Tubefilter News

The Bannen Way continues to drum up anticipation with their latest promo video (above) out today. This time it’s all about co-creator Mark Gantt who stars as protag Neal Bannen, aka “The Man.” We are still wondering just what kind of “research” went into this role… [Crackle]

The Guild: Season Three DVD is now available for pre-orders on Amazon, and is 10% off through January 4th. It didn’t quite make it in time for Holiday wish lists, but it still will be loaded with Goodies for Guildies, like a making-of featurette of the “Do You Want to Date My Avatar” music video and Guild Applicant Rejects, How to Build Vork’s Sword and interviews with the Axis of Anarchy. [Amazon]

Top Chef reality chefs The Voltaggio Brothers may be out of Bravo’s TV limelight, but they are now taking the family kitchen antics online with the launch of their new web series in January. EQAL is producing the series and their Umbrella-based web site that recently launched. Is the EQAL team a bunch of foodies? This marks the second cooking-themed series from them after having launched Paula Deen’s Get Cookin’ earlier this year. [Eater]

The Halloween 2010 lineup is already taking shape it looks like with news that Jonathan Moody will be launching his new Scream Queen Campfire web series next October. No video available yet, but a Facebook group is live along with their plug: “5 beautiful scream queens will tell 2 stories each giving us 10 terrifying and entertaining stories in the series during a campfire.” [Dread Central]

Take 180 put out a new sneak peek at season 2 of I Heart Vampires (I <3 Vampires) (below) where head writer Julie Restivo Murphy walks through what to expect this season—like “a bigger badder vampire” on the scene and news that episodes will now come out weekly instead of bi-weekly. Season 2 will premiere in January. [YouTube]

Web Television continues to grow up – first its own awards show and now its own version of television industry’s tried and true Upfronts. The first annual OnFrontNYC went down Tuesday in New York, bringing out over twenty different web content studios to showcase their web series wares to media buyers and digital ad agencies in attendance including Ogilvy, Digitas’ The Third Act and Deep Focus.

Numerous web series, or previews of them, were screened including the trailer for season 2 of the hit drama Prom Queen (above) from Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company and the creative team at Big Fantastic. Other notable series screened were Crackle’s action web series The Bannen Way, dark comedy Hillers, a news season of Illeana Douglas’ Easy to Assemble, Revision3’s new series Film Riot, along with The Mercury Men and a look at the new season of Attention Span Media’s brand-friendly Dorm Life.

Disney-owned T180 Studios has officially launched their new website, Take180.com and debuted three new original web series to their lineup, all of which are based around getting their audience involved.

First up in the new crop is Electric Spoofaloo (above) is a collaboration between the users and the Take180 creative team to produce the finest in pop culture parody (most recently: “Two and A Half Watchmen”, a spoof of Watchmen and the TV show Two And A Half Men, and “Ugly Yeti”, an Ugly Betty parody) every week (episodes alternate between the selection show and the actual parody). The series is written by and stars Juice Box regular Devon Kelly.

Then there’s My Date (below), a series that reenacts the audience’s worst date stories with some advisory commentary every Monday. Rounding things out is I <3 Vampires, a show devoted to the life and drama of a teenage vampire…er, teenage vampire novel series fangirl that comes out every other Thursday. The series stars newcomers Cherylin Wilson (90210), Erin Way and Adam Chambers (of Take180’s My Alibi).

ABC Family has picked up Take180’s My Alibi for distribution on ABCFamily.com, marking the first major content deal coming out of the community driven web series site.

My Alibi, which premiered this fall, centers around five high school seniors at fictional Wheeler High School—Cy, Marley, Jonah, Scarlet and Rebecca—who all try to prove they are innocent after an elaborate prank is pulled on campus.

The talent tie-ins from the series to ABC’s other shows are pretty notable, like star Zachary Abel who also stars in the upcoming ABC Family hour-long drama Perfect 10 and a few upcoming episodes of its hit series The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Other cast include Mad Men regular Alison Brie, Adam Chambers, Cyrina Fiallo, Julianna Guill, Marque Richardson and Gabrielle Carteris (Andrea on the original Beverly Hills 90210) stars as the school principal.

So far there are 18 episodes complete, each one featuring audience-submitted content that gets written into the script by head writer Julie Restivo. Take180’s community members, many of them high school age themselves, had a chance to shape the episodes with their own anecdotes,funny notebook doodles and webcam videos that actually end up in the final version.

“For nearly 150 years, The Program has pursued its secret mission to identify and develop the ‘abilities’ of individuals with paranormal powers.” This is the introduction to In2ition, the new interactive supernatural conspiracy thriller from Take180, which has produced three original web series since its soft launch in July. Hope Fox, played by up-and-comer Emily Pennington, has abandoned friends and family to go on the run when The Intuitive Genetics Program abducts her boyfriend Zain (Hector Bucio), using her special powers to guide her—think Bourne Conspiracy meets Minority Report, except she needs your help.

In an interactive twist characteristic of Take180’s web series, the plot of In2ition is guided by audience participation. From the site: “As Hope goes on the run, the only people she can trust are Belinda and the members of SAGE—a small group of resistance fighters who oppose the The Program. By participating in challenges, you’ll become a member of SAGE and help Belinda and Hope evade Program agents and discover the dark truth behind Zain’s disappearance, Mrs. Fox’s true identity and The Program’s real motives.” Challenges include “Submit a video of yourself as a SAGE member giving directions to Hope and Belinda,” “Design an original outfit for a bad-boy character,” or “Submit a video of yourself as a SAGE member warning people about the IGP and the evil Mrs. Fox.”

Hope FoxThe interactive element has been a welcome challenge itself for writer-director Chandler Evans, who created the 12 episode series with audience participation in mind. “In2ition is about a young teenage girl who has lost her voice—this show is about empowerment of young adults,” Chandler tells us. “And through the interactive challenges in the series, In2ition provides an opportunity for our audience to find their voice.” Chandler cites X-Files and comic books as his primary inspiration for the series, and says he was determined to create anaccessible hero. “We all have the potential to change and express ourselves in great ways,” Chandler adds.

Weaving audience contribution into the storyline every week isn’t the only challenge Chandler is dealing with, however. Production was delayed nearly a month when one of the lead actresses, Courtney Ford (who plays Hope’s sidekick Belinda Randolph), was replaced by Ogy Durham, which meant re-shooting segments of the pilot episode and covertly replacing the photos and social media on the site—as if she herself were abducted by The Program.

With Episode 5 in production and a highly anticipated abduction promo featuring internet darling iJustine soon to be released, things seem to be back on track. Chris Williams, CEO of T180 Studios, is thrilled by the audience response to Take180’s participatory platform. “Many creators out there are producing content and throwing it against the wall to see if it sticks. At Take180 we’re making sticky walls—and when the audience is emotionally invested they have a reason to come back,” he told us at the T180 Studios in Beverly Hills, CA. “The programming on Take180 is not choose your own adventure, it’s create your own adventure. When you’re online, you’re interacting, and we’re taking advantage of that opportunity with In2ition and our other shows My Alibi and The Juice Box.”

You can’t exactly call this one original. Another place for teens to watch and share videos online? Well, with little fanfare, and so far, little press, Take180.com has launched with some intriguing new teen-focused content. That could be why they’ve signed up some top YouTube celebs, “Kelly” from the video Shoes and LisaNova (below) to [...]