primetime TV recap series that will live on TV.com starting today.
The two-minute recap series is weekly, so it’s less about hitting the details of last night’s shows instead bouncing on the top hits of the week. With a Sportscenter-style sidebar ticker of what she’s covering, it’s easy to keep up despite fast talking Alexandria as she rolls through speedcaps of House, NCIS, Modern Family and others. Still the two minutes seem rushed, more suited for on-the-go mobile content than a late 2009 weekly web series.
That could be something to do with lead sponsor AT&T, which developed the series alongside CBS Interactive through its ad agency Mediaedge:cia. For now the series will live on TV.com with new episodes every Tuesday. And unfortunately, episodes of the show are not embeddable despite pre-roll ads and watermarked AT&T branding that would come along with the videos. No word yet of any plans for mobile distribution though we wouldn’t be surprised to see that coming.
by Marc Hustvedt on October 1st, 2009
It’s hard not to notice Shira Lazar these days on the internet. She’s been the go-to choice for covering tech events, social media pow-wows and yes, even the Streamy Awards. Her Qik-enabled iPhone is known to capture those semi-candid kind of interviews that fall somewhere between tech journalism and lifecasting.
And as a web series host, she’s been brought on for a number of hosting roles— taking over for Leah D’Emilio on This Week in YouTube and recurring stints on TechStyle and This Week in Startups. Now the Montreal native may have found a more stable online home, singing on with CBSNews.com working as Los Angeles correspondent for Mo Rocca’s new web series, The Tomorrow Show, and with her own regular blog on the site.
On the Scene with Shira is name of her new CBS blog, and though this means more writing Lazar said video will remain a central part of her coverage. She still will be popping out that Flip camera she tells us, adding an extra level of access to her pieces. He first post which went up yesterday was complete with a off guard Katie Couric, now a CBS colleague to Lazar, meeting her for the first time.
by Drew Baldwin on July 31st, 2009
Last night the excitement in the air was electrifying at the Red Carpet Opening Night Gala for the 4th Annual Independent Television Festival, festival for independently produced, original and innovative television pilots and web series. ITVFest offers opportunities for web television creators like showcasing their work to a live audience and the chance to pitch development executives that can bring their projects to the next level.
On Monday, August 3 Tubefilter is proudly presenting ITVFest Web Television Day, which features screenings of the Official Web Series Selections from the ITVFest,
by Marc Hustvedt on June 15th, 2009
Global web video site Joost announced last week that it was adding 12 new content partners to its roster, stepping up its offering of original web series content. While a number of the new additions are traditional TV series, a new handful of primarily web series makers are on the list.
The curated site favors a global audience, and all but a few of the new partners (RDF, Marvel, ReelzChannel, TOEI) are opening up their content globally without geo-blocking.
New web series content partners:
* MWG Entertainment (My Two Fans, Road to the Altar)
* Marvel Entertainment (Marvel Super Heroes: What The –?!)
* RDF Digital USA (RDF USA’s digital arm which has web series in the works)
* Vogue.TV (Model.Live, Trend Watch)
