Inspired by the Playstation video game of the same name, Infamous shows us a world where everyday people have the regular occurance of having to deal with the fact that they are suddenly shooting lightning out of their body or hearing someone’s thoughts. A world where anyone can suddenly find themselves with superpowers and have the tough decision of whether to use their abilities for either good or evil…or sometimes a little of both. “[Co-creator] Greg [Washington] and I are both avid comic book readers,” said co-creator Joey Barto. “So, the story is kind of an extension of that. We love revenge stories, we love dark stories, we love anti-heroes, and this is a really great story about a very dark, dark anti-hero.”

Created by Barto, Washington, John Chambers, Harvard Taylor, and Travis Barth, produced by Newborn Productions and Cultivate Media Productions and shot locally in Shreveport, Louisiana, the series sets out to prove you can create high-quality, complex, and visually stimulating content outside of the heavilly debated “Los Angeles Bubble”. Said Washington: “We have built a great relationship with two local studios here in Shreveport; Fairfield Studios and Crain Video, that have donated equipment and studio space for the production of Infamous.”

“Shooting in Louisiana, Shreveport in particular, gives us so many incredible options for backgrounds,” continued Washington. “Shreveport has passed for California, New York, New Orleans, Texas, and many other states because of its unique structure and setup. It is the perfect location for a production like ours with a very limited budget. And Southern hospitality has been extended above and beyond.”

The show is two episodes into its run and is quickly establishing an audience. “The sky is the limit as far as goals for the series,” explained Washington. “In our first week we were contacted by KoldCast TV to distribute our show on their network. Our fanbase is growing everyday, and other professionals we have met in the business are asking to help out any way that they can. Our production value has grown by leaps and bounds.”

“Our first season is twelve episodes, and we’re going to break it up into arcs,” continuted Barto. “Each set of three we’ll present to you with pretty much one full show. Kind of like a comic book back in the day.”

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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.

Married on MySpace: Season 2 will have a 13-episode run that will conclude with a wedding ceremony that will reveal which details were chosen by the audience. Three words people: White Gold Wreath.

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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.

Daniel becomes part of the resistance against a shadowy corporation that we will eventually learn is controlling this chaos, presumably to get richer, while the poor get poorer. Power, money, mind control, you know the drill. Maybe a little too well. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around how I feel about the show and this somewhat familiar concept, but I guess the bottom line is that after three eps, I want to know more. And that’s about all a creator needs, right?

The show, which premiers today on Koldcast TV, is technically good. It has a kind of gauzy look that seems to have become the staple of the post-apocalyptic genre, though it reminds me a little too much of daytime soaps. Lots of camera movement and relatively simple double-exposure effects are surprisingly effective in getting me on board with the inherent anxiety of the concept. Basically, good production value on what I’m going to assume is a modest budget.

Episode one (above, top) had me locked in as it opened with some amazing imagery of a tubed-up man floating like a full grown fetus in a greenish solution, intercut with a blue orbs, mathematic chicken scratches, and flashes of a woman in various locations. “This is going to be mindbending,” I’m telling myself…and from then on, the show gives so little information with each episode that it truly becomes mindbending, without being confusing, or boring. Like I said, I want to know more.

Each ep of this 22-episode thriller hovers somewhere between less than seven minutes and greater than three and at that rate will easily be able to sustain the mystery, which I’m hoping feels as complex, though not as complicated as a show like Lost. The look, length and what seems to be some intelligence in the writing conspire to make for what I hope will be a sustaining show. I also like the fact that its discussing a not-so-distant, and not-so unrealistic future that is nonetheless scary as hell. Take a look at it and I have a feeling you’ll be coming back (it’s a weekly series) and maybe, just maybe Hofman will show us some fresh insight into something we’ve seen before in one way or another.

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Known as the last great race on the earth, the Iditarod is an 1150-mile sled dog race across the most dangerous and extreme terrain of Alaska. Fifty-eight year old Kathy Frederick is one of the oldest female rookie competitors to ever compete in this treacherous race and I, Leslie Morgan will be documenting her journey.

This is, in a nutshell, the premise for the unique documentary web series 1150 Project created by the one-woman producing dynamo Leslie Morgan. The series is literally unfolding right now, as Leslie follows Kathy currently racing in this year’s Iditarod. Tubefilter chatted via e-mail (as she is currently still in Alaska working on the series) with this inspiring creator to get the inside scoop on this truly once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Tubefilter: What was the inspiration behind this project? How did you and Kathy meet?

Leslie Morgan: I have been interested in finding a documentary project about someone living out a dream, Lemonade: The Movie and David Lynch’s The Interview Project inspired this web series. I met Kathy online after a mutual friend told me about her and her website. When I saw she needed a volunteer for three months to help her out managing her household I thought I could help her, but I also wanted to document her journey. I have been interested in producing a web based project for some time and thought rather than taking months to try and make a feature why not try to film and edit in Alaska, posting episodes as I go.

Tubefilter: Had you had experience in dog sled racing before this?

LM: I had never experienced dog sled racing before. Initially what I was interested in exploring was an older female single woman taking on this type of physical challenge and why. It wasn’t until I was here and in the project that I came to really understand the world of a dog musher.

Tubefilter: What was the biggest challenge you had to face producing the series?

LM: There were a few challenges. Financing I think is always a challenge, which is why I set up a paypal account on the site as well as an Indiegogo page to help get donors to contribute so I could actually go. The other challenge is having lived in Los Angeles for seven years I am not accustomed to snow and negative temperatures so the environment was definitely a challenge as is being a one woman show on it. I take the footage, edit it, upload it, manage the site, promote it etc. It’s obviously a lot easier when you have a team, even a small team of people behind you to help with even some mundane tasks.

Tubefilter: How are you integrating traditional web series episodes and a livestreaming component?

LM: I essentially wanted to do a live broadcast with Kathy every Tuesday night so people who were following the episodes and the site could ask questions about the dogs, how Kathy was feeling etc. So I got a Ustream channel. I wanted a way to involve the audience directly and I felt utilizing a live broadcast could make the audience feel more a part of everything. Plus I am a firm believer that involving the audience on every level just helps grow the project. The idea of making your audience a part of the project instead of simply a passive bystander has been important to me since working in radio and music where we would have street teams go out and promote shows or bands. I think film, tv and especially those involved in new media have a great opportunity to integrate their audience so that they become an active part of the whole process.

Tubefilter: What’s next for this project?

LM: Well first: finishing it. So far I have 9 episodes up and my goal is to finish out with about 20, but I may do more. I guess if people want to keep watching I will keep the project going. I would love to eventually create a feature compiling the webisodes along with additional footage that you did not get to see. Also a really amazing part of the Iditarod is the teacher training portion. I have connected to a few teachers who use the Iditarod as part of their curriculum and may be interested in using my content in their classrooms, which is really incredible to me. I would love to continue to build from this project and the idea of being able to potentially go into classrooms and speaking about the project and having kids start to create their own projects could be the next extension of this particular project.

Tubefilter: Do you have any other web projects in the works?

LM: I have several ideas of web series I would love to do, one involves true stories of women facing challenges, two others are narrative. Ideally I just want to continue to creating and producing web content whether it be for myself or another company. If anyone needs a content producer let me know! I’ll need a job after this adventure ends at the end of the month!

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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.

Launched 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.

Depending on how the series actually turns out (the final episode of season 1 is scheduled to launch on March 15th), the series could be seen as glorifying the abortion issue. Hopefully, it will be clear that it wasn’t the wishes of the production itself to take any particular stance on either side of the debate, but to allow an audience the opportunity to talk out all the sides together, as well as share personal stories people have faced when it comes to pregnancy and parenthood. It’s an issue almost everyone will face at one point in their lives and the format of a place online paired with a visual story to embody the discussion is a unique one that can hopefully be utilized in the future on a wide range of issues.

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Illeana Douglas may be quite the name in web series circles now, especially after landing six Streamy nominations for her popular comedy Easy to Assemble, which just wrapped its second season earlier this year. It even spawned a spinoff series Sparhüsen, which nabbed its own Streamy nod. But aside from those two, the Emmy-nominated TV and film actress has yet to venture into a web series where she isn’t the one calling the shots. Looks like that’s about to change.

Douglas just wrapped shooting a two-episode guest starring arc on Spherion-sponsored office comedy The Temp Life in New York this week, playing cold hearted CEO Eve Randall. Also shooting a guest spot this week is Taryn Southern who reprises her gumpy midwest IT tech Nancy Roder for a few more episodes.

This isn’t the first we’ve written about the bi-coastal casting moves on The Temp Life this season, which have seen notable web series standouts like Sandeep Parikh (The Guild), Thom Woodley (The Burg) and Rachel Risen (The Hayley Project) coming on board to bolster the show’s cred and fanbase. To give an idea of numbers, it took two years for the series to reach 1 million views, while its latest season—its fourth—has just passed 2 million.

The connection between Easy to Assemble isn’t hard to piece together. Temp Life creator Wilson Cleveland—who also plays the former temp agency boss Nick ‘Trouble’ Chiapetta—heads up CJP Digital Media the web arm of Manhattan-based marketing firm CJP Communications. Easy to Assemble teamed up with CJP for its latest season with Cleveland’s team helping score a suite of new distribution deals for the show including The Hotel Network and a lucrative one with My Damn Channel.

As for the brand backing the series, they’ve taken notice to the uptick in views and higher profile names attached. The 60-year old staffing firm which employs more than 160,000 people worldwide loves the online buzz the Hollywood and web talent brings to its less-than-glamorous core business.

“We have had incredibly talented people involved with The Temp Life this year, and we are honored to have Illeana Douglas helping us end this season on the highest of notes,” said Melissa Waldon, Spherion’s Senior Social Media Strategist.

Ironically, it even has its Streamy nomination this year for best branded web series, pitting it square up against IKEA and Douglas’ Easy to Assemble along with Altoids-backed Brainstorm, Topps’ Back on Topps and Lexus’ Parts Art. The season finale episodes of The Temp Life will premiere online next month, April 5 and 26.

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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.

What will happen in this 30 minutes of the ultimate geekerific television and movie universe showdown? Will Blade take down Bauer before the zombies do? Will the Winchester brothers end up in a love triangle with Scully? Will anyone care that Edward Cullen was killed in the first 30 seconds of episode 1? Tune in March 29th to find out.

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]

Got something for Quick Clicks? Shoot them over to tips[at]tubefilter.tv

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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 aka NPH 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.

After their pilot episode snagged the Grand Prize at the 2009 Escapist Film Festival, creator Brett Register and his producing team of Rick Rey and Paula Rhodes knew they were on to something. At that point the show was called Dorian’s Quest, but after a name change to A Good Knight’s Quest, the team set out to shoot a 24-episode gamer comedy web series that would run on The Escapist Magazine’s site in weekly installments.

“I’m a huge fan of the Escapist, I have been for years, ever since I was in college,” said Register. “I always wanted to do an 80’s style show, like my own Masters of the Universe web series—the bad movie not the cartoon TV show.” To launch the series, the team hosted a well-attended LA premiere at the Capitol City Hollywood on Monday night. While its real-life-to-game crossover theme isn’t entirely unfamiliar to web series fans—think The Legend of Neil or even the French series Noob, this one takes the more Enchanted spin on it.

When a video game princess crosses over into the real world, a geeky gamer is thrust into an epic suburban adventure in this comedy web series featuring an all-star Web TV cast, including Craig Frank (Compulsions, The Crew), Paula Rhodes (Shuffle), Douglas Sarine (Ask A Ninja), Angie Cole (Sorority Forever), Charlie Bodin (24, Cold Case), Cathy Baron (Valley Peaks, The Eves), Brett Register (The Crew), and many more!

And as for that elusive mystery guest star? She is revealed in the exclusive new trailer (above) to be none other than Brea Grant from Heroes. Catch up with episode 1 below:

So far twelve episodes have been shot, according to Register, and in April they plan to shoot the final twelve. “It’s self contained story that will end after the 24 episodes,” added Register, “so if we did a second season it would really be sequel.” For the business side of things, Escapist is paying upon delivery of the episodes, with some incentives worked out similar to the site’s most popular series to date, the Streamy-nominated animated hit Zero Punctuation.

After just one episode, the fans have been vocally supportive of the new show, banging out 350-plus comments so far. “These are video game ethusiasts who are usally very hard on things they don’t like,” noted Register, “but the repsonse has been very positive so far.” Register also noted that this is his dream situation online and reminds him why he makes web series after all. “It’s a first time I’ve felt that it’s a huge benefit having the show on the web rather than traditional media with this kind of interactivity between creators and fans.”

A Good Knight’s Quest runs every Friday for 24 weeks (starting February 26th) on TheEscapistMagazine.com.

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